Merge IAA Into Command So The IAA Job Is Gone

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

The main purpose of the IAA role is for conflict resolution, with the ancillary purpose of ensuring regulations are being followed by Command, and facilitating contact between the station and Central Command. With a lack of IAA, there is no loss of productivity, fun, or otherwise detriment done to the station from an IC or meta perspective.

The IAA position is redundant due to its main and ancillary goals being handled by other departments, Command, or CCIA themselves. Due to all of their duties being redundant, the only reliable form of gameplay for IAA is being an antagonistic force to crew.

According to stats pulled by Arrow, the IAA role is played at roughly the same rate as the Wizard antagonist, and the Merchant job, since Jan 1st 2019. Both the Merchant and Wizard have low changes to be available for a round. Having IAA mains slide into other roles within Command would provide ancillary benefits of ensuring these roles are slightly more filled.

Because a suggestion is encouraged to provide an alternate to the outright removal of a game mechanic, an alternative job title can be given to HoP titled Human Resource Director, who's got the soft-expectation of focusing exclusively on the complaint/regulation/general HR duties of the job whereas the HoP is soft-focused on the logistics of the station in terms of jobs and the like.

Edited April 9, 2019 by Marlon Phoenix

[ComradeCorbyn]

I agree that something needs to be done about Head of Personnel, but not stripping the entirety of Internal Affair's functions and giving it to the overloaded Head of Personnel as is, juggling between being the head of departments for Service and Supply, and on top of that personnel issues with identification and access and losing it, and basically being Command's secretary.

What I propose is reforming the role of Internal Affairs itself, and actually making it have some use and not taken over by other roles. Make it have bite, teeth, and not just there to fax situation reports to Central Command every ten minutes. Maybe even appease your fetish for the title of Human Resources and have it as an alternative title for IAA.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

I can agree that the HoP has a lot on their plate. For a lot of situations specific Heads pass the buck to the HoP. As a HoP main I am often super busy, and have to do what the IAA does already. We do not have IAA available, so the workload put on me if the IAA is removed is effectively nil. The workload is already there.

Giving the IAA more teeth means that they have more teeth to halt player initiative. We are already dealing with an incremental increase in red tape and paperwork that is stifling creativity and expression from players. Awhile ago I was threatened with arrest and harassed for renovating the abandoned bar in maintenance because I did not have a permit. This is an analogy, but the point I am trying to put across is that a meatier IAA is a hostile force against the crew and is not something that fosters a welcoming and encouraging environment IC or OOC.

We have existing roles who's duties are to oversee the affairs of the station. They all have clearly defines lanes of responsibility, and it is easy to tell when one is crossing the line. For example, a CMO stepping out to demand to see paperwork for construction done on the construction level would be known to be straying outside of his area of responsibility. The IAA has no restrictions, and can throw themselves everywhere. Because it is so rarely played, IAA are a rare sight that break up the usual flow because they have no restrictions on what is normal for them to interfere with. And we know they are rarely played, so they are met with hostility because they are just showing up out of the blue to be abrasive, only to disappear immediately after that round ends.

All of the duties that the IAA does is already done by existing jobs.

[ComradeCorbyn]

3 minutes ago, Senpai Jackboot said:

 All of the duties that the IAA does is already done by existing jobs.

 

Then we change it, simple as that. Reform over removal. 

Just because a job can be done by other jobs doesn't already make it null and void for removal. As well, giving it more teeth doesn't mean that it'll hunt down the innocents and try to slaughter them down with the boogie-man called paperwork. It would mean that it can actually have the power to change things that aren't benefiting anybody, not even for fun. Like 'shitsecurity,' or a Head of Staff stepping out of line - you get the drift. 

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

1 minute ago, ComradeCorbyn said:

giving it more teeth

What do you mean when you say more teeth? Do you have any specific responsibilities and powers for this new IAA you want to see?

[VTCobaltblood]

1 hour ago, ComradeCorbyn said:

Reform over removal. 

In this particular case, why? Why not reduce the amount of jobs by merging them? We've seen this successfully done with Virologist who was, just like IAA, played by absolutely nobody.

In fact, removing the job slot does not remove any mechanics from the game whatsoever. IAA is completely redundant, and absolutely everything they can do can be done by other command jobs. The only thing maybe worth preserving is the notes to CCIA, which I guess can be placed by HoPs and Captains?

 

I completely support the suggestion. I haven't seen IAAs be anything but paperwork lunatics who really hurt the round more than progressing it. And why would you trust an IAA to resolve your problems if you know fully well that they'll judge in the company's favor rather than yours due to their loyalty implant? 

Not a lot of people like doing paperwork in-game, and for many, a special job forcing them to do is a direct detriment from fun. So why keep it? There's little ways to rework it to do something fun that's not already covered by other command jobs. 

Edited April 8, 2019 by VTCobaltblood

[TheOrleans]

Like in most other cases, I'm, so so AGAINST merging jobs, this case is even worse than Virolochemist

The IAA in my opinion is some kind of external representative of Central Command, it's good to have him in case the HoP is following rogue orders given by the Captain, or in case the Hop is rogue and there's no Captain

Since IAA are loyalty implanted (and HoPs aren't, correct me if I'm wrong) it's really good to have them, as someone "outside" the chain of command im case of the command is corrupt.

This is my humble point of view.

[VTCobaltblood]

33 minutes ago, TheOrleans said:

Like in most other cases, I'm, so so AGAINST merging jobs, this case is even worse than Virolochemist

why

[TheOrleans]

11 minutes ago, VTCobaltblood said:

why

Why am I against job merging?

Cause job merging is making the minor job dissapear, forcing players to play the big job

For example if you want to play Virologist now, you have to choose Biochemist. And you will be forced to make chems, cause if not, someone will FOR SURE bitch about it, and you will get brigged for negligency

So Virology has dissapeared as a research role, can't be played and explored anymore, only used to cure viruses once in a blue moon.

That's why.

Edited April 8, 2019 by TheOrleans

[Chada1]

32 minutes ago, TheOrleans said:

Why am I against job merging?

Cause job merging is making the minor job dissapear, forcing players to play the big job

For example if you want to play Virologist now, you have to choose Biochemist. And you will be forced to make chems, cause if not, someone will FOR SURE bitch about it, and you will get brigged for negligency

So Virology has dissapeared as a research role, can't be played and explored anymore, only used to cure viruses once in a blue moon.

That's why.

There are two Bio Chemist slots, Bio Chemist and Pharmacist can both be played. So, i you choose Bio Chemist, you could do very basic drugs and allow the Pharmacist if they come aboard to do the rest, could you not?

[TheOrleans]

5 minutes ago, Chada1 said:

There are two Bio Chemist slots, Bio Chemist and Pharmacist can both be played. So, i you choose Bio Chemist, you could do very basic drugs and allow the Pharmacist if they come aboard to do the rest, could you not?

What if you are alone as BioChemist and no Pharmacist comes aboard?

You will have to make chems although you don't want to do that or you don't enjoy that, cause someone (who probably didn't play Viro ever ever or didn't enjoy it) decided to merge both

[CommanderXor]

I'm probably one of the few players who actively play IAA, and I'll have to give my input on this.

 

I'm against the merging of the HoP and IAA role. The IAA is tasked by Central Command to be a liaison yes, but at the same time they are there to help the Command team interpret orders and see it is done along with departmental audits and employee evaluations. They're given a loyalty implant and 'removal' from the chain of command -barring the Captain's orders - as a method of staying neutral from crew, relations and conflict. It's why they are also one of the few jobs on the station that are outright barred from playing other roles onboard. IAA are meant to be exclusively one-department/role assignment. I've been told that I shouldn't/can't play both a IAA and HoP character. Merging the two roles would require adjusting the duties of the HoP and would likely remove a majority of HoP characters given the 'no-bias' rule/requirement, unless they were to break that tidbit. But at that point what is the point of having a internal affairs-HoP? The loyalty implant is also another requirement to ensure that they're following NanoTrasen in good faith.

 

I simply can not see this working out without massively gimping the ability to do both job's duties effectively or breaking the established requirements and responsibilities for a character of it.

[Diona Gestalt (654)]

Why not remove IAA without merging it into HoP? You say it is an antagonistic force to crew both IC and OOC that makes new players feel unwelcome. Is it even needed, then? Can IAA players, like CommanderXor, give example of things they are doing for the good of the game (that is not done by other jobs)?

What IAA duties shouldn't be gimped, with examples?

Edited April 8, 2019 by Diona Gestalt (654)

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Merging the IAA role and the HOP role is adding a line to the HOP job guide about conflict resolution. Then adding tips for noncriminal issues from employees within a department to each department head job.

 

The captain is already an implanted rep of NT.

 

Functionally the IAAs primary job us already done by existing roles. Their only outlet is obstruction. This was outlined in my post regarding this same thing. We're do not want a job with the sole unique purpose of being Antagonistic. 

Edited April 8, 2019 by Marlon Phoenix

[Kaed]

I always have been and remain adamantly against the existence of the IAA role being on the server, so I support anything that removes it from play.

It was a terrible idea to add it in the first place and I wanted it gone for years, jackboot has summarized it's inherently antagonistic nature better than I have.

The times when there actually is a conflict for them to resolve are very rare, so they have to do something else with their time other than sitting in their office staring into space, half AFK. Usually what they do in that free time is go around trying to play regulation gotcha. This is only fun for the IAA, getting people into trouble for inane things like wearing the wrong uniform or building without a permit. I've even had an IAA call the head of security to arrest me for not changing because I was busy doing something.

So let's bulldoze the role and change their office into something more useful, like an extra bathroom, or Cryo Storage Room.

Edited April 8, 2019 by Kaed

[ben10083]

As one of the few people who play IAA, I will give my views on this.

1. The main issue against IAAs it seem is that people are upset that they...are doing their job. Let me explain, most of these claims of "stiffling" of creativity just seems to be when IAA reports someone if they ignore a reg or directives. 

2. Yes, building without a "permit" is illegal, but such paperwork can be done in less than 5 minutes, even faster if you have the captain or CE in proximity.

On 08/04/2019 at 02:36, Senpai Jackboot said:

Giving the IAA more teeth means that they have more teeth to halt player initiative. We are already dealing with an incremental increase in red tape and paperwork that is stifling creativity and expression from players.

How is this stifling creativity and expression? In fact, paperwork can go a long way to help express creativity and expression. For example, the executive permission form can allow you to do a multitude of things and can help create very interesting RP scenarios as people deal with the form and/or come up with their own. The best part? Anyone can do it. I have used the executive permission form as roboticist multiple times to help me do my job, and in many cases has causes interesting situations crop up as people oppose or support it.

I fully support giving IAA more teeth, they already have injunction authority, but I think merging HoP and IAA via removing IAA's duty's (One line about how they resolve conflicts is just plain removal, a real merge is when they merge responsibilities). I have seen many IAAs help others with IRs or dealing with situations when their command fails them.

Another point, just like HoP, IAA is a role that relies on the player's creativity much more than other roles, and I feel people need to accept that paperwork is sometimes necessary, as is any company, we should not remove a role just because people do not like paperwork/following regs and directives.

-1

[Allakai]

So if we are merging HoP and IAA... assuming this at all goes through, is the HoP going to be loyalty implanted? That I believe is the uniqueness of the IAA as they are one of the few crew to be implanted. If we were to merge the two roles, would we see two HoPs that are loyalty implanted to make up for the subtraction of two IAAs? What would go in the IAA office? These are all important questions I feel

[SatinsPristOTD]

Hi, HoP player here as well:


So the HoP would have Supply, Service and IAA under it's wing? As it stands, the HoP is the Captains secretary when shit hits the fan too. That's... quite a lot for one job to have, considering Service is THE area where most new people/ greytide go to.

-1

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

3 minutes ago, SatinsPristOTD said:

Hi, HoP player here as well:


So the HoP would have Supply, Service and IAA under it's wing? As it stands, the HoP is the Captains secretary when shit hits the fan too. That's... quite a lot for one job to have, considering Service is THE area where most new people/ greytide go to.

-1

No. Thats not what will happen. Please do not only infer consequences from the title. I will change it.

[LorenLuke]

3 minutes ago, Senpai Jackboot said:

I will change it.

I'm curious what plans you had in mind.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

2 hours ago, LorenLuke said:

I'm curious what plans you had in mind.

The title has been changed.

[AmoryBlaine]

I cannot support this. What I can support is making IAA a bit of the investigative department. Meaning they operate along side the Detective and FT. Perhaps they can have direct authority, or be expected to have equal part in investigations as the Det. and FT?

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

27 minutes ago, AmoryBlaine said:

Meaning they operate along side the Detective and FT.

This can be achieved with an additional detective slot.

 

What do you see the iaa doing that is a niche not filled by other roles? Its played the same amount as wizard, so the duties of the iaa are already placed on command. 

[AmoryBlaine]

1 minute ago, Senpai Jackboot said:

This can be achieved with an additional detective slot.

 

What do you see the iaa doing that is a niche not filled by other roles? Its played the same amount as wizard, so the duties of the iaa are already placed on command. 

They act as a link between the average employee and CCIA, or atleast they should. They also allow for corporate stiff RP, and someone for people to vent at, other than the Captain. We should try to incorporate IAAs with CCIA better.

[Skull132]

I have a really bad idea. Split the HoP into two roles. One is the civilian staff chief, who is responsible for cargo and service; and the other the human resources officer, who is more akin to the ID granting and IAA role.