Remove maintenance technicians + electricians

[Scheveningen]

Engineering has OOC necessity to exist in the round such as security and medical do. The round does not progress if an engineer is able to do one job at the very start of the round and that's set up the engine.

Maintenance technicians and electricians are among one of the multiple facets of the game progression in which certain players use as a stopgap excuse for not doing what's generally expected of a station engineer. They forego their primary reason for existing on station (to maintain the engine and fix breaches) to have a special title and otherwise not do anything particularly useful in it.

The alternative titles do not actually bring more to the table than what they inevitably tradeoff for engineering characters: the ability to set up the engine.

Station engineers need to be able to, bare minimum, set up the supermatter engine without delaminating it. They can specialize in practically anything else and have weaknesses in other areas, but their core purpose needs to be centered around setting up what is required for the round to progress in a semi-stable fashion given the current map's overreliance on power. The engine is too critical to the round in its current iteration for these alternative roles to even exist in their current fashion.

[Arrow768]

I somewhat concur with that.

It is extremely annoying if you have a round without any engineers and no power.

i am very tempted to just call the emergency shuttle if that drags on for too long.

But the question is if they have to be outright removed or if engine setup could be added as a requirement to them.

Where as a station engineer might know how to properly set it up and get a few MW out of it a Maint Tech or Electrician just has to know: Two phoron in cold, one phoron in hot and 12 shots.

[Scheveningen]

Agreed. I hate being that head of staff that has to deliberate in regards to making that call, since I'm potentially ruining chances for an antagonist to get anything done in a round, but it's the only IC response that makes sense.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

I want to maintain the station and repair damage and do everything else that isn't the supermatter engine. If I can't be an MT, then I won't be able to play engineering at all.

[LordFowl]

If only there was a separate role in engineering specifically designed and equipped to perform the low-end duties that don't affect general station integrity, and was designed ultimately to supplant the maintenance technician...

[Kaed]

If only there was a separate role in engineering specifically designed and equipped to perform the low-end duties that don't affect general station integrity, and was designed ultimately to supplant the maintenance technician...

 

Let It fo, Fowl

Anyway, it might be easier just to split the engineer slots in half and make two of them just engine setup engineers in the other two maintenance technicians/electricians

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

If only there was a separate role in engineering specifically designed and equipped to perform the low-end duties that don't affect general station integrity, and was designed ultimately to supplant the maintenance technician...

 

Yeah another maintenance technician

Electrician can probably go. I dont see a lot of them and even in rp its nebulous? Electrician player insight would be good.

[Garnascus]

Cant maintenance technicians and electricians set solars instead? Even if they cant i think the big problem is setting up the engine is intimidating if you are not experiencing with how it works. I see people avoid it just for this reason. If you screw up you risk being bwoinked or ruining the round.

[Scheveningen]

Then they should be encouraged to actually learn. If they don't want anywhere near the engine they shouldn't be playing engineering. It's in the name, even.

[Garnascus]

Only so much we can do in that regard. Even if we can walk people through the steps required to setup the engine its still a barrier for the role. Besides that i am a fan of alt-titles existing for role play purposes.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Id be more open to learn if the consequences for failure were not round ending, delta. I can do everything else; leave me the engine alone.

[Doc]

The real root of this issue is that the new Aurora map has terribly mapped solars, or, at least, insufficiently mapped solars.

This was never an issue that ever would have been brought up on the Exodus. Why? Because solars could actually maintain the station. The supermatter/tesla/singulo wasn't a round-hinging requirement to be set up, the solars were a perfectly acceptable option.

The existence of these alternative roles is not a problem that needs to be fixed. This is an incredibly roundabout and RP-stifling way of fixing the actual problem, which is that whoever designed the solars for this map either didn't understand the power needs they would need to be compensating for or purposefully made them insufficient. Either way, solars need to be buffed or expanded to be a reasonable option to power the station, we don't need to remove legitimate roles that already have numerous established characters based in them and have no actual reason to be removed.

Also stop trying to move the fucking janitor to engineering.

[Zundy]

What's the current output of the starting solars setup? Electricians definitely should be able to set them up and potentially build more if need be. Power management is F U N.

Instead of removing the maint tech role, why not give them a way in which to setup power which isn't the engine or the solars, maybe setting up generators and hooking them up to the grid? That way all the titles have a manner in which to setup power which are different and "interesting".

[DronzTheWolf]

Then they should be encouraged to actually learn. If they don't want anywhere near the engine they shouldn't be playing engineering. It's in the name, even.

 

I agreed with this. That's why I played Assistant who did repairs and stuff.

Then the CEs (Munks mostly) started getting angry that I was doing Engineer stuff as a non-Engineer and started getting the valid squad after me at every possible opportunity.

[Guest Menown]

What's the current output of the starting solars setup? Electricians definitely should be able to set them up and potentially build more if need be. Power management is F U N.

Instead of removing the maint tech role, why not give them a way in which to setup power which isn't the engine or the solars, maybe setting up generators and hooking them up to the grid? That way all the titles have a manner in which to setup power which are different and "interesting".

 

Solars are typically running at 120-140kw, so not enough to power the station. With upgrades from both kits they can reach around 230kw, but that's still not enough.

Currently the major issue is that the grid is bugged up there. Some genius had the idea to cross a wire with another wire so it fucks the powernet every time.

That said, Electricians should know how to set the Tesla. It's literally an electrical-based engine. My electrician only was rated for photovoltaics and the tesla itself, so SM/Sing weren't options.

[Zundy]

Boom yes of course, the tesla. Electricians should be able to set up the tesla.

[Scheveningen]

The solars aren't enough to power the station not because the power net is lazily mapped out (although there's an argument to be made that the map was made inefficient on purpose which has 'good' and bad things to it) but because even if they were mapped out perfectly, the station's devices have such a huge demand on the power grid that neither generators, solars or non-engine related means will actually outweigh the wattage demand that the station takes up. The station's absolutely massive and there's so many rooms and devices that the related areas add up to a significant amount of power draw for.

This is why the power fails in under an hour if the engine isn't set up.

This is also why I've been so expressive as to say that engineering would be better off at least without the maintenance technician role. Because engineers basically serve as this when they have nothing else to do.

Electricians can stay, I guess, but they should start being encouraged to beeline to the tesla and solars as their first initial duties.

[Flamingo]

I play engineering a lot, but I am remaining silent on this issue, as I already have some ideas that I want to put forth once I have them laid out properly. I am only here to clear some misconceptions.

1. The roof solars are BUGGED. The issue has nothing to do with the crossed wire (though it should be fixed regardless). The actual cable is bugged out, so that it stops transferring power about halfway down. I have yet to make a bug report because honestly, I forgot. That said, it doesn’t matter, because solars can’t maintain the stations power needs.

2. You don’t have enough power to set up the tesla round start with how everything is laid out before stuff starts to die. You CAN do it, provided you swap a few cells and such, but you will have brownouts during it. It just takes so much time to move things around. It’s not very viable as a main power source without two people handling setup. Possible? Sure. Practical? Not really.

[Jakers457]

I can't really put it into words right now but I feel the removal to be unnecessary and taking away some flavour from playing engineering. So I disagree, removing things opposed to finding alternatives is a bad habit of the HRP community.

[SeniorScore]

Anyway, it might be easier just to split the engineer slots in half and make two of them just engine setup engineers in the other two maintenance technicians/electricians

 

Fucking why

[Kaed]

Anyway, it might be easier just to split the engineer slots in half and make two of them just engine setup engineers in the other two maintenance technicians/electricians

 

Fucking why

 

To cut back on whining about no engine I guess.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Anyway, it might be easier just to split the engineer slots in half and make two of them just engine setup engineers in the other two maintenance technicians/electricians

 

Fucking why

 

To cut back on whining about no engine I guess.

 

The engine is not a full round job. You do all the complicated crap to set it up, then you can more or less forget it until it starts overheating and you have to figure out how to repair it. Engineers who don't know how to set up the engine, and who aren't willing to literally end a round by messing up (the supermatter IS NOT A FORGIVING SYSTEM FOR NEWBIES), are literally harrassed in OOC, LOOC, and over discord by certain players who demand their own expectations be met.

I ain't gun' mess with all that. Maintenance technician lets me write off the engine. Electrician is super specialized and I could see it going, however.

[Faris]

Does anyone have the total amount of jobs present in each department? Depending on those numbers, it might be worth while to make maintenance/electrician a special job. Maybe 3 station engineer slots with an engine technician alt title and 3 maint/elec slot. Alternatively we can go 4-2. Yes, this means we'll be adding slots, but this is merely a suggestion.

[Pacmandevil]

So I disagree, removing things opposed to finding alternatives is a bad habit of the HRP community.

to be fair so is adding fluff roles that don't perform the duties they're supposed to. see nurse, the old mining ones, and the engineering one.

Of course, ones that add a supplementary play style (like the maint. tech) should just be given a new job slot. (kinda like fowl was going for with the janitorial thing, on second thought.)