Triogenix Mod Interview

Owen — Today at 6:19 PM
Alright, to start. What is your ckey?
Triogenix — Today at 6:19 PM
Triogenix
Owen — Today at 6:20 PM
Great. This is going to be a pretty casual interview. If you have any questions during it feel free to interject. Main way it works is that I'm going to ask you a series of general questions and then after that is done we'll run through a few scenarios just to gauge what your thought process is when dealing with tickets. And just to note, we do post these interviews on your application. Sounds good?
Triogenix — Today at 6:20 PM
Sounds good!
Owen — Today at 6:21 PM
Great!
First question: Do you know the basic commands a moderator has access to?
Triogenix — Today at 6:21 PM
I'm somewhat familar with them but could use a run-down
Owen — Today at 6:22 PM
Okay, I'm hoping this is somewhat up to date. This will be what you have access to as a trial mod
- Access to msay. It allows you to speak with other staff members.
- Access to dsay. Self-explanatory, you see the deadchat and can even speak in it.
- Access to in game logs about a lot of things. This include LOOC, dchat, admin actions(like kick, ban, note, warn) and some things to prevent grief. Imagine Urist McUrist open a phoron tank you'll have a message stating it. Same for a fuel tank or a valve of any kind.
- Access the variables of the objects on the server. While you cannot edit them, you can view attack logs on a player, who touched what the last, etc.
- The ability to adminghost, basically will consider you as if you ghosted from the lobby or died. You can aghost again to re-enter your body.
- The ability to Wind people. It freeze them and keep them from interacting with the game.
- The possibility to AdminPM someone, and check all the tickets that have been made on the server.
- The ability to kick, note, warn, ban. More in-depth about this:
Kick = Just boot someone off the server. You can set a custom message. It's not really used often, but still useful to get someone's attention.
Note = It's basically our notepad about players. It's useful for the other staff that will interact with the player, to know their behaviour and if something already happened before.
Warning = Depending the severity of something, it can be directly a warning. This one is visible to the player, and they need to acknowledge it to play on the server again.
Ban = Same thing as kick expect on a larger scale, or even permanently. A ban is often an escalation of warnings.
Every action taken by a staff member is visible on the player's ckey. Only kicks are not shown.
You can ask me about these at any point. Are you ready to begin?
Owen pinned a message to this channel. See all pinned messages. — Today at 6:22 PM
Triogenix — Today at 6:23 PM
👍 thank you
Owen — Today at 6:23 PM
If you have any questions about it, let me know. Feel free to refer back to it during this
Also, we've just added some new powers a week or so ago to full moderators, so you won't get access to them right away. We can touch on that later, but basically mods have the ability to spawn stuff now. They can also teleport, rejuv, delete, and some other quality of life powers.
Triogenix — Today at 6:24 PM
Understood
Owen — Today at 6:25 PM
Why do you want to be a moderator?
Triogenix — Today at 6:27 PM
Well I think as I mentioned on my app; At the end of the day I think I now(when I previously didn't) have the mindset to where there's potential for me to be an effective mod, therefore I want to apply now because I believe I can be an asset to the team rather than a detriment.
Owen — Today at 6:27 PM
Fair enough
In your own words, what is powergaming?
Triogenix — Today at 6:30 PM
Powergaming is doing anything that takes advantage of the mechanics, systems, code or similar of the game to unfairly and unreasonably push things to someone's own advantage. It's hard for me to really pin it down with words since I think it's pretty broad, but as 2 examples; the thing with floor tiles a couple years back when thrown doing 50(not certain on that number, but it was alot) damage and people abusing that is powergaming, alongside more mundane stuff like an engineer doing surgery
Owen — Today at 6:31 PM
lmao I forgot about the floor tiles. But yeah. Sounds good.
Another pretty broad questions then. Is it ever okay to execute an antagonist, or anyone in general? What would constitute a case where this is appropriate, if so? Just give us a basic example.
Triogenix — Today at 6:37 PM
I'd say it's 100% okay to execute an antagonist - the big thing that determines if a case is appropriate or not is how much the situation has escalated, and any stakes a character might have in what occured with that situation. As a very barebones example, it's 100% fine to execute a cling after the 3rd or 4th time reviving via head-ashing in my eyes.

Anyone in general is more tricky, and there I'd lean alot more on escalation in addition to personal stake. As a barebones example of that, if someone kills/gets killed a characters S/O, that character could have the justification to try and kill/execute the person responsible.
Though it's very case by case, esp. for the second one
Owen — Today at 6:38 PM
Yeah, I get what you're saying 👍
While I know you’ve taken a step back from Loremaster duties until April 4th, assuming you plan on returning fully to your LM position, we want to ask about any potential for burnout with balancing both roles and if you've put any thought to it yet.
Triogenix — Today at 6:40 PM
Okay bet - I was going to mention that specifically.
Basically - without going into too much detail behind the scenes; I don't think that will be an issue. The reason I'm taking a step back from my current duties as LM is a short term one, rather than a long term issue, and I'm confident I can balance both roles fine under normal circumstances.
Owen — Today at 6:47 PM
Alright, that is our main concern basically. Just splitting up your time between being a mod and LM (specifically since NBT2 stuff is being worked on). If it does get to the point of burnout though, or you feel it coming on. Taking a break or whatever, announced or just dipping for a week or so is totally fine as a mod. We just want to make sure you're not immediately getting swamped from the start
Triogenix — Today at 6:48 PM
100%
Owen — Today at 6:49 PM
Great. That does kinda relate to the next question I have for you. As Loremaster, most of the work you do relating to Aurora takes place off-server. As Moderator, however, we hope to see our team being fairly active in all areas of the community (i.e., Discord, Forums, Server). This is specifically emphasized when it comes to being present on the server, actively playing rounds when possible, and taking ahelps as they come through. There's a reason we have the common joke about neverplayer admins or whatever so we really try to emphasize being an active presence. How confident are you in being able to keep a steady presence on the server side of things?
And, knowing that you are busy I can understand if your playtime is a bit low at the moment. However, we would certainly hope to see an increase from where you're at now. I just did a brief count earlier, and you're at about 7 rounds played since the start of 2025 (potentially more, this is only counting on-ship roles with characters that aren't deleted).
Triogenix — Today at 6:51 PM
Yea - I'm confident I can; seeing my playtime increase is something I'd like to see, regardless of anything else that happens.
Cause yea - 7 rounds in the past 2 and a half months is abysmal. Right now my aim is to hit atleast 3-4 rounds a week.
Owen — Today at 6:54 PM
Yeah that'd be a perfect number. Obviously, we don't expect you playing multiple rounds every single day (because I think like maybe all but 1-2 of the mod team wouldn't meet that standard), but we mainly hope for consistency
Anyway, that's it for the general questions I have. If you're ready, we can move onto a couple of scenario questions. Main thing here is that we're basically walking through handling tickets. You can ask me for more details on certain things and I'll give them to you.
Triogenix — Today at 6:55 PM
👍 yep! I'm ready.
Owen — Today at 6:55 PM
Scenario 1: You are sitting in the lobby and an ahelp comes through saying that an assistant and a janitor just joined the round and started attacking each other. The assistant is a 3-day-old account with zero notes and the janitor is a 10-day-old account with zero notes. What do you do?
Triogenix — Today at 6:56 PM
aghost in and see what's going on first off, where they're fighting, how long they've been fighting, etc.
(I'm assuming the logs also show up when you're in the lobby)
Owen — Today at 6:57 PM
They're fighting right outside the res lifts. You see several attack logs (let's say 15 between the both of them). The assistant started with the first log.
Triogenix — Today at 6:58 PM
Are logs generated when characters join a round?
Owen — Today at 6:58 PM
No
Triogenix — Today at 6:58 PM
👍
okay - in that case even though I have limited information, given that both the accounts are relatively young, they're fighting right outside the res lifts, and the fight seems to have started randomly, I'd wind them both first, and them shoot them an adminPM politely asking why they're fighting.
Owen — Today at 7:01 PM
Alright. The janitor responds saying that he's showing his friend how to play the game. The assistant does not respond and instead posts in OOC asking why he can't move.
Triogenix — Today at 7:04 PM
right - shoot the player who asked in OOC another PM basically telling them they can't move because I winded them, and that they should click my name to reply to my original question, restating the original question at the same time. To the janitor I'd ask if the assistant is their friend.
Owen — Today at 7:05 PM
Janitor: "Yeah, he's new to the game. I'm just showing him how to play. What's the issue??"

The assistant responds: "Sorry, idk what's going on"
Triogenix — Today at 7:09 PM
I'd politely but firmly inform the janitor that while I understand they're interested in teaching his friend how to play, and support it, we have rules all players are expected to follow, which prohibit things like randomly starting fights, metacommunication(communicating about in-game things outside the game), and similar. To the assistant I'd reply along the lines of, no worries, give me a moment to sort this out, while asking why he attacked the janitor.
Owen — Today at 7:12 PM
Janitor: "I'm not even metagaming i'm just showing a new guy how to play the game man but okay whatever"

Assistant: "I'm just trying toplay the game"
Triogenix — Today at 7:17 PM
Alright as I see it - this is just two new players not understanding the rules fully, so I'd reply to the assistant with something along the lines of; "while I understand that you both are just trying to play the game as you see fit, this server has certain rules we hold all players to, that can be found in the rules menu at the top of the screen, and in the lobby before joining. If you don't wish to conform to those expectations, you may play elsewhere; but as long as you're on Aurora, the expectation is that you conform to those rules when playing." and include what specifically I'm talking about like; no randomly starting fights.
Since it's basically the same thing I told the janitor previously, I'd leave the discussion where it's at with them and start adding a note about this incident to their profile while waiting for the assistant to respond
Owen — Today at 7:19 PM
Nah, you've basically hit it all here. I don't think we really need to play out the rest of it with the assistant.
Main thing is just yeah, make sure you put notes on 'em after speaking to them. And maybe just keep an eye on them for the round at least.
Triogenix — Today at 7:20 PM
Was gonna end with that lmao - but yea
that all good?
Owen — Today at 7:21 PM
Yeah that's fine. Gonna go onto the next scenario then
Triogenix — Today at 7:21 PM
👍
Owen — Today at 7:24 PM
Okay, I realized that my other two scenarios were basically identical to this one (oops), so I'm just gonna make one up on the spot one second
Triogenix — Today at 7:24 PM
💀
Owen — Today at 7:26 PM
OKAY let's say you're uhh... idk HoS or something. You're in the middle of playing a round and in the course of the round you kill a traitor in a shootout. The traitor beings heavily salting in deadchat saying stuff like "bro fuck security all they want are valids" and then ahelps complaining that the Head of Security (you) didn't escalate properly and killed them before they had a chance to respond. What do you do?
Triogenix — Today at 7:26 PM
Am I the only staff online?
Owen — Today at 7:26 PM
There is another mod on but they're marked as AFK when you look at staffwho
Triogenix — Today at 7:27 PM
Augh
Okay
Owen — Today at 7:28 PM
There are a few ways to handle this. Don't worry about wrong answers here (I should've said that from the very first question probably)
Triogenix — Today at 7:32 PM
Given that I am DIRECTLY involved in this situation - there's no way I can be an unbias'd party and handle this ticket. Whenever I have a moment I'd basically say - "look, that was me, and while I'm not shutting down your complaint/this ticket, at the same time I cannot in good conscience handle this for you as I am the offending party, alongside being the only one online currently able to take this ticket. With that said, I'll leave this open incase the other mod comes back from being AFK, or a different member of the modmin team joins(I've already pinged everyone in the discord letting them know I can't handle this for you, so hopefully one of them sees that and hops on). However, as that's not 100% assured to happen and if the round ends I'll be required to close this ticket - I highly recommend if you have a problem with anything that happened to gather logs(take screenshots of the chat) and after the round is over, open a player complaint if someone doesn't hop on to take the ticket; like I said, I don't want to shut down your complaints and/or this ticket."
in response to the ticket.
Owen — Today at 7:33 PM
Yeah okay so you hit basically every way I would've suggested handling this dead on. No notes
Triogenix — Today at 7:33 PM
👍 I'd probably close out it out after any discussion with a mention to keep it out of D-chat, let the process run it's course
Owen — Today at 7:34 PM
Typically, you'll be able to drag someone on if you panic ping unless its some super weird hour of the night
Triogenix — Today at 7:34 PM
Yea I'd expect so
Owen — Today at 7:34 PM
Anyway, this'll be the last scenario question:

The round is auto-traitor, there is a full Security team, and three traitors. The round is relatively quiet. 1:49 on the round timer and then your chat is full of several attack logs all at once, and it continues to go. All three traitors are in the bar, with LMGs mowing down the patrons and responding security, just absolutely massacring everyone. How do you respond, and what do you do?
Triogenix — Today at 7:36 PM
Alright in this case - I think it's one of those things that's "too big" to handle with like winding or anything(basically it's not an isolated fight but a full fledged gimmick, at this point it needs to run it's course and the consequences can be dealt with later), and knowing nothing else about the situation, I think I'd just passively observe for 2 minutes max and wait to see if any tickets come in.
Owen — Today at 7:37 PM
No tickets come in but people are semi-whining/talking about it in dsay. Mixture of people who were killed and people who were just ghosting
Triogenix — Today at 7:39 PM
aight - if no tickets come in after 2 minutes I'd use the intervening time to check the profiles of all the traitors, and then shoot a PM to them very politely asking; "Why'd I see a bunch of attack logs pop up after a quiet round almost 10 minutes before the 2 hour mark?"
well - I should correct myself. That's the baseline; it may change depending on what notes/warnings any of the traitors have
Owen — Today at 7:42 PM
Traitor A: New player, no notes
Traitor B: Been around for a couple months, pretty consistently plays antag. Has some notes over poor escalation and other miscellaneous things. No warnings or bans
Traitor C: Been around about a year. Nothing relevant in their notes
Traitor B responds first saying that it they are doing a terrorism gimmick and shortly after that A and C respond with similar statements
Triogenix — Today at 7:46 PM
okay so I think in this case, I'm kinda working against the clock, there's only so much time left in the round and I'd rather not run over after transfer happens. Assuming the salt in D-say in continuing, I'd say it's being handled and to chill with the bitching(not phrased like that, obv). Big thing I'd try to establish is where the escalation was, and what else happened in the round, firstly I'd ask all 3 when they got the traitor role, and include specifically for A and C; what happened in the round that warranted the escalation from calm to opening fire on the bar patrons indiscriminately.
I'm leaving B out for now due to the history of poor escalation - we'll get to them after I have more information
Owen — Today at 7:48 PM
Traitor A got traitor roll about 20 minutes ago (there are logs that we get during autotraitor when a traitor is added, but it doesn't say the ckey of who is added, just that one is). They say that they were just following the lead of the other traitors since they already had a gimmick going.
Traitor B has been around since round start
Traitor C got it about an hour ago. They say that there was some buildup... that they were acting shifty and carrying around a briefcase and whispering into a radio. They also say that they were recruited by Traitor B into the gimmick.
Triogenix — Today at 7:53 PM
Alright - now I'd ask traitor B specifically what warranted the escalation and see what their response is. Also I'd ask Traitor C, who's been here a year, basically where the escalation was inbetween "acting shifty and and carrying around things" and "no russian'ing the bar." The phrasing would be different obv but that's the general gist.
Owen — Today at 7:56 PM
Traitor B: "It took a lot of time to set everything up and I didn't want to do it too early in the round so I had until later so people didn't have their round cut short. I made an announcement earlier saying that there were terrorists secretly embedded into the station so people shoudln't have been surprised by it. If I had more time I woiuld've done more escalation tho"

Traitor C: "Yeah, well we had some announcements planned but idk what happened with that. Traitor B was meant to write them. It was pretty obvious that we were super suspicious though. Like, we were also talking about how the SCC was bad and stuff with each other. Anyone could've overheard it. We didn't want to be too open about it though or sec would've found out and stopped us. Besides, like... if were gonna be doing terrorism it's not like we're gonna announce that we're gonna shoot up the bar or something lol, that would be dumb"
Triogenix — Today at 8:03 PM
Okay - I'm going to be fairly general here, apologies. If you want me to be more specific, LMK. Basically what I'd tell these two(B and C) would be along the lines of; "I understand where you're both coming from here. It was good of you to consider other people's rounds being cut short, and good of you to consider trying to make sure other people had the possibility to overhear you plotting this stuff overtly. At the same time, it's a massive leap to go from that to shooting everyone in the bar. Imagine if you're one of those bar patrons. It's been an hour and 50 minutes of general quiet, with a few shifty guys, an announcement way earlier in the round, and then three guys walk in with LMGs and start lighting up the place - that doesn't seem like reasonable escalation from their perspective does it? While I understand it was late in the round already, but in the future, something you could have done would have been at 1:20 to "go loud", walk into the bar, fire off a few bursts not trying to hit anyone, publicly state your intentions, and then escalate from there. That way by 1:50, it'd make sense to "shoot on sight", y'know?"
Owen — Today at 8:05 PM
Alright sounds good. And what about Traitor A?
Triogenix — Today at 8:08 PM
For traitor A - he's new, and got the role 20 minutes ago. I don't really think it's reasonable for me to have expected anything different out of him, so once the other two were handled(warnings for Traitors B and C) I'd just throw something to that effect in their notes and tell them basically the same.
Owen — Today at 8:08 PM
Alright, perfect. Anything else you wanna address with this one?
Triogenix — Today at 8:11 PM
Nah not really. I think all in all it's a shit sandwich of a situation that could have been handled a lot better by the antagonists - but given the players reasoning; I understand how it got there and would rather give B and C a light slap on the wrist while primarily guiding them towards doing it better in the future so they grow to be better, instead of focusing primarily on the punishments. Like proactively trying to make sure the rules don't get broken in the future rather than just handing out punishments in the here and now.
Owen — Today at 8:11 PM
Yeah, fair enough
And for our last, and potentially most important question, we got this one from a very serious and official discussion with the rest of the moderator team so please consider your answer carefully… got it?
Triogenix — Today at 8:12 PM
yes
Owen — Today at 8:12 PM
Pineapple on pizza? Y/N
Triogenix — Today at 8:12 PM
Hrm.
Difficult....
Owen — Today at 8:12 PM
Y/N... do not elaborate
Triogenix — Today at 8:12 PM
Y
Owen — Today at 8:13 PM
Noted...