Split Lab Assistant into two roles

[Sparky_hotdog]

Intended to be a feedback thread for this PR (Apologies if this is the wrong place).

This idea originally stemmed from wanting to move the Lab Assistant age, currently 18, closer to the age of all of the roles it is a learner role for, currently 30. That is a 12 year age gap, and the difference between "Pass a lab safety course" and "Acquire a PhD" is similarly large, if not larger.

However, when I originally suggested that several months ago, I was made aware that there are those who use Lab Assistant more akin to an Assistant, but specifically for research, acting as an extra pair of hands for the department. Given that science is far more RP based than any of the other departments with learner roles, I felt like that wasn't something I wanted to remove, so suggested this instead.

The learner role would be made a separate job from Lab Assistant, the Research Understudy. The Understudy has a higher minimum age of 28, and would be expected to be finishing their PhD during their time aboard, which brings them in-line with the other three departments with learner roles which expect you to always be able to reasonably move a character to a "proper" job after you feel confident (In that regard, I'd actually be open to making the minimum age even higher). Meanwhile, Lab Assistant would be retained for those who enjoy lending a helping hand to science in a purely RP manner.

As an aside, the PR in question also adds alt-titles for both roles, but I'd be perfectly happy to make those for Lab Assistants alone should people object to the split. This is purely for feedback regarding the extra job.

[greenjoe]

I like the idea of this PR, it can be seen as not a good thing to take a learner role slot when you're not actually learning, so making lab assistants into a RP role and giving a new learner slot for research seems good.

[limette]

I'm in strong support of this for the same reason I was in favor of other learner role changes, but even moreso here; Lab Assistant's extremely low requirements open up entire characters that otherwise simply could not be in the Research department. It is not often functionally treated as a learner role, and instead often a semi-permanent role for a lower level and younger character to fill; unlike, say, security cadet or medical intern where one is surely going to move out eventually.

I think that's a good thing. I like the RP it offers. What I don't like is, again, similar to other learner roles, the idea of those permanent characters in the slot taking the learner slots from people who actually want to learn the mechanics behind something like Xenoarchaeology.

This PR satisfies both my wish for the permanent younger research characters having a place to be, as well as for the learner role to not be infringed upon by the presence of those characters.

[Desven]

I wholeheartedly agree with this, especially if we want to keep pushing science into an RP heavy department. I think Research Associate or something could work for the scientist learner. Lab assistant can stay as the kid that gets you the vials and oozes at your baking soda volcano.

 

(I would extend this to medical and engineering because of the high age requirement, especially in engineering where your 21 year old could help be the wires handyman or something, but that’s a whole other story).

Edited May 3 by Desven

[Rabid Animal]

I see lots of people roll in playing lab assistant like they're doing an understudy and I love it! but also, some people really just wanna be a lab rat and thats okay too, differentiating between them would be great.

[pocheto]

3 hours ago, Desven said:

I wholeheartedly agree with this, especially if we want to keep pushing science into an RP heavy department. I think Research Associate or something could work for the scientist learner. Lab assistant can stay as the kid that gets you the vials and oozes at your baking soda volcano.

 

(I would extend this to medical and engineering because of the high age requirement, especially in engineering where your 21 year old could help be the wires handyman or something, but that’s a whole other story).

all lab assistants ooze