Nagito Komaeda Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 (edited) Let me cook. Operations currently has only two corporations working in it: Hephaestus Industries and Orion Express. I propose that the PMCG gets added to this line-up, bumping the Operations companies to three. Some arguments are as follows: Having just Hephaestus and Orion in Operations, while reasonable, makes it difficult for more anti-corporate characters to work Operations. I'm primarily looking at Himeans and Aut'akh here, but Hephaestus is a very divisive company, and Orion is clasically considered 'unskilled' labour. Adding the PMCG to the line-up gives a new company option, thus stimulating diversity in Operations (and the PMCG has a LOT of diversity.) Furthermore, I could imagine hangar work (sans maybe weapon loading) be considered 'punishment' for misbehaving PMCG personnel, as opposed to the standard janitorial duties often issued. The PMCG is a military contractor, but a large aspect of good warfare is logistics. Having '(para)military' personnel handle the supply lines of the Horizon seems like it'd make sense - these guys are trained to follow protocol, to follow orders, and in a department that's both about effectiveness and profit (through bounties), those guys are good to have. Orion is about speed, Hephaestus is about bulk, have the PMCG be about efficiency or structure. It gives the four Operations jobs new ways to be looked at; Hangar Technicians? They could be flight deck technicians for combat ships, handling the quick refuel and loading operations. They could be logistics personnel at forward bases, outposts, whatnot, holding a light security background of sorts. They could even be considered an entry for PMCG personnel into the corporate world, before making their step up to Security work on a ship, station or outpost. There's a lot of opportunities here. Shaft Miners? Personally I'd see these renamed to, or given an alt-title in the form of EVA Specialist, but these are your salvage personnel, able to assess away sites for certain hazards, and recovering mission-critical equipment. I'm drawing a parallel to diving specialists in the military here, for example. This would need a little care not to take over Engineering's expertise, though, and this one may also need some thinking since it would draw the Spark away from usual mining operations that Science and the Workshop rely on. Machinists? There's finally a solid reason for Machinists to focus on military hardsuits and armed exosuits. Be it the manufacturing, deployment or field testing of new combinations and technologies. Additionally, it would make sense for the PMCG to have their own subset of 'mechanical' doctors since they also hold a presence in Medical. The Operations Manager? Quartermasters, drill instructors, they can go from 'production manager' to 'Alright listen here maggots' style instructors. There's a lot of breadth to be had here, in my opinion. There's a potential lore angle to involve this, too, by showing how the humanitarian aid given by SCC vessels (the Horizon, following the Unathi arc, for example) really benefit from organised field supply. Controversial point, but this would also give a little more of an in-character reason for Operations to order weaponry if shit hits the fan and all hands need to be on deck. I understand this might clash with the recently-passed changes surrounding demilitarization of the Horizon, but I've held this thought for a while now and just wanted to put it out there. Whether it sticks or not, I've cooked. Edited September 3 by Nagito Komaeda TYPO!! 3 Quote Link to comment
Tex-Mex Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 I like this, especially because of the mining clause. Mining is the biggest part of the job but it would be nice to include salvage and exploration as an explicit avenue for play. Quote Link to comment
Lmwevil Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 You've cooked so hard that the kitchen is on fire. My points against this in no particular order: The retooling of shaft miners is a bad idea, and will only lead to administrative hassles. Just go salvage if you want, nobody can stop u in regs OM turning into a 'listen maggots' is a step into militarization rather hard. Operations shouldn't be ordering weapons because their members are pmcg that's setting more bad precedents At the moment departments have a tacid '2 corporations' soft leaning policy, and this would go outside it. Having 3 departments, almost all of them being the most critical ones have pcmg will be a step towards becoming like CM or Bay. 1 Quote Link to comment
Carver Posted September 4 Share Posted September 4 I really feel like Zavod would fit vastly better with all of these points. Zavod builds most of the ship guns we see and would have the best experience with maintaining and loading them, they're the peak arms dealers in the setting so the hardsuit and exosuit stuff for Machinist fits them like a glove, and finally they fit the role of mining.. slightly better than Orion, I guess, due to their manufacturing focus. Comparatively, the PMCG's all about bodies and muscle, not gunnery and manufacturing. As for anti-corporate, I truly don't quite get what you mean. Orion is the peak of anti-corporate friendly, and the rather hamfisted shoving of the Machinist into Ops means that Orion does cover some skilled labour to a degree. If I ran into an explicitly anti-corporate mercenary I'd be passing them over in favour of one of a million other mercs who I can trust to have less moral issue with their employers. Finally, and this is perhaps my biggest thought, the absolute last thing I want to see is PMCG Miners. Miners acting like mass-murdering badasses because the game's forgiving mechanics let them kill dozens of comically widespread wildlife is already immensely grating. I would thoroughly despise seeing 'Military Miners' being a genuine thing. Furthermore, you are a miner, salvaging is not and should never be the main point of your job, please don't fuck research out of the materials that enable half of their mechanics just so you can go loot a bunch of guns and gear and end up illicitly holding onto a pistol that you'll pull out on the next antag you run into with how trivial it is for miners to steal and conceal salvaged weapons that don't belong to them. Quote Link to comment
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