Maxspells interview

Mel — Today at 05:49
Alright so, the layout is me asking you a bunch of questions, you answering them. There is no right or wrong answer. At the end, I edit it a little and we slap it on the forums. Is that acceptable to you?

maxspells — Today at 05:49
sounds good to me

Mel — Today at 05:49
Wonderful. Are you also aware that due to you being an admin on another server, you can only be a moderator and not an administrator here?

maxspells — Today at 05:50
I wasn't but I get it and it's fine!

Mel — Today at 05:50
Alright. Do you know the basic commands moderators have access to on Aurora?
(i have a list)

maxspells — Today at 05:52
Banning panel, investigating notes, looking at logs, aghosting, rejuv, player panel, view variables, build mode... uhhh maybe others

Mel — Today at 05:53
Yuh! Pretty much. Trial moderators won't have access to build mode or rejuv, not until your trial month is up. But, here's the list.

Basic powers you have as a trial mod are:

Admin PM's ("BWOINK!")
Aghosting, which allows you to pop out of your body, check something out, then click it or Reenter corpse to get back into your body. It'll show up as your character asleep on their feet the entire time you're aghosted.
Check AI laws.
Check Antagonists.
Checking the date when players joined the server.
De-Admin, which turns you back into a normal player for a round/however long you need. Hit it again to remod.
Check player notes, warnings, bans, so on. - You are not allowed to tell someone their notes!
Staffwho will now show a lot more
Wind
The ability to go into someones player panel and give notes, warnings, tempbans and permabans (once your trial is done)
Defuse welder tanks by clicking on them.
You will be able to see ALL LOOCs. A little R will be in brackets for remote ones. You will also have a permanent AOOC as well as being able to read ghostchat at any time.
Access to MSAY, the Mod/Admin channel.
Viewing Variables (VV), though you probably won't use this past checking attack logs and such.
I get that you'd know some of these from Fulp though lmao.

maxspells — Today at 05:54
got it!
What's the policy for deadmining? Antagonists I presume?
Command and sec too?

Mel — Today at 05:55
There isn't really one. If you're having a stressful day and just like, can't be bothered to deal with it, you can deadmin at any time. We do discourage it during your trial month, as you are expected to show you can work under pressure and take as many tickets as you can during that time.

maxspells — Today at 05:55
Ahh okay

Mel — Today at 05:55
But honestly, we're pretty tame about it.
and you can do it lol
Can you tell me, in your own words, what you would consider powergaming?

maxspells — Today at 05:59
Playing to win, either by utilizing metaknowledge from outside of your job, or by abusing mechanics to get an upperhand. Examples being using paramedic access to gain tools and supplies from a department to do their job or someone using an oversight or a mechanic exploit to gain the upper hand in combat

Mel — Today at 06:00
How do you feel the current moderation team handles that?

maxspells — Today at 06:01
I feel like it handles it really well. I don't really see it pop up, and the only time I've ever really seen examples of it would be on the forums, which means it likely gets handled quickly

Mel — Today at 06:01
Alright. Onto the scenarios now, if you're ready!

maxspells — Today at 06:01
yup!

Mel — Today at 06:05
You're playing a round, and an ahelp comes in for a non antagonist player breaking into places. It's someone you're on good terms with, and checking their notes, they seem to have a history of this. What do you do?

maxspells — Today at 06:09
I would tell the first player I am looking into it, then I would aghost and follow the player and check to make sure they're not an antag.

If they're not, I would see if they're currently breaking into a place, and bwoink them if they are.

If they're not currently breaking into a place, I'd check the logs and see if it shows that they did or get clarification on where from the original person who placed the ticket. Once I confirm enough that they're breaking in or have broken in. I'd bwoink them with a "Hi hello why are you breaking into X?"

Mel — Today at 06:12
"Oh hey man I don't know I just wanted to see if I could, you know? Is that not okay?"

maxspells — Today at 06:13
How long ago was their last note about this?
if they had bad notes I would bring that up "You've been warned x many times not to do this"

Mel — Today at 06:14
(About two days previously)

maxspells — Today at 06:15
"You were just talked to about this two days ago, you know it's not allowed"

Mel — Today at 06:16
"Ah damn man okay sorry" and they proceed to back out of the area they're in (and not fix the wires).

maxspells — Today at 06:16
How many notes do they have for breaking into places?

Mel — Today at 06:17
about 4-5

maxspells — Today at 06:18
I'm not sure what your policy is on repeat offenders but I would say if they have a history of this and have been talked to about it multiple times and they aren't improving, I would look into escalating into a temporary ban since it's not improving
If a ban is too much, I would leave another warning on them so the other moderators know I talked to them and what happened.

Mel — Today at 06:20
Mhm!

maxspells — Today at 06:20
Not sure what I'd do with the wires. Normally I would fix them myself with mod powers but I don't know if it's better to let the engineers do it since it's HRP
seems weird to ask the guy to do it
lol

Mel — Today at 06:21
Remember, you can add pretend admins and other moderators into these scenarios if you feel its needed.

maxspells — Today at 06:21
Oh then I'd for sure ask what I should do with the ban
and with the wires
I would follow whatever the ban policy is and then ask other moderators what I should do about the doors after the fact

Mel — Today at 06:22
An administrator says they can Bluespace tech in and fix them if needed.

maxspells — Today at 06:23
That works, then

Mel — Today at 06:26
Alright. Next scenario. Medpop merc round. The antagonists were previously talking in AOOC about a plan and it was a somewhat okay gimmick, with no intention to start a firefight due to not much medical and no real security except for possibly an officer. Suddenly, one of the mercs aims his gun at someone in front of everyone and starts firing. AOOC lights up with "wtf man that wasn't the plan" and then an ahelp comes in about the behaviour. What do you do? Keeping in mind, you have access to VV logs, other administrators, mods and so on, but a moderator is currently an antagonist and is the person who ahelped.

maxspells — Today at 06:28
I would first off bwoink the guy and ask him why he shot his gun and get his side of the story. While waiting for his reply, I would check his notes and tell the person who ahelped I'm looking into it.
Did this player agree to the plan in aooc as well?

Mel — Today at 06:30
Guy has notes for going a little bit overboard in his antagonist gameplay occasionally, but the notes say he was alright in tickets about it.

Guy who ahelped said that there was a plan to stick to and this guy has completely ruined it.

maxspells — Today at 06:30
What does the player who shot his gun say when I asked why he fired his gun there?

Mel — Today at 06:31
"the gimmick was too boring, I wanted to add a bit more spice to the round"

maxspells — Today at 06:34
"Okay but everyone else wanted to go slow, since there's not that many players in medical and security. If you wanted to spice things up, why didn't you check with your teammates first before just changing the gimmick on your own?"

Mel — Today at 06:37
"Man fuck this" and disconnects after shooting himself.

maxspells — Today at 06:39
Okay I would look to escalate that into a temporary antagonist ban if he has a history of it and then left mid-ticket. Then I would ask my fellow moderators if we could rejuv the player who was shot by the merc and have everyone proceed like that didn't happen.
hopefully the rest of the crew didn't see the merc kill someone and it can be roleplayed around. If the rest of the crew is expecting a fight now because the mercs shot someone uh... I would ask the other moderator what we should do then.

Mel — Today at 06:44
Sometimes it can't be, but that's unfortunately how it goes sometimes. Good effort though.

maxspells — Today at 06:45
Thanks

Mel — Today at 06:51
Someone joins the round as Boltenheimer Cucumberwatch. What do you do?

maxspells — Today at 06:52
Check their ckey, see when they first connected and when the account was made. Then I'd bwoink and say "Hi hello, you need to pick a more RP appropriate name than Boltenheimer Cucumberwatch."

Mel — Today at 06:54
"AHAHAHAHAHA I WANT A REAL MOD OKAY!?"

maxspells — Today at 06:54
Was this account made today?

Mel — Today at 06:56
Yes

maxspells — Today at 06:56
I'd slap their ckey into the centcom database and see if they've been getting banned on other servers. This seems like something a throwaway account would do. They usually just go down the list on the hub getting banned from each server and usually Aurora wouldn't be the first one they choose.
if it's clean I would be a little more assertive and give them the benefit of the doubt for a bit that maybe they're a new player
I would tell them I'm a real mod and ask them if they've read the rules, and give them a link to them

Mel — Today at 06:59
Alright. They do show up on Centcom as a griefer from a few other servers.

maxspells — Today at 07:00
Permaban them then
interact with them as little as possible since they are likely trying to get a rise out of you

Mel — Today at 07:02
Alright good. This interview is over.