Merc given department specific requirements

[AmoryBlaine]

Mercenary should require a base amount of Command, Security, and Medical personnel. Or something, feel free to make suggestions. But the current readied up system as a means off judging when to launch these sorts of rounds isn't very good.

[Skull132]

This is likely horribly impossible due to the order of how round-start allotment is selected. It would also make the round exceedingly rare.

[Randy]

12 hours ago, Skull132 said:

This is likely horribly impossible due to the order of how round-start allotment is selected. It would also make the round exceedingly rare.

In that case im going to -1 this suggestion 

[Nero07]

Few years ago, i put a pr on bay that displays what peoples [high] job preference is next to their name in the lobby when they ready up. Could be compiled into a list and checked against requirements for certain round types.

Of course that doesn't solve the problem of making these rounds rarer as a result.

[Skull132]

51 minutes ago, Nero07 said:

Few years ago, i put a pr on bay that displays what peoples [high] job preference is next to their name in the lobby when they ready up. Could be compiled into a list and checked against requirements for certain round types.

"High" preference doesn't showcase the final outcome of selection tho. You would have unresolved medium-lows and the fact that antags are yet to be picked. This is to say, it'd be highly speculative.

[Nero07]

True, it's not a reliable way to tell what exactly you'll end up with.

But if there is someone with "head of security" set to high, you will have a HOS in the round. If there's 3 people with engineer set to high, you will have 3 engineers.

You may have more than 3, or if 5 have it on high, some will have other jobs. But if there's 3 on high, you'll have at least 3.

So you could have a provisional, skeleton manifest of people that have high selections and make decisions based on that.

 

Not saying it would be a good or bad idea, but technically possible.

[Scheveningen]

It's not impossible to do, it's just hacky and pointless to do. 

In practice, if it were a requirement that people have certain jobs turned on in addition to the antag type being enabled, it would mean the game mode would fail to load and another game mode would get rolled instead, thereby increasing the likelihood that there will not be mercenary rounds loaded in as the game mode at all.

You should have basic knowledge of every department in the first place before you tick on mercenary for the first time, or you will not know how to survive basic threats as an external station antag.

[Nero07]

I feel like saying "it would mean the game mode would fail to load and another game mode would get rolled instead" is kinda missing the point of this request, which I understand to be "If you don't have a certain number of important roles, merc isn't fun".

The implication being that only "not fun" rounds would be blocked by this. In which case nothing of value was lost. There would be less merc rounds, true. But only less shitty merc rounds without security or command staff.

Edited December 9, 2019 by Nero07
typo

[MattAtlas]

How this would work with the current order of antag selection:

15 people ready up, 4 are officers, 11 are whatever else -> We have 4 officers readied up, so the game assumes there is security, and that merc is a valid option -> all 4 officers proceed to roll mercenary.

What then? This solution isn't feasible with the current system we have. And it would take a very large rework of roundstart selection to pull it off.

[KingOfThePing]

While the suggestion is not bad, it wouldn't work, mostly for what Matt said. Reworking the entire pre-round setup and lobby is neither nessecary nor would I want anyone to take that burden on themselves. Can't add any more to this, other than what was said. Matt pretty much hits it spot on.

[Crozarius]

Isn't it the onus on the Mercenaries to create a compelling round/gimmick? If all of security roll Merc, it's nobody's fault but theirs if they go loud and just murder everyone without resistance. They should be able to identify a lack of command staff and security and come up with a gimmick that works for that. But then perhaps I'm being too much of an idealist.

[sonicgotnuked]

The lower chance for certain jobs to become antag was reverted specifically due to the reasons stated above. The game would be forced to choose between a few game modes with the others being a lot rarer. 

[Roostercat]

29 minutes ago, sonicgotnuked said:

The lower chance for certain jobs to become antag was reverted specifically due to the reasons stated above. The game would be forced to choose between a few game modes with the others being a lot rarer. 

Basically this would happen

[Scheveningen]

13 hours ago, Nero07 said:

The implication being that only "not fun" rounds would be blocked by this. In which case nothing of value was lost. There would be less merc rounds, true. But only less shitty merc rounds without security or command staff.

Fallacious assumption, as you actually cannot know that.