Captain Gecko

Once again, me being very stupid I assume. Sorry about that. Though it is extremely rare for me (science player) to upgrade machines, I haven't seen Machinists being asked do anything like this since the Horizon, but I do believe you. My point was more about player population. It's nowhere near as bad as Science, and certainly not for the same reasons, but I do notice that Engineering is part of the least played departments, which sucks considering how important they are, that was what I was referring to.

Though I think lore is reason enough to make gameplay changes, especially in Aurora, I do not believe corpo lore is reason-enough, just as I believe it wasn't reason enough when we first set foot on the Horizon, but that may be just me. What is not just me is that the matter still stands. The main/most represented exosuits are effectively just powerlifters, I'm pretty sure we spawn with at least two at the start of each rounds (one for each ship gun) as far as most people are concerned, exosuits are generally used for logistics. Of course, engineering exosutis are thing, just like rescue or mining ones (technically combat too, but they're exceedingly rare by fear of earning some boinks), but this doesn't change the fact that the basline for exosuits are powerlifters. Orion Express has as much if not more rights to have workers specialized in building or maintaining exosuits than Zavod. AI and shipbounds are another matter, and while I just said that it would've made more sense for it to remain in Science on that matter, in the end I assume all corporations are used to having robots and AIs on their own ships. It shouldn't be a stretch to think that OE machinists got to work by the side of OE AIs and Shipbounds before... And I believe that positronics are not very popular within Zavod anyways. And while at it... I am not sure if I want the Machinists to return to science. It would make sense to me to have the Roboticist never leave the department in the first place, but what's done is done, and there are other ways we could fix that department, more important ones too... Which I am working on. But that's for another discussion. My main point when mentionning science is just for comparison's sake, and I still do not agree with most of the points raised to move the Machinist to Engineering. There are points to be made, clearly, but I do not think there are enough to justify such a move. Frankly I think there's as much reasons to put the Machinist in Engineering, as there is for moving them to Sec (exosuits are dangerous no matter what they're equipped with and can be armed, and of course, handling the AI is a very sensitive matter after all!) or Medical (cyborgifications, limb replacements, organ printing, and the occasional rescue exosuit all come from the machinist after all). Though on the topic of science there is something I forgot to address. Previously you did say that "...the upgrading and repair of various machines that fall outside the Engineer's standard fare of the power network..." would be the machinist's responsability, among other things. I am very much against that, as it would be gutting something else from Science, we SERIOUSLY DO NOT NEED THIS. I understand that Engineering isn't exactly in tip-top shape either right now, but Science really doesn't need anymore things taken away from it. Upgrading machines outside of Research, Robotics, and the power grid is very rare, but when people ask it is generally science's role to take care of it. It's not that the machinist, in its current state, cannot do it, they technically can, but they are expected to take care of other matters generally. If the Engie-Machinist's responsabilities include doing just that, that does not technically prevent scientists from doing it either, but obviously people will then be asking Engineering for such things, and scientists get one less thing to do.

Well dangit, another case of me being silly stupid. Sorry about that. On the case of clamps I believe they can carry canisters, yes, not sure about the pumps and scrubbers. My issue is that on this angle, this would still be a science thing. With a full command department, it IS the RD's task to fix the AI when an ion law comes and so on. AI-related business is the RD's, and by extent Science's responsability. It would only be natural that this would also include the shipbound robots under the AI's command. Unless we count on making the AI the CE's responsability (I hope not), this arguement still makes no sense to me. I agree that on this specific angle, Operation is not a good condidate, but neither is Engineering.

Victor Jenkins is my favorite telescientist (It's the only one still alive) and I approve of this message. More seriously, Science is in dire need of... ANYTHING, really, any arguements to make the department more fun, or just plain useful, and this is a great idea. I remember Jenkins allowing Sezrak to pull out like 5-6 anomalies in the span of a single hour back on the Aurora, the wonders a talented teleporter player can do are fantastic, and could prove lifesaving in many expeditions and the likes... And just give science the tools to do more experiments and other sciency stuff. We NEED this.

I have no strong feelings about this whole thing, I don't use guns much... But God please stop taking more things away from Science, we're already dead enough as a department as it is, I'm not even memeing.

I have no ideas why the machinist/roboticist would be part of Engineering. As far as I'm concerned they should've stayed in science, I mean they use the same materials, rely on the same research, are right next to science, and even it even makes sense lorewise, since exosuits and robots are complicated machines, and usually employ advanced/experimental technology on the Horizon since it's linked to RnD's servers. I'll accept that YOU COULD argue to have the machinist in operations, since operation does use plenty of exosuits, whether it is to move cargo and ammo around or to mine on some occasions and they deliver other more general machines like cleanbots and the likes.., but engineering? I seen no point in this. Exosuits don't build nor can they perform any engineering tasks, there are no engineering bots (unless you count floorbots? But no one uses them, assuming they still exist), engineers are trained to start up and maintain advanced technology like reactors, generally not build them by themselves (generally they would ask science for boards and the likes when it is not already put in their storage), and engineering might be the only department next to Service that I've NEVER seen use an exosuit in all my time playing... Not that I say that it didn't happen, but it is awfully rarer than, say, operations, security or medical. And yes, while I'm at it, I blame science being the least played department since the Horizon on the roboticist being moved to operations.

And by that point you expect people to just make an extra character for these 20-10% of games when there IS a Captain? This is like making a merchant character, this is a bonus, a gimmick, not an actual character to play. This is exactly my issue. There is ZERO icentive to play the new XO, absolutely no reasons. If you want to play with the bridge, just become BC at this point. If you want to actually have authority you're better off being the actual Captain. Honestly even the Head of Service had more reasons to exist than this. Assuming there isn't a second vote WITH all of the information at hand now (and I REALLY advise we do one considering the backlash), I don't expect this new XO to played much if at all in its current state.

Honestly this just sounds like bloat more than anything. Given the choice between making a Captain or an XO, most people would choose Captain anyways with this current proposal, since they have the same restrictions and expectations, but the new XO gets much less autonomy and authority than the actual Captain. Why would anyone choose to play an XO at this point? Merely controlling the bridge can be fun, but it's in no way worth a command WL, and doesn't come up that often (Look at how many times the Horizon moved since we arrived in Konyang, for instance) Another issue is that we are all assuming that there IS a Captain around. If there isn't a Captain onboard, which is how it is on 80-90% of the XO rounds I've played, where does the new XO gets their authority? They don't have the excuse of carrying out an absent Captain's order. That, and no, we don't elect acting Captains unless we have actual emergencies. And that "I'm carrying the Captain's order" authority boost doesn't change a thing. XOs already do that, and people play along with it. Even then, this acting captain thing is useless with the new XO. If an RD or a CMO is promoted to acting Captainship... Only to return to their department to focus on their field and leave the Captain work to the XO, why would anyone even get acting Captainship in the first place? From experience, Acting Captains are often members of Command that DON'T have their hands full so that they can focus on organising things...

I think the issue is that no side of the conversation gets a satisfying outcome out of this thing currently. - On the one hand, many people just don't like seeing more species restriction being applied, whether it is ICly or OOCly. - On the other, other people are not happy with the newer XO being described as what is ultimately a very underwhelming thing- perhaps what exacerbate the first issue even more. As Fluffy put it, it's more like a secretary right now... Unironically it feels like the current XO actually has more influence/authority over the ship than what is being proposed. At least the current XO can actually become an acting captain. Genuinely, I think that would the current proposal to pass in the state it is currently being presented as, you could expect the XO role to get MUCH LESS popular, with or without Xenos. - It's been ONE YEAR. Characters changed, opinions changed, PLAYERS changed, lore moved forward, etc. Opinions between when the vote was made and now may actually be different, who knows. I also agree that the species restriction was a POSSIBILITY, indeed, but that's exactly the issue: a possibility. Hell, this was debated from the get-go, see Carver's first post on this thread, on page one... But that was debated indeed. It was not exactly set in stone what would happen. Some may have even assumed that we could've gotten a chance to discuss this later on. (Hence why I say we should have a second vote now, with all of this new information) As far as the character arc thing goes, I agree about the potential, though not everyone can just get an excuse for things to work out, it's inevitable that many characters are just going to disapear if their player want to keep their characters' stories serious... That, and, this just feels unfair. A character, in any roleplaying game, SHOULD have its story evolve along with the setting, but that is not an evolution of the setting right there. There is no lore coming with this, no signs of this move coming, nothing to really roleplay about until you're actually fired/on a new post. This is mainly a gameplay/OOC change.

At this point, then, I agree with Greenjoe. There probably should be a second vote. A lot of people didn't think this would bring species restriction in, and I assume their opinion on the matter would've changed if they did. I know I wouldn't have been too fond of the idea if I knew. Any restrictions are going to bring a lot of frustrations when they kick in, that's inevitable... But this is different, people did originally want this, but not with the restrictions, as far as a part of them were concerned. We need to see how popular it would've been with the restrictions in mind before actually putting anything like this in the game.

Sucks to see something like half of the XO population getting fired/forced to change job, but I think I agree with Carver, it just makes sense for the Captain's second to have the same restrictions as the Captain themselves. My question is more about Service. Since the XO truly gets in their role as, well, an XO and not just an HoP, do they carry the same expectations as before regarding Service and how they were meant to handle it? (Chances of getting back a Service Command Role?)

Hello there! Really liking the character so far, but I have some questions. - What faith does Ozikar follow? - You spoke about the DFPF, but what about the SCC and megacorps themselves? What's his opinion about these typically alien entities? Especially since he, like many other Moghesian, had to get introduced to these in some way with Heph barging in.

Been playing with Opossum for a while now, and he has always been a great player and a good roleplayer. Saw him with his HoS and as expected I was not disapointed, so +1, obviously.

Hey there! Three questions so far: 1) What would be Izekissha's opinion of Unathi from non-Hegemonic backgrounds, if they have any? Pirates (of individual fleets if they differ on the fleet/allegiances), Foreigners (Mictlan, Biesel, etc.), Dominians... 2) How did Izekissha react/what is their opinion of the Hegemony's current practice of hiring cooperative pirate crews and fleets to assist in dealing with the pirate threat, notably with the arrival of Iska's Adventurers? 3) Is Izekissha a guy or a girl, sex-wise? I get that they're a fisherman as far as gender goes, I'm just curious about the physical side. It's not really an important question, I'm just curious!

Hello! I bring good news, your application is accepted! Or at least, will be so with some changes. The overall idea is great and we'll be working on it right away. Thanks for the app in any case!