Rules interface?

Well with the standard rules, the creating/updating of nodes can be intercepted.

Spelling mistake

yeah, but when you try and create a support ticket via rules, you get the following:

Notice: Undefined property: stdClass::$state in _support_node_insert_update() (line 998 of /Users/steve/www/drupal7/sites/all/modules/support/support.module).
Notice: Undefined property: stdClass::$priority in _support_node_insert_update() (line 999 of /Users/steve/www/drupal7/sites/all/modules/support/support.module).
Notice: Undefined property: stdClass::$client in _support_node_insert_update() (line 1000 of /Users/steve/www/drupal7/sites/all/modules/support/support.module).
Notice: Undefined property: stdClass::$assigned in _support_node_insert_update() (line 1001 of /Users/steve/www/drupal7/sites/all/modules/support/support.module).
PDOException: SQLSTATE[23000]: Integrity constraint violation: 1048 Column 'state' cannot be null: INSERT INTO {support_ticket} (nid, message_id, state, priority, client, assigned) VALUES (:db_insert_placeholder_0, :db_insert_placeholder_1, :db_insert_placeholder_2, :db_insert_placeholder_3, :db_insert_placeholder_4, :db_insert_placeholder_5); Array ( [:db_insert_placeholder_0] => 10 [:db_insert_placeholder_1] => [:db_insert_placeholder_2] => [:db_insert_placeholder_3] => [:db_insert_placeholder_4] => [:db_insert_placeholder_5] => ) in _support_node_insert_update() (line 1003 of /Users/steve/www/drupal7/sites/all/modules/support/support.module).

Maybe a simple fix is to allow people to set defaults for these in the settings page?