Current Server Situation Discussion: Cats out of the bag edition

[Artouris]

Baring the appearance of this post: http://cm-ss13.com/viewtopic.p ... =50#p71837 the cats out of the bag.

I think it might be a good time as a community we all have a open discussion. I personally have not come out with this -but seeing the state of events- I think it might be a good idea to do so.

Time to start out my complaints.
Most of these are focused on Abby (directly and somewhat indirectly). While we do enjoy some of the updates when they came earlier. Alpha was a great work when it was finished. However your conduct on this server as of recent, has been getting worse. I have yet to see someone abuse predator and use predator during none predator rounds as much as you. People who say you're testing things i have the hardest understanding to see that happen. I've seen you go play predator during a non predator round, cloak, roll around in a wheelchair throwing things at xenos. How is this testing? I've seen events happen that make no sense and only benefit one or the other side for no reason.
I'm not even sure you even play marine or xeno without playing it with some boost or play them in some realm of just injecting what you feel like into the round. Most of these random events are a trader who appears for no reason to give marines overpowering weapons. Or somehow a predator ship appears and blows up the ship in some location. How does this amount to testing? I am under the belief that people stop reporting any of your actions as predator because they either stopped caring (which is not a good thing) or they basically understood it DOES NOT DO ANYTHING. Some of us are under the belief that you think you can break the rules and not get punished, which is not what a staff member supposedly on this server is suppose to be able to do.
You also don't take any criticism (so I will be awaiting the possible ban you'll have in stock for me or server mute) very well. Which is kind of required for being a developer. As a developer you must understand people will complain when things are broken but that does not mean you leave and refuse to fix it. One of the things you do is listen to the community, but you don't. You don't even listen to the people around you, you seemingly refuse to follow the lore set on the server. Which in the end makes it more ironic that you claim this high chair, that you are being assaulted by people of all sides who are evil or incorrect. That's false, the problem is there's a large silent majority who do oppose you, we just don't want to voice our concerns because of the fear of the favoritism being shown.

The "Hunter" Games are probably one of the worst things I have seen happen to this server. If it was not at one state that we already have action and stuff, but it doesn't relate to the server. The bare minimum has been made to tie a gamemode that's a grief fest into CM. Not to say anything bad about hippie. But if i wanted to just kill people and this type of shit i would have gone to Hippie, but at least Hippie remains with some semblance of fun and RP because i have to be creative in my actions. This is just a luck based murderfest where you can get your head blown off twenty seconds in the round by someone who had easy access to a sniper.
You could have literally tied this into the actual universe by making groups of humans try to survive against five or so predators who hunt down the humans, access to hellhounds and everything. Those groups of humans can backstab each other but at least I'm having enjoyment, at least i can trust in someone to save my ass, and I can probably live for more than fucken twenty seconds of round start. I can actually then see a tie into the universe. It makes sense, but no we can't have that.
Not to mention you could have made a Rebel-Lite gamemode using almost the same bloody code. Spawn random colonists in the colony with random supplies to build a base and what not. We could have had something that had more RP and was more enjoyable to the server. It literally would have been about the same code to start with. Just instead change the counter to count how many dead rebels or the death of the rebel leaders, which you can copy paste from the exist rev code.

Finally, something tells me that the recent cuff and resin update is part of a larger update that would make better sense and would be played better if it was all done in one go. Its a failure and weakens the server when done piece meal. Its not the only update, but fails to work as intended or hoped without the other pieces, then maybe it should be added in later when the other pieces are also functioning.

Furthermore I see alot of staff members resigning, which in most servers it dictates the end of that server's current edition. While I don't know much of what might be happening in said staff discussions and what not but it does not show stability. Not to mention at times it feels like some people are underqualified for what certain positions they hold. Not to mention the favoritism shown. Now honestly I don't personally know TR-Dragon that well. Nor have I heard about him or seen it that much until the week before he became headmin. At which point I believe he was mostly doing just events. Which does not seem to be ideal for headmin. Nor have I seen him in the forums very much before that either. While perhaps in time he might make a good headmin, from seeing the first few rounds of him being one I do not hold high hopes for the current situation. Not to mention that I've seen staff log in and then either ignore the Ahelps they get, which when it occasionally happens then fine i understand that you may be answering other ahelps or afk due to a in real life situation but this happened quite often to a point before SAS resigned that it cant exactly be covered by those reasons. However it was becoming absurd. Its less so now which is a good thing but it still has merit in the discussion.

I would want to say the Pre-alpha days were great. Now I will say they were amazing compared to some of the things we have now. However it feels in such a way a materialistic wealthier but spiritually hampered server. We have more things, they're shiner, and cooler. However something was lost. No longer is the focus on the Marines (which can be a good or bad thing) and people could RP. They could come up with creative and innovative tactics. I enjoyed that, I enjoyed being able to play with others in a team fashion. That feels gone now. Not to mention we're getting the removal of construction elements and interactive elements of the game. There's not much of a reason for it. No longer do I feel like I'm playing a sandbox game or a RP game, it feels like SS13: Call of Duty (or SS13: Marnie Combat Extreme). I find it less enjoyable.

Not to mention the belief that seems to be happening that we can beat around the bush and ignore things until its fine and normal. This is a abhorrent way to go and do things. Which is one of the main reasons I wrote this, because I don't intend on beating around the bush on this. I don't want to say I'm shitting on the server because I enjoy the server. But on some level I am and I will be honest. I'm also writing this because I don't want the ship to sink but at some level I think there's no way to prevent it. Which is why I'm opening up a discussion for people say things.

[SecretStamos (Joshuu)]

I'm sorry if you don't appriciate our efforts. We (the dev team), pour a lot of effort into making CM as best as it can be.

If you do not like it, you are of course, are welcome to complain. But it really doesn't solve anything other than making us want to do this less.

Perhaps that's not the intention but it's certainly the outcome.

[Rabidgam3r]

I disagree with a couple of the gameplay-focused points OP has made, but the way Abby has conducted herself is absolutely pissfuck terrible. I don't know what's going on behind the scenes with the staff, but you guys have to be realizing that the way she insults and talks over players is intolerable. I understand entirely being frustrated with constant complaining about the updates, some of these players are worse than a LoL chat, but if it affects you so much the best response isn't to turn around and start insulting people. Not to mention turning down suggestions with no more than a "I am right, and this is bad."

I dunno, I just honestly feel like this server's slowly going down the shitter and I'm going to take a long break.

EDIT: That sounded pretty darn rude to the staff members, and I want to say that what you've done with the code and adminning (with a few exceptions) has been absolutely fucking marvelous, I just can't stand how the development seems to be going. If you're going to talk over and deny feedback from the players in support of your new update, at least give us an idea of what the update is gonna be.

[Lostmixup]

The updates need to be released in a orderly fashion instead of being put up in pieces. Just my opinion on that.

[forwardslashN]

I have yet to see someone abuse predator and use predator during none predator rounds as much as you. People who say you're testing things i have the hardest understanding to see that happen. I've seen you go play predator during a non predator round, cloak, roll around in a wheelchair throwing things at xenos.

I'm not even sure you even play marine or xeno without playing it with some boost or play them in some realm of just injecting what you feel like into the round. Most of these random events are a trader who appears for no reason to give marines overpowering weapons. Or somehow a predator ship appears and blows up the ship in some location.

I don't think I've seen Abby in an actual predator round for a long, long time. The only time I see her as pred is when she spawns herself in to fight marines/xenos or to screw around, and this is pretty frequent. The same can be said for events, because they do seem really one sided. This is not to say that I don't enjoy some of them, because I absolutely do. But admins usually make a vote or ask in OOC about potential events, not just throw in like 10 turrets on to a dropship with no counterplay at all.

I actually like the direction this game is going, but I feel that less is more in this case.

[Artouris]

Im sorry if i sound overtly unhappy with the dev staff. Its not the intention. I do enjoy the hell out of the work some of you are doing. I apologize if i made it look like the dev staff in general i distaste, its not so. Its moreso the actions of one person.

However i intended to open up a discussion for what is happening as of right now.

EDIT: I also intend on elaborating on some points and stuff like that but I will admit I am not 100% level headed right now so I will come back to elaborate on them more. Just as a heads up.

EDIT 2: Fix a grammar issue.

[Adjective]

I cannot vouch for any recent actions for anyone. However I can confirm that there has not been a series of "Staff Resignations". A lot of us are just taking short breaks for reasons such as work or school. I myself recently came back from a two month retirement. People always come and go from the CM staff team and there hasn't really been any conflict in staff discussions.

On the topic of Hunter Games. This is a round type that has a half and half opinion. Half the frequent players love it, the other half hate it. I personally sit in the middle, the rounds last for upwards of twenty to thirty minutes and aren't really that bad. Hunter Games can pretty much be diluted to being a minigame that is new now, so it's more frequent than it will be in the extended future.

On the topic of TR-Blackdragon. He is an exceptional staff member and was promoted for a reason. I won't deny that there are other people who some players and staff would consider better suited for the position. However, there are some staff who do not qualify and TR was chosen in their place. Additionally, there are a small group of people that some players may prefer to be the HeadAdministrator, yet they have denied the position for personal or server related reasons. We go into lengthy discussions and in-staff votes regarding Head-Staff and Admin Promotions and every person is chosen for their position for a reason. If TR-Blackdragon is HeadAdmin, it must mean he is the most qualified willing person to take the position. You also must take into account timezone, just because you personally do not see him, it does not mean he is not around.

[SecretStamos (Joshuu)]

Im sorry if i sound overtly unhappy with the dev staff. Its not the intention. I do enjoy the hell out of the work some of you are doing. I apologize if i made it look like the dev staff in general i distaste, its not so. Its moreso the actions of one person.

However i intended to open up a discussion for what is happening as of right now.

EDIT: I also intend on elaborating on some points and stuff like that but I will admit I am not 100% level headed right now so I will come back to elaborate on them more. Just as a heads up.

EDIT 2: Fix a grammar issue.

Just keep in mind that we do this entirely in our spare time. We have nothing to gain. So when we see people complaining about our work, it depresses the hell out of us.

I feel very unappreciated sometimes. When you say stuff like this, it only makes me want to quit.

[Feweh]

I'll just say this to clear things up.

I've been on the staff team for about a year now and I can happily say that for the first time we all get along and agree with eachother.
We don't fight, argue or hate each-other in anyway.

There was a severe lack of management from our previous HEAD STAFF that nearly crippled the staff team.
Very good peoples person, which is why you all loved him... terrible manager.

So please, the claims that staff is falling apart is the exact OPPOSITE.

[Minijar]

The biggest problem with the dev team is we coordinate very fucking poorly. We often step on each others toes and leave everyone alone to do their own thing which is bad. I need some sprites and code done for a map? Well I best start learning to do it myself as everyone tends to do their own little projects. This isn't always the case but it's bad none the less.

[SecretStamos (Joshuu)]

I'll just say this to clear things up.

I've been on the staff team for about a year now and I can happily say that for the first time we all get along and agree with eachother.
We don't fight, argue or hate each-other in anyway.

There was a severe lack of management from our previous HEAD STAFF that nearly crippled the staff team.
Very good peoples person, which is why you all loved him... terrible manager.

So please, the claims that staff is falling apart is the exact OPPOSITE.

I actually tend to agree. I feel close to a lot of staff members. Especially now.

Sham's resignation was really a bit more dramatic than it probably should have been. I feel like the things he said drummed up a lot of fear of instability. Tonight really confirmed to me that, even if there are a few lose bricks here and there, CM's foundation is very solid.

We're going to keep trying to make it the best we can make it. We've certainly come further than any previous iteration. Say what you will, but we're going to keep going and try to make it the best we can.

[apophis775]

So, I've been trying to avoid addressing the recent "staff resignations" out of respect, but here's the bottom line:


1. Skinner resigned due to his self-admitted abuse. He believed, that it was the best decision for him (since he was burning out from dealing with the tremendous amount of Salt that CM produces). He's welcome to come back in the future as an Admin (since his position is filled at the moment). Me and him still talk over steam occasionally when he brings up concerns because I still respect his opinion.
2. LostMixUp alerted the head-staff about his resignation WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY BACK. That wasn't a "spur of the moment" thing.
3. School is ending and summer is beginning. During this time, we tend to lose some "winter staff", and gain some "summer staff". This will be our third time going through this "Changing of the guard" since we split from NE, and counting out NE time, like our 5th. It's pretty much, always around the EXACT SAME TIME as well (look through the staff history, you'll see there's a pattern of when people leave/join).
4. Some staff, are upset with current staff changes following skinner/lost's departures. A mistake I made, was relying 100% on them to manage staff, so I didn't have a real "feel" for staff members behaviors/attitudes/abilities beyond what I heard up from them and some of my limited interactions during the time I was available. As a result, I lost a lot of "touch" with the lower staff members due to my increasing schedule. So for that, I apologize.
5. Some of our recent resignations, are because people are upset with their positions within the community, and that things are changing. Shit happens. Some people will get over it, others will leave. We have a LONG LIST of replacements, and luckily Skinner/Lost left us the infrastructure to be able to train and replace any positions that have people leave.


As far as CM dieing, HERE'S THE THING.

CM, will not die, at least not anytime soon. We have the absolutely MOST ACTIVE dev team in the entire community and have pretty much controlled the top spot on the hub for 90% of the time for the last few MONTHS. We are going through a rough patch, but this won't kill us. If anything, we'll lose some staff and reform ourselves back up, stronger than ever.

CM has gone through MANY rough patches in it's history while I was running it and we've always come out on top. Be it, when we joined New Eden and were constantly harassed by players from New Eden (and some staff), or when our forum database was stolen. We've always taken any problems head-on and come out on the other side. This is because we WILL NOT LET CM DIE.

[Infernus]

As much as you all hate that resin update, you have to understand that we cannot just push "everything in one go". We have other plans to nerf aliens, and not every update is a last one.

Doing massive amount of balance changes in one go as you want, untested by the public (No, we as devs cannot test every single thing) balance and code vise will not change a thing as people will just salt more and more, and the balance would be worse and harder to get in order. Not to mention, those updates would take 3 times longer to push, and that much to tweak. You would STILL wait for updates since most of your salty complains that the projectile push should go alongside xeno update, because people just can't handle any changes.

Calm down, this is not the last update of CM. 90% of that thread about xeno cuffs is pure salt, insults and lack of any constructive criticism, like very other balance change.

[TeknoKot]

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH FUCKEN' ALIUNS BUFFED PLS NERF I CANT GET ALL THE MARINE LADIES BECAUSE THEY ROBUST MY ASS AND I CANT KILL THEM WITHOUT EFFORT AND THINKING."

Please, stop, they're already planning to fix things and are also making sweet vehicles.

[Artouris]

I'm posting this off my phone so bear with my few spelling mistakes and issues.

I've had some time and are level headed moreso now than yesterday. While for the most part I mostly take back the somewhat overdramaticized staff part. Because this is a discussion and i wrong on that part.

However the bulk of my complaint still stands. This is more so of not the update itself that has sprouted this issue but it's moreso the straw that broke the camel's back that had underlying tensions growing under it.

Saying that you can't push one big update out is kind of false as well. We saw it happen with the projectile update, why can't we have one big update again? At least then we can see how it's originally suppose to play out. Having small parts of a big update being put in that rely on other unfinished parts of the update does not help balance.

However this is also sidestepping the issue of the main point up there. I can understand that you do this in your free time and that's admirable. However people will be critical of things especially when it goes in the opposite of what you state. When you say you host professional standards and then you have someone who fails to meet them consistently and does not get punished (or gets little punishment) it does not make it look professional.

I have yet to see how blowing up parts of the sulaco, cloaking as a present in a wheel chair and throwing items at xenos, bringing in random traders who give overpowering weaponry to Marines for little in return, the chimp ERT, as enjoyable to both sides and not downright RP breaking instead. This happens quite often, there's not a day that goes by that Abby herself plays predator during a non pred round and actively goes to the Marines and what not to supposedly test things when there's a literal thunderdome that can be used for testing if it works that does bnot interfere with the round.

There's also the fact that she threatens to mute "negativity" which are complaints of the huntergames among other things I've seen. This supposed negativity is for the most part just complaints. No one ahelps them to her and she doesn't have to listen to them but she still threatens it as if it's her job to police dead chat.

Not to mention humans are relatively short sighted creatures. Saying await our grand plan is good and all but it doesn't make sense if we're not transparent in it. At least then I can theoretically say see that oh this resin cuffing makes sense because only a certain caste can do it but we havent gotten it yet so let's just wait it might be good. Which sounds completely different than; yeah so we put I this rwsin cuffing and things but it's part of somehuge grand plan. The first is honest upfront and informative. The second is just saying what you did but not giving us any other information. Now if thats a track you don't want to do then fine, but then don't be surprised that these complaints come up.

On the level of respect and disrespect. I definitely respect the staff, but I also do care about the server as do many others. To point out some of the problems is sometimes necessary to keep afloat before tensions like these boil over harder and larger. Sometimes you might have to do it in a disrespectful way when your angry. However it does not invalidate the arguments at hand.

Now I could be wrong and this does tie into the stop complaining thread where you have people saying complaints happen but don't attempt to silence them well that's what happened last night. Im fairly sure the first few words utter quietly to me in the discord last night were "Artouris just drop it". Now how much belief into that you want to put into that is up to you. There was only three people in that chat, me feweh and TR, and heir mics were pretty quiet and I was busy. But that's all I have to say for now.

[Adjective]

I'd like to say once again that my "Stop complaining" thread is not an attempt to slence complaining. It was me presenting information in a hopes to convince some people that not all the things they are complaining about necessarily dont need addressed.

[Artouris]

I'd like to say once again that my "Stop complaining" thread is not an attempt to slence complaining. It was me presenting information in a hopes to convince some people that not all the things they are complaining about necessarily dont need addressed.

Completely understood I was referring to the points made in the thread further down.

[Feweh]

I'm posting this off my phone so bear with my few spelling mistakes and issues.

I've had some time and are level headed moreso now than yesterday. While for the most part I mostly take back the somewhat overdramaticized staff part. Because this is a discussion and i wrong on that part.

However the bulk of my complaint still stands. This is more so of not the update itself that has sprouted this issue but it's moreso the straw that broke the camel's back that had underlying tensions growing under it.

Saying that you can't push one big update out is kind of false as well. We saw it happen with the projectile update, why can't we have one big update again? At least then we can see how it's originally suppose to play out. Having small parts of a big update being put in that rely on other unfinished parts of the update does not help balance.

However this is also sidestepping the issue of the main point up there. I can understand that you do this in your free time and that's admirable. However people will be critical of things especially when it goes in the opposite of what you state. When you say you host professional standards and then you have someone who fails to meet them consistently and does not get punished (or gets little punishment) it does not make it look professional.

I have yet to see how blowing up parts of the sulaco, cloaking as a present in a wheel chair and throwing items at xenos, bringing in random traders who give overpowering weaponry to Marines for little in return, the chimp ERT, as enjoyable to both sides and not downright RP breaking instead. This happens quite often, there's not a day that goes by that Abby herself plays predator during a non pred round and actively goes to the Marines and what not to supposedly test things when there's a literal thunderdome that can be used for testing if it works that does bnot interfere with the round.

There's also the fact that she threatens to mute "negativity" which are complaints of the huntergames among other things I've seen. This supposed negativity is for the most part just complaints. No one ahelps them to her and she doesn't have to listen to them but she still threatens it as if it's her job to police dead chat.

Not to mention humans are relatively short sighted creatures. Saying await our grand plan is good and all but it doesn't make sense if we're not transparent in it. At least then I can theoretically say see that oh this resin cuffing makes sense because only a certain caste can do it but we havent gotten it yet so let's just wait it might be good. Which sounds completely different than; yeah so we put I this rwsin cuffing and things but it's part of somehuge grand plan. The first is honest upfront and informative. The second is just saying what you did but not giving us any other information. Now if thats a track you don't want to do then fine, but then don't be surprised that these complaints come up.

On the level of respect and disrespect. I definitely respect the staff, but I also do care about the server as do many others. To point out some of the problems is sometimes necessary to keep afloat before tensions like these boil over harder and larger. Sometimes you might have to do it in a disrespectful way when your angry. However it does not invalidate the arguments at hand.

Now I could be wrong and this does tie into the stop complaining thread where you have people saying complaints happen but don't attempt to silence them well that's what happened last night. Im fairly sure the first few words utter quietly to me in the discord last night were "Artouris just drop it". Now how much belief into that you want to put into that is up to you. There was only three people in that chat, me feweh and TR, and heir mics were pretty quiet and I was busy. But that's all I have to say for now.

I appreciate this post much more than the other one I had to delete.
I actually observe EVERYONE in-game, your name is one I respect very much and I was quite discouraged by your previous post.

I actually pulled you into my Discord channel to speak to you in voice-chat... I guess you weren't around at the time as you weren't responding.

[Artouris]

The reason I didn't respond comes from three reasons. The first was I heard I was moved into a different chat but I could barely hear anything from your mics and music was somewhat playing and I also accidently stabbed myself a bit earlier ( you can ask a few other people and I think I wrote it in the discord) and I went to check on it in like the bathroom next to my computer desk. Unfortunate really.

[apophis775]

Ok, this thread is becoming a bit toxic.

I'm going to ask that you guys calm down on the salt/toxicity.

Feel free to express your opinions, but try not to tear people to shit.

[Artouris]

Alright well, I don't intend to pry further because most of my points have been made.

What I'm basically trying to say is that I have lost faith in the professionalism of some of the staff. I mean if we're going to hold this professionalism to what it is then understandable if sometimes mistakes are made. However this doesn't seem to be a series of blunders that occasionally happen. It seems to be more of an inbuilt worse problem. Now Apop I do understand that you have personally been unable to attend to the server and I do understand that this might be something that is a unappealing issue to deal with. However in some ways it must be tended to, because otherwise larger issues arise.

Now along with the lost of faith in the professionalism comes with the loss of faith of due process. Which is what admin reports are for, but in a way with what some people say favoritism, or just looking out for each other, we have lost faith in those because we see them either quickly defending admins. Not even that but also perhaps the lack of punishment as well arises into the fact that we have a lack of faith in the process. Not to mention how somethings seem to be swept under the rug overtly quickly. It just doesn't feel right.

Now I've complied some things, so I mean beware a bunch of images are upcoming which I have picked to illustrate my point. Now you can argue its cherry picking, I won't stop you but here's what I end up seeing. I'll also throw in some stories perhaps after that to also help illustrate my point. Then after that I will have my final piece of evidence which might be the one that's hardest to swallow.

The only way to perhaps deal with this is to do this thread. Where its out in the open. With complete transparency. Perhaps there are other ways, but I did it this way. Unfortunate if there are other ways to have gone about it that are better. However it might better illustrate my loss of faith in these parts of this community.

(WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST WILL BE PICTURE HEAVY FROM THIS POINT ON. READ AT YOUR OWN CAUTION ALONG WITH SEMI POOR FORMATTING BECAUSE OF THE IMAGES. SORRY)

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First off I'm going to do a small incident I saw yesterday on the server. (Not abby)







The story is that TR put himself in as a Xenoborg, and proceeded to play both sides in a way. He told the xenos were the marines were, and told the marines that x ladder was being camped as such. Not to mention when the iron bears came in, he proceed to just run around the bridge after they secured it. He also proceeded to break all the glass inside the bridge (not the ones going outside) and sort of acting annoying. I mean I don't understand what this was suppose to be about, the whole event in general.

---

Now this focuses both on the forums and in game if I have logs for Abby (Im digging them up as I write this post).



When did Iron Bears become friendly? I mean i can understand that ingame people don't want to die so they act friendly but she says the iron bears are inherently non-hostile to the marines which goes against the lore this server has even set up. It even goes against the actual message sent when the Iron Bears board. I didn't know Abby is now in charge of lore and things as well.

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Belittle its ignorance... What a nice way to tell us to go make a guide for something. Honestly this might be a bit nitpicky but clearly when I read the changelog, I am not reading easy to digest information about important changes. I'm reading small side tangents and little insults like those. There's nothing wrong with adding a personal flair to it, but saying you want someone to write a guide so you may belittle its ignorance is well, not much needs to be said.

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Took some digging but here's one of the magical merchant appears events she does. Which happened quite often for a bit. Despite being on a secret mission, a merchant decides to appear and give marines a bunch of overpowered weapons (ranging from the new ones put in, sentries, smartguns, snipers, etc) and in return for like marine armor, or cigarettes, or something else that's relatively easily obtainable. These don't make sense. Nor do they help anyone but the marines. Understandable that some events are exclusive to one side, but they usually have a actual objective in them. This is just giving marines extra toys.

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Also if I recall Abby is suppose to be a coder, or a developer and is not suppose to be policing the server like a admin or moderator. However this shows the exact opposite. Along with isn't this suppose to be a IC issue of not following orders and what not?

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I didn't know we had a Chimp ERT. I also wonder why it isn't in the pooling of ERTs. My guess because its immersion breaking as all hell, not even that but it doesn't make sense really. I come to play CM for semi realistic (in a way) RP of the Aliens Universe. I can understand having some fun off things put in the code that are examples of something working (aka CHIMP70) but this isn't really a example of how ERT works honestly.

---

Now for some of the stuff that happens but I either don't have logs for or images.

First, I've seen more than one a "event" which is a predator ship appears, shoots the Sulaco, and blows up a part of it. Mind you this isn't even we want to speed up the round or something. This happened in the middle of the round. This is also not stating the amount of predator ships that shoot or in one case crashed into the Sulaco. I've seen it often enough that its kind of sickening personally. They don't tie into anything other than for her enjoyment she blows up a part of the Sulaco. Which ironically always tends to be engineering.

I've seen her play as a pred who edits the variables to change the clothing shes wearing to some kind of robes. I mean ok cool but this doesn't really fit with the whole predator theme. It was pretty consistent for a week as well.

I've heard how she played as a pred with a SADAR. Which doesn't make sense really, because how honorable is a SADAR.

Furthermore, I've seen how she turned invisible, went into a wheelchair rolled around as predator throwing items at xenos while cloaked. How is this in any way shape or form a predator type thing to do. It wasn't even to fight them, it was just screwing about. I understand that Xenos don't get much RP to start with but that doesn't excuse really this no RP shenanigans.

I don't see how this amounts to testing, which most people will say is happening. I can understand a private server, or if you need to test it in a environment that has the current lag and stuff of CM. But then that means you use the thunder dome and ask for a volunteer from dead chat. Most people actually want to help test this type of stuff. For the most part we don't have time to enjoy the whole round playing it or just want to observe, we understand that once we're done testing it we go back to ghosting.

Not to mention the lack of professionalism that this shows us. Not even as a staff unprofessional, but as a Predator unprofessional. There's a longer list of abuses when playing predator that I don't know perhaps, but i do hear there are more incidents. Many of which have similar cases to people who got whitelisted the hard way, and they've lost predator for it. However there's still Abby, playing predator even during non-predator rounds. Not playing predator in the thunderdome, but actively in the round engaging with the marines and xenos. Which stretches the testing part a bit thin.

There are also many more stories you can probably get from people, that I don't have privy to because I wasn't there or logged it. Its not something that these are a few isolated incidents but a trend.

---

Finally the piece of evidence I want to show which probably has demolished my faith in the professionalism of some staff and of due process is this.



>For me they're more like suggestions.

Apop, I do respect you very much so. You've put in alot of work and it saddens me to see this stuff happening. However I sometimes wonder if you actually look into what some of your staff says while you're not here, because for me and some others, we think that you really don't.

For me this has lead to the loss of faith in certain parts of your server. I have lost faith in the professionalism of the staff on some level. Some of they do amazing work and keep a amazing level of professionalism. I have also have had a loss in the faith of reporting said staff members because to their defense will come the ones who are guilty either directly of the same actions or by association for not saying anything about it.

Which leaves me with two final questions.
How can I report a staff member when they're in the wrong and expect it to be done properly, when its about a person who says rules are more like suggestions?
How can I report a staff member that clearly has the backing of other staff members, when its about a person who says rules are more like suggestions?

[forwardslashN]

I really hope that's taken way, way out of context. Otherwise, I really have nothing constructive to say about that. Nothing.

On the subject of Bears:

[SecretStamos (Joshuu)]

Alright well, I don't intend to pry further because most of my points have been made.

Which leaves me with two final questions.
How can I report a staff member when they're in the wrong and expect it to be done properly, when its about a person who says rules are more like suggestions?
How can I report a staff member that clearly has the backing of other staff members, when its about a person who says rules are more like suggestions?

Artouris, I respect what you're trying to do here, but you've already made your point, and I'm afraid you're going a bit way too far with this.


Let me be first and foremost in saying that Abby has made mistakes in the past. I've made mistakes. Most people on the staff do and will make mistakes.

But, it seems to me that this is more than a simple complaint You've really lost your coherent point. You've passed the point of "valid complaint" and entered the realm of "fanatical defamation". There's a pretty fine line.

The fact that you've clearly gone to such lengths to obtain as much dirt on Abby as you can really strikes me the wrong way. Especially because you've obtained a log from a private staff conversation. Which I can only imagine you contacted an ex-member of staff for. That, to me, raises a lot of concerns.


You'll have to excuse me, because I'm having serious second thoughts about you here.

[Artouris]

Artouris, I respect what you're trying to do here, but you've already made your point, and I'm afraid you're going a bit way too far with this.


Let me be first and foremost in saying that Abby has made mistakes in the past. I've made mistakes. Most people on the staff do and will make mistakes.

But, it seems to me that this is more than a simple complaint You've really lost your coherent point. You've passed the point of "valid complaint" and entered the realm of "fanatical defamation". There's a pretty fine line.

The fact that you've clearly gone to such lengths to obtain as much dirt on Abby as you can really strikes me the wrong way. Especially because you've obtained a log from a private staff conversation. Which I can only imagine you contacted an ex-member of staff for. That, to me, raises a lot of concerns.


You'll have to excuse me, because I'm having serious second thoughts about you here.

As I've said, there are probably better ways to go about this. However, its at a point where this was bound to happen.

I keep logs when i can/and or remember (so I didn't collect logs for specifically Abby). I usually clear them out from time to time because there are some truly great moments that happen on this server and its always fun to save it for future reference. However, this will seem like a very personal attack because as I've said,

I have lost faith in the due process this server claims to have.I would have made a post in Admin Reports. However this was the route I had to take because of that very reason of my lack of faith in due process.

I do understand people make mistakes. However this does not seem to be a trend of mistakes, this seems a trend of unprofessionalism, which as run unhampered. Why has it? There could be many reasons. I am as clearly said not privy to them. Could be favoritism, it could be that you all stand together on things, it could be many things. I have yet to see much evidence in the way of saying this is a bunch of mistakes.

That is the reason why also I have so many events. These logs aren't even old. There's just such a volume of evidence. I put it all up because otherwise you will brush it off.

EDIT: Added a sentence up there.

[Azmodan412]

Stop being salty and enjoy what the staff worked their asses off to bring us.