Feedback for Command Remap (Not bridge).

[ReadThisNamePlz]

Hello!

I was brain storming with some people in the staff discord a few days ago, and a couple of people mentioned that they do not like how dispersed and standalone the command area is from the rest of the ship. Which, I can agree with. So, I have decided to take it to the next step, and remap the entirety of the command area. 

There are also two new features being added with this. 

1. The command area is going to be public access on code Green. It will receive access locks on code Blue or higher, thanks to a framework that @MattAtlas has created. Edit: The doors leading into the bridge are not free-access. Just the first set leading into the command atrium.

2. Double Consulars. @RustingWithYou coded a system that will allow for two Consulars of different citizenships to play. We can finally have heated debates between consulars. I'll be mapping this in as well. 

The idea with this remap is to provide the crew more ease of access to the consular, reps, Captain and XO, without just being in a random hallway or having to stand at a window. The XO and Captain both have waiting areas outside of their offices. The XO still has their window, but it is not in a hallway anymore. 

Consular(s) have their own offices, and seating areas that allow for the crew to wait for "appointments" or just hangout. 

The Captains office is reorganized into one office, instead of two. There is a table for meetings, a reading nook, and of course, the desk. I added in two routes of evacuation, one through a bunker-style floor tile removal, there is a crate that has instructions on how to do it. The second route is a secure door with a blast door on the south wall, leading into the service stairwell- only accessible from inside of the office.  I would like feedback on the Captains office.

Here is the overall map. PR isn't up yet because I am waiting for the other PRs to be merged.
 

Spoiler

Captains Office: 
 

Spoiler

XOs Office

Spoiler

Consular A 
 

Spoiler

Consular B

 

Spoiler

Representative A 
 

Spoiler

Representative B: 
 

Spoiler

Bridge Supply Closet/Access to Captains Office from Bridge:
The Red square below the plant leads to the garden, right by security maintenance.

Spoiler

New Public Command Area:
(Edited from original)
 

Spoiler

New Telecomms Area: 
 

Spoiler

I would love some feedback! This is the third iteration.

 

 

[greenjoe]

Seems pretty cool!
one idea I have is putting a railing along here to make the XO line into more of a lining up area.

the other idea was for two corp reps as well as consulars, though I don't know where the second office could go, unless the corpreps shared, which is more feasable then consulars sharing. Perhaps curtains to close off the halves if needed?

[ReadThisNamePlz]

2 minutes ago, greenjoe said:

Seems pretty cool!
one idea I have is putting a railing along here to make the XO line into more of a lining up area.

the other idea was for two corp reps as well as consulars, though I don't know where the second office could go, unless the corpreps shared, which is more feasable then consulars sharing. Perhaps curtains to close off the halves if needed?

The dual reps thing probably isn't going to happen because there's a lack of ability to lock the slot based on faction/job right now. 
However, whenever that changes, I will probably cannibalize the new maintenance section and turn it into two smaller offices.

I will add the railings, with some decals. 

[ReadThisNamePlz]

New XO line 

 

Spoiler

 

[Dreamix]

Spoiler

I like the idea of a command remap, but, idk, ehh. It could be improved further.

1. There's a lot of dead space, marked in the pic in the spoiler, where it's just not really an efficient use of all that space in my opinion. I especially do not like the ugly storage area with the flags and the guns - it has no reason to be so center in the bridge and at the entrance, where everyone has to see it passing by. Also there's a lot of redundant waiting areas with tables and chairs everywhere.

2. The open area in the middle especially, is like, super awkward, in how open it is to every office, and anyone passing by or through. I cannot imagine comfortably hanging out in there. It has that weird zig-zaggy shape with the stairs and the raised platform... It's weird how it's the XO and Captain being on the lower level, while consulars are looking at them from above. It should be the other way around, the Captain and XO are the bosses here.

3. XO's office should stay at its current location. XO takes care of the crew's reassignments, accounts, problems, etc, so it is the XO who should be the "face" of the bridge, closest to the entrance, and taking in people even if the rest of the bridge is closed, during code blue or whatever. With this remap, the entrance of the bridge has a consular office on one side, and a representative office on the other.

4. If there are two consular offices, then one office shouldn't be "better" than the other. In this remap, consular A is clearly the better office, in how it has windows into the hallway so you can show your flags or banners or whatever to the outside world and anyone passing by, while the other office just, does not have that option.

5. The new conference room is alright, and I like its location.

 

[ReadThisNamePlz]

2 minutes ago, Dreamix said:

1. There's a lot of dead space, marked in the pic in the spoiler, where it's just not really an efficient use of all that space in my opinion. I especially do not like the ugly storage area with the flags and the guns - it has no reason to be so center in the bridge and at the entrance, where everyone has to see it passing by. Also there's a lot of redundant waiting areas with tables and chairs everywhere.

The Flag place is just an expansion of what already exists. Right now there is a weird mini hallway connecting Telecomms to the Captains office and then the bridge, that holds the flags. I could remove it, but the idea was for it to be connected/near the Bridge Crew area since that applies for them. 

 

3 minutes ago, Dreamix said:

The open area in the middle especially, is like, super awkward, in how open it is to every office, and anyone passing by or through. I cannot imagine comfortably hanging out in there. It has that weird zig-zaggy shape with the stairs and the raised platform... It's weird how it's the XO and Captain being on the lower level, while consulars are looking at them from above. It should be the other way around, the Captain and XO are the bosses here.

I don't disagree. I am struggling to find out what to do with the huge center space. I thought of the stargazer, but it makes it really weird/an eye sore. I thought of making a grass area, but we have that on deck three already. If you have any ideas, please feel free to share. The Captains office is on an elevated area. XO's isn't but, they're just a head of staff, I don't mind them being where they are. I really like the conference room connecting directly to the XO, and the XO connecting directly to the Bridge. 
 

5 minutes ago, Dreamix said:

XO's office should stay at its current location. XO takes care of the crew's reassignments, accounts, problems, etc, so it is the XO who should be the "face" of the bridge, closest to the entrance, and taking in people even if the rest of the bridge is closed, during code blue or whatever. With this remap, the entrance of the bridge has a consular office on one side, and a representative office on the other.

I disagree. XO is not staying where it is, in this map pr. The entire idea of this is to encourage people to come into the command area and interact. Whether it's with consular, the rep, or the XO and Captain - there is now a requirement to not loiter in a hallway on deck three, but instead in an actual atrium. 
 

7 minutes ago, Dreamix said:

4. If there are two consular offices, then one office shouldn't be "better" than the other. In this remap, consular A is clearly the better office, in how it has windows into the hallway so you can show your flags or banners or whatever to the outside world and anyone passing by, while the other office just, does not have that option.

I wasn't trying to make one better than the other. I did not want a carbon copy. I will probably change Consular B to where the representative office is, and put the Representative office with Consular B is. The rep can put flags up in the atrium. 

If anyone has any ideas on how to better utilize the open area, let me know. It has the same amount of "deadspace" as the stargazer area in the current bridge. 

[Bear]

I see it as a good change. More streamlined. While I appreciate the current bridge, it suffers from a lot of dead space in it that is otherwise for the most part unused. I do like seeing the bridge de-coupled from telecomms for a lot of reasons. Both ship to ship combat, antags, and much more.

Think elevation to two consulars/reps is a decent idea. They will need to behave or they will be yeeted if they're caught messing with other reps/consulars which would be my end but that's common sense.

Decent remap, thanks!

[Dreamix]

33 minutes ago, ReadThisNamePlz said:

I disagree. XO is not staying where it is, in this map pr. The entire idea of this is to encourage people to come into the command area and interact. Whether it's with consular, the rep, or the XO and Captain - there is now a requirement to not loiter in a hallway on deck three, but instead in an actual atrium. 

It's a very nice goal, but realistically, people are not going to randomly wander inside into that closed-off area just to have a look around, unless they have an actual reason to do so, like a meeting with a head/consular/rep, or if they are super bored and have nothing else to do.

An office facing the public hallway drives engagement and invites people, if only just from the sole reason of being visible from the hallway outside. It allows for people passing by to wave "hello" to the XO inside and have a quick chat. And XO really needs that, being a head of staff who deals with the general crew's problems and complaints, and not having a department that needs actual managing like the other heads. In my time of playing XO, I'd have that happen basically every round, me in my office, people passing by and starting a quick chat even if they're on the job, like an engineer going to fix something.

Currently the middle deck sees the most traffic (bar, kitchen, medbay, hallway outside of security), and this remap is not going to somehow magically route some of that traffic to the new open command area. It's only going to hurt XO's chance to interact with people, by pushing it further away from where everyone is gathered, and more isolated.

Edited November 29, 2023 by Dreamix

[ReadThisNamePlz]

3 minutes ago, Dreamix said:

Currently the middle deck sees the most traffic (bar, kitchen, medbay, hallway outside of security), and this remap is not going to somehow magically route some of that traffic to the new open command area. It's only going to hurt XO's chance to interact with people, by making it further away from where everyone is gathered, and more isolated.

I don't think we can apply this to the command area because it hasn't been tried, ever. 

I will leave it as it is for now. After the PR goes up, and it's merged, and tested, if people prefer the old XO layout, I can make that happen pretty easily. I want to give this a chance, first. 

[greenjoe]

1 hour ago, ReadThisNamePlz said:

If you have any ideas, please feel free to share

maybe some sort of... assembly hall? stage for captain or whoever to make speeches from, area with seating

[ReadThisNamePlz]

Edit to the map:

Consular B: 
 

Spoiler

Representative Office:

 

Spoiler

 

[ReadThisNamePlz]

Both Representative Offices would look something like this. I haven't committed this to the branch because there's no way to enforce the representative cap yet. But, this is my general idea. 

@greenjoe @Carver

Spoiler

 

[Ublicto]

Two consulars is a great ideal. Opening up the command department to more people and making it less 'sectioned off' from the ship is excellent as well.

[Owen]

I really like the idea of having two consular slots. Having two corporate representatives is fine if it can work, but I do not particularly care either way if it does or not. Though with the two consulars, is there something already implemented or in the works that would assign them to a specific office/restrict access to the other office?

The only thing I have to say about the remap right now is maybe consider making the tables in the XO and Captain's offices wooden. Otherwise, I think it looks pretty good!

 

[Carver]

Very excited for the doubling up Consulars and Liaisons, I have a flood of fun RP ideas coming to me merely thinking about it. Looking forward to the final iteration!

[ReadThisNamePlz]

24 minutes ago, Owen said:

I really like the idea of having two consular slots. Having two corporate representatives is fine if it can work, but I do not particularly care either way if it does or not. Though with the two consulars, is there something already implemented or in the works that would assign them to a specific office/restrict access to the other office?

The only thing I have to say about the remap right now is maybe consider making the tables in the XO and Captain's offices wooden. Otherwise, I think it looks pretty good!

 

https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/17853

The PR is up for the system. I am waiting for this PR and one from Matt to go through before putting the remap up as a PR. 

I'll make those changes.

[ReadThisNamePlz]

33 minutes ago, Owen said:

Though with the two consulars, is there something already implemented or in the works that would assign them to a specific office/restrict access to the other office?

So, they do have bolts and a personal safe in their offices to provide security to themselves when they're in meetings. 

If a consular double dips into a second consulars office as a non-antagonist, it's definitely a Whitelist issue. 


What's neat is that some Taj consulars spawn with Bugs too, so there could be some genuine espionage that happens.

[Owen]

1 hour ago, ReadThisNamePlz said:

What's neat is that some Taj consulars spawn with Bugs too, so there could be some genuine espionage that happ

Okay nevermind totally in support of keeping them unlocked now. Big things are coming...

[restricted]

I think incorporating the bridge bar into the captain's office would be a nice touch. It just being open and available is a bit weird, then convert the old space into a break room type deal, sans alcohol.

 

Also the XO office should be bigger. For reasons.

 

The open space in the middle could be made into a small cafe/break room or something, because naturally command absolutely must have two break rooms.

 

On further thought the Captain is an important person tm, that open space would be perfect as a waiting room 

Edited November 30, 2023 by restricted

[ReadThisNamePlz]

19 minutes ago, restricted said:

I think incorporating the bridge bar into the captain's office would be a nice touch. It just being open and available is a bit weird, then convert the old space into a break room type deal, sans alcohol.

 

Also the XO office should be bigger. For reasons.

 

The open space in the middle could be made into a small cafe/break room or something, because naturally command absolutely must have two break rooms.

 

On further thought the Captain is an important person tm, that open space would be perfect as a waiting room 

So funny enough, I wanted to incorporate a change to the command bar - but all I could think of was swapping bridge crew preparation with it.. But then I realized you'd lose the great view of space, so I decided to keep it as is. 

Waiting room would be nice, but I couldn't incorporate an actual room in the place that the Captains door is located, and I didn't want to have the door be on the "ground level". 

I will see what I can do about adding a larger seating area though.

[ReadThisNamePlz]

https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/17896 The PR is up for mostly testing purposes. I am still waiting for https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/17849 to be merged.

[greenjoe]

Perhaps mirror the layout of one consular office like how the liason offices are mirrored?

[ReadThisNamePlz]

1 hour ago, greenjoe said:

Perhaps mirror the layout of one consular office like how the liason offices are mirrored?

Like.. side by side?

[Fyni]

I hope this feedback isn't too late, and I hope (somewhat) it's relevant!

I like the bridge breakroom. If the command areas are been opened up more, would it be possible to give service (bartender / chef) access via the back door only during green alert, so they can serve the command staff if asked? It feels like the back stairs are there to allow that interaction, but the access isn't there.

Secondly, with the XO's window been inside the "protected area" during blue alert, do they have a monitor for the bridge doors (and a button to open them) like the current Captain's office? Generally I'd like more "open bridge doors" buttons around too, given nearly every trial round I've had to let people in.

Edited December 7, 2023 by Fyni

[ReadThisNamePlz]

Just now, Fyni said:

I hope this feedback isn't too late, and I hope (somewhat) it's relevant!

I like the bridge breakroom. If the command areas are been opened up more, would it be possible to give service (bartender / chef) access via the back door only during green alert, so they can serve the command staff if asked? It feels like the back stairs are there to allow that interaction, but the access isn't there.

Secondly, with the XO's window been inside the "protected area" during blue alert, do they have a monitor for the bridge doors (and a button to open them) like the current Captain's office? Generally I'd like more "open bridge doors" buttons around too, given nearly every trial round I've had to let people in.

I love the feedback. I can make the door have chef access on green.

I will also give the XO a button to open the bridge doors.