Carver

Mild feedback, I like the rest of it but: Putting telesci somewhere visible makes it thoroughly worthless for research antagonists. Privacy allows for it to be used for gimmicks/theft, doubly if it's even the littlest bit further from central ring hearing range.

With such a change, it would be simple; the upgrading and repair of various machines that fall outside the Engineer's standard fare of the power network, the production of replacement circuit boards, maintaining the hardware portion of the AI. Engineering has two fields. If it should be within the realm of a singular department, then Machinist should go to Research or become an Eng-Sci role if we dare touch upon cross-department roles again. The primary reasons I suggest Engineering over Research involve the Corporations (Heph/Zavod are a better fit than any other department) in tandem with their role dealing with heavy machinery and maintenance. To address this, Operations remains one of the worst departments thematically for Machinist - contested only by Security and Service, of which the only thing it bears over them is the mild convenience of requesting materials in a brown text colour instead of a green one. If we go by what the Machinists produce, they would fit Science (limbs, hardsuits) or Engineering (machine upgrades, synthetics, exosuits) significantly better. Further, the CE would not need to delicately oversee this matter, just as the RD or XO doesn't need to micromanage over half of their respective subordinates (and just as the OM doesn't actually need to even speak to the Machinist once outside of bounties, which are mentioned to every department regardless). What does the CE gain? Further oversight over, precisely as you said, maintenance of the ship's infrastructure in the form of synthetics and exosuits. I can see a mild issue with a CE going 'I specialized in being a Machinist', but that issue would be relatively trivially resolved by making it necessary for CEs to have knowledge of at least one engine (just as the HoS has to be physically capable of making arrests/responding in an emergency, even if they were previously an Investigator or Warden; the CMO has to be capable of medical treatment even if they were previously a Psychiatrist; the XO has to be capable of bridge duties even if they previously worked in Service). What does it marvelously prevent, on the other hand? OMs claiming to have any influence over the AI despite it being wildly out of the boundaries of their department's oversight.

Notably, the circuit printer and protolathe are vestiges of the Machinist being a part of the science department. Machinist going to Engineering would logically put Engineering as 'the department you go to for your machines to be upgraded'. Operations having exosuits is by virtue of the RNG of the warehouse, does Operations having surgical equipment and weaponry in the warehouse also mean that they should have medical and security roles within the department - clearly not, it is merely more warehouse equipment to be delivered somewhere else. Nearly every department on the ship (barring service/civ for obvious reasons) employs hardsuits and can make use of them; Engineering most prominently, followed by Medical (sorry sec the FR hardsuits are more immediately useful), followed by Security and very distantly followed by Science and Mining (the latter of whom will usually be done working by the time they can get a hardsuit). Science has taken a backseat because nobody asks for things to begin with. Yet despite this, their bespoke weapons crafting is fairly reminiscent of the Machinist's bespoke exosuit creation that had it's origins in the Machinist's prior history within other departments. The history of Robotics in SS13 is roughly as follows: It began in medical, it solely built borgs and borged people. It was then in Engineering, and it became capable of building exosuits. It was then in Science (Med-Sci initially) where it began to produce more niche articles such as replacement organs and would help the RD and CE with the AI. Not longer after it was effectively fully moved to Science, it began to produce hardsuits. I'm going to be quite forthright, if someone asks me to perform a duty outside of my distinct role that is explicitly designed for another role (Engines for Engineering, Thrusters for Atmos) I will not do it. Common practice does not always mean good practice, it was once common practice to fully set up department voidsuits and bring them to said departments. It was once common practice for Detectives to perform arrests. It was once common practice for CMOs to do-it-all within Medical. I can go on with further examples if necessary. What would I expect Machinists in Engineering to do that rather suits the department? More than likely; the construction and upgrading of machines/consoles, supplying other Engineers with circuit boards when they need them, maintenance of synthetics and the AI, repairing the odd damaged hardsuit and exosuit. Effectively the things they currently or potentially could do that fall under the realm of power tools, ship equipment and specialist maintenance. Engineering is the department of maintaining ship equipment, and that's the ultimate role of the Machinist. It's production capabilities are holdovers from Science, never from Operations. As a Machinist, I have zero reason to communicate with Operations in any capacity further than what Scientists and Engineers already do: Asking for mats, fulfilling the odd bounty and getting an initial delivery from the warehouse.

Wonderful, then they’d be able to readily assist the CE in similar matters as they used to - instead of the weird current state where an OM can potentially justify being able to help with the AI.

Which they can’t do on code green. If it’s a higher alert, then keeping an eye on disabled crew during an emergency is a more than wise move given they’re highly vulnerable to begin with.

Who in medical, the non-existent Nurses?

1 & 3: Maintenance of equipment (synthetics, hardsuits, exosuits), major use of tools, etc. The only thing tangentially related to Operations is that they build things people use - which curiously, Science does more than Operations does anyways (Ops has a lathe and that's it) and Engineering also does to a degree with similar requirements for materials and tools to do so. We could return them to Science but Engineering felt more thematically appropriate in regard to the corporation options. As for coordination, would they lose ops radio access? Sure. But Science and Engineering both highly value the same materials and don't have ops radio access, so they'd simply go through the same 'ask over common and probably expect deliveries from miners even if you don't ask'. 2: No, but I wouldn't start the engine as an atmos tech. No, but I wouldn't mess with atmospherics as an engineer. Does every Medical role do chemistry when a chemist is missing? Does every Operations role do mining when a miner is missing? Engineering doesn't mean 'I do everything in the department' or we wouldn't have a distinction between atmospherics technicians as there currently is. As for uniforms I would feel more than fine respriting the Orion machinist uniforms to Zavod machinist uniforms. I'd keep the original Orion uniforms sitting around in the code in-case Orion is added to engineering. Though personally I don't really see how Orion makes sense in the role, if only because Orion is the delivery+doordash corp in it's present flavour, whereas Zavodskoi akin to Hephaestus is a major producer of heavy machinery. As an aside, while looking at the uniform sprites I noticed something very funny that would probably be a better potential third Engineering corp than Orion.

Why not? This is an RP server, it being an 'RP place' shouldn't mean it's overlooked. Patients should be kept safe.

Per the title, Given their present location, their expertise (primarily maintenance of hardware) and that Heph/Zavod as corps fit the role decidedly more than Heph/Orion. It feels only suitable that they should be a part of Engineering to give the department a little more variety. That, and as it were, the Machinist is fairly divorced from Operations in location and goals - what they gain from the department is no more than Science or anyone else gains, a few things from the warehouse (mismatched exosuits, random limbs) and the ship’s shared desire for mining materials (Engineering and Science primarily). I don’t have much more to add. This idea came to me between the recent workshop remap, and pondering that the implementation of the new XO may hold the possibility of the service department seeing oversight by the OM in the future. Edit: I do have one more thing to add, that's also a notable plus: This puts AI/Synthetic-related stuff solely back into the realm of Engineering and Science, as it used to be.

Intriguing. Reminds me of the AI satellite, I’d think it’s a little excessive in the turret count but I suppose turrets aren’t what they used to be (if they’re the standard carbine turrets) so it shouldn’t be too horrible if someone wants to target the AI. The boards/intellicard do seem a little overprotected being in that far corner, but unless the addition of skills make it a pain in the ass for antags to dismantle r-walls I don’t see that being an issue.

Out of curiosity, where is the AI planned to be moved to? I would assume deck one has plenty of space (given it houses a mostly useless part of the core and the maint tunnels down there are a bit bloated in width) but I fear what might be displaced if it’s somewhere on the other two decks.

Have you tried squeezing tech storage somewhere else? I get that tech storage needs to be slightly out of the way to be more easily robbed, yet it’s in the most awkward place right now where both few people go and yet it’s directly in front of where everyone spawns so it’s not feasible to really break into it (from the door, at least) anyways. I’d imagine that it’s pretty much the main barrier since that’s where the workshop used to be.

Yet they really don’t need more space than they’d had. It’s not a location one might commonly loiter in, and there had been more than enough room for both repairs and production needs. Compared to Science who had effectively three sub departments within the same space; chem, telesci and regular research/production. All of which fit comfortably there, not oversized in the slightest but with just the right amount of space to allow work. I think the workshop personally made the most sense on deck one, if only because it cemented it more as a part of Operations - where it currently exists would have only made sense if it was being shifted over wholesale to Engineering (to which, perhaps controversially, I think fits it much better).

Interrogation monitoring I don't agree with, but I definitely think that any little (aka not the warehouse lol) storage rooms shouldn't need cameras. I wouldn't really feel comfortable with the recovery room lacking one, or any room where you could reasonably expect people to be hanging out - but storage rooms are tailor made for 'walk in, walk out' and should be pushed to be more antag-friendly spaces. If this was in the past, I'd express a fear of people abusing this to hide bodies where they'll never be found, but that's fairly ahelpable these days at the least.

As an alternative idea, what about headbands instead of armbands, since they’d fit on helmets (super visibly) and because some officers already wear armbands?