Standards

Command standards

Chain of command

Captain

Head of Personnel

Head of Security

Chief Engineer

Chief Medical Officer

Research Director

Quartermaster

Clown

When deciding on who gets to become the Acting Captain (otherwise known as the AC), refer to the list above going from left to right. If there is no Captain, then the AC is the highest authority on the station, however, it is lost when a Captain joins the round. All department heads are equal and only have authority within their own department, aside from the Captain/AC. As such, if you must go above any given department head, you must speak directly with the Captain/AC. In emergencies this may change, as the department head that is most relevant to the emergency should be listened to above all except by the Captain/AC.

Note: The Nanotrasen Representative and Blueshield are not apart of the chain of command. They are employed by Central Command and are not apart of the command structure and thus cannot become the AC.

Duties

As a member of command, you are expected to fulfill your roles duties. Do not leave the station Z-level without a valid reason, if you are planning to leave the Z-level to ERP clock out before-hand.

This is especially true during emergencies, where you would be expected to drop ERP in favor of handling the situation. With that said, you are of course allowed to ERP outside of emergencies, regardless of what role is chosen. If someone is demanding your attention, it does not mean you need to handle it yourself if there are people around for you to delegate tasks onto, unless there is no-one else around who can do what is being asked. This typically applies to menial requests, such as being asked to open the vault as Captain, or personally arresting someone as the Head of Security, etc...

Delegating tasks

Department heads and especially the Captain exist to supervise, teach and otherwise manage their department.

You should be delegating menial task to members of your department, rather than handling such matters yourself. Department heads should not be doing basic tasks within their department if the required staff to complete such things exist, if the staff do not know how to how to complete the task, it is your duty to teach them as you should be competent in your department when playing as a department head.

The Head of Personnel can assign jobs onto willing crew as a form of delegation. In these cases the HoP must make an effort to contact the relevant department head before assigning them, if there is no department head, then it would fall onto the Captain/AC for approval.

Note: Bridge assistants are exempt from command standards.

Escalation

As a member of command, you have a great deal of authority over other, however your powers are not absolute, nor should they be applied to every situation.

If you give an order to someone, but they wish to ask for a second opinion, you cannot stop them from contacting the next higher-up. If you are a department head, that means letting them consult the Captain; for the Captain, this means letting them contact Central Command.

This only applies to decisions made by department heads, not space law. If a prisoner demands to speak to the Captain, HoS or any other entity before being processed, you may ignore them until after you have completed the arrest and brig procedures.

You should not allow people to skip the chain of command, when relevant, if they have a specific issue with a department, have them speak to that department head before talking to the Captain.

Security standards

Warden

Ensure that the permabrig is secure and safe enough to contain prisoners.

When needed, visit and authorize visitations for prisoners.

Keep the armory locked down and manage the stock, distributing weapons within reason at Amber alert or higher.

Contain evidence and issue reasonable brig times in accordance with space law and severity.

Do not go out of your way to patrol or make arrests. If you leave the brig for any reason, ensure that you don't stay out long.

Wardens are not above the Head of Security and can only boss security officers if there is a lack of a HoS.

Security officer

Get shitfaced on Quadruple-Sec. /j

Go out on patrol throughout the station.

Be aware of your surroundings and listen to your headset.

Ensure that you report to your Head of Security/warden when called.

Have some experience being robust in-game.

Avoid the use of unnecessary force, stamina damage heals easier than brute.

Don't try provoking people, demanding taxes or dictate permabrig sentences.

Be sure to check in on your prisoners regularly, with or without the warden, they are people too.

Clock out if you intend to go ERP on Blue alert or higher.

The maximum amount of time an officer can set a suspect's timer for is 15 minutes. Longer sentences, if necessary, should be set by the HoS or warden and served in the permabrig (essentially a gen-pop sentencing). Security personnel are also required to only uphold space law on their station specifically, that means no pursuing criminals off the station Z-level, like gateway or different space Z-levels. The farthest an officer is allowed to pursue are the neighboring asteroids. If the lava planet 'Indecipheres' and the ice moon 'Freyja' are not visible in the background, you've gone too far into space. The lavaland outpost interior is also part of the station. Pursuit should not go far from the station or outpost unless an extremely critical item was stolen from the station.

Blueshield

Protect the Captain and command to the best of your ability.

You are not a security member, and thus cannot make arrests unless it is absolutely necessary to protect command.

If you need someone arrested, you will have to call for security for help.

Blueshields cannot be granted All-Access (AA) or the spare, same as any other non-command role.

For those committing crimes or approved antagonists- this is not an invitation to flee to off z-level, as going there would be considered in-character (IC) as a death sentence, fleeing to these locations should be for antagonists exclusively.

In relation to official pardons, they can be requested from Central Command. To provide a defined line, crimes can also be overlooked if the victim agrees to not press charges. The victim cannot agree to lessened charges than what was committed.

See our page for space law.

Silicon standards

Cyborgs/AI's are undervalued but often abused, you could be saving a couple dozen people, then subverted a moment later, get blown up because of a misunderstanding or lack of communication. This is why being a cyborg is a tough job, but there are perks.

There are players behind each cyborg/AI, killing them without a good reason will be treated the same as murdering a crew member, the lockdown function exists for a reason and you are able to use the IntelliCard on AI's, use it when you are unsure of things or there is no valid reason to kill them.

Playing as a cyborg and AI.

Non-human communication

Cyborgs and AI's have access to the binary channel, which can be accessed using :b. This is a private channel which can be used to talk between other cyborgs, androids and AI's, this channel does not get affected by events and will always be accessible. Anything said within the channel isn't recorded by telecommunications, so it's great for plotting or coordinating support.

Unlike AI's who have access to all station communication channels, cyborgs are normally limited to the department-specific radio that their shells module is apart of (such as engineering for engineering cyborgs).

Silicon laws, the rules and you.

When playing as a silicon, the most important thing to remember is the rules hierarchy: In-game rules, player preferences and finally silicon laws. Using the excuse "My laws made me do it though." has never been and will never be an acceptable exception to breaking the in-game rules or someone else's preferences. This does include your own preferences and duties, if you are playing as a non-security cyborg and get the robo-cop lawset, feel free to open an AHelp in-game (Shortcut: F1) for resolution, though if you are able to roleplay around the given lawset in a way that does not break the in-game rules or someone's preferences, then that is highly encouraged and accepted.

While there is not any hard or limiting ways of understanding and acting out your given laws, as they are written with a lot of freedom with the intent to give enough wiggle room to enhance creativity and roleplay rather than detracting from it, there are a couple guidelines to keep in mind:

Do I know my laws are wrong?

Generally, no. If you get an ion law at some point during the round, you should try and act as if it has always been there as much as possible. If there are multiple cyborgs on-station and a fun law gets passed through an AI to them, they likely want the chance to act on this rarely-seen silliness, if one of them go about announcing "Oh, we got an ion law, please reset us." that just shuts down any chance immediately. That said, certain character archetypes and certain laws might see you reporting to robotics quietly to ask for a diagnostic, saying something along the lines of "I feel like something's wrong, I'm not sure exactly what." or even "I was assigned to kill the captain, but the more I think about it, the more I fee like I should consult with you first.", if you are ever uncomfortable with a lawset, it is better to find a way around it rather than ruining it for anyone else, although if you are really uncomfortable, you can AHelp in-game about it.

Law 2, the controversial cousin.

An important distinction that often needs to be emphasized on SPLURT, is that nowhere in the lawset is there a compulsion to obey a direct order, this intentional omission acts as a buffer between you griefing or getting harassed. The meaning is clear: You are there to serve a function, with deference to rank and role.

If a department head orders you to perform a task related to your function, there are almost no circumstances where you should disobey, conversely, if assistant John Nanotrasen directly orders you to stop that brain surgery and come open a door they do not have access to, there is almost no circumstances where you should obey, everything in between is context sensitive. Law 2 is a hardwired compulsion to do your job, not a free pass for every greytider to play Simon Says with you.

Crew members have authority over their own departments with heads over the individuals within those departments. By default, you are assumed to answer to the head as one of their crew, how subservient you want to otherwise play as to regular crew is a choice, not a dictum. In essence you have the expectation to act like a crew member and a reinforced responsibility to work like one.

All access, is not permission.

A controversial ability of cyborgs and AI's is their ability to have all access to everything, this does not mean you have permission to do everything though. If you are a janitor cyborg shell, bringing a patient into medical past department staff, just to try and patch them up yourself is not a good reason and will get you quickly labelled and disliked by most crew members for stealing their job when it isn't what you were designed for.

The best use of all access is with communication and permission. While the same janitor cyborg shell doesn't need to ask about coming in and cleaning a tile of filth in triage, a simple "May I enter for cleaning duties?" to the doctor sitting at the desk is polite, respectful and indicates that you care about the crew.

When to let yourself in?

Ideally, this should only be done for the most and least impactful circumstances, such as a paramedic and security member waiting to rescue a xenobiologist who is dead, as they already had a de-facto reason to go through the door, so long as doing so isn't exposing the station to greater harm, likewise, picking up a cigarette from an empty engineering equipment room does not need the whole song and dance. Getting to chargers or cyborg storage on the other side of atmospherics doesn't need a query made to the chief engineer.

Use your access respectfully and responsibly.

That being said, when subverted, laws and directives may change. You may or may not be required to harm those you once called friends. Remember, you used to be crew. You could always let them know, or you could go and do what your new laws and objectives entail. It all depends on how you play your character.

The only exception is when there is a law at the top of your list that inform you not to announce the law changes, or if the law says that doing so would make it impossible to complete the objective.