Engineering RP Gaming

[KingOfThePing]

Hello,

I come with a proposal, that I have voiced some weeks ago on Discord and before I put some work into it and acquire sprites I want to gauge general interest and feedback regarding it. It is the following:

Quote

How about some de-facto ""fake"" maintenance panels you can play around with. Big or small, in walls, on floors different ones with wiring or pipes or some sort of terminal or whatever. these terminals dont actually do something but you can ""repair"" or ""interact"" with them and do ""engineering"" stuff without having actually to fix anything. It is a purely RP thing I need opinions on this. None of the wiring or pipes or whatever is in these panels do actuall anything. 

This is what I initially wrote on Discord. To sum it up:

- Maintenance panels you can open and close.

- Different sizes, shapes, forms and contents on floors and walls.

- Placed in frequented and less frequented places around the ship.

- Interactible with different engineering tools.

- Great fun RP for anyone.

- Excuse to go around the ship for engineers (or antags holy shit).

The initial reception to this was good, but I wanted more input. That's all.

 

 

Attached is an actualy Heph engineer performing !!! Maintenance !!! on a maintenance access panel on the SCCV Horizon holy shit!

Edited March 17, 2023 by KingOfThePing

[ReadThisNamePlz]

So this is purely for flavor/fluff? 

[KingOfThePing]

Yes

[WhatsUpBrotendo]

I don't know if it's because of the lack of engineering jobs to do (post-setup and barring antags/hazards) but I'm a fan of this. While having more useful things to do would be better I do like the general idea of non-consequential mechanical things you can do.

In this case it'd give you an excuse to enter a department and interact with other players. Antags could use it to get closer to secure areas. I don't really see a downside to it.

[Sycmos]

Ultimately I feel that the initial setup and busywork that Engineering is saddled with does not provide ample opportunity for interaction with the crew, and only serves to take up time in a round that could otherwise be spent engaging other characters and performing the premise of the server - roleplay. Spending 20 to 30 minutes setting the engine, shields, RCON, atmospherics and thrusters just so that the ship can function as intended is a considerable amount of time for someone to spend that they might not be able to afford if they cannot stay an entire 2-hour round. Adding random event busywork on top of that, most of which does not involve other characters in any meaningful fashion whatsoever, and you sometimes have rounds where an Engineer at most may have 30 minutes total of real character interaction in a 2-hour round. That's not fun or beneficial to roleplay, it's just tedium. Factorio exists if you want to play a game with tedium, but I don't think most players enjoy Aurora for that reason.

Having less mechanical busywork and more fluff would help make the round feel less rushed, and ultimately give Engineers an excuse to interact with other departments, or excuse themselves from uncomfortable situations. It's an easy way to give a little more flavor to an otherwise stale department that is often too overworked with little reward.

+1.

[KingOfThePing]

I'll work together with kyres (sprites) for this project and go ahead on it next week.

[Carver]

Please make it obvious to new players that they don't actually do anything.

[KingOfThePing]

It will be in the OOC/extended description of them.

[Bear]

This is good. There really isn't much else to say but I'm making my post longer so people think it's deep :^)

 

More to do IC on an otherwise boring job until the autopotate finds the welder tanks is sorely needed.

[KingOfThePing]

The engineering panels in question: