Merlin1230

second reply because I just thought of it, the specialization thing is a good point, but youd need to really expand the department first before you could really have specializations I think, since everything engineering does would be kinda boring if split into individual roles. Like say, if you split up engineer into a reactor tech and damage control roles, the reactor is very much "set up and youre done", so theyd have nothing to do after the first ten minutes or so of the round, and damage control is entirely reactive (although medical and sec are both also pretty reactive, so maybe theres a place for that?). Maybe if you add a reason to look at the reactors after setup and stuff, a reactor tech role could be somewhat fun, but I feel like the inherent role of it kinda means theyre just cooped up in the reactors not really interacting with the rest of the crew, which is definitely not the best design. Really, its kinda hard to split up engineer in a way that keeps them from not being cooped up while still being fun.

This probably wouldnt change if you lowered engineers down to three IMO. There'd still be the competition because there just isnt that much gameplay to go around, while the hectic and chaotic rounds get more hectic and chaotic because engineering wouldnt have less manpower to spare. I personally dont feel it really solves the underlying issues, and itll most likely just maybe mitigate it a slight bit.. If it isnt a good fix, I dont really see the need to implement it before changes that expand the department can be added, since I feel like having less people and a more competitive slot wont feel better as a inbetween. For the grab bag thing Id like to say the cart helps this a bit by having a unified store of resources, and while I make a effort to be the person bringing the cart to the scene, people still just tend to use grab bags over me bringing the cart, especially since its one cart and if theres ever more then one thing going on, youd have to wait for one situation to be resolved for the cart to come over. The duffelbag is still just more convenient then the cart for a lot of people and its probably gonna be hard to change that without upsetting people. a test could be interesting but im not super confident about it feeling better in theory. Maybe Im wrong, though.

My personal opinion is that reducing slots doesnt fix the issue. It might guarantee that everyone has something to do for roundstart setup if we ignore apprentices (1 person on SM, 1 person on INDRA, 1 person doing stuff like RCON and sheilds), but the rest of their work is reacting, and how many people can reasonably be involved in a situation and have something to do is super variable on how severe the situation is, or how many different situations there are. If theres a broken window somewhere, thats still just one person that gets something to do. Lowering the slots down to three doesnt suddenly allow for more people to be involved with that situation. Ive also experienced during more chaotic rounds times where even a decently filled engi department is stretched thin. Also, this hurts the liveliness of the department since lobby RP is like half the fun of the role and now youd have to deal with some intense slot competition. Realistically the best way to solve the issue is a few things, I feel. Firstly, Engineering just needs more to do. I dont have any good ideas of this, but more things to do means more people get to do things. Secondly, and this is more of a culture thing, just stress that people should communicate about what theyre doing, when they finish it, etc. If theres more communication about that, then you can avoid the situation where you end up going to fix something just to learn it was already fixed, and it opens up opportunities to takeover a tasking if you had a chance to state your interest in something before someone else dealt with it. More dialogue and talking helps keeps everyone involved and active. Granted I do think people are generally fine at this already, for the most part.

Atmos techs are probably usually the first ones to deal with most breaches and fires and such, things that would be need the damage to be controlled before properly fixed, such as setting up inflatables, fighting fires, etc. Comparatively to engineers, atmos techs having work to do is probably emergency response most of the time, with most of the non-emergency work being stuff engineers would do, and a decent portion of atmos tech duties would make sense for what DCTs do IRL. Not all, but some. That being said, I do second that DCT will be mostly confusing, since engineers still do some damage control (in fact, its common from what Ive noticed for "kits" for engineers to be called "damage control kits" by other engineers), and I think most people wouldnt relate it to atmos at first glance. Maybe itll be fine and people will be adjusted for it over timeee, but it might not be the most clear for the average person.