A simple suggestion about roles in engineering.

[wheasymold552]

This whole post stems from a pull request that was sent to me just last night. (https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/17184) 

Firstly, I think it's important to note that I'm totally onboard with rules and changes implemented in order to keep the learner roles open. I understand they're designed specifically for new players that need an extra amount of help working their way through the content presented in engineering, or really any of the other departments on the ship that have the learner roles. However, a simple moving up of the age requirement to 24 years old in my opinion, doesn't solve the problem of keeping the learner roles open. If somebody wants to play the learner roles as their character full time, they'll simply age up their character in a lrp way (example being, oh, i retcon my characters age and bump them up to 24) or design a new character that's 24 in order to play the role. I think in real life, as well as what's demonstrated in game, engineering and maintenance in general tend to be dragged out a bit in terms of getting in. This can be seen on the wiki in the requirements to get into engineering, 7 years of apprenticeship which is impossible to roleplay out now that the new changes are in place, or an extensive list of degrees for different levels of engineers and in real life in the form of like, a gajillion ranks in an engineering department, ranging from an apprentice, all the way up to the head engineer. My proposal is simple, why not relower the apprentice age to say, 18 for example, and add a role that fits between apprentice and full on engineer, think like, age 20 until they hit 25 and can become a full on engineer. The title could be something along the lines of "Junior Engineer" and "Junior Atmospheric Technician" or really anything to that affect. This would keep the learner role open for new players and allow all the players that love playing their apprentice characters in the game as well.

I wasn't really sure how to fit this into the brick of text above so I'll just leave it here. We can use me and my character Mashika Gbeho as an example. I'm aware not everyone is the biggest fan of her as a character but I've had a ton of fun playing as her for the last year and a half or so, probably closer to 2 years at this point. She started as hangar tech with a limited education, to attending all sorts of classes, getting certifications in different engineering related areas and building relations with not only the Hephaestus rep Apollo, but also a few of the Chief Engineers who all put in a good word about her willingness to learn and get into the field. She was hired in as an apprentice, (which at the time, speaking with an admin I was told was ok) and has spent her time learning all the different aspects of engineering. I'm not this crazy good engineering player, I probably don't need to be in the learner role but it would be lying to say I'm really competent enough to be a full on engineer. I struggle to set up the tesla, if the sm delaminates the only options I know are the N2 and ejecting it, I just got taught how to fix a door last night in round, I've never had to fix an apc and don't even get me started on disposals. This role could also be a nice place for intermediate players to sit in the role for a while learning the ins and outs of the department. The last thing I want to do is retire Mashika, she's one of the only characters I've made in a long while that I actually enjoy playing and I don't want to just fire her from engineering over something this trivial. She's made lots of development and I honestly have no idea how I would roleplay out the coping with the fact that she failed as an engineer in an enjoyable way. 

I guess to end things off, thanks for reading the ramblings of a grumpy engineering main that's about to be kicked out. Please leave feedback in the replies and thanks for your time. (Ps: I know I'm not the best writer, please be kind about grammer issues.)

[wheasymold552]

Also, I am aware immortal made a similar post, however theirs is in regards to the actual requirements to get in and my post is about the addition of another role.

[Sparky_hotdog]

So I recently made a PR to add what I believe to be a similar role to research, which I am going to make some comparisons to because I feel like it's a good way to get my point across.

To start with the positives, I definitely support the notion of adding roles which act as less experienced, but not learner, options for departments. In the case of engineering, making this just a ship technician with no expectation (but the possibility) of graduating to a full engineer would potentially help differentiate between the space mechanic and the star trek-esque astronaut engineer archetypes, which I saw brought up on the other thread.

However, and this is where my comparisons to research start, there are some problems I can see. Engineering is a pretty mechanical department, in the same way that medical and security are. There are mechanics that you are expected to know, and be able to use to respond to problems (Starting engines, setting shields, fixing hull breaches, etc). Research on the other hand is practically entirely roleplay; there are mechanics there, in some places more than other, but basically all the gameplay beyond your third round comes from RP. Subsequently, it is far easier to fit a role expected to act as less experienced into research compared to engineering, at least in my eyes.

In my eyes, I can see this going two ways: Either the junior role ends up basically entirely based in RP, and basically ends up what nurse was to medical, but for engineering; Or an awful table has to be made like in medical to differentiate which tasks the junior roles is allowed to do or not do. Because I feel like just having "Engineer" and "Engineer, but young" isn't really desired.

Which brings me onto a question: What do you see the difference between the junior and full engineers being, in terms of how a typical round will be played on each?