Add Command Secretary

[CatsinHD]

As it stands, command has no introductory role. The best you can get to one is Interim, which is locked behind either a HoP/Captain being proactive or in an emergency, or being an assistant and having only a HoP/captain bring you in as a command assistant. I think this creates an issue where anyone who is interested in applying for command is limited to two options that are very dependent on two roles and often doesn't quite get across the whole picture of what it is like to play command. Interims are mostly there for emergencies so they only ever experience emergency promotions. Command Assistant, in my experience, is often thrown away and ignored either because of lack of access or so on. It is inconsistent so most command players don't exactly know how to utilize them.

So my idea is to add a command secretary. The easiest way to do so is porting over Polaris's role here and making whatever adjustments we need, whether it is ID access or whatever else. Through this, I hope something akin to Bridge Officers from Bay can be recreated; a learner role that can learn command without all of the burden and be of some use. Need a fax written while you are negotiating with mercs? Call up the secretary and have them write it up and, assuming they are given access to, fax it off.

[greenjoe]

+1 from me, I've played command secretary on polaris quite a bit, and it's a cool role to play, can get cool interactions with the captain and other command staff

[Ricky_the_banshee]

While I see why one would want a command assistant/secretary role, I personally disagree with its implementation and I'll explain by using three specific issues that I find with it.

First, let's talk about the elephant in the room and  that is the role's accessibility. By that, I don't refer to their in-game IDs but rather what players could access this role. Is it a general role available to anyone who joins? Or is it a learner role part of the command whitelist position? If it's the former, then that could lead to some issues in regards to what sort of players could join with that slot. Sure, it's presented as a learner role so you could argue that mistakes could be dismissed, but what if the player who assumes this role has some malicious intend? The whitelist exists primarily as a means of quality control and a border that stops bad/malicious players from positioning themselves within key roles that could make or break a round, or worse abuse its access to for their insane griefing strategies,. You could argue that this can be prevented by limiting access to just the main bridge, but before I touch on that  I'd like to move on to my second problem first. 

Secondly, the role seems unnecessary in the 'grand schemes of things', and it goes back to my question whether this should be open-access or a whitelist role. Now, let's assume the role becomes locked behind a whitelist, then its position and possibilty as a learner role is only accessible to those who actually apply and receive a whitelist trialship. Most people that take on the whitelist typically intend to demonstrate their skill immediatly through their intended Command role.  

Thirdly, the role could come into conflict with roles such as the Head of Personnel. According to the wikia and job description, the Head of Personnel technically and practically already operates as the Captain's second hand. Their job usually revolves on taking over priorities which the captain can (albeit within limitations due to their access and few radio channels). They have access through several departments, hold authority that should make issuing orders not so difficult. As I had mentioned before, the Command Secretary would likely be limited due to their ID access as well as their radio, and by that they would just proof to be an inferior head of personnel.

Furthermore it could lead to secretaries overstepping their boundaries (if they are a non-whitelist position). It takes one captain/HoP to pass them a radio headset and update their ID, then issuing out an announcement or notice through several channels to inform them that "The Command Secretary acts as a Captain's stand-in and therefor their word is on my behalf". It takes little steps to easily override the roles limitations and make them into a pseudo-HoP or pseudo-Captain that could issue out orders at a whim, orders that a captain or hop could easily do themselves and share fairly among eachother.

In conclusion. I feel that as it is presented right now, it's unsure whether the role is either non-whitelist or whitelist-locked. Firstly, if it were non-command it would turn the point of the whitelist completely upside down as a quality control/border for command-access roles, which could lead to issues within that department. Secondly, it seems the role is a tad unnecessary as a learner role when most command staff intend to assume their preferred Head role as interim anyway. Thirdly, it conflicts too much with existing roles such as the HoP, who could function already as a better secretary due to their access and authority. And finally, the role could effectively step out of bounds easily through a mere ID upgrade. The issue of players in-game being appointed and later on dismissed by command staff, in my opinion at least, has less to do with a lack of understanding on how to utilize them, but rather is a symptom that demonstrates their uselessness in the grand scheme of commands roles. Especially when this assistant could be anybody (assuming its non-whitelist), it would be a game of russian roulette on what this player's intentions could possibly be with this position. 

I have to give this proposal my -1.

 

[ClemTheDuck]

29 minutes ago, Ricky_the_banshee said:

While I see why one would want a command assistant/secretary role, I personally disagree with its implementation and I'll explain by using three specific issues that I find with it.

First, let's talk about the elephant in the room and  that is the role's accessibility. By that, I don't refer to their in-game IDs but rather what players could access this role. Is it a general role available to anyone who joins? Or is it a learner role part of the command whitelist position? If it's the former, then that could lead to some issues in regards to what sort of players could join with that slot. Sure, it's presented as a learner role so you could argue that mistakes could be dismissed, but what if the player who assumes this role has some malicious intend? The whitelist exists primarily as a means of quality control and a border that stops bad/malicious players from positioning themselves within key roles that could make or break a round, or worse abuse its access to for their insane griefing strategies,. You could argue that this can be prevented by limiting access to just the main bridge, but before I touch on that  I'd like to move on to my second problem first. 

Secondly, the role seems unnecessary in the 'grand schemes of things', and it goes back to my question whether this should be open-access or a whitelist role. Now, let's assume the role becomes locked behind a whitelist, then its position and possibilty as a learner role is only accessible to those who actually apply and receive a whitelist trialship. Most people that take on the whitelist typically intend to demonstrate their skill immediatly through their intended Command role.  

Thirdly, the role could come into conflict with roles such as the Head of Personnel. According to the wikia and job description, the Head of Personnel technically and practically already operates as the Captain's second hand. Their job usually revolves on taking over priorities which the captain can (albeit within limitations due to their access and few radio channels). They have access through several departments, hold authority that should make issuing orders not so difficult. As I had mentioned before, the Command Secretary would likely be limited due to their ID access as well as their radio, and by that they would just proof to be an inferior head of personnel.

Furthermore it could lead to secretaries overstepping their boundaries (if they are a non-whitelist position). It takes one captain/HoP to pass them a radio headset and update their ID, then issuing out an announcement or notice through several channels to inform them that "The Command Secretary acts as a Captain's stand-in and therefor their word is on my behalf". It takes little steps to easily override the roles limitations and make them into a pseudo-HoP or pseudo-Captain that could issue out orders at a whim, orders that a captain or hop could easily do themselves and share fairly among eachother.

In conclusion. I feel that as it is presented right now, it's unsure whether the role is either non-whitelist or whitelist-locked. Firstly, if it were non-command it would turn the point of the whitelist completely upside down as a quality control/border for command-access roles, which could lead to issues within that department. Secondly, it seems the role is a tad unnecessary as a learner role when most command staff intend to assume their preferred Head role as interim anyway. Thirdly, it conflicts too much with existing roles such as the HoP, who could function already as a better secretary due to their access and authority. And finally, the role could effectively step out of bounds easily through a mere ID upgrade. The issue of players in-game being appointed and later on dismissed by command staff, in my opinion at least, has less to do with a lack of understanding on how to utilize them, but rather is a symptom that demonstrates their uselessness in the grand scheme of commands roles. Especially when this assistant could be anybody (assuming its non-whitelist), it would be a game of russian roulette on what this player's intentions could possibly be with this position. 

I have to give this proposal my -1.

 

Whitelisting kinda ruins the point of the role, make it open access, worried people will use it for “malicious intent?” We have staff for that.

in terms of operation it sounds like you’re just gonna act like security cadets and other learner roles where you are expected to be with a command member and following them to learn. Given similar access to command but not to the actual important stuff.

with the concern of bad players abusing positional power, bad wardens can theoretically take guns with them all the time, but we have ic and ooc rules stopping that. Just emplace rules and restrictions that limit the amount of power a command secretary will have.

personslly I like this idea, plus it frees up command from some paperwork stuff and allows for some unique rp. +1

[greenjoe]

42 minutes ago, Ricky_the_banshee said:

what if the player who assumes this role has some malicious intend?

You could say the same for engineering, medical, security, hell, just about every department

[Butterrobber202]

NBT is allegadly adding Command-lite roles as an intro to Command so regardless of this Suggestion, it's on it's way. 

As for Secretary, it would be just as dependent on Command Staff existing in the first place, it would be weird if there was a Secretary with no Command Staff.

[niennab]

I worry that the role opens itself up for malicious intent over good, or encourages roles like the Captain or Head of Personnel to communicate less with the crew. In the same vein, what if the Captain/Head of Personnel wants no business with the Secretary? If they're smart they'll put them somewhere like the library or cargo, but it could suck for that player.

It could possibly be neat as an option that can be activated in round by the Head of Personnel or Captain. Thus those players get to choose if they want a secretary.

[Desven]

1 hour ago, niennab said:

I worry that the role opens itself up for malicious intent over good, or encourages roles like the Captain or Head of Personnel to communicate less with the crew. In the same vein, what if the Captain/Head of Personnel wants no business with the Secretary? If they're smart they'll put them somewhere like the library or cargo, but it could suck for that player.

It could possibly be neat as an option that can be activated in round by the Head of Personnel or Captain. Thus those players get to choose if they want a secretary.

Similar to the Consular secretary suggestion (and perhaps with the same trigger option), I think the solution would be to trigger a ghost spawner for the job. In this defect, you could instead select it from the HOP's ID modification screen instead.

This is unrelated perhaps but, officially added or not , I would like having a vacant office in @furrycactus
bridge redesign, to use in ocassions like this.

[SilverSZ]

5 hours ago, niennab said:

It could possibly be neat as an option that can be activated in round by the Head of Personnel or Captain. Thus those players get to choose if they want a secretary.

If this role does exist though personally I think the need for it is overstated. I've personally seen plenty of opportunities to gain command experience through being an Interim when a captain is awake and that is far greater experience than a secretary around would get when a captain or HOP is awake. The role 100% should only be able to exist if a higher command staff is awake, so it actually has a purpose rather than people using it as unwhitelisted authority. And it should be made clear that the secretary has no power to command anyone onboard. They should be the same level as any other assistant but simply with an assignment to assist a certain person. Any authority they could ever have should be given by the command above them if at all.

[greenjoe]

4 hours ago, Desven said:

trigger a ghost spawner for the job.

The issue with that is not being able to load a saved character slot with an appearance, records, loadout and such

[Desven]

1 hour ago, greenjoe said:

The issue with that is not being able to load a saved character slot with an appearance, records, loadout and such

Hm, rather, it could be a slot open only if certain conditions meet, like merchant works I think?

[greenjoe]

 

2 minutes ago, Desven said:

Hm, rather, it could be a slot open only if certain conditions meet, like merchant works I think?

I imagine that could be much better, yes

[Carver]

The more I think about these 'add a role' suggestions for secretaries that need some finnicky system for them to be available, the more I understand why people just suggest to play assistant and ask for the position. Even without an HoP/Captain, if a member of Command wants a secretary/personal aide then they can simply give them a guest pass.