Interview BearSchwanz

CnaymToday at 06:10
First question is always the same. What's your ckey?

BearToday at 06:12
BearSchwanz

CnaymToday at 06:13
Okay, we'll be going over a question or two, before we go over the mod powers and some tickets and end with the personality questions. Let's start with this one:
In your own words: What is the goal of the aurora server? What do you think we are looking to provide with the server?

BearToday at 06:15
An enjoyable atmosphere and in a general sense a roleplaying videogame. Something you can just have a lot of entertainment with in playing around with mechanics or just roleplaying, whatever a player might find enjoyment in to a reasonable extent.

CnaymToday at 06:16
Sounds right to me, what do you think are the biggest issues with the aurora currently? What do you think you'd try to improve or remove if given the possibility to do so (as mod, if you do other things like coding you may add them, too)?

BearToday at 06:20
mmm, I could nit-pick at a couple of things but as for a "biggest" issue I sometimes feel as though a lot of players aren't that keen on roleplaying and would rather just "win" in a sense. What makes that quite a big issue however is the fact it's not an easy thing to change and it depends on the attitude of the community as a whole, which will change all the time on its own. If anything I suppose not supporting quite as much meta behaviour could have a positive impact.

CnaymToday at 06:23
Meta behavior is a rather hard line to define. We have some clear ones like ordering lethals at round start and some grey areas like filling up the pharmacy with every chemical possible in the first 10 minutes. You played both departments a lot, could you clear up a little what steps you would take (or have taken) to lower that  meta behavior?

BearToday at 06:25
Just simple things like, not recognising an n2o landmine as apposed to a normal landmine because you've seen the sprite in another traitor round. Or not shoving someone onto the OR table without a word because they have minor liver damage.

CnaymToday at 06:27
Small steps with a great effect.
Lemme grab a list of moderator powers and what they do and we will run through two small scenarios.

BearToday at 06:27
oki doke

CnaymToday at 06:30
Access to MSay -> You can contact other moderators and admins in there
Admin PM -> PM a player, your  basic bwoink
Toogle Wind -> Freeze someone to stop them from interacting with the game itself, but still be able to respond to PMs
Notes -> You can add and see notes for every player
Warn -> Your  standard Warning comes in standard and severe. People get a popup, can review them in the admin tab and have to acknowledge them
Kick -> Kick them with a message once, mostly used to get someone to answer
Ban -> Set a time or perma ban people with a reason
View Variables -> You can see variables, those include attack logs, damages, current equipment and so on. If you aren't  sure if you might see something you can always ask me.
Check round info -> Gives you the round type, all antag names and types
Player Panel -> This shows every player, with job, ckey and age on our server, easiest to find someone if you only have part of their IC name or ckey
Any questions to anyone of these?

BearToday at 06:31
nope, all seem okay

CnaymToday at 06:33
Alright.
While playing you get the following message:
John Cena, Assistant, has awoken from cryogenic revival!
How would you handle it?

BearToday at 06:33
Just PM them and explain we don't do reference names and ask them to cryo so they can get their name changed

CnaymToday at 06:34
They don't respond and seem to be walking around the surface level opening a couple lockers.

BearToday at 06:35
Just PM again telling them to click the name to respond, if they continue to ignore it do so again saying if they don't respond they'll be kicked

CnaymToday at 06:37
The player responds after the second message, asking where the rules say that, they did not see any rules and ask where the cryo pods are.

BearToday at 06:39
Respond referencing the rule to keep a believable character and the fact it's a little unrealistic that John Cena might be lurking around in the late 2200's then give directions to the cryo pods or cryo them myself (if mods can do that)

CnaymToday at 06:41
Moderators cannot do that, but an admin offers to teleport them for you if they struggle finding the way. Instead they decide to log out. You wait a couple minutes (let's make it 10+) and they do not return.

BearToday at 06:42
If it's roughly 20 minutes then just plop them into cryo or ask an admin if I'm observing and can't bluspace tech my way in there

CnaymToday at 06:43
Okay, anything else you want to add?

BearToday at 06:43
ah, add a note

CnaymToday at 06:47
Sounds good. Let's jump into the second one.
It's crossfire and the logs are coming in from all over the station, looks like everyone is shooting the hell out of each other. The lovely bwoink sound alerts you to a new ticket: "That Paramedic is doing surgery again." It's not only one, looks like three others ahelp the same thing. How would you do the do?

BearToday at 06:50
Send the paramedic a PM asking them what they're doing the surgery for (check if they're actually doing it first via looking and checking recent medical logs) asking them to stop. Assuming the answer doesn't justify it, explain to them that their role wouldn't have the knowledge or permission to conduct surgery and ensure they stop then add a note. If they continued and argued against it then it would be a warning.

CnaymToday at 06:52
They explain to you that they have learned it ICly from the CMO, who is currently afk and that the patient will die if they do not do the surgery. There is nobody else to do it and they did not want to see the player taken out of the round. They claim that another staff member told them it would be okay in emergencies.

BearToday at 06:55
Ask which staff member told them that and explain the CMO shouldn't have taught them as a paramedic in the first place.

CnaymToday at 06:56
They tell you a staff members name, but the person is not sure if they did that or not. The paramedic accepts it and tells you that they will not do it again. Anything else you want to do?

BearToday at 06:57
As in the staff member is unsure of if they said it or not?

CnaymToday at 06:57
The staff member is not sure if they said that or not.

BearToday at 06:58
Oki doke, add the note to the paramedic then ask the CMO if they're still in round why they taught the paramedic surgery, if they had. Acknowledging a response might take time as the paramedic said they were AFK.
oh and check out the shootout i suppose

CnaymToday at 07:01
All good, it's highpop and there is a couple modmins taking care of it.
You put your note on the paramedic and let the CMO know to not teach paramedics surgery.
That concludes our scenarios. Let's jump into the personal questions.

BearToday at 07:01
alrighty

CnaymToday at 07:08
You are rather sorted into the lowpop timezones, which is a great thing, because that is where we need staff almost always. That being said having to handle most tickets alone or with just an admin on standby in discord can be rather stressful. Do you have any experience with burn out and / or plans on how you handle and deal with it?

BearToday at 07:10
Mhm, playing more active roles like security and medical alone can cause some burnout every now and then especially when you might be a bit of a magnet to blame if something goes wrong. Simple answer is just taking a small step back, recollecting myself and maybe playing something that doesn't demand much attention for an hour or so like sea of thieves.

CnaymToday at 07:12
True, that helps a lot to just calm down.
If you had the power to change one thing about the server, what would it be?

BearToday at 07:12
Depends how creative I can be :P

CnaymToday at 07:13
Imagine owning the server, being also a great coder, artist, creative person and so on.

BearToday at 07:16
In that case, I'd go all out and add some more canonical locations to visit like the srom area or maybe a close planet system to visit for expeditions.
On a smaller scale, something I'd like to see reworked would be changeling as at the moment it's more of trying to make someone have superpowers than it is having a terrifying monster hiding amongst the crew what with the flesh shield and such. Admittedly I'd make it more like the thing.

CnaymToday at 07:17
Cool, last one is also always the same:
Do you want me to post the interview on the forums?

BearToday at 07:18
Sure