Remake of NanoTrasen Representative

[Korinra]

So recently I was in a round where a fake announcement was sent up stating no one would receive pay for the shift. I legitimately didn't realize OOCly this was fake, and thought it was a mini-event. So I faxed CentCom requesting specific details of the non-pay, so I could hold a press release kind of meeting where I discussed NT's intentions for payment. I got no response. I sent another requesting more details later on, no response. I was later told by WickedCybs that it wouldn't make sense for the liaison to seek out information for this kind of thing.

However, in reality that's what a liaison is. They are the go-between for employees and employer. Knowing what is and is not allowed to be said is the whole point of having a liaison. They're the ones who are in the know of what not to say specifically so they can avoid it entirely and drive a discussion away from it. That said, I think the NanoTrasen Representative should be removed. The representatives of other companies should remain as they are, but instead NanoTrasen shouldn't send a representative liaison who isn't really in the know enough to act as such.

I tried to wrap my head around something to replace it, but honestly, I don't think there needs to be a replacement. The representatives of various companies that work with NT and the consular for different interest groups idea is already interesting. Then I had an idea;

Secretary [Difficulty: Easy]
Access: Secretary's Office or Department Access
Qualifications: At least 25 years of age
Relevant Education: Not defined
Supervisors: Command Staff
Duties: Basic paperwork
Guides: Guide to Paperwork

Think of this as kind of an Assistant role with a specific task. The Secretary would have an office, the office between the Consular and Representative. The Secretary would ultimately be in charge of anything the Command staff, the Consular, or the Representative tell them to do. This is a good role for someone who wants to learn how to do paperwork without much other responsibility. These people can be used as general gofers (go fer this, go fer that, etc...). Secretaries can be assigned to different departments too. Where a general Secretary would work in the Secretary office, an Engineering Secretary would be responsible for manning the window at Security, talking with people who have questions, and relaying requests to and from Engineering. A medical secretary would work the lobby, allowing doctors to work on sick people, etc...

Really, all a secretary does is what Assistants SHOULD be doing, but without having to alter their IDs each round. They have access to records relevant to their department, they have access to get to the window of their department. And they have radio access to their department. This is a good role for someone who either loves paperwork, or wants to learn about a role without jumping in quite yet. This also gives departments someone to dump paperwork on while the actual work is being done.

[Carver]

33 minutes ago, Korinra said:

The representatives of other companies should remain as they are, but instead NanoTrasen shouldn't send a representative liaison who isn't really in the know enough to act as such.

I'd like to specifically address this, given NBT removes NanoTrasen from the spotlight and replaces the 'lead faction' with the SCC, will this situation not thus change entirely and make NT Liaison precisely the same as those other representatives?

[Zelmana]

The whole asking for validation thing was phased into "meta", correct. I completely agree with you-- despite it being meta and being able to completely negate a Antag's gimmick via writing a fax, it does something more odd, which is to make the liaison-company relationship broken.

The proposed solution to this, removing the NT liaison, is odd. They do far more than communicate back to the company to confirm out of place visitors, and as any faction, act as a means of roleplay and exploration of lore. Nanotrasen Liaisons specifically act as interpreters of regulations and standard operating procedure to command. Additionally, they are mind-shield implanted. They have additional responsibilities here that I don't think are being considered.

A better solution would be that if an antagonist is going to pull a gimmick that could be broken by fax-to-confirm cliche, then the telecomms should be out/broken for the duration. This brings up other issues, such as when/if the crew discover the "true" nature of a boarding party (if they are playing as posers and not rping legit characters).



To the notion we should have a "secretary" role-- that is kind of what the NT-specific liaison often does. Drafting status reports. However, this is hardly (or should be) a fraction of their job. Representing the company, sitting down with people to discuss their satisfaction with NT, discussion of politics, assisting CCIA if needed, helping Commnad interpret sop/regs, and even helping characters in-characterly start the incident report process.

 

[Korinra]

13 hours ago, Carver said:

I'd like to specifically address this, given NBT removes NanoTrasen from the spotlight and replaces the 'lead faction' with the SCC, will this situation not thus change entirely and make NT Liaison precisely the same as those other representatives?

Can't say I know what you mean here. Basically my statement meant that the other liaisons from other companies are fine to use because their goals aren't as secret as NanoTrasen. Zeng-Hu wants more of it's medical parts used and thus pushes for mechanical replacements from it's catalog rather than other solutions. "Damaged arm? You don't need a surgeon fixing it, you need a surgeon replacing it with the new Zeng-Hu arm, it's better than your original anyway." There's no hidden agendas that aren't outright explained OOCly, so it's easy to guess what Zeng-Hu would want said in any situation. NanoTrasen on the other hand is intentionally so secretive that there's a nuclear bomb on the station that the crew doesn't even know about. Sometimes NT does stuff for OOC reasons, and there IS no IC way it could be talked about, so there is no way for a liaison from NT to discuss it properly. That's all I meant.

 

6 hours ago, Zelmana said:

The whole asking for validation thing was phased into "meta", correct. I completely agree with you-- despite it being meta and being able to completely negate a Antag's gimmick via writing a fax, it does something more odd, which is to make the liaison-company relationship broken.

The proposed solution to this, removing the NT liaison, is odd. They do far more than communicate back to the company to confirm out of place visitors, and as any faction, act as a means of roleplay and exploration of lore. Nanotrasen Liaisons specifically act as interpreters of regulations and standard operating procedure to command. Additionally, they are mind-shield implanted. They have additional responsibilities here that I don't think are being considered.

A better solution would be that if an antagonist is going to pull a gimmick that could be broken by fax-to-confirm cliche, then the telecomms should be out/broken for the duration. This brings up other issues, such as when/if the crew discover the "true" nature of a boarding party (if they are playing as posers and not rping legit characters).



To the notion we should have a "secretary" role-- that is kind of what the NT-specific liaison often does. Drafting status reports. However, this is hardly (or should be) a fraction of their job. Representing the company, sitting down with people to discuss their satisfaction with NT, discussion of politics, assisting CCIA if needed, helping Commnad interpret sop/regs, and even helping characters in-characterly start the incident report process.

 

I stand by the idea of the secretary role, first and foremost. I think it's a good idea and a way to add RP elements for people who want less responsibility in a round and just want to RP, while still being useful in small ways.

 

As for the Liaison, I think it should at a minimum then be renamed. What you're describing for the liaison isn't the job of a liaison but more of an Operations Auditor kind of deal. Someone who reports to the Chief Operations Officer that things are done by the books. Focus it more on prioritizing that the crew is doing things as written rather than being a go-between for NT and Aurora Command. That would at least make sense in a lore perspective. Every once in a while NT sends an Operations Auditor as sort of a Quality Assurance program. Then the only logical time for the OA to send back a fax would be if the highest form of command on the Aurora is refusing to correct the actions of subordinates not following SOPs.

[Zelmana]

1 hour ago, Korinra said:

As for the Liaison, I think it should at a minimum then be renamed. What you're describing for the liaison isn't the job of a liaison but more of an Operations Auditor kind of deal. Someone who reports to the Chief Operations Officer that things are done by the books. Focus it more on prioritizing that the crew is doing things as written rather than being a go-between for NT and Aurora Command. That would at least make sense in a lore perspective. Every once in a while NT sends an Operations Auditor as sort of a Quality Assurance program. Then the only logical time for the OA to send back a fax would be if the highest form of command on the Aurora is refusing to correct the actions of subordinates not following SOPs.

Some good points, but keep in mind that is what Liaison already WAS- at least for NT. Before we had all these contractor workers, we had only the NT Internal Auditor/IA role to act as CCIA's underlings.
A lot of the responsibilities from this were pushed up and into the current liaison (NT-only) position. This is reflected with some of the extra fluff in the wiki for the NT-specific liaison.

As with any role, they're to generate roleplay and often do.
I don't think we need a "New" role for something that the Liaison should be expected to do anyway. At least a good one, that is.

[Korinra]

On 28/10/2021 at 15:03, Zelmana said:

Some good points, but keep in mind that is what Liaison already WAS- at least for NT. Before we had all these contractor workers, we had only the NT Internal Auditor/IA role to act as CCIA's underlings.
A lot of the responsibilities from this were pushed up and into the current liaison (NT-only) position. This is reflected with some of the extra fluff in the wiki for the NT-specific liaison.

As with any role, they're to generate roleplay and often do.
I don't think we need a "New" role for something that the Liaison should be expected to do anyway. At least a good one, that is.

That's kind of my point though, I don't think we need a new role either. I think the NT Liaison should just be removed and leave it as a position for other major companies. The "Secretary" idea would be just in case they want a trade off and isn't necessary to the suggestion. I just think a player-controlled NT Liaiason doesn't make sense. That's more of an admin/mod role. When IA was a thing, it too really had nothing it could do. Most staff heads just ignored IA anyway (which is why it probably ended up being changed). Since the NT Liaison has no official authority and can't reliably ask for clarifying information from NT, it really serves no purpose. However, the liaisons from other megacorps DO still have RP value. They don't need authority or the ability to contact NT, since their primary goal is to convince the Captain and crew about how great their corp is. That's something you can do with zero authority. All I'm saying is the NT Liaison specifically is just a fluff role that doesn't really fit with how the game plays.

[Carver]

6 hours ago, Korinra said:

That's kind of my point though, I don't think we need a new role either. I think the NT Liaison should just be removed and leave it as a position for other major companies. The "Secretary" idea would be just in case they want a trade off and isn't necessary to the suggestion. I just think a player-controlled NT Liaiason doesn't make sense. That's more of an admin/mod role. When IA was a thing, it too really had nothing it could do. Most staff heads just ignored IA anyway (which is why it probably ended up being changed). Since the NT Liaison has no official authority and can't reliably ask for clarifying information from NT, it really serves no purpose. However, the liaisons from other megacorps DO still have RP value. They don't need authority or the ability to contact NT, since their primary goal is to convince the Captain and crew about how great their corp is. That's something you can do with zero authority. All I'm saying is the NT Liaison specifically is just a fluff role that doesn't really fit with how the game plays.

You know the NT Liaison will be doing exactly that in NBT, yes? Something coming up in a relatively soon-ish time frame - and will make NT as much of a sidekick faction as the other contractor megacorps currently are?