Mechanic Job

[Snakebittenn]

@geeves told me to roll up a suggestion thread to gauge interest so here we are.
http://ss13.moe/wiki/index.php/Mechanic

the Mechanic is a hybridization of research and engineering, whose duties are primarily:
replacing machinery, fixing stuff, upgrading stuff, deploying new stuff, and tricking out their sick mancave to be hospitable.
to do this, they get a variety of new equipment, along with an RPED, circuit imprinter, circuit kits, and a protolathe.
you have the device scanner (there's a PDA one but it only loads one design at a time) and you go around scanning things you load these designs into the Reverse Engine and it researches the things you scan once they're researched you can print Blueprints using either paper or nanopaper. paper lasts one use, nanopaper lasts forever. you get 3 packs of nanopaper that you load into the nanopaper printer. so you hit 'print'on the Reverse Engine and it gives you a blueprint. some blueprints are used on autolathes/protolathes (for handheld stuff), others are used on the Flatpack Fabricator. the flatpack fab asks for a certain amount of mats, much like a protolathe, then you get the flatpack and you use your tools on it to deploy the thing in a spot. flatpacks are stuff like vending machines, computers, etcetera.
i think this would be a good thing, much like our abortive attempt at an engineering janitor. it'd do a lot of things that don't normally get done (upgrading machines comes to mind, replacing lost vendors/etc is another) too.

edit: this is related to the Engineer > Maintenance Tech PR. this could be separate to engineer slots, or replace one slot.

[AmoryBlaine]

Seems to be unnecessary, and cuts into other jobs. I'm against this.

[Roostercat]

I like it, it gives the station a job dedicated to upgrading and probably building maint bars. Gives researchers time to do circuits or mad science or whatever they do with their free time. 

[Carver]

Isn't this basically what the Electrician is meant to be but instead most of them just use said title to ignore the engine and set up solars.

[beelzewax]

Mirroring what I said in discord: I'm all for porting cool stuff from /vg/, but would be wary of the very prominent issue (on /vg/) of mechanics acting like assistant+.

Free glubbs/tools + little-to-no responsibility + not much to do after upgrading machines lends itself to either:

a. Starting some autism project (read: barbuilding)

b. Tiding

Aurora's rp level should discourage this, but its still something to consider. Maybe they could be given some responsibility to fix or produce circuits/assemblies/portable computers as well. Also keep the greasemonkey alt-title, that's the best one.

Only partially related; /vg/ has a lot of QoL features (alt-click to open storage containers, alt-click jumpsuits to set sensors, organizing objects within containers, chem dispenser beaker overlays, etc) that I think would also be worth porting as well.

[Lualyrr]

I personally dont see the point in it. Its something Scientist kinda do inside of the Science department usually. And it would just take further content from Engineering if I understand your intent correctly.

Remove something from one role just to add it to a new one? I dont see the point in that honestly.

[Cnaym]

I'd be more than willing to trade an atmos slot for this. We never have two atmos people anyway and the Idea of someone in engineering focused on the vendors and frequently used mashines sounds awesome! It would also give engineering a couple more tools and stuff to do in the downtime between RNG events giving them work. 

All for it +1!

[CinnySuccubus]

I like the idea of a mechanic job, since it's one of the things I enjoy most. Perhaps they should also have a garage using shutters much like the mech bay where they can store their sick flame-print space bike?

[Tequilajoe]

I really don't care for this. Like others have said, there's a lot of redundancy. Everything is well covered by engineers and scientists. The name is also off to me, a mechanic is well known as someone who fixes cars.

Also the RCD or whatever the fuck it's called these days is a very powerful tool, typically not something that people other than the CE have access to and for good reason. 

However, I like the idea of a scientist that is more into applied technology that may involve small construction projects. I think it would make for a good alternative scientist title, though perhaps with a different name than mechanic. I would love to see a scientist title that is focused on upgrading machines and building new ones, because most scientists don't bother.

[NerdyVampire]

I kinda like it, not every scientist wants to spend their time upgrading.

[Azande]

I haven't seen scientists who go around upgrading anyone's equipment in ages and on the contrary, I've seen scientists that act outright hostile if you ask. So +1 for this.

[Carver]

On that note, it would make more sense to see this replace a scientist slot and act under the RD than replace an Engineer slot and act under the CE. The CE isn't actually capable of producing the components required for machine upgrades, and giving that sort of buff upfront to Engineering takes a fair bit away from a neglected part of Research's identity.

[Boggle08]

In a medium RP server, Science would be yelled at in perpetuity for never upgrading anything. Going to RnD is a 50/50 shot of either getting what I need or having the scientist either waste my time or ignore my ass.

Just having one technician who can handle requests and roam the station plugging a RPED into everything means that everyone has better shit. Science benefits because they can focus on RnD without being interrupted by requests, which means more time for them to fuck around with the other parts of the department. Everyone else benefits because they're no longer stuck with lazy scientists.