Security should need to follow laws

[Gomp]

ALL OF THIS IS INTENDED FOR THE ROLE-PLAY SERVERS

In it's current implementation Space Law is practically nonexistent, every security player follows their own set of rules, makeing coordination with and reliance on other officers difficult, since you work with a different set of rules, there are regularly complaints about how security deals with specific cases and players new to security will have a hard time figuring out why no one is following the rules written in the law book they get at round start and what they are expected to do instead.

What if things could be clearer?

Well they could be clearer if Space Law was a comprehensively applicable set of rules that defined the sentence and (more importantly) the corresponding punishment.

But you might say: "The reason Space Law is as vague as it is is to make it possible for every security player to have their own playstyle." and that is certainly what is happening right now...but that is part of the problem. Player agency is very good when it is fun for everyone (which it is in most cases), however I am very strongly of the opinion that it is not good when applied to law and punishment, you can't expect everyone to agree on what should be done after all, so you need an authoritative set of rules to make sure everyone is having fun. That is why the server rules exist.

This doesn't mean no one should break the Space Law, it just means when they do security doesn't need to hold an internal meeting to decide how to deal with it.

This doesn't mean officers have no personal agency they are still expected to define the crime that was comitted they just can't make up the corresponding punishment.

What is does mean is that Antagonists or anyone else breaking the law knows how they will probably be punished and how they can be punished.

But what is even going in it and what if I don't like what it says?

The main difference to my approach compared to current Space Law is that it is no longer a suggestion. The easiest way to implement this idea would be to take the "Crime and Punishment" section from current wiki article for Space Law put it in the current book every security assistant spawns with and delete the "loose" in "Space Law is an in-character set of loose guidelines for playing security, NOT the actual server rules. As a security officer, you are not absolutely beholden to Space Law so long as you follow the rules".

Yes this means an officer doesn't need to follow Space Law if they don't think it is the best course of action, but any officer wanting to keep their job should think twice before breaking it.

If Space Law is implemented it should be adaptable, if someone has a complaint about the way something is worded or thinks something is punished too strongly/not strongly enough, they should be able to write a forum post about it and then it should be up to the admins to act on it. It is very important that this happens! Space Law needs to be based on the opinions of the community and administration. I don't want to push my own personal laws here, I want to make sure that there are laws I don't need to make up.

THIS IDEA NEEDS FEEDBACK!

What do you think should be considered?

 

What do you think should be included?

What did I miss?