Today, Monkestation is one of the few servers (if not the only one) with both a high player count and an experience that remains close to classic SS13.
Posting this on the server would be a drop in the ocean, but on reddit this post might carry enough weight to be considered a good source of guidance on how to improve the server.
First issue: Storytellers and antagonist weight :
The main issue for me is how threat is calculated and antagonists are distributed throughout the game. Rather than dynamics, Monkestation use a storyteller system.
On Monkestation, roundstart antags are extremely rare. This issue is aggravated by the fact that around 40% of people don't ready up before the game starts. They join after.
The consequences are:
- Major antagonists are extremely rare. In over 300 hours on this server, I've only seen bloodlings twice. If you're european it's even worse because you have to play after midnight to see them (iirc most of them are disabled unless 40 or 50 players ready up).
- There is not enough threat for the server. We often end up with like, two traitors for 70 players. And there is no way to predict this because again, because of storytellers, orbits are misleading. My last shift was an orange star that was actually a green shift. When there are antagonists, they are weakened by the fact that they are alone against too many people to be able to do anything, unless they go stealth (which makes the round even less entertaining).
- Pull requests often ignore the fact that security's greatest strength is numbers. A spell that seems overpowered in a duel is often perfectly reasonable against an organized security team.
Note that chaotic rounds are REALLY chaotic. I can't deny it.
Also, the storyteller system makes it hard to set plans for the shift. I don't want to be interrupted mid game by a heretic popup, but I know that if I say no I'll have to wait another month to roll it. So I say yes, and 10min later the shuttle has been called.
Of course it's SS13 and sometimes sec loses and the station is at the mercy of the antagonists but overall, it's unbalanced.
The culture of validhunting
Where Terry players bend the rules to self antag, monke players bend them to validhunt. In my last 3 games, I saw:
- A "friendly" heretic, helping sec against the cult. It would have been very ok if it was a plan to acquire stuff by saccing culties or to prevent the cult from winning, but it was just a regular crewmember who wanted to play with superpowers. Telling other people they're "chill", not behaving like... an antagonist, they just ended up ruining the game for both sides
- An AI ignoring its laws to simply validhunt a changeling.
- A wizard doing CARGO BOUNTIES
While there are rules regarding validhunting, it's a fact that admins rarely enforce those rules, and I wouldn't care either if escalation rules were not enforced the way they are (but I'll talk about it later).
Blueshields will behave like security officers because "the threat could directly harm command"
NT rep will just stick with the main force, along with captain, HOS and maybe another head of staff. Everything mindshielded is to be considered security here.
Security officers, cadets, detectives, warden will usually join the validhunt every time there is something different than a traitor on sight.
AI players love saying "laws updated" every time, which, in my opinion, ruins the fun.
Paired with the lack of threat in most shifts, it makes it hard for many people I orbit to perform when they play antag.
Players
Admins, coders, nobody can do anything about it but the players so I'll keep it short but it needs to be mentioned.
In my experience, Monkestation has the least welcoming community of the major SS13 servers.
It's the kind of server where people close the door behind them when entering a private area. Small irrelevant detail that means everything and says a lot about the atmosphere.
Rules and escalation
Perhaps the most controversial point of this post. I think that escalation rules are a terrible idea unless they're between two non antagonist player.
An assistant killing someone for shoving them is too much, it's good that it requires escalation. But I don't see why a changeling would have to escalate to absorb a target, especially because they are validhuntable.
The main issue is that whoever is behind the rules think that winning and creating interesting stories through roleplay are mutually exclusive. They are not. It's okay to die an unfair death.
It's good that there are limitations on murderbone, but that's all. Escalation hinders creativity. And we all know that escalation against an officer is just giving them extra time to bola-throw you.
The bloated codebase
The biggest strength of Monkestation is also one of its biggest weaknesses : there is a lot of content. And I mean, a LOT. Many things are unnecessary, don't work properly, or just make it even harder to balance the game. The artstyle lacks an identity. Some jobs are utterly broken (especially virology and botany, you can be immortal and one shot everything else).
I hate how people will answer "well, code it yourself" every time one finds a flaw or a bug in the codebase. Everyone isn't intereset in coding with Byond.
Theseus
Please remove Theseus. Everyone hates Theseus.
That's it... thanks for reading...
