[Feedback] Moving the Bridge to the Construction Level

[furrycactus]

The purpose of this PR is to move a good portion of the Command Bridge to the interstitial layer - right where the Construction Site off the main elevators is at the moment. Where it currently is, the Bridge suffers from a serious lack of what scientists call "being used"; outside of being the gear-up point for the HoP and Captain, location of the spare ID, and being a transitional zone to the AI Core and Command and Expeditionary docks. It generally feels isolated, empty, detached, and seldom-used, just by virtue of being so far away from everyone else.

Moving it closer to the elevators has the benefit of making it much more accessible and closer to very well-trafficked areas, plus moves it to a far more central position of the station as a whole. Quite literally, it turns it into the 'heart', so to speak. This will hopefully see its usage increase, especially since I'm planning on adding a smaller central ring about it, with some places to sit about and chat with friends, wait in comfort to speak to the Powers That Be, maybe even add some rafters to look down at the holodeck. It's got a bit of potential.

Of course, this is a pretty heavy WIP, as it's a decently large undertaking. It may not even come to fruition, depends what the community (all of you) think as I work on it. We'll see.

If I hear a "but why NBT soon" I will go monkey mode.

Here's a screenshot of an early draft - keep in mind, it's lightly decorated because I didn't want to get too far into this if it turned out scores of people absolutely hated the idea, this is just to give everyone a rough idea of the layout. Still very much subject to change. (And for reference, the office with the kinda blue-green carpet is the Captain's Office, the one with the more red-orange carpet is the Head of Personnel's Office.

As for where the Command/Expeditionary docks are going to go, I'm still weighing that up. The AI Core is likely going to stay where it is.

 

PR in question:
https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/11964

Edited May 26, 2021 by furrycactus

[Faye <3]

i think this could be cool.

 

i would just be sure that there's manual access to the bridge (ladders or a stairwell or smth) incase antags fuck w/the elevators or something

Edited May 26, 2021 by Faye <3

[furrycactus]

3 minutes ago, Faye <3 said:

i think this could be cool.

 

i would just be sure that there's manual access to the bridge (ladders or a stairwell or smth) incase antags fuck w/the elevators or something

Yes! Definitely, that should be easy enough to do.

[Pratepresidenten]

Bringing the bridge in from isolation to what exodus had brings the warm fuzzy feels inside. Dis some good shit. Me likey.

[SleepyWolf]

I currently don't like how the Captain's Office is in terms of its kinda - thematic feeling to it. In this current state it feels like it's bending the Captain to be a service to the crew instead of the Captain being the one that commands everyone. I think you should change the Captain's office to really focus on holding the Captain higher in status, not just on the same level as the HoP. I'd say make the main desk more centered, and have the office be symmetrical with itself, not with the HoP's.

 

ALSO if you're looking for ideas on what to do with the emergency docks : You can add another level at the bottom of the station, in space. An observation deck with emergency docking, the scout shuttle, maybe put the command bar there with a little garden - one thing you'd have to do is map in a shield generator just to keep that space-viewing level safe.

[Butterrobber202]

I’m willing to try it out. But I’d rather the Captain not have a HoP style line.

[Lordnesh]

I'm currently applying for command, and the thought occurred to me that the bridge rarely gets used outside of antag related things. This sounds like a good way to make the bridge more accessible.

[greenjoe]

this seems like a great idea! A second staircase near this end of the station would be useful for being able to access the command area if elevators are disabled.

Also, what would happen with the command bunker? it being near the bridge would likely still be useful, so it's current location would want to change too?

[Caelphon]

I really like this idea, but have to agree with sleepy. The placement of the office makes the Captain seem to be a glorified HoP. Slight adjustments to it might be worth while. Maybe make it more of an apartment (minus the kitchen)? If that makes sense? They are the Captains Quarters after all. 

[Pratepresidenten]

Oh yeah, something I forgot to ask. With this move, where will the SAT be situated now, and what will the former bridge be looking like? Are you planning to move the AI core closer to under the former bridge, or whats the plan with that if any. Oh! Also, command bunker, what will become of it ?

[Lmwevil]

but why NBT soon? :^^^^^^)

anyway Captain needs a cooler office- what happens to the SAT? where will that be positioned? (god damn you i just saw you asked prate as i wrote this)

Command Bunker could be moved to be directly attached to the bridge itself instead of being in the middle of nowhere really- it's not like construction level is ever wanting for space. 

This lacks what I liked most about the old bridge, we had a little room to have coffee with other Command - not that it was ever used. Do we get a nice break room where we don't have to interact with other crew? 

Something also is what changes about the Command dock? 

All in all I totally support the change, construction has been unused for too long, has so much space. Also it puts the bridge in a safer logistical position on the station instead of being really far to the side and vulnerable

[furrycactus]

I'll see about tweaking the captain's office.

Regarding the Bunker: Given that the AI Core sublevel is remaining where it is, the Bunker might remain there with it, given that it'll still a pretty secure area. If people really want it to be accessed primarily from the Bridge however, it'll likely have to be on the same level as the Bridge then. Cross-Z-level real estate is a little more sparse, given that Research and Engineering are below the new Bridge in this, and it's nestled between Yellow Dock and the TCFL Dock on the Surface.

Regarding the SAT: There's a few things I Could do with this. I could move it over to the new Bridge and have it off the Captain's private quarters again. Same deal as the Bunker though, it'd be on the same Z-level, which I don't think is all that bad anyway. Alternatively, if the Bunker stays with the AI Core, I could attach it to that. Not much would change in regards to that, given that only the Captain and AI know what it does. To most of Command, it'd just be a secure device that does "something" above their paygrade, like it is now.

Regarding the Former Bridge: Two things could happen. It could have some of its rooms cut down and be converted into a second station docking area. A lot of it can stay as-is in terms of general structure, but it becomes the "important" docking area. The Western Surface Docks serving as civilian transport primarily, while the Eastern caters to consular ships, agent arrivals, and would still retain the expedition shuttle. This could open up the Former Bridge hallway to be a little bit more general access, but still not necessarily a highly trafficked area. A lot of the main level rooms could be repurposed to Expeditionary Preparation Areas. Lockers, a storage room for expedition finds more on-hand and close to the shuttle, some chargers for cells and weapons and exosuits, a proper briefing room for people going on an expedition, a small infirmary, and so on. If it were repurposed this way, the AI Core elevators and such can remain exactly the same.

Alternatively, the Surface Command Docks can be moved to the West above the new Bridge area or near where Telecomms/the Solars are, and the Telecomms and the Solars can be moved to where the docks are at present. If this is workable (considering the space necessary for both Yellow Dock and the TCFL Dock), then the current Bridge can be shrunk substantially, and serve as the entrance to the station's digital infrastructure hub (AI, Telecommunications, plus the Solar Panel Arrays).

[furrycactus]

5 minutes ago, Lmwevil said:

This lacks what I liked most about the old bridge, we had a little room to have coffee with other Command - not that it was ever used. Do we get a nice break room where we don't have to interact with other crew?

Look at the top of the Bridge in that screenshot.

[Carver]

Not really sure how to feel about the Captain getting a line, though. Makes him feel a bit 'lower-tier' to be subtly pushed toward ID changing duties. I'm also unsure where this Bridge would leave room for command pod access if it's much more centralized, although if it ends up making the pods easier to break into because they'd end up attached to the main surface deck structure that'd be swell. They're rather underused as it is.

Besides those two thoughts, I love the idea. As it stands the construction level may as well not exist in most scenarios bar fucking with people in the medical lobby or breaking into the vault. I would have commented on 'where does the vault go', but I'm not going to pretend the vault really adds anything to the bridge to begin with (as it historically wasn't even that close to the bridge on older maps).

[Arrow768]

Not a fan of the captains office.

The proposed design is much less secure now than it was before due to the windows/door exposed directly to the public hallway.

[WickedCybs]

Expanding the maintenance network up there so there's no dead ends would be nice. There's a bit less room for it on that level, but ideally I think the teleporter room, the HoP's office and the command cryo area at the least would have maintenance exits offering another route out or in.

[furrycactus]

46 minutes ago, Arrow768 said:

Not a fan of the captains office.

The proposed design is much less secure now than it was before due to the windows/door exposed directly to the public hallway.

The plan was to give the windows to the Captain's Office the gray privacy shutters (like the ones Chemistry has for example) which start closed at round-start, so that wouldn't be an easy-access weakpoint for anybody with rubber gloves or a glass shard. If the airlock in the public hall is still an issue, it could be made into one of the tamper-resistant ones, such as the one to the AI Core, to make it harder to just cut the ID wire and waltz on in. Beyond that as well, I was planning to move the Spare ID into the Captain's backroom personal quarters, so it's not just an easy "pop one window/door out and grab the spare". But even so, at the moment the Captain's Office and all the goodies within are hardly secure at the moment anyway. Any engineer with wirecutters and gloves or some good luck can just pop through two airlocks and get in. And the majority of antags have an absolutely trivial experience getting in.

 

32 minutes ago, WickedCybs said:

Expanding the maintenance network up there so there's no dead ends would be nice. There's a bit less room for it on that level, but ideally I think the teleporter room, the HoP's office and the command cryo area at the least would have maintenance exits offering another route out or in.

Bridge maintenance is still very much planned, this was just a very rough early draft to give everybody a generalised and early-stage visualisation of the whole thing.

Edited May 27, 2021 by furrycactus

[Butterrobber202]

6 hours ago, furrycactus said:

Regarding the SAT:

My only request for this is, if you move the the SAT, you need to make it's defenses uber thick in all directions. Roof, floor and walls. It's hidden away in the Captain's Quarters for good reason after all. And if you don't move it, make sure it's not just a open doing blowing in the wind with the move, I'd move it into the AI core's defenses personally.

[furrycactus]

1 minute ago, Butterrobber202 said:

My only request for this is, if you move the the SAT, you need to make it's defenses uber thick in all directions. Roof, floor and walls. It's hidden away in the Captain's Quarters for good reason after all. And if you don't move it, make sure it's not just a open doing blowing in the wind with the move, I'd move it into the AI core's defenses personally.

Assuming I don't move it, I'd most likely just cut and paste what it is at the moment and slap it onto the side of the bunker, with some directional changes and tidying up to make it look pretty as necessary. It's already pretty decently secure and doesn't need any changes in that regard. It doesn't even have a reinforced roof as-is, just inconspicuous rocks or ash turf at random.

[Desven]

Sorry for beating the dead horse, but perhaps where the Cap's office currently stands you could place the command cryo, or change the direction of the HOP's office. I like the idea a lot, but it needs another layout imo.

 

Unrelated, but probably add something else too to the construction level? Like empty shops for players or something, or some kind of way departments can connect to the place, because while it's good ultimately it may suffer from the same issue of the bridge being too disconnected from the rest of the map.

[Lmwevil]

Bonus points if the new bridge has an observation deck that peers into space, not the asteroid. 

Maybe a bridge checkpoint that sec could man? 

[furrycactus]

1 hour ago, Lmwevil said:

Bonus points if the new bridge has an observation deck that peers into space, not the asteroid. 

Maybe a bridge checkpoint that sec could man? 

An observation deck overlooking space is a bit difficult to attain, since it's slap-bang in the very middle of the asteroid now. The only ways it'd be feasible would be some kind of passage that goes down to the under-station Z-level, which is trickier to attain with the Bridge being above Research/the aft hall/Engineering now, OR, a really really really long hallway to the edge of the asteroid (which, eh).

As for a security checkpoint in the Bridge, I'm going to say no, since the Security community so vehemently opposed Departmental Security.

[Carver]

Just now, furrycactus said:

As for a security checkpoint in the Bridge, I'm going to say no, since the Security community so vehemently opposed Departmental Security.

While I don't think the bridge needs a checkpoint; it was never a 'Security community' opposing that, it was a vocal minority (of whom the most vocal individual got banned).

As for the bunker, I'm not sure it gets much regular use at all. Would it truly be missed if it were left be or simply axed, given that most bridge designs already have a functional lockdown?

[furrycactus]

Couple updates I did over the day.

 

Captain/HoP Offices:

I swapped the positions of the HoP and the Captain's Office, and removed the line for the Captain. Captain's is still blank for now, while I ponder on re-doing it. Bar and Teleporter have been moved aside while I fill in the more important bits, and the Cryo room is above the HoP Office now.

 

Power/Atmospherics/Maintenance:

The Engineering infrastructure comes in through an airlock and gets carried across the Medical Reception rafters. At least, for the "public" part of the level. I accidentally cut the substation out of this picture, but it's visible in the next one. The Important-Command-Actual-Bridge part will probably have its own substation which is fed from a different point, like the ladders by Engineering.

 

Diplomatic Offices:

The offices for Corporate Representatives and Consular Offices have been brought up to the fancy new Bridge as well, or at least, been placed adjacent to it. I gave them modified CentCom airlocks to more heavily emphasise that they're third-party, and while important, not actually Command. I just think they look neat. Their section of maintenance tunnels has also been more clearly marked as part of the "Diplomatic Zone" for purposes of regulations and such. Reps and Consulars will probably still have Bridge access, and to emphasise the close and friendly nature they should have with station Command, they have a side entrance to it. Same rules still apply about wandering the Bridge and poking your nose around willy-nilly, of course.

[Arrow768]

On 27/05/2021 at 09:01, furrycactus said:

The plan was to give the windows to the Captain's Office the gray privacy shutters (like the ones Chemistry has for example) which start closed at round-start, so that wouldn't be an easy-access weakpoint for anybody with rubber gloves or a glass shard. If the airlock in the public hall is still an issue, it could be made into one of the tamper-resistant ones, such as the one to the AI Core, to make it harder to just cut the ID wire and waltz on in. Beyond that as well, I was planning to move the Spare ID into the Captain's backroom personal quarters, so it's not just an easy "pop one window/door out and grab the spare".

Moving the spare to the backroom and using tamper resistant electronics for the airlocks in the captains office sounds reasonable secure.

 

The only other weird thing that I noticed so far were the two double airlocks, followed by a single airlock which lead to the consular section.