Remove Barista and the second Bartender slot

[Muncorn]

There are currently 2 slots for bartender, as well as 2 options for bartender: Barista and Bartender. The additions of both of these happened while I wasn't active on Aurora, but I've been made aware the reason for these being added, and I'm going to talk here about why those reasons are stupid.

1: Barista is a silly thing  -  The point of there being a bar; and thus a bartender; on the station is to supply the crew with drinks, alcoholic, juices or coffees, whatever they may be. A bartender, both in function ingame and as an actual role, can do all three of these. A Barista, by definition, only makes coffee. So what happened then, was people would join as Barista and refuse to serve alcohol (which makes up probably 70-80% of orders at the bar btw) and people would get annoyed. And so, the second slot for bartender was added.

2: 2 Slots is fucking painful  -  There is never, and I repeat never a situation as a bartender where two people are required to serve all the customers. And so what actually happens is you end up taking turns serving drinks (since there's also not enough dispensers or space for 2 people to work anyway) and one of you tends to do nothing. And that's on busy shifts. Everytime it is dead hour and there are 4 crew and another bartender joins, all I know is there is now an hour and a half of two people sitting doing fuck all instead of one person sitting doing fuck all.

3: The second slot's function breaks the rules  -  Wait a second? What's the purpose of the second slot? To make sure somebody can always serve alcohol. But I'm in lobby, how do I know if this barista already playing is or isn't serving alcohol anyway? Plenty do, so the only way I could know would be to know IC knowledge and use that to influence my character choice, which is technically against the rules. Not a big breach, but it's not good when the reason for a change in the code actively breaks them.

 

Overall, Barista is a silly job to add, since unlike the more specific titles you see in the Scientists, Engineers and Doctors, it does nothing but make the job less useful for no good reason, and it then has to have a second slot just so it can remain relevant. Additionally, NT knows full well that alcohol is the most served drink at the bar, why'd they bother hiring baristas? They can just tell their bartenders to make fuckin coffee. Remove Barista, remove the second slot.

[greenjoe]

I'm against this, while I don't have a big argument for keeping barista, other then just liking the sound of it, I do however think removing the second bartender slot would be bad. It's neat for two bartenders to be around and serve customers together, and they can RP together when there is no one else at the bar.

-1

[KingOfThePing]

Lmao, we have gone full circle

[wowzewow]

It would make a lot of sense if the kitchen and bar actually worked like an actual restaurant with waitstaff and line cooks, so people ACTUALLY have things to do. Taking orders and serving meals.

You know, that's probably the intention anyway. Should probably add a "Waiter" title.

[Sheeplets]

1 hour ago, wowzewow said:

Should probably add a "Waiter" title.

Pog

[Butterrobber202]

I'd be down for a kitchen/bar remap so the serving area is more central to both of them tbh. As it stands it's more "if you want food, hallway serve" and "drink in the hugely massive drinking area holy fuck why is it that big??"

[Shenaanigans]

I do agree that the alt title of "Barista" is pretty superfluous and, given the past precedent of stripping out alt titles in other departments, I wouldn't mind it being removed so we don't run into the weird gray area of trying to draw distinctions between the responsibilities of Bartender versus Barista.

As far as removing the second slot goes? Hard disagree. That slot was added to allow more people to be able to play a very popular, RP oriented role as well as provide RP for the people behind the bar when no one is in ordering drinks. There's not a lot of mechanical pressure on bartenders to perform quickly, so a bit of shuffling around each other really isn't enough justification in my mind to go back down to one slot. Maybe you can make a case for re-mapping the bar to take up more of that huge space that's only occupied by tables right now if it feels that cramped.

[niennab]

Removing the second bartender slot would be an awful change. A full bar is just about impossible to navigate AND rp in. Having a second person on staff means both the players and bartenders get to have more meaningful interaction between one another. Moreover, on those shifts where no one decides to visit the bar, the bartender potentially has another RP buddy.

[Doxxmedearly]

21 minutes ago, Shenaanigans said:

As far as removing the second slot goes? Hard disagree. That slot was added to allow more people to be able to play a very popular, RP oriented role as well as provide RP for the people behind the bar when no one is in ordering drinks

Exactly what I came here to post. The second slot is good for the reasons listed and will probably not be going. Many jobs have more slots than absolutely necessary, and that's to accommodate our playerbase. If you need to take turns serving drinks, do so. I think the way it's being presented here paints it as an issue when there is none.

A better solution would be the larger undertaking of restructuring the kitchen and bar staff / areas to be less separate and more like a restaurant or equivalent, as people are suggesting.

Removal of the alt-title is fine if it's causing issues.

[Muncorn]

In hindsight, maybe I overlooked the relevance of a second bartender slot. As a player I personally prefer working the bar solo, but I do get that lot of people will disagree on that.

However the Barista role is unnecessary for sure, I've no doubt about that. I'm no mapper, though can happily agree that changing the bar and kitchen is a good move, lot of wasted space.

[Faye <3]

Bartender is an incredibly popular role and removing the second slot is insanity IMO. I also don't think that Barista is necessary to be removed as it's literally just a flavor thing. and I haven't heard anyone say or seen myself a case of it causing issue. Two bartenders is a good amount and sometimes required, even, on hectic rounds. RP'ing with the other bartender is also very fun, and I've had a lot of good RP that way.

Edited January 9, 2021 by Faye <3

[Carver]

Keep the slot, keep the title. If by some chance neither are serving alcohol, this is a non-problem seeing as it's a workplace and not a dive bar - we have a varied selection of non-alcoholic beverages just for these cases.

[Zundy]

Yeah, I don't mind either way per se regarding the removal of Barista but I'd want to keep the second slot AND I agree with Carver. The bar is purely and RP avenue, it doesn't provide so required mechanical aspect like say, someone being an alt doctor role which prevents them actually performing medicine when required or an engineering alt role which prevents them from setting up the engine.

[Fluffy]

The Barista currently has a no-alcohol-present Cafè in D3 in the current map, which gives it something to do without the expectation of serving alcoholics, therefore voting for dismissal.

[wowzewow]

Voting for dismissal