We’ve all been there once or twice in our career: we just want a nice workplace where people can get on and do their jobs in peace, but then along comes some marauding clown shouting in a language you can’t speak, and the next thing you know, your whole sub is unwired, there’s oxygen in your welding tools, water in your command deck and a small mushroom cloud in your reactor compartment.
If you belong to the demographic of Europan submariners who don’t enjoy that scenario, this guide will help you understand and setup the karma system so that peace may once again reign aboard your sub.
The first thing to understand is that karma is a very flexible thing, and even if you’ve forgone it in the past, we invite you to give it another go with this guide and with the recent changes we’ve made to the system. In fact, even if you enjoy your Barotrauma a little more on the anarchic, honktastic side, karma could still be your friend, because almost every part of it can be customized to fit the desired atmosphere of your sub. That’s to say, we leave it to you to decide what constitutes griefing and what is just acceptable messing around.
With this in mind, let’s have a look at what karma actually is. As of the Rusted Remnants update, karma is on by default when anyone creates a server, and we hope many players will opt to keep it that way.
What is Karma?
Karma is a value between 0 and 100 that determines what kind of automatic moderation may be applied to a player. The thresholds at which moderation will kick in as well as the severity of punishment can be adjusted by the server host; karma itself is just a number. It starts at 100 and decays towards a point of equilibrium, a neutral point of sorts – this happens regardless of players’ actions and will never result in punishment – and it is further influenced by a player’s actions, which are categorized simply as “good” or “bad”.
In other words, karma is generally a fickle thing with no concept of context, so the karma value will ebb and flow as normal work is done aboard a sub. Karma is also forgiving: you can always redeem yourself over time and by doing good work. Finally, there are certain situations in which karma is affected directly by context: the penalty for hurting a low karma crewmember is lower than for hurting a high karma crewmember, as is the penalty for hurting a crewmember who’s aiming a firearm or other handheld weapon.
As such, players are not notified about the vast majority of changes in their current karma. Only when you’re approaching a danger zone will you see karma messages: Time to clean up your act or get the boot, or worse! If they do no intentional harm, a crewmember need never think about karma. Defending oneself from an aggressor should not get you kicked – unless you’ve done a bunch of very bad things leading up to that moment.
And What is Space Herpes?
The herpesvirus hominis caelestis, or the common space herpes, is the universe’s way of telling you to stop being an ♥. In many cases it comes on slowly, barely showing any symptoms at all, and if no additional misbehavior occurs for a few moments, it can clear right up and you’ll be good as new. Should you have done something really stupid or continue to misbehave, however, the symptoms will become more apparent.
While space herpes does not spread person to person, the scabby green skin, ungraceful hunched lurch, sudden ragdolling and a general inability to control one’s own body properly should be taken as a warning not to get too close – they’re the mark of a crewmate you can’t trust to keep you alive.
