User:PowerfulBacon/EscalationPolicy

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Development Q/A / Notes (Not for publishing)

Edit this section to add Qs for review of this page.

• Note: Valid-hunting rule needs to be updated to reflect 'Acting as the aggressor against an antagonist will be considered validhunting.'
• Q: If you start chasing a player who is attempting to flee combat, it should be over-escalation even if the person you are chasing isn't an antag.

  • A: Updated to `Attacking someone who is fleeing combat wis over-escalation, unless this is the second time the victim initiated combat against the pursuing player.`

• Q: If someone follows valid escalation against an antagonist as if the antagonist was a normal member of the crew, it should not be considered valid-hunting even if they are the aggressor. (The aggressor may not know the other player is an antag, in which case it should never be validhunting)
  • A: Added unless the escalation would have still been valid if the victim was not an antagonist.
• Q: If someone breaks into a department and is clearly armed (for example, heretic with full gear and the heretic blade) then you should be able to skip unarmed combat.
  • A: Added If someone is holding a weapon, then you may skip the unarmed escalation step.
• Q: What constitutes seeking out combat? Is a paramedic recovering bodies seeking out combat? Is it seeking out combat if they go towards a location on the station which was reported as having antagonists?

Scenarios (Not for publishing)

Scenario 1 - Group Defense

A group of 3 doctors are in medbay. An antagonist hacks open the maintenance door and immediately begins firing upon 1 of the doctors. They begin dragging the body of the doctor out towards the maintenance door when the remaining 2 doctors pick up circular saws and begin attacking the antagonist.

• If the doctors had initiated the combat using unarmed methods, they would have been considered the defenders.
• If the doctors had initiated the combat using circular saws only due to the break in, this would have been considered over-escalation (but not valid-hunting).
  • Note: If you follow escalation policy as the aggressor and the victim happens to be an antagonist, this should not be considered valid-hunting. Review to ensure this holds true.
• While the fighting part of the combat may have ended, the antagonist is still capable of fighting, so attacking them does not consistute over-escalating.
• If the antagonist is fleeing but dragging the body away then they might be considered to be fleeing, at which point attacking them would be valid-hunting.
  • Changes need to be made to ensure it isn't ruled this way.

Scenario 2 - Paramedic

A paramedic notices that someone is in critical condition on the crew monitor and rushes to their location. At the location, they find someone dragging the body which they begin shoving. The person dragging the body responds by pulling out a knife, the paramedic pulls out a scalpel and begins attacking the person dragging the body, winning the fight.

• Q: Should the paramedic be considered to be over-escalating?
  • A: In this scenario, since the paramedic started by using unarmed methods and had a valid IC reason to initiate combat (body recovery) then it should not be valid-hunting as they could have done this against a normal crew.
  • A: If the paramedic immediately attacked with weapons then it would be valid-hunting.
• Q: If the paramedic KNEW that they would encounter an antagonist by recovering a body, would it be considered valid-hunting?

Scenario 3 - Brainwashing, Unknown Hostiles

Security encounters a group of 3 medical doctors. One of these medical doctors begins to engage security by firing lasers at them while the others perform no combative actions. As the fighting medical doctor takes damage, the other 2 doctors provide healing to them. Security fires upon the doctors who are healing the combative player. 1 of the doctors flees, while the other continues heailng the combatant until they themselves are put in critical condition.

• Entire situation is valid, no over-escalation performed by either side.
• Security was valid to attack the players healing the combatants, as they were assisting them.
• Security would not be able to continue attacking the medical doctor who fled the situation with lethal force, as they left the combat scenario.

Scenario 4 - Chaplain vs Heretic

Heretic starts performing a sacrifice in medbay. A traitor medical doctor begins attacking the heretic using their pistol but is defeated by the heretic. A peacekeeper borg follows the heretic and pacifies them while a chaplain chases the heretic and kills them. The heretic was known to the crew, was sacrificing people and was wearing blatant heretic clothes. Security is still alive at this time.

• Despite being blatant, security is still stable so the guerilla clause cannot be invoked.
• Despite their duties being to deal with hostile religions, chaplains are still bound by escalation policy and so hunting a heretic with no prior interactions would be valid-hunting.
• Since the chaplain didn't witness the start of the conflict, they are starting conflict themselves and are the aggressor. The group defense clause is not invoked.
• The traitor is allowed to attack the heretic as this action would fall under the antagonist policy as a non-high imapct action and the traitor is not bound to follow escalation policy.
• If the traitor was not a traitor, using lethal force against an intruder would have been over-escalation.

Scenario 5 - Cult Takeover

The cult have taken over the station and reached halo-phase. A group of engineers have grabbed the fire-axe and are attacking members of the cult.

• Once cult has achieved halo, it may reasonably be assumed that security is unable to function and forming a guerilla force to protect the station is not valid-hunting.
• Cult are hostile towards the station in the faction table, so may be attacked without any prior interactions.

Escalation Steps

The following levels are the steps involved with escalation, when combat starts for the first time it begins at level 1.

1. Unarmed combat, excluding martial arts.
2. Combat involving non-weapon items or weapons which have a non-harmful damage component (even if they do cause harmful damage in the process).
3. Lethal combat and the use of deadly weapons.

Escalation Policy

This policy lays out how conflicts are expected to be resolved, and any breaches of this policy will be classified as either over-escalation or self-antag depending on the severity of the breach.

Escalation Policy

Non-antagonists starting combat without prior interactions that give them a reason to fight is considered self-antag. If someone is holding a weapon, or shows clear intent to use a weapon, then the unarmed phase of escalation may be skipped when initiating combat would otherwise be allowed. The aggressor is the person who made the first strike initiating the combat encounter, the defender is the player who was attacked first. The defender may escalate 1 level above what the aggressor has used against them. The aggressor may not escalate past what the defending players has responded with. In the first instance of combat with a specific player, if you are the aggressor then you must attempt to seek medical treatment for your victim. Someone breaking into a department will be considered the aggressor if combat inside the department is initiated against them. Attacking someone who is fleeing combat is over-escalation and makes the pursuing player the aggressor, unless this is the second time the fleeing player initiated combat against the pursuing player. Members of security always fall under the unarmed level of escalation when using strictly non-lethal weapons to complete an arrest unless they fail to declare the reason for arrest to the victim. If someone is unable to continue fighting, damaging them further will be considered lethal combat regardless of the weapon used. Acting as the aggressor against an antagonist will be considered validhunting, unless the escalation would have still been valid if the victim was not an antagonist. If security is no longer able to protect the station from a threat taking control of the station or a department, the crew may form a guerilla and may act as the aggressor against an antagonist. Witnessing someone initiate combat against another player allows you to participate in the defense against the aggressor, but you must not escalate. Seeking out combat, or joining combat in progress which you did not witness the start of makes you an aggressor. In the case of group combat, all participants in the combat encounter follow the same stage of escalation even if they have not personally performed actions that would escalate the conflict. Players that refuse to disperse from a group of combatants may be treated as if they are part of that group of combatants, even if they have not performed any combat oriented actions. Players healing or enhancing the combat capabilities of combatants before the conclusion of the encounter may be treated as combatants siding with those that they are assisting. Hostile antagonists have their own rules of engagement which allows them to escalate past what a normal crewmember would be capable of (See antagonist conduct and the table below).

Faction Escalation

Certain factions or antagonists have their own additions to the escalation policy that allow for different responses towards other players.

1. Station - Aligned to the station and should be friendly towards crew. Should not be attempting to unnecessarilly start conflict.
2. Neutral - Neutral roles have no alignment and do not need to be friendly towards the station, but should not immediately attack either. Both sides may skip to the 'kill' phase of escalation if the other side is the one to initiate combat.
3. Hostile - Hostile roles are against the station and may start the 'kill' phase of escalation immediately without any prior interaction.
   • Hostile roles follow the antagonist policy but may have some additional privileges outlined below.
   • If the hostile role is a member of the station's crew, security must follow space law and make attempts to revive the victim if the situation permits.
   • The crew must make attempts to deconvert hostile roles that are known to be deconvertable.

Not all factions are immediately obvious, once a character appears to be a part of a certain faction, or is performing actions that a specific faction would follow, then the appropriate response may be followed.

Escalation Guidelines

Role and Faction	Alignment	Special notes
Station Crew (Nanotrasen)	Station
Transformed Station Crew	Station
Rescued Derelict Crew	Neutral
Slaved Golems	Neutral (Special)	Aligned to their master only.
Free Golems	Neutral
Silicons	Neutral	Have no alignment, but are bound by their laws. Crew escalating against silicons should seek to have the units repaired.
Malfunctioning Silicons	Hostile	May completely ignore other laws due to law 0. May not murderbone freely until their AI triggers doomsday/delta alert, but is allowed to defend itself from hostile crew.
Malfunctioning AI	Hostile	May perform high-impact actions against all crew after the doomsday has been activated, which can be done once the crew is making attempts to destroy it.
Traitor (Syndicate)	Hostile	The 'hijack' and 'die a glorious death' objectives allow high-impact actions against all crew.
Blood Brother (Syndicate)	Hostile	The 'hijack' and 'die a glorious death' objectives allow high-impact actions against all crew.
Changeling (Syndicate)	Hostile	The 'hijack' and 'die a glorious death' objectives allow high-impact actions against all crew.
Brainwashing Victims	Special	Must follow their directives. The station may respond with reasonable force to capture and deconvert anybody who appears to be assisting a known threat to the station.
Nuclear Operatives (Syndicate)	Hostile	May perform high-impact actions against all crew.
Heretic	Hostile	Ascending allows for high-impact actions to be enacted against all crew. Security must follow space law until ascension.
Blood Cult (Nar'sie)	Hostile	High-impact actions allowed against all crew after ascending, and against unconvertable crew at all times.
Clockwork Cult (Ratvar)	Hostile	High-impact actions allowed against all crew on Reebe, against unconvertable crew at all times, and against crew which pose a serious threat to the defense of Reebe.
Space Wizard (Federation)	Hostile	May perform high-impact actions against all crew.
Space Ninja (Spider Clan)	Hostile	May kill anyone who witnesses them pursuing an object.
Revolutionary	Hostile	High-impact actions allowed against targets and anyone that cannot be converted.
Pyroclastic Slime	Hostile	May perform high-impact actions against all crew.
Sentient Animals	Neutral (Special)	Aligned to their master only, otherwise are neutral. The station may treat all slimes as hostile.
Maintenance Teratoma	Hostile	Can never perform high-impact actions.
Other Teratoma	Hostile	Can never perform high-impact actions, but may kill crew in isolation using low-impact means.
Morph	Hostile	Can not use high-impact actions, but may kill all crew for the sake of consuming them.
Swarmer	Hostile	May not perform any actions that make the station untenable.
Abductors	Hostile	May not use high-impact actions to achieve their objective, but may use lethal force if they are forced to.
Obssessed	Hostile
Xenomorph	Hostile	May freely kill to reproduce.
Space Pirate	Hostile
Revenant	Hostile
Nightmare	Hostile	May freely kill any crew creating light through low-impact means. May not use high-impact actions to achieve their objective.
Ashwalker	Hostile	May sacrifice outsiders to the necropolis and is hostile towards all non-ashwalkers.
Lifebringer	Neutral
Veterinarian	Neutral
Beach Bartender and Bum	Neutral
Lavaland Syndicate	Hostile	May not leave their base.
Space Dragon	Hostile	May kill crew to regain health.
Giant Spiders	Hostile	May kill crew to reproduce.
Blob	Hostile	High-impact actions are always allowed.
Fugitives/Spacepol	Neutral	May perform high-impact actions against their other party. Crew response is determined by in-character actions.