Court and Trials Reworked

[ferynn]

Rework of the criminal sentencing system to spotlight trials, and lawyer/IAA/Magi interactions

See proposal doc.

Give comments pls

[Joaco545]

I like the general idea of the doc, but I have a couple of nitpicks.
I think the Doc should mention general mapping considerations for courtroom locations in relation to Sec, especially having to consider moving prisoners for trials

[Joaco545]

Second, I am worried about what players can do on the brig if they get one of the longer sentences.
It's not fun if you have to wait half an hour alone in the brig with nothing to do.

[ferynn]

That is a concern yeah. I know there is a plan to move more towards forced labor type stuff, so there will likely be more "things" to do in brig over time.

[Joaco545]

And lastly, I think players can handle this without needing a special app on the PDA.
Nanochat and an intercom in the courthouse should be more than enough

[ferynn]

I'm neutral on that. It was a result of the originating discussions, about an app. I do think normal comms could work. But also some sets of people are bad about it.

But just trying radio could work. Potentially a court groupchat.

[Joaco545]

Yeah, exactly. A nanochat group for the court would fit this niche perfectly. As long as the bailiff or judge announces on the chat that the court will start soon, everyone will be notified

[TheBoss913]

If we want to avoid a new PDA app, I don't think radio comms or nanochat will be clear enough. I've thrown the idea out there that instead a new Wanted Status can be made called "awaiting trial". And to ease the burden of updating status's of people, mappers should add Wanted Consoles to Court rooms and Brig Processing rooms. (Which I think is a long overdue change, #addwantedconsolestobrigprocessing)

[ferynn]

If we want to avoid a new PDA app, I don't think radio comms or nanochat will be clear enough. I've thrown the idea out there that instead a new Wanted Status can be made called "awaiting trial". And to ease the burden of updating status's of people, mappers should add Wanted Consoles to Court rooms and Brig Processing rooms. (Which I think is a long overdue change, #addwantedconsolestobrigprocessing)

That’s a good idea. Awaiting trial would be a handy status to have. A downside though is that several relevant parties, lawyers mainly, don’t have access to security comms.

I suppose that change in status could be broadcast in service comms as well, to allow for them hear.

[corresp0nd]

my concerns remain largely the same from #51, i really just don't see trials working unless we decide to go in a very drastic direction with them. we can add SOP like this to solidify what is supposed to happen, but without any mechanical backing, i think they'll mainly just be ignored. i don't think this is necessarily the fault of the players here for refusing to interact with a system like this, but more so that it kind of sucks when 90% of cases are just Not going to go the way that we want them to. players will try it out at first, realize it sucks, and then dread playing this specific part of the game so much that they avoid it. and trials are something where Everyone involved Needs to interact with it to work.

for example. we want trials to be like, 10 minutes max, sure. we can both agree on that. but if we add a stipulation like "the time to get to the courthouse can be extended if there are extenuating circumstances" then 90% of the rounds are going to have some sort of extenuating circumstance. that's the pitch of the game, we're playing a disaster sim. trials objectively cannot be something super structured (where the chaos comes from inside the courthouse rather than outside of it), but we also need that really strict structure for them to remain a footnote of the game and not the entire gameplay.

hopefully this better explains where im coming from when i say i dont like trials are going to work. i think, theoretically, we can do Something with the idea, but we need to be a lot more drastic with what we even consider "court gameplay" in the first place. i also do not believe this is something that can be achieved through just SOP and paperwork structure, even though that is what people like about these roles. there needs to be some sort of strong, mechanical system backing these types of systems, even if they don't necessarily seem like they should have a system like that.

[ferynn]

I think most trials could get done within a minute or two honestly. Most crimes are pretty open and shut. I do share the concern on the time of them potentially dragging on.

I don’t agree though about the first bit. About things being ignored. Trials currently are an optional system for long drawn out appeals basically, currently.

Something like this is different in that it entirely shifts the job of who assigns sentences. People would have to interact with it in at least minimal capacity, as the Warden simply wouldn’t be allowed to sentence anymore.

Even if it was just 30 second rubber stamp trials, some effort would have to be made to shift towards courts and procedural process for crimes. They wouldn’t be able to just ignore it and do something entirely different.

[pirakaplant]

Looks good to me! No notes.