Remove/revamp the Bridge Alert Button and rework Stationwide Alert

[Nihisohel]

Suggestion in the title.

Reason for this is that the bridge alert button has zero mechanical reasoning to exist, outside of RP and only stands to be pressed by your local greytider or mass produced by mechanics and distributed everywhere. (Yes, you can do this, please do not do this if you wish to keep the station intact.)

As it stands, the station alert is shown to be disruptive and shows little purpose maybe otherwise fool new players into thinking that something has gone terribly wrong.

A couple of others (approximately about one other person) and I believe that it should be reworked into a system that Security and the Heads of Staff are able to utilize and to better enforce order in the already chaotic Space Station 13.

Heads of Staff (Preferably only the Captain, HoP, and the HoS.) will be given an application which allows them to initiate a threat level vote which will then be sent to Security Personnel and the rest of the Heads to vote to change the level.

Threat levels in conjunction of notifying staff that a threat exists, also serve as a way to increase access for all personnel depending on the scenario. This makes threat levels a double edged sword for Security as their access grows with the rest of the personnel.

The proposed threat levels and their proposed descriptions are as follows

Code Green - The standard level - The threat has been eliminated/Never existed in the first place, Security Officers are at ease and personnel are encouraged to return to their duties. (Security will only gain access to medical and their own department.)

Code Yellow - The Suspicion level - A threat has been detected on the station. Security are permitted to patrol the station and personnel are encouraged to alert the crew of any trouble. (Security will gain access to departments but not any of its sub-departments for example, toxins or mechanics.)

Code Orange - Suspicion level - Threat has been identified, Security are authorised to search belongings and Departments. (Security access is increased to include sub-departments and the bridge, All personnel gain maintenance access.)

Code Red - THREAT IS UNCONTAINABLE - Threat is found to be overwhelming, Security Personnel are seeking for outside help of containing this threat. (Security access allows armory authorisation and all personnel can access medical equipment.)

Special levels - Because why not

Code Black - Only by HoS/NTSO - All hope is lost, the station is in shambles, godspeed. (ALL personnel get all access, armory only requires one authorisation)

Code Blue - Nanotrasen Cleansing Protocol - Special unit requested, please stand by. (Nanotrasen Special Operatives are "requested" basically a more formal way for admins to spawn NTspecialops, typically used in conjunction of code black???)

Thoughts and feedback appreciated, definitely something to think about, descriptions for the alerts are definitely placeholder.

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In addition, Heads of Staff get Security access but not Brig access or Equipment Access on Code Orange

Maybe Basic Department (not including Security) Access for all personnel on Code Red???

Update 1 : AIs should play a role in applying threat levels, forgotten that they existed, another proposed idea is making use of the AI status monitors that were recently released to dictate the threat level.
Courtesy of player Quartz for the idea

Update 1.2 : I am also aware that this can be easily abusable if the PDA of the Head is lost. I proposed using the ID pin serve as the password for the application as a workaround.
Or until someone pays someone to add PDA passwords.

[rando212]

I definitely like this idea and think that it would be a much better alternative to the big red button that does nothing. Although i am confused on code yellow sec gets department acces like engineering and sci but not sub departments like toxins isn't this what sec has already as far as I know or would this also suggest that sec acces be lowered.

[Nihisohel]

Security currently does not have access to the following from what I remember
Mechanics
Hotloop/Coldloop
Toxins
Telesci
Genetics
Robotics
QM console
Mining
Teleporter room
Bridge

Code Orange would mean that Security will get the access to all these things except maybe the teleporter room and QM console

[THISISANICEGAME]

My idea for it was replacing the button with a panel that could be unlocked by either the hop, captain or the hos, and it would have all those modes and be non mech scannable, I don't like pda apps a lot since they are very ignorable.

Would also be good if the modes changed access to the crew too and not only sec officers, giving them access to EVA and stuff like that.

Code black and blue could be made the same thing and only appear when emaged so the traitor will be giving everyone AA but also making a new sec officer spawn, would be kind of a gamble.

Add a cooldown to changing modes that can only be overwritten by someone with the hos ID since they are the ones that should decide security matters.

Overall I think this would be a change for the better making something that basically just makes some lights red serve more porpouse is something I would like

[NOOT]

Good suggestion. In addition i'd like to see game mode dependant categories added to the bridge alert button. For example, if you
use the Revolution alert, and loyalty implants become available in higher qnantities from the vending machines, aswell as at a reduced cost from the QM
use the Biohazard button and armory authorization is advanced and the biohazard crates are reduced in cost at the quartermaster
use the Nuclear Operatives button, and the armory will be authorized and all manifest crew will be given addition access.

Naturally, if you press the alert button, and its the wrong type, it may be disadvantageous to the crew. A nuclear emergency auth on a rev round would be devastating for the command staff. this would give the bridge button some tactical significance aswell as making it a viable sabotage target for revolutionaries, or nuclear operatives, for example.

[KikiMofo]

I like this suggestion. It actually makes the alerts DO something other than just scary red lights.

[Cal]

Heavily dislike this idea. I do not like relying on heads of staff for ANYTHING. Had a captain the other day up and vanish, being a staff assistant with AA... on RP.

Me being unable to do my job as Sec as well because a captain is getting drunk in the bar or doing an a zone or something would reeeeally irritate me.

Leave the button as it is - a little joke the captain pushes because he's out of bojacks or whatever.

[Frank_Stein]

One thing I like is the expectation of what Sec is allowed to do during different codes, i.e. detaining and searching people. I'd even add authorisation of different levels of force against resistance at different codes.

It could also be nice to have department panic buttons that implement a code change but only in the area it was activated in rather than station wide.

Some kind of indicator of what the current level was would be helpful, maybe on the status screen

[Nihisohel]

I was considering having the lights dictate the threat level based on its color but that would lead to a problem for the colorblind

Earlier, people were also worried that Secoffs would just rush Code Red rather than escalating it bit by bit so there is that.

A remedy for the latter would be to prevent Secoffs from voting to skip threat levels directly or/and perhaps have the entirety of the station also vote on the threat levels, primarily Code Red

[Technature]

What if security could only raise the threat by one level, with at least one minute cooldown? On the other hand, they can reset it to basic level at any time.

If they just use this to rush to all access 5 minutes in, you could make it so a minimum amount of time needs to pass. Heads of Security and NTSO would be exempt from restrictions because of the obvious reasons.

Alternatively, make it so voting would need authorization from several security, though that could cause problems for low pop rounds.

[KikiMofo]

Make it so security can vote for it and the vote gets sent to the captain/HoS? So that way when shit is going wild and security is feeling overwhelmed they can pull out their PDAs and press a vote that sends a message to all security PDAs to vote yes or no on raising the alert?

[Mushroom]

Absolutely love this idea, I’ve been a pusher of the defcon alerts for a long time. I think one last RP based Alert would be nice, Code Black: all crew members are to stay in their branch or in a defensible position and arm themselves with anything in their surroundings

[Frank_Stein]

I don't think there should be limits on progressing from one level to the other. There will be times when it will go from green to red, like with nukies. I think the balance should be the extra privileges the crew gets.

We could also include things like contraband and securitron threat assessment as part of what gets relaxed at higher levels

[kyle2143]

I tried to do a similar thing with the red alert button, but I hadn't considered the idea of security officer's access based on alert level, that's decent. It probably wouldn't be too hard to change every ID card's access on the fly, but it would require at least a bit of fennagling with how ID cards work, though that could be said for any feature which involves em.

My idea was just for Red Alert specifically, so that when pressed it would give all crewmembers firearm carry permits while active. So that the crew can not be detained by bots or set off sec scanners when security hands out armory weapons or people make flamethrowers to fight a blob, or nuke ops, or Shambling Abominations.

But I gave up because the contraband system is kinda a pain. Plus, all Nuke Ops get agent cards which artificially lowers their contraband level, which meant I'd have to change that or the firearms permit would be ineffective for helping the crew against Nuke Ops.

[Nihisohel]

Coding this thing must be a pain but on paper, this would probably lower the amount of powergaming secoffs and better the coordination between Crewmembers and Security so that nobody calls the other shit and etcetera.