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So you've had an idea on a new thing for the server, a change to the server, or one of the prior two, but in a way specifically intended to resolve an existing server problem - And now you want to pitch your change to the powers that be, through the SCP-RP Suggestions subforum. In this thread, I, the darling of all suggestions, will take you through the daunting steps of transforming your vague idea into a hopefully compelling suggestion that, will hopefully effect some form of positive change to the server.
Unfortunately, there's not much that can be done about this for the time being, as the specifics of this search function is down to how XenForo works (the forum software this forum runs on) and trying to change it would either involve moving off of XenForo entirely (Which has a whole host of other problems and may even introduce new ones such as worse UX (Yes, this is possible)) or... Uh, something else which I forgot and will probably update this once I remember or when someone says -
Bottom line is, the search feature sucks but you should ideally use it at least once per suggestion, just to see if someone else has made the suggestion you're about to make, or something similar - And if we don't at least pretend that matters, then everything falls apart.
Your best bet for a simple search would be a few words relating to the specifics of your idea (like I said before, an idea about changing 106's dimension in some way would result in the search along the lines of "SCP 106 dimension") - And instead of 'Everywhere' (which searches the entire forum), narrow the search down to 'This forum,' which in the SCP-RP Suggestions subforum, would search just that subforum, including resolved suggestions.
Only a cursory search is fine, you don't really need to go trawling through pages and pages of threads - If you don't find anything, that's fine. So long as you made the effort. If you did find something similar, hold onto that! We'll go over it in a later section.
For now, if you haven't made a suggestion before (or in a long time), you probably should give the FAS a read - It contains a link to the public development tracker (which has a better search) that you can also briefly check for your suggestion idea to see if it's in development. But mostly importantly, it contains the current list of Frequently Asked Suggestions, which are some common suggestion topics and reasonings that usually result in instant denial. It's worth noting that the exact inverse of those points are like Crack™ to Content Team and will result in your suggestion being instantly accepted. Remember this, because this will come in handy later!
This is a legal disclaimer that the inclusion of the trademarked Crack™ in the previous sentence is part of a paid product placement by The Coca-Cola company.
Additionally, there are limitations in the format thread (linked in the next section) that specify:
For this tutorial thread, I will be creating the example suggestion that asks to reduces the slot limits of D-Class, Cadets, Junior Researchers, Medical Trainees, regular Civilians, CI - Conscripts and UNCOG Recruits by 1. This is a simple and easy example suggestion that is the kind of suggestion that Content would love and accept instantly, for reasons I will elaborate on later.
The format consists of the following five sections:
I'll cover each section individually and develop my example suggestion idea further along the way so that you can follow. Right now, the example suggestion consists purely of the format.
Finally, there are three different kinds of suggestion:
A simple example of a Content Suggestion would be a suggestion to buff a specific firearm: Something like "Please increase the damage per shot of the Matador," or "Please increase Chefs from CL1 to CL2" would be considered a content suggestion, as it is asking for a change to an existing part of server content. This is the most common kind of suggestion and it's most likely that your suggestion falls into this category.
A simple example of a Rule Suggestion would be a suggestion to change a specific rule: Something like "Please reduce the amount of required breached SCPs in rule 1.12 to authorise AA usage from 2 to √2," or "Please reduce the required barracks/bunks wait time in rule 3.06 from 1 minute to 60 seconds" would be considered a rule suggestion, as it is asking for a change to the server rules.
Network Leadership (NL) required suggestions are a little different - These kinds of suggestions relate to something that NL has complete control of/the final decision over. A simple example of that would be something related to donations: Something like "Please also apply the current seasonal discount to this specific type of purchasable item that it doesn't presently apply to." This is also the only kind of suggestion that you yourself can't put the flair for; But rather Content typically end up applying this flair themselves if they see that the matter is something to be handled by them.
The example suggestion I will be going through throughout this tutorial is a kind of Content Suggestion.
If applicable, you can also make the suggestion more flexible by specifying 'any of all of the following changes.' Remember, the suggestion is still only a suggestion and if only some of your suggestion is liked, but not all of it, chances are it will only be partially accepted anyway. So you may as well lean into that.
In the case of the example suggestion idea I outlined earlier, that would look like this:
As you can see, the suggestion goal is clear. It asks for all the listed jobs to have their job slots (the maximum number of people that can be on the job) by 1. The length of this section will vary depending on the complexity/scope of your idea, but you should make sure it's understandable, at least to the people that are going to be resolving it.
If you didn't find anything, great! In that case, just say you tried searching, but couldn't find anything. Cuss out XenForo's godawful search feature as much as you want, too.
If your suggestion topic is covered by the FAS, be sure to bring that up here as well.
Let's see what the example suggestion looks like at this point:
As you can see, plain, simple, and factual.
Generally at this point, you have a decent understanding of what benefits your idea may have to the server, but it's also worth thinking about other things related to your suggestion that could help make it look better. For example, if you want to add an SCP, that's more potential gameplay content and variety for SCP players, for D-Class, for Researchers, for GenSec, for GOC and for CI. That's effectively six whole significant areas of the server! Obviously, those shouldn't each be individual points, but that looks great as one big point. What I'm trying to get across here is to think about everything that your changes could possibly positively interact with, and try to express those as distinct and impactful points.
Let's see what some positives of the example suggestion might look like:
Let's see what some negatives of the example suggestion might look like:
A good example of a justification for a proposed change could be something to do with a gameplay imbalance (this is the most common reason why a change is requested) - For instance, SCP breaches could be on the rise and it threatens server normalcy because breach gameplay is becoming more common than normal roleplay, so your suggestion could ask for some kind of change that either directly nerfs SCPs & SCP breaches, or buffs breach response, in a noticeable but fair way.
Let's see how I have justified the example suggestion:
Preparation
Starting in the Suggestions subforum, at the very top right of the page(ish) is the search icon. It is single-handedly without a doubt, the worst feature on this hellsite because when trying to search for anything, it automatically excludes search terms that are "too short," "too long," or "too common," which includes any common words that are part of your search term, like "without" - And anything shorter than four characters, which includes terms like "SCP" and any three-digit number, which means if you wanted to search for past suggestions about the SCP 106 dimension for a suggestion you may want to make about the same topic and search for "SCP 106 dimension", it will most likely end up just searching for "dimension" if you're lucky enough, which is extremely unhelpful in suggestion creation.Unfortunately, there's not much that can be done about this for the time being, as the specifics of this search function is down to how XenForo works (the forum software this forum runs on) and trying to change it would either involve moving off of XenForo entirely (Which has a whole host of other problems and may even introduce new ones such as worse UX (Yes, this is possible)) or... Uh, something else which I forgot and will probably update this once I remember or when someone says -
Bottom line is, the search feature sucks but you should ideally use it at least once per suggestion, just to see if someone else has made the suggestion you're about to make, or something similar - And if we don't at least pretend that matters, then everything falls apart.
Your best bet for a simple search would be a few words relating to the specifics of your idea (like I said before, an idea about changing 106's dimension in some way would result in the search along the lines of "SCP 106 dimension") - And instead of 'Everywhere' (which searches the entire forum), narrow the search down to 'This forum,' which in the SCP-RP Suggestions subforum, would search just that subforum, including resolved suggestions.
Only a cursory search is fine, you don't really need to go trawling through pages and pages of threads - If you don't find anything, that's fine. So long as you made the effort. If you did find something similar, hold onto that! We'll go over it in a later section.
For now, if you haven't made a suggestion before (or in a long time), you probably should give the FAS a read - It contains a link to the public development tracker (which has a better search) that you can also briefly check for your suggestion idea to see if it's in development. But mostly importantly, it contains the current list of Frequently Asked Suggestions, which are some common suggestion topics and reasonings that usually result in instant denial. It's worth noting that the exact inverse of those points are like Crack™ to Content Team and will result in your suggestion being instantly accepted. Remember this, because this will come in handy later!
This is a legal disclaimer that the inclusion of the trademarked Crack™ in the previous sentence is part of a paid product placement by The Coca-Cola company.
Additionally, there are limitations in the format thread (linked in the next section) that specify:
As such, you need to be careful with your suggestion to make sure it's a suggestion for one feature or rework and not a group of multiple different features/reworks. If it is, consider splitting them up into their own suggestions to give them their own threads. Even large scale .reworks of significant server areas such as a suggestion to rework Surface could benefit from being broken down into smaller suggestions for reasons I forget and will edit this to update with changes once I remember them.
For this tutorial thread, I will be creating the example suggestion that asks to reduces the slot limits of D-Class, Cadets, Junior Researchers, Medical Trainees, regular Civilians, CI - Conscripts and UNCOG Recruits by 1. This is a simple and easy example suggestion that is the kind of suggestion that Content would love and accept instantly, for reasons I will elaborate on later.
Getting The Basics Down
Now we have everything we need to start building our suggestion. First and foremost, the suggestion format as outlined in the suggestion format post. If you don't follow the suggestion format, your suggestion may be denied on that basis alone - Sounds daunting, but honestly really easy; And it helps break your suggestion up into neat, small, and more easily digestible parts.The format consists of the following five sections:
- What the suggestion wants to add, change and/or remove
- If this idea or something similar has been suggested before and if so, why is it different?
- Positives of the suggestion
- Negatives of the suggestion
- Why the suggestion should be accepted based on the prior two sections
I'll cover each section individually and develop my example suggestion idea further along the way so that you can follow. Right now, the example suggestion consists purely of the format.
Finally, there are three different kinds of suggestion:
- Content Suggestions - Suggestions that aim to add/change/remove server content, which are typically handled by Content Team, a subgroup of the Staff's Community Division
- Rule Suggestions - Suggestions that aim to add/change/remove server rules, which are typically handled by Superadmins
- Network Leadership Required - These are about things that are usually only handled/handleable by Network Leadership (Community Supervisor and above)
A simple example of a Content Suggestion would be a suggestion to buff a specific firearm: Something like "Please increase the damage per shot of the Matador," or "Please increase Chefs from CL1 to CL2" would be considered a content suggestion, as it is asking for a change to an existing part of server content. This is the most common kind of suggestion and it's most likely that your suggestion falls into this category.
A simple example of a Rule Suggestion would be a suggestion to change a specific rule: Something like "Please reduce the amount of required breached SCPs in rule 1.12 to authorise AA usage from 2 to √2," or "Please reduce the required barracks/bunks wait time in rule 3.06 from 1 minute to 60 seconds" would be considered a rule suggestion, as it is asking for a change to the server rules.
Network Leadership (NL) required suggestions are a little different - These kinds of suggestions relate to something that NL has complete control of/the final decision over. A simple example of that would be something related to donations: Something like "Please also apply the current seasonal discount to this specific type of purchasable item that it doesn't presently apply to." This is also the only kind of suggestion that you yourself can't put the flair for; But rather Content typically end up applying this flair themselves if they see that the matter is something to be handled by them.
The example suggestion I will be going through throughout this tutorial is a kind of Content Suggestion.
What Is Your Suggestion?
The first section of the suggestion is about what it aims to add, change and/or remove. In this section, you should clearly detail what kind of additions/changes/removals your suggestion seeks to make. Try and make it as clear as possible, so that the intended Staff fully understand what it is your asking for.If applicable, you can also make the suggestion more flexible by specifying 'any of all of the following changes.' Remember, the suggestion is still only a suggestion and if only some of your suggestion is liked, but not all of it, chances are it will only be partially accepted anyway. So you may as well lean into that.
In the case of the example suggestion idea I outlined earlier, that would look like this:
What does this suggestion change/add/remove:
Please reduce any or all of the following jobs' job slots by 1:
Please reduce any or all of the following jobs' job slots by 1:
- D-Class (Regular, not Brute or Scout)
- GenSec Cadet
- Junior Researcher
- Medical Trainee
- MTF Nu7/E-11/A-1/O-1 Operative
- Civilian (The regular civilian job)
- UNGOC Recruit
- CI Conscript
Has Your Suggestion Been Suggested Before?
This is where that earlier part in the Preparation section about seeing if your suggestion's been made before or is currently in development. If you do find something relevant and/or an active ticket on the Public Dev Tracker, be sure to link them in this section and explain the relevance/difference(s) between the suggestion you are writing and what you have found.If you didn't find anything, great! In that case, just say you tried searching, but couldn't find anything. Cuss out XenForo's godawful search feature as much as you want, too.
If your suggestion topic is covered by the FAS, be sure to bring that up here as well.
Let's see what the example suggestion looks like at this point:
What does this suggestion change/add/remove:
Please reduce any or all of the following jobs' job slots by 1:
The FAS has a part about job slot changes and states to the effect of that suggestions to increase job slots are no longer being accepted due to finding an appropriate medium between all roles - Additionally, searching the subforum shows that there have been numerous suggestions asking for various different job slot changes in the past, which is likely why that section of the FAS exists.
This suggestion is different as it asks to reduce job slots - Additionally, it is asking for changes to jobs that no-one has asked for these changes for before.
Please reduce any or all of the following jobs' job slots by 1:
- D-Class (Regular, not Brute or Scout)
- GenSec Cadet
- Junior Researcher
- Medical Trainee
- MTF Nu7/E-11/A-1/O-1 Operative
- Civilian (The regular civilian job)
- UNGOC Recruit
- CI Conscript
The FAS has a part about job slot changes and states to the effect of that suggestions to increase job slots are no longer being accepted due to finding an appropriate medium between all roles - Additionally, searching the subforum shows that there have been numerous suggestions asking for various different job slot changes in the past, which is likely why that section of the FAS exists.
This suggestion is different as it asks to reduce job slots - Additionally, it is asking for changes to jobs that no-one has asked for these changes for before.
What Are The Positives To Implementing Your Suggestion?
What good things would come from this? What you want added, what changes you want made. List off, as concisely as you can, the various different positives of your suggestion. The format says you should have at least two.Generally at this point, you have a decent understanding of what benefits your idea may have to the server, but it's also worth thinking about other things related to your suggestion that could help make it look better. For example, if you want to add an SCP, that's more potential gameplay content and variety for SCP players, for D-Class, for Researchers, for GenSec, for GOC and for CI. That's effectively six whole significant areas of the server! Obviously, those shouldn't each be individual points, but that looks great as one big point. What I'm trying to get across here is to think about everything that your changes could possibly positively interact with, and try to express those as distinct and impactful points.
Let's see what some positives of the example suggestion might look like:
What does this suggestion change/add/remove:
Please reduce any or all of the following jobs' job slots by 1:
The FAS has a part about job slot changes and states to the effect of that suggestions to increase job slots are no longer being accepted due to finding an appropriate medium between all roles - Additionally, searching the subforum shows that there have been numerous suggestions asking for various different job slot changes in the past, which is likely why that section of the FAS exists.
This suggestion is different as it asks to reduce job slots - Additionally, it is asking for changes to jobs that no-one has asked for these changes for before.
Possible Positives of the suggestion (At least 2):
Please reduce any or all of the following jobs' job slots by 1:
- D-Class (Regular, not Brute or Scout)
- GenSec Cadet
- Junior Researcher
- Medical Trainee
- MTF Nu7/E-11/A-1/O-1 Operative
- Civilian (The regular civilian job)
- UNGOC Recruit
- CI Conscript
The FAS has a part about job slot changes and states to the effect of that suggestions to increase job slots are no longer being accepted due to finding an appropriate medium between all roles - Additionally, searching the subforum shows that there have been numerous suggestions asking for various different job slot changes in the past, which is likely why that section of the FAS exists.
This suggestion is different as it asks to reduce job slots - Additionally, it is asking for changes to jobs that no-one has asked for these changes for before.
Possible Positives of the suggestion (At least 2):
- + Less people spread out over multiple different jobs
- + Improved server balance
What Are The Negatives To Implementing Your Suggestion?
Conversely, what issues are there with your idea? Try and impartially cover as much as possible. What helps for me is that I like to think that accepting my suggestion means the instant, irrevocable end of the world, and that it'll take far too much development effort to be realistically worth implementing, even if it's just a seemingly small change. This perspective may seem pessimistic on the surface, but I assure you that this gets you in just the right mindset to figuring out just how awful your suggestion really is. And then you're surprised when you're told that it's actually worse!Let's see what some negatives of the example suggestion might look like:
What does this suggestion change/add/remove:
Please reduce any or all of the following jobs' job slots by 1:
The FAS has a part about job slot changes and states to the effect of that suggestions to increase job slots are no longer being accepted due to finding an appropriate medium between all roles - Additionally, searching the subforum shows that there have been numerous suggestions asking for various different job slot changes in the past, which is likely why that section of the FAS exists.
This suggestion is different as it asks to reduce job slots - Additionally, it is asking for changes to jobs that no-one has asked for these changes for before.
Possible Positives of the suggestion (At least 2):
Please reduce any or all of the following jobs' job slots by 1:
- D-Class (Regular, not Brute or Scout)
- GenSec Cadet
- Junior Researcher
- Medical Trainee
- MTF Nu7/E-11/A-1/O-1 Operative
- Civilian (The regular civilian job)
- UNGOC Recruit
- CI Conscript
The FAS has a part about job slot changes and states to the effect of that suggestions to increase job slots are no longer being accepted due to finding an appropriate medium between all roles - Additionally, searching the subforum shows that there have been numerous suggestions asking for various different job slot changes in the past, which is likely why that section of the FAS exists.
This suggestion is different as it asks to reduce job slots - Additionally, it is asking for changes to jobs that no-one has asked for these changes for before.
Possible Positives of the suggestion (At least 2):
- + Less people spread out over multiple different jobs
- + Improved server balance
- - Implementation time & effort
- - The job will fill easier, meaning not as many people will be able to play it, which could be frustrating
Why Should Your Suggestion Be Accepted?
This final section of the suggestion is where you justify your idea, whether it's your content change to Content Team, your rule change to Superadmins, or in rare circumstances, your NL-specific change to NL. Explain clearly and thoroughly the reasoning for your suggestion and why you believe your it should be accepted and why based on what you've elaborated so far, that the changes that you ask to be made will be beneficial to the server. If your change seeks to resolve an existing problem on the server, explain what the problem is and how your changes can help with that problem. Give examples.A good example of a justification for a proposed change could be something to do with a gameplay imbalance (this is the most common reason why a change is requested) - For instance, SCP breaches could be on the rise and it threatens server normalcy because breach gameplay is becoming more common than normal roleplay, so your suggestion could ask for some kind of change that either directly nerfs SCPs & SCP breaches, or buffs breach response, in a noticeable but fair way.
Let's see how I have justified the example suggestion:
What does this suggestion change/add/remove:
Please reduce any or all of the following jobs' job slots by 1:
The FAS has a part about job slot changes and states to the effect of that suggestions to increase job slots are no longer being accepted due to finding an appropriate medium between all roles - Additionally, searching the subforum shows that there have been numerous suggestions asking for various different job slot changes in the past, which is likely why that section of the FAS exists.
This suggestion is different as it asks to reduce job slots - Additionally, it is asking for changes to jobs that no-one has asked for these changes for before.
Possible Positives of the suggestion (At least 2):
LMAOOOOO TRY SUBTRACTING 1 FROM ∞, FUCKING IDIOTS HAHAHAHA LOOOOOOOSERRRRRRSSS, GET FUCKED
@Dennid
Please reduce any or all of the following jobs' job slots by 1:
- D-Class (Regular, not Brute or Scout)
- GenSec Cadet
- Junior Researcher
- Medical Trainee
- MTF Nu7/E-11/A-1/O-1 Operative
- Civilian (The regular civilian job)
- UNGOC Recruit
- CI Conscript
The FAS has a part about job slot changes and states to the effect of that suggestions to increase job slots are no longer being accepted due to finding an appropriate medium between all roles - Additionally, searching the subforum shows that there have been numerous suggestions asking for various different job slot changes in the past, which is likely why that section of the FAS exists.
This suggestion is different as it asks to reduce job slots - Additionally, it is asking for changes to jobs that no-one has asked for these changes for before.
Possible Positives of the suggestion (At least 2):
- + Less people spread out over multiple different jobs
- + Improved server balance
- - Implementation time & effort
- - The job will fill easier, meaning not as many people will be able to play it, which could be frustrating
LMAOOOOO TRY SUBTRACTING 1 FROM ∞, FUCKING IDIOTS HAHAHAHA LOOOOOOOSERRRRRRSSS, GET FUCKED
@Dennid
