These are the General Event Guidelines for staff.
Staff shall review this document before running events. If you have any questions please contact a manager.
The guidelines are not exhaustive but are spirit and intent-based.
Classification:
Some examples for what is considered what.
Any intentional attempts to influence the round are considered events. Events can be split into two categories:
- Predator Round: Enabling predator round needs to be logged in the event discord channel. However, staff are not required to observe, and do not constantly enable predator every round at the request of the same player. Players who have been added to the whitelist may be given a few extra rounds their first few days, but staff should not go overboard.
- Non-Event: Changing the tanks or a mobs colour (reasonably), testing or experimenting in the thunderdome or spawning in some unique food or minor cosmetic items will not be considered an event.
- Staff Intervention Event: Staff Intervention Event: Using in-game ERTs to respond to in-character consequences in lieu of rule enforcement. Provost Inspectors, MP Riot ERT. These shall be logged in the log book, and the main responder should be a staff member. If no staff members are around, the person sending in the ERT may take control of a character for the purposes of finishing the intervention. This may also be used if the round needs to be significantly delayed due to a investigation or other technical issue. Round end intervention may be unorthodox/against lore standards so players can have something to do while normal operations resume. Staff members shall not delay the round for the purpose of running this type of intervention
- Fax Event: Responding as High Command, W-Y, via faxes. Do not need to be logged unless you are planning to send actual mobs or spawn in non-cosmetic items or send in an ERT, and at that time it will be considered a Minor Event. Cosmetic and Food awards for good faxes are not minor events. You may give the Corporate Liaison some objectives, but do not give them carte blanche to self-antagonize.
- Minor Event: A small change to round interactions, such as a little merchant shop, Minor ERTs or other RP influence is considered a minor event. Departure from the round flow is acceptable to an extent, however, this should be minimised if possible.
- Major Event: Completely and deliberately altering the flow of the round, such as changing the game mode, spawning vast mobs or ERTs, using multiple factions/hives for XVX or HVH.
As a general rule of thumb, if it requires meaningful setup with a delay on the round start, changing the game mode or the event majorly breaks the normal round flow, it's a major.
Events are judged on the intent and actions of the staff member running them, regardless of how players interact with or escalate the event. This means that if a minor event unintentionally escalates into a major or marine genocide, the staff member is not at fault.
Events should be for the most part appropriate to the CM setting and theme. Staff are expected to put effort into running events, especially those outside the box. Creativity and thinking outside the box are encouraged but prepare for additional scrutiny for wacky and zany events. During holiday seasons, special occasions, or at the discretion of head staff, an event may not have to follow the CM setting and theme (Christmas, April fools, Halloween, etc...)
Examples:
High effort Cards of Fate - encouraged.
Spawning in Predator MPs - bad idea.
Authorization:
The Event Maintainer, A Staff Manager, Senior Admin Event Maintainer or above is required to give authorization for staff to hold Major Events.
Event Standards:
Events can be considered out of this world, paranormal related, or silly. However please remember to use some thought and make sure your events have a story behind them that can be reasonable. The staff member running the event are basically the dungeon master, and they control the narrative. Events should have some effort behind it to make roleplay enjoyable for all parties. Events should not be considered a "Shitpost" nor should staff make an event that will significantly derail the round or cause players to be needlessly killed unless its part of the plot in your event (IE: Murder Mystery)
Silly type events should be rare and not every round. Also events should not be recycled every day unless it's a major event such as faction clash or hive wars (Which usually end up using the same narratives)
Other guidelines
Cosmetic changes are not considered events and can be done at the discretion of a Senior Moderator or above, the obvious exclusions to this are, for example, making all xenos pink, or making the tank bright blue. Cosmetic changes should be done sparingly and with thought to the CM setting.
Staff may participate in an event as a story teller type mob to keep the event going. Staff cannot join in your own event to just have action unless you are playing a plot character role (Ghost, Demon Spirit, Etc...) that may end up in some form of a battle with your event participants. Staff who wish to make an event that is basically sending a custom ERT, or something that lets themselves join in action gameplay, another staff member can run it. Senior Admins retain manager rights to participate fully in events, however if the event is determined to be admin type abuse to grief players or cause unneeded havoc, they may be subject to disciplinary action.
Staff will not make cosmetic changes to themselves unless it's related to a story teller type of mob. Staff may ask other staff for minor cosmetic changes (Gun recolors, etc...)
Cosmetic changes are not necessarily mandatory to report, but it is preferred that you post in #event-logs if have made changes to something in the round.
Events should not be limited to staff, keep them open to all players. Involvement in your events should be as random as possible. Exception below.
Events, or specific roles, that have a high potential to derail the round or otherwise negatively affect the round through your event may be given to preferential candidates to ensure they are handled appropriately. Additionally, Roles that require whitelists may only be played by members of the respective whitelist.
This does not apply to thunderdome experimentation.
Players who consistently cause issues upon the server, or otherwise have a frequency to derail events may be excluded from events at the discretion of the person running it.
Staff will ensure they limit what the event characters can do, staff should not have an event where one character is just running around with an objective and in the process kills the entire ship crew.
Staff will limit use of event mobs that are "overpowered" or "unbalancing" such as abominations, MARSOC, Synth Terminators. These should be used sparingly and have a justification on behind their usage.
Event Logging:
All events must be logged in the staff discord (Not public record). Staff will inform other staff what type of event they're running, and a brief synopsis of what is planned. It's optional if staff want to log if the event went well, however if a event does go bad, staff will let other staff know so they can learn from it. A bad event doesn't mean the idea was bad, and management would want to see what steps could be taken to make the event better. Failure to log events in the logbook will result in disciplinary action.
Stalemate Intervention:
Round Stagnation after a certain amount of time can be an issue. Due to players that may be stuck in an observing mode due to death, and no xeno respawns available can cause further issues. The maintainer team has said their ideal round length should be two to three hours tops. Staff can attempt to break a stalemate if a round has continued for two and half to three hours, and all combat has stalled. If neither side is able to make progress, staff will log this as an intervention event. It is up to the discretion of the staff member to determine the best course of action (Nuclear device spawn, AA Boiler, Sending Marine ERT reinforcements or adding Xenomorph reinforcements.) It is unfair to declare an arbitrary policy of which side which shall be picked, and staff will use their best judgment in these cases.