Goonhub
10-23-2025, 09:41 AM
In my experience of playing sec, I've had good experiences with those with Jailbird. I've taken people in, hyped up or downplayed the severity of the crime for comedic effect, and generally it's given me a distraction at the start of a sec shift.
At times, though, I feel like the meta knowledge of the trait means that people naturally end up clearing it without interaction with the player who took Jailbird. I can recall several instances of, "Why is x set to arrest?" "It says here they did y" "Ah, that's off station (or some similar excuse). Go ahead and clear it". Weirdly enough, a more coordinated and communicative sec team seems more likely to clear the arrest status.
The core issue to me seems to be that the trait requires acknowledging its existence while simultaneously disregarding its long term implications. On RP, if we arrested someone, I'd likely have them set to released afterwards; it provides informational clarity on who we're investigating/chasing. Setting jailbirds to arrest & released ends up making informational clutter. This wouldn't be so bad if the crimes were always minor, but iirc, some crimes can be quite severe like murder or mass murder, and on RP (at least on lowpop), those kinds of crimes could get you exiled/executed.
Personally, I think it would be funny to be exiled/executed because of the trait. Execution would sour my mood if I rolled antag, but then, I suppose that's the danger of the trait. I don't think many others would find it funny or fun, though.
I agree with Calliope that a disclaimer could be useful, especially for RP. Agreeing to take the trait means agreeing to abide by the consequences of the crimes the trait generates. If the crimes would normally get you exiled, then you get exiled.
The trait seems like it could do with pruning of the crimes, or at least a whitelist/blacklist for RP vs. Classic. No major crimes for RP seems like a fine compromise. Not sure how to address security just auto-removing the tag. Could be funny if the only way to remove the tag was to send em through a brig chute? Seems like a bit of a coding headache, though. Maybe some elements of sec culture might need to adjust, such as being more ready to arrest those with the flag without as much questioning.
At times, though, I feel like the meta knowledge of the trait means that people naturally end up clearing it without interaction with the player who took Jailbird. I can recall several instances of, "Why is x set to arrest?" "It says here they did y" "Ah, that's off station (or some similar excuse). Go ahead and clear it". Weirdly enough, a more coordinated and communicative sec team seems more likely to clear the arrest status.
The core issue to me seems to be that the trait requires acknowledging its existence while simultaneously disregarding its long term implications. On RP, if we arrested someone, I'd likely have them set to released afterwards; it provides informational clarity on who we're investigating/chasing. Setting jailbirds to arrest & released ends up making informational clutter. This wouldn't be so bad if the crimes were always minor, but iirc, some crimes can be quite severe like murder or mass murder, and on RP (at least on lowpop), those kinds of crimes could get you exiled/executed.
Personally, I think it would be funny to be exiled/executed because of the trait. Execution would sour my mood if I rolled antag, but then, I suppose that's the danger of the trait. I don't think many others would find it funny or fun, though.
I agree with Calliope that a disclaimer could be useful, especially for RP. Agreeing to take the trait means agreeing to abide by the consequences of the crimes the trait generates. If the crimes would normally get you exiled, then you get exiled.
The trait seems like it could do with pruning of the crimes, or at least a whitelist/blacklist for RP vs. Classic. No major crimes for RP seems like a fine compromise. Not sure how to address security just auto-removing the tag. Could be funny if the only way to remove the tag was to send em through a brig chute? Seems like a bit of a coding headache, though. Maybe some elements of sec culture might need to adjust, such as being more ready to arrest those with the flag without as much questioning.