Change Bridge Crew Radio/Camera Access

[Zulu0009]

As far I remember, Bridge Crew was in a weird spot in regard to their role, and people weren't 100% sure what department they were. I think as a result, the addition of gunnery was not implemented with thought as for BC's new gunnery role. Bridge Crew is currently counted as Service, which is weird but an understandable way of assigning them. However, in an emergency, they are supposed to communicate with Hangar Technicians to load and fire the Longbow and Grauwolf, without having access to the Operations radio channel. Small tangent here, but I think it'd be better to take BC out of service and make them their own department, which is already on the manifest (Command Support) and to be fair, I'm pretty sure that everyone already recognizes them as independent. On most rounds, BCs will get on the bridge and stay there to call other ships, fly, shoot stuff if needed and coordinate with Operations, so they seem completely alien from the bartenders, janitors and cooks. Having access to service comms and cameras just seems unnecessary most of the time.

Anyway, as the role is now, I'd propose that BC is given access to Service and Operations channels and camera networks so that they may communicate with hangar technicians and miners to coordinate mining missions and gunnery if need be. Having to go through Common for something as important as defending the ship seems like it could be catastrophic.

An alternative, more controversial option, would be to just give them a command headset with access to all channels, but just remove their access to the service camera network (it's not that useful, honestly) so that they can be viable for commandless rounds. Maybe a note could be added to the wiki or to BC's description at roundstart to not abuse this headset. This second proposition is one I'm throwing out just to see how much everyone hates it, frankly.

Edited December 20, 2022 by Zulu0009
Oudated info

[KingOfThePing]

Bridge Crew is Command Support, not service

[Carver]

I'd rather merely suggest a [Gunnery] channel for HTs, BCs and Command that activates during Code Red or some such; rather than giving them headset access to a department they interact with about 3% of the time given how rare ship combat is.

[Dreamix]

BC is command support, and have not been in service for a long while now. They also never had service radio channel pretty sure.

As for a [Gunnery] channel, dunno. I think it'd be neat, but it's also the dreaded milrp that people so very much hate.

Absolutely against giving BCs department channels, not operations, and not all channels.

As for camera access... I don't think BCs should have any camera access at all. They don't need it.

Edited December 20, 2022 by Dreamix

[Zulu0009]

49 minutes ago, KingOfThePing said:

Bridge Crew is Command Support, not service

Sorry about that then, outdated info. I suppose the suggestion is to give them the Operations channel, then. Operations is the channel that BC might actually interact with the most, for mining and in the indeed 3% probability of combat. Can I ask why you'd be against BCs having department channels, @Dreamix, and what channels they should have access to?

[Cnaym]

I'd be willing and able to trade you operations radio access for the ability to make announcements. Bridge crews do not need to spam EVA bans without command member approval.

[Zulu0009]

38 minutes ago, Cnaym said:

I'd be willing and able to trade you operations radio access for the ability to make announcements. Bridge crews do not need to spam EVA bans without command member approval.

Hard pass on that tbh, if I can't tell people that we're about to move the ship I can't move the ship in the first place. It's good to have someone able to announce things to the crew for clarity and if the comms go down. If you're annoyed at announcement spam I'd just ask the BC spamming them to tone it down.

[Triogenix]

Given how rare ship combat is outside of the recent artificial inflation due to events, I think the current radio situation is fine as is. If there's no command to coordinate and BCs need to get to Ops, they can use PDAs(in a pinch, it can be hard to message when you're shooting and dodging), Common, or Entertainment channels. Giving them access to a departmental channel that they'll only need in rare cases would lead to BCs lurking in it, and not using it in any meaningful way.

[Sparky_hotdog]

I agree with Triogenix here. If the round is low pop enough to lack an OM, and the ship has still ended up in ship-ship combat, the common channel should be clear enough for interdepartmental coordination. Also, outside of events (where the lack of OM is highly unlikely) the actual need to load guns is fairly non-urgent as I understand, as most third-party ships don't pose a significant threat to the Horizon, and proper escalation should take place (Giving time to coordinate the loading of the longbow/grauwolf).

[Dreamix]

5 hours ago, Zulu0009 said:

Can I ask why you'd be against BCs having department channels, @Dreamix, and what channels they should have access to?

BCs are not whitelisted, and aren't supposed to have any authority over anything, so I don't want them to be bossing around or butting into other departments, that they have no real business with outside of very rare situations.

Also kinda off-topic, but. I don't like BCs making announcements, cause most of the time it's about ship movement, which like, really isn't needed. It's just a loud huge noise about nothing. No one's going EVA anyways, not even engineers as we don't have solars. When a BC asks me to make an announcement, I just tell them there's no need, and to just say it on radio.

Edited December 20, 2022 by Dreamix

[Carver]

14 hours ago, Dreamix said:

As for a [Gunnery] channel, dunno. I think it'd be neat, but it's also the dreaded milrp that people so very much hate.

Such is why I suggested it to be relegated to Code Red, treated as something solely for emergencies, though I don't know if it would be possible to unlock a radio channel based on alerts.

Personally I'd rather they not get access to any departmental radio, so I brought up an alternative. As for announcements, I like them having them since I can ask them as Command to go and make announcements in my stead (I refuse to carry a laptop). Though I rather dislike when they make announcements on their own without being requested to.

[Zulu0009]

21 hours ago, Triogenix said:

Given how rare ship combat is outside of the recent artificial inflation due to events, I think the current radio situation is fine as is.

That's a fair point, I've been hoping to see some ship combat outside of events but it seems to be relegated to Rangers or SSMD ships taking potshots at unregistered stations.

20 hours ago, Sparky_hotdog said:

If the round is low pop enough to lack an OM, and the ship has still ended up in ship-ship combat, the common channel should be clear enough for interdepartmental coordination.

That's also a good point I didn't consider, thanks for the input.

20 hours ago, Dreamix said:

BCs are not whitelisted, and aren't supposed to have any authority over anything, so I don't want them to be bossing around or butting into other departments, that they have no real business with outside of very rare situations.

Also kinda off-topic, but. I don't like BCs making announcements, cause most of the time it's about ship movement, which like, really isn't needed. It's just a loud huge noise about nothing. No one's going EVA anyways, not even engineers as we don't have solars. When a BC asks me to make an announcement, I just tell them there's no need, and to just say it on radio.

I'm not sure I've ever seen a BC butting into any departments. Sometimes I'll go down to medical to ask how it's going or go to a security situation so I can see it for myself and relay information more accurately, but while I'm sure that if more radio channels were added, some people might use them too much, I don't think any Bridge Crew players think they have authority over anyone on the ship. BCs have the capability to send distress calls or communicating with the SCC, which during lowpop rounds can be useful to call for assistance or for information, they can fly the ship, change alert levels and make announcements, yes, which is everything command can do, but there's a solid understanding by the players that they are NOT command. If a Bridge Crewman acts that way, just ahelp. It's not much a BC issue, but more of a player issue in that case. In addition, I think announcements are fine. They make a noise and appear on your screen and that's it. I do think the noise could be... turned down a bit, for sure, but again, if a Crewman is making too many, could just ask them to stop.

[Triogenix]

12 minutes ago, Zulu0009 said:

That's a fair point, I've been hoping to see some ship combat outside of events but it seems to be relegated to Rangers or SSMD ships taking potshots at unregistered stations.

Unless the rules around antagonizing the Horizon for third party ships change, and the Horizon no longer completely outclasses most of the third party ships, neither of which I see changing soon, I don't think it will be happening much.

The only other way it'd happen would be if an antagonist group got a overmap ship, like people have been talking about with raider. But I don't code so I'm unsure the feasibility of that and if there's any motivation among those who do to work on it.

[greenjoe]

If anything, I'd think BC should get engineering radio, since they would communicate with engis regarding thrusters and such on an everyday basis, not just special times as with ship guns and Ops.

[Zulu0009]

3 hours ago, Triogenix said:

The only other way it'd happen would be if an antagonist group got a overmap ship

Doesn't the SFA get one? I keep seeing SFA in the ghost roles and then not seeing anything unusual the whole round, unless they get one of those instant teleport shuttles?

[Triogenix]

36 minutes ago, Zulu0009 said:

Doesn't the SFA get one? I keep seeing SFA in the ghost roles and then not seeing anything unusual the whole round, unless they get one of those instant teleport shuttles?

When I said antagonist group I meant a group gamemode antag like Raider, Merc, Burglar, etc. The SFA offship roles still have the normal rules applied to them to my understanding, which discourage escalation and combat with the Horizon.

[NerdyVampire]

The great benefit of having communication go through common, is that it keeps the rest of the playerbase 'in the loop' to a degree, which I think we should be careful about slicing. There are rounds where it easily becomes command+security versus antags, and the rest of the crew plays catch-up with the sparse announcements and whatever interdepartmental communication happens on common, and if it becomes possible to do so I would imagine ships combat becomes the same, where the crew is warned once that we are going into ship combat and then hears nothing about it unless they are in the operations department or someone calls out hits.

Realistically the bridge crewmen would have this radio access, but I'm not convinced it is worth it. There is something charming about the chaos of coordinating over comms, and ship combat really shouldn't happen without at least one command member able to pick up the captain's headset and take charge of coordination. In fact, if ship combat happens it should be a rule that either command member must be on the bridge to deal with it until done, regardless of what head they are in the absence of a captain.

On a side-note, I do agree that bridge crewmen don't need announcement access for EVA bans, they should only use their announcement access for emergencies imo, like if the ship is going into combat or headed for an unavoidable hazard.

[Zulu0009]

1 hour ago, NerdyVampire said:

The great benefit of having communication go through common, is that it keeps the rest of the playerbase 'in the loop' to a degree.

I didn't consider this when posting the suggestion but it's an excellent point, thanks for reminding me. I still disagree that announcements should be restricted to emergencies, I don't see the huge problem with them, but thank you still for the input!