So the two main problems with escalation there is thatEscalation
If a player wrongs you(theft, attacks, etc), you may retaliate. If you choose to retaliate with violence, you in turn have opened yourself up to violence. If you choose this route, do not expect admins to help you out if you die, even if you were not the original instigator. If you are concerned about being "kill baited" then consider calling security, using non lethal means to subdue your opponent, fleeing, or otherwise working things out (talking them down, getting your stolen items replaced, etc)
You may instigate conflict with another player within reason (you can't completely destroy their department, kill them unprovoked, or otherwise take them out of the round for long periods of time) but they are entitled to respond with violence. If you think it's unfair or excessive they killed you for taking their ID, consider not stealing next round.
If you are the instigator in a conflict and end up killing or severely impairing the round of the person you are fighting, you should make a reasonable effort to return them to life at least once or make amends, only seeking round removal if they continue to pursue you. This protection doesn't apply to an instigator being killed.
Exceptions: Security is expected not to retaliate with random abuse or violence unless the person in question is otherwise eligible for execution. You can't kill or maim security for trying to arrest you for legitimate reasons.
a: you can walk up and crit someone for no reason at all, so long as you ensure they don't die. and
b: If anyone does anything you don't like, you can call it instigating and you can straight up kill them and leave their body where it is.
That is already pretty shitty but it also leads to a lot of contradictions with other rules like "Don't be a dick.
We're all here to have a good time, supposedly. Going out of your way to seriously negatively impact or end the round for someone with little IC justification is against the rules. Legitimate conflicts where people get upset do happen however, as detailed in the escalation section of the rules."
the problem is; escalation policy says basically everything is legitimate. Someone hacks into your workplace? Valid. Pushes you? Valid. But killing and maiming people over random little shit, is being a dick. Looking for excuses to kill or fuck people up is typically dickish behaviour, so these rules do not work well together and leads to admins making rule 1 bans that inevitably get disputed because of the subjective nature of "don't be a dick"
We have rule 1 precedents about random murder but it seems that escalation typically supersedes rule 1; so long as you can come up with the frailest of explanations "well the clown said the mime was a ling, so i killed the mime"
We have a rule 1 precedent against grey tiding and yet we often have the same grey tiders round in and round out; probably because anyone who engages with them has become valid under escalation; and if you try to ignore them they can go pretty far before exceeding escalation.
"Players who attempt to break into the captain's office, head of personnel's office, or the bridge at or near roundstart for no legitimate reason put themselves at risk for being legitimately killed by the captain, heads of staff, or security."
This one seems countered by escalation as well (they broke in, that is instigating! VALID!), considering you can be murdered by captain, heads or sec for breaking into any of those locations at any time during the round and unless you are a particularly hated player who skips straight to round removal they will almost certainly not get into trouble for it.
"You may defend your workplace from trespassers who damage or steal property within that space with significantly greater force than elsewhere. If someone is severely disruptive and returns after ejected, this opens them up to "fun" of the creative workplace death variety."
This rule is a waste of time because escalation already allows you to kill anyone who instigates a conflict with you by breaking into your workplace, never mind actually breaking or stealing anything.
"The only exception is that security is generally considered to be armed with non-lethal methods to control a situation. Therefore, where reasonably possible, security is expected to use non-lethal methods first in a conflict before escalating to lethal methods."
First off, does this include captain/other heads who have access to non-lethal means of taking people down? Secondly, should this apply to antags at all? Currently if you are a confirmed antag your ass is grass even if you haven't done anything illegal/harmful. If a random tazer shot aimed at a greytider gets dodged by you because you have CARP, you are fucking dead. If you put up a mime 1x3 wall, DEAD. Don't slip on a banana peel? DEAD. Get caught with an emag? DEAD. Obviously this depends on who is playing sec at the time, but I don't think anyone will ever get punished if the person they killed turns out to be an antag, even if they were just guessing. Should we try to enforce this rule at all? So far the only application it ever has is, sec arrests you non-lethally, then takes you back to brig and murders you.
Theres also vague stuff like "Non-antags acting like an antag can be treated as an antag." but how do you define acting like an antag? Picking up the a hand tele? Flashing someone in the hallway? Hacking a door open? Not slipping on a banana? Going to the AI upload? Punching someone?
Two of our three current headmins mentioned fixing escalation as part of their platform and I think the majority of players will agree it is broken (not necessarily for the same reasons though) so what will it take to actually see escalation reworked and what do people want to see?
Here is my attempt at better escalation rule; feel free to ignore/mock/praise/whatever.