Shuttle call is the worst mechanic in SS13 and should be revamped

[Tlaltecuhtli]

Bottom post of the previous page:

make restart vote not count people not voting, if u dont vote dont cry when u get ass impaled

[remanseptim]

why do some people think spending 20 minutes patching up holes in the floor every other round is in any way entertaining
it can be a nice change of pace but not to the point where it's laborious
some people want ss13 to feel like you're actually working, i swear

[Flatulent]

ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR DETECTED
WAGESLAVE #4329488 RETURN TO CAGE IMMEDIATELY AUXILARY TOILET REQUIRES MAINTENANCE

[Tlaltecuhtli]

why do some people think spending 20 minutes patching up holes in the floor every other round is in any way entertaining
it can be a nice change of pace but not to the point where it's laborious
some people want ss13 to feel like you're actually working, i swear

but how do you make repairing after of putting plating good gameplay?

more decorative things easly available to engis?

construction vehicles that steamline flooring/cable/piping with fun possible workplace incidents?

magic duct tape

[remanseptim]

the final revelation is that 99% of the gameplay in ss13 is not fun more than the first couple of times, regardless of how intricate the mechanics are
it's fun because it's always a bit different due to how the rest of the station interacts with it

[obi wan kaczynski]

why do some people think spending 20 minutes patching up holes in the floor every other round is in any way entertaining
it can be a nice change of pace but not to the point where it's laborious
some people want ss13 to feel like you're actually working, i swear

Because it's a social experience where your actions and choices affect the gameplay of others. Things that would be boring in single-player are often fun with others. Try booting up a server alone and doing stuff that you enjoy on live servers.

And nobody is making you play engi! But confronting absurd threats to the station is what this game is about. Those threats are varied. If you'd rather not confront them and just reset the game whenever they arise, it sounds like you don't really enjoy Space Station 13. Which is fine, but other people do, and rounds shouldn't be terminated as soon as a game feature occurs.

By the way, we need to stop thinking in the binary between "station successfully repairs itself to 100% functionality" and "round ends." Players dealing with a station missing, say, medical, or cargo, can result in an interesting and unique round. Even if the power or comms dies, that can result a really cool atmosphere where the station has to deal with the threat while they are alone in the dark, stumbling upon other players with flashlights while trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Rounds like that are really cool but rarely happen because "something unexpected occurred, call the shuttle."

[cacogen]

double kek. the restart votes are often impossible even in extreme situations on highpop because many players dont even know how to fucking vote or are ssd. the funny ice box 400% TD round on Terry comes to mind. The restart vote failed MULTIPLE times despite the game being an unplayable fucking mess from a gorillion runtimes grinding the server to a halt.

the fuck is with pro-shuttle people not reading the posts they quote? I said that WE CAN CHANGE THE RESTART MECHANIC

it already works fine in concept. the only way to improve it is to add a restart preference in game preferences. the options would be: 1. auto-restart vote when not voting; 2. dont count vote when not voting

It depends on the round though. It'd be better if it didn't have a separate window or in addition to the window just output something to the chat in a large font with two hyperlinks, one for yes and one for no.

[remanseptim]

Even if the power or comms dies, that can result a really cool atmosphere where the station has to deal with the threat while they are alone in the dark, stumbling upon other players with flashlights while trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Rounds like that are really cool but rarely happen because "something unexpected occurred, call the shuttle."

rounds like that are predictable and i'll point to nightmares as an example
by design nightmares are meant to be spooky murdermen who stalk maint and create a scenario like you mentioned
the issue comes when a geneticist and a tider storm into maint dragging desk lamps with flashes, emp'd defibs, and a stun baton they stole from Urist McSecurity
it becomes routine. at least in this scenario there's a valid to hunt and a heart to vore. when something like a full station blackout occurs people are just annoyed their beaker is stuck in the dispenser or their intricate slime-breeding spree has been interrupted.

tl;dr players call the shuttle because situations like you suggest are primarily just annoying

[obi wan kaczynski]

Even if the power or comms dies, that can result a really cool atmosphere where the station has to deal with the threat while they are alone in the dark, stumbling upon other players with flashlights while trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Rounds like that are really cool but rarely happen because "something unexpected occurred, call the shuttle."

rounds like that are predictable and i'll point to nightmares as an example
by design nightmares are meant to be spooky murdermen who stalk maint and create a scenario like you mentioned
the issue comes when a geneticist and a tider storm into maint dragging desk lamps with flashes, emp'd defibs, and a stun baton they stole from Urist McSecurity
it becomes routine. at least in this scenario there's a valid to hunt and a heart to vore. when something like a full station blackout occurs people are just annoyed their beaker is stuck in the dispenser or their intricate slime-breeding spree has been interrupted.

tl;dr players call the shuttle because situations like you suggest are primarily just annoying

I totally understand. And I think a priority of ss13 development should be improving such situations: not just nightmares, but every aftermath of things going wrong that would right now create a boring round. I think the game should become another kind of interesting/spooky once the station starts failing.

I think this isn't the case right now because SS13 has no cohesive vision: it's a lot of unrelated goals sutured together because everyone adds on their ideas independently, since there's no vision-boss. Is it a sandbox game? Is it an exploration game? Is it a mafia style paranoia game? It's all of these things, and I think that's actually an advantage once a developer starts leveraging these aspects against one another.


EDIT: yeah the shuttle in its current state is a game-ruining mechanic

[oranges]

this guy really hates shuttles lmao

[VexingRaven]

What if the default shuttle timer was 20 minutes instead of 10? And red alert was 10? You'd have time for those interesting interactions (station missing medbay and people are hurt, what do?) rather than waiting in escape.

[cacogen]

Is there anyone who doesn't hate having their round end prematurely?

I think this isn't the case right now because SS13 has no cohesive vision: it's a lot of unrelated goals sutured together because everyone adds on their ideas independently, since there's no vision-boss. Is it a sandbox game? Is it an exploration game? Is it a mafia style paranoia game? It's all of these things, and I think that's actually an advantage once a developer starts leveraging these aspects against one another.

The project doesn't benefit from a dictator holding it hostage. I agree though that if it's boring to stay and deal with something it should be changed rather than accepting the game can end prematurely as a result of people not wanting to deal with it. Boring or unfun never seem to be taken seriously as criticisms of this game though. For example, making medbay tedium for the patients to give doctors something more to do.

[obi wan kaczynski]

What if the default shuttle timer was 20 minutes instead of 10? And red alert was 10? You'd have time for those interesting interactions (station missing medbay and people are hurt, what do?) rather than waiting in escape.

My gut tells me that a shuttle call of any time will just make people collapse their time horizons and semi-AFK. why revive people who will just be reset in a predictable amount of time? But I would support a longer shuttle transit time just to see.

[oranges]

Is there anyone who doesn't hate having their round end prematurely?

I think this isn't the case right now because SS13 has no cohesive vision: it's a lot of unrelated goals sutured together because everyone adds on their ideas independently, since there's no vision-boss. Is it a sandbox game? Is it an exploration game? Is it a mafia style paranoia game? It's all of these things, and I think that's actually an advantage once a developer starts leveraging these aspects against one another.

The project doesn't benefit from a dictator holding it hostage. I agree though that if it's boring to stay and deal with something it should be changed rather than accepting the game can end prematurely as a result of people not wanting to deal with it. Boring or unfun never seem to be taken seriously as criticisms of this game though. For example, making medbay tedium for the patients to give doctors something more to do.

LMAO

[MisterPerson]

While I'll agree that the escape shtutle is a fairly poor mechanic, if you want to replace it, you need to suggest what to replace it with. The "restart vote to end rounds" design fails to end the round for a satisfying, definitive reason and is also explicitly OOC. I therefore think it's not an improvement.

[Screemonster]

if you want a fixed round length then why not play on one of the numerous downstreams that have such a thing instead of bitching about how many rounds in a row that sybil wrapped up in around half an hour

some people don't have the free time to hop on for two fucking hours of spessmans and a 30 minute round is pretty much a perfect "get a quick game in while I wait for my show to start / wind down for the evening / my dinner is cooking" timeframe

right now op is bitching about one guy out of fifty being able to end the round but it's also cancer for one guy out of fifty to demand the round continue when everyone else is fucking done

[obi wan kaczynski]

Mod edit: No personal insults please.

While I'll agree that the escape shtutle is a fairly poor mechanic, if you want to replace it, you need to suggest what to replace it with. The "restart vote to end rounds" design fails to end the round for a satisfying, definitive reason and is also explicitly OOC. I therefore think it's not an improvement.

The vote would be IC

[cacogen]

ugh

[wesoda25]

Counterpoint: it’s not

[obi wan kaczynski]

Counterpoint: it’s not

This is literally the depth of the autistic crowd's arguments for Just-World Theory. Zero (0) people have made an argument in favor of the status quo yet, it's just manchild squealing

[iamgoofball]

Counterpoint: it’s not

This is literally the depth of the autistic crowd's arguments for Just-World Theory. Zero (0) people have made an argument in favor of the status quo yet, it's just manchild squealing

why are you being so ableist? like half your posts in this thread involve insults towards people on the spectrum

[obi wan kaczynski]

I just want people to make actual arguments in one direction or another, not just shrieking their heads off and stomping their feet saying "NO NO NO!!!!"

Every single pro status-quo argument here is exactly that, or hangs on points already addressed several times. it's tiring and this culture of childish stubbornness is a problem with the game

[TheFinalPotato]

While I haven't really been following this, taking such a vitriolic stance, especially towards respected members of the community, is not going to pay off well in the long run. I've mentioned writing a design doc at some point, but you've mentioned this thread as that doc. I don't think the discussion here will resolve well, especially if things continue as they are.

What is your "next step", and what would it involve?

[obi wan kaczynski]

While I haven't really been following this, taking such a vitriolic stance, especially towards respected members of the community, is not going to pay off well in the long run. I've mentioned writing a design doc at some point, but you've mentioned this thread as that doc. I don't think the discussion here will resolve well, especially if things continue as they are.

What is your "next step", and what would it involve?

Make a PR? I dunno, what do you recommend? I guess I could just take the best ideas from this thread and put it into the doc. I think I will do that.

[wesoda25]

Counterpoint: it’s not

This is literally the depth of the autistic crowd's arguments for Just-World Theory. Zero (0) people have made an argument in favor of the status quo yet, it's just manchild squealing

I already told you my thoughts in discord. I just found the bold statement of shuttle call being "the worst mechanic" to be funny.

[MisterPerson]

While I'll agree that the escape shtutle is a fairly poor mechanic, if you want to replace it, you need to suggest what to replace it with. The "restart vote to end rounds" design fails to end the round for a satisfying, definitive reason and is also explicitly OOC. I therefore think it's not an improvement.

The vote would be IC

The vote itself would be sure, but the decision making for choosing how to vote would be OOC. Additionally what I mean by IC vs OOC has more to do with other game mechanics tying into it. In other words, in an ideal world we'd have a traitor objective like "End the round in the first 30 minutes". Obviously that's not really feasible with the current shuttle call system, but it's even LESS viable with a vote-for-shuttle system.

Just off the top of my head, the bones of a good system might be more like the crew has to do something (or prevent something bad from happening) and after awhile of things going right, the round ends. And if the crew fucks up too much, the round also ends because Centcom cuts off contact and abandons the station (or something that actually destroys the station happens, whatever).

[terranaut]

Mod edit: No personal insults please.

While I'll agree that the escape shtutle is a fairly poor mechanic, if you want to replace it, you need to suggest what to replace it with. The "restart vote to end rounds" design fails to end the round for a satisfying, definitive reason and is also explicitly OOC. I therefore think it's not an improvement.

The vote would be IC

so you cant vote if youre dead?

[obi wan kaczynski]

Mod edit: No personal insults please.

While I'll agree that the escape shtutle is a fairly poor mechanic, if you want to replace it, you need to suggest what to replace it with. The "restart vote to end rounds" design fails to end the round for a satisfying, definitive reason and is also explicitly OOC. I therefore think it's not an improvement.

The vote would be IC

so you cant vote if youre dead?

Right. That's an important aspect to be considered, but IC vs OOC is kind of a bikeshed at this point

[Shaps-cloud]

Imagine making this thread and all these posts and spending a bunch of time in discord yelling about this and still affecting zero change

[Super Aggro Crag]

Has this gone on long enough that i can make a personal attack on this dude and hypothetically call him a bowlegged micropenis-having bog dweller because every time you argue against his shit he says YOU ARENT PROVIDING A DEFENSE FOR THE STATUS QUO IM NOT LISTENING LALALALALALLALA YOU'RE JUST A MAD SPERG

Frig off fartboy someone telling you why your idea is shit is valid, we dont have to come up with an alternative to your shitty idea for you because you're too much of a spastic. Oh my god, a round end ic vote? Are you fucking dense? I know you're on the dole, being a fucking mushbrained degenerative disease having golem, but in real life people don't just all get together and vote on what time they'd like to leave work at.

[trollbreeder]

but in real life people don't just all get together and vote on what time they'd like to leave work at.

You've forgotten a key part. This ain't real life. It's game. Why you have to be mad?

[Super Aggro Crag]

If this turd smuggling dickrider says "calling the evacuation shuttle because people sre bored" isn't realistic then its valid for me to bring that up trollbreeder you white woman

[iamgoofball]

in real life people don't just all get together and vote on what time they'd like to leave work at.

if we unionized we could do this

[cacogen]

Shame this thread got off-track because rounds ending prematurely is a genuine problem and always has been

[obi wan kaczynski]

Shame this thread got off-track because rounds ending prematurely is a genuine problem and always has been

yeah there has been some good discussion but people are losing their minds over the suggestion

[Super Aggro Crag]

you got banned lol

[XDTM]

So can you just swap the poll options in this forum to suit you after they've been voted on? This might be the third time where the option with the majority got changed from "No" to "Yes (or Yes, but with some tweaks)"

[Screemonster]

Shame this thread got off-track because rounds ending prematurely is a genuine problem and always has been

maybe if op wasn't so intensely abrasive and didn't respond to criticism of his implementation by screaming and calling people autistic, dismissing objections out of hand with no counterpoint besides personal attacks, he wouldn't provoke the "well fuck you too" reaction

even if his idea was a good idea his demeanour drives people away from it

some natural means to allow the round to come to a conclusion that isn't the emergency shuttle would be interesting, especially if it was implied that evacuating on a round where evacuation isn't the win condition counts as a crew loss, but it's impossible to get any constructive discussion done without this guy screaming at you

[Screemonster]

So can you just swap the poll options in this forum to suit you after they've been voted on? This might be the third time where the option with the majority got changed from "No" to "Yes (or Yes, but with some tweaks)"

lmaaaaoooooooo you're right holy damn take the L my dude

[Super Aggro Crag]

Holy shit XDTM you got him

[Misdoubtful]

Shame this thread got off-track because rounds ending prematurely is a genuine problem and always has been

maybe if op wasn't so intensely abrasive and didn't respond to criticism of his implementation by screaming and calling people autistic, dismissing objections out of hand with no counterpoint besides personal attacks, he wouldn't provoke the "well fuck you too" reaction

even if his idea was a good idea his demeanour drives people away from it

In todays news, unsurprisingly to no one...

1. Resorting to referring to everyone that disagrees with you as the 'autistic crowd' won't make the 'sheeple' listen to your 'wisdom'. Only confirm to them they are right.
2. This is a lesson that some people aren't interested, not mentally incapacitated. Name calling won't change peoples minds.
3. Opening an idea to feedback just to shut down the feedback you receive doesn't work. Feedback is feedback, even if you don't like it.
4. Feedback does not have to be constructive criticism.

So can you just swap the poll options in this forum to suit you after they've been voted on? This might be the third time where the option with the majority got changed from "No" to "Yes (or Yes, but with some tweaks)"

Also, lol, vote fixing.

Shame this thread got off-track because rounds ending prematurely is a genuine problem and always has been

Is this more or less of an issue of rounds lasting too long though? Content can be provided with the expectation of there to be enough to last a certain duration, but then again it is a little bit of a sandbox.

Does restricting the potential for rounds to end earlier restrict the potential for the sandbox parts to be sandbox parts?

How can prevention of that actually even be achieved? Things like Nuclear Ops, round ending mid round antagonists, big antag plays etc. The station typically decays over time, not really improves. Otherwise rounds would last far too long. Sometimes that means things fall apart faster than usual.

Having content and the way that content gets used are two separate things, right?

[Flatulent]

in real life people don't just all get together and vote on what time they'd like to leave work at.

if we unionized we could do this

get the fuck out of here with this

[Tlaltecuhtli]

what makes the round end before oranges 1:30 timer:
- lack of content

what makes the round end before the 50 min timer (current end game of content):
- servers not being dynamic if they still use the crappy gamemode system
- plasmaflooding
- maxcaps or atmos singlecaps
- capable people being in the antag side while retard pubbies redditors as sec
- antag calling and retard pubbies redditors unable to recall because the wiki doesnt have a solution to this
- boredoom/burnout from current content

[oranges]

what a mess.