Adjust the regulations on shuttles departing.

[greenjoe]

The current regulations on shuttles allow someone to silently depart the Horizon with no notice. This feels rather silly and kinda unbelievable. I feel it should be adjusted so that at the very least you need to announce the shuttle is departing on hailing or common, and perhaps also fill some basic details into the shuttle manifest.

[Shimmer]

I honestly don't understand what is the point of the shuttle manifest if it's optional. I think having it in the regulations that it must be filled, AND that departures shouldn't be impeded if that manifest is filled, is reasonable.

 

At the very bare minimum it gives an IC excuse for bridge crew to seek out miners that have been gone for a while, and gives notice to them.

[Nagito Komaeda]

Hard agree. It makes a lot of sense for the Bridge Crew to be tasked with keeping track of the in- and outbound ships. Furthermore, it makes sense for alert-based protocol to be in place - during Green, just a heads-up is needed to leave, as the shuttles are permitted to operate independently, while during Blue or higher, permission/clearance is needed due to potential risks.

And yes. I'm biased.

[Fluffy]

This would make departing take even longer, and much like the paperwork form, doesn't add much entertainment value to the game, for what I can see

[Shimmer]

1 hour ago, Fluffy said:

doesn't add much entertainment value to the game, for what I can see

It informs the bridge of where you are going and for how long. It doesn't take anywhere near long enough to be bothersome- it's not even paperwork it's digitized on your PDA.

There is genuinely no reason NOT to do it. A few minutes isn't 'Even Longer', it's barely anything.

[Lmwevil]

2 hours ago, Shimmer said:

It informs the bridge of where you are going and for how long. It doesn't take anywhere near long enough to be bothersome- it's not even paperwork it's digitized on your PDA.

There is genuinely no reason NOT to do it. A few minutes isn't 'Even Longer', it's barely anything.

it isn't on miner wristbound computers iirc 

[Fluffy]

5 hours ago, Shimmer said:

It informs the bridge of where you are going and for how long. It doesn't take anywhere near long enough to be bothersome- it's not even paperwork it's digitized on your PDA.

There is genuinely no reason NOT to do it. A few minutes isn't 'Even Longer', it's barely anything.

You'd think so, but I've seen ten minutes spent on just seeing who is part of the expedition, and in a round which is ~2 hours long, the first ~50 minutes of which are just of general preparation for most departments, it's not that small of a time investment to... Let the bridge know? What is this supposed to add, exactly?

[JeffMomentRed]

The point Fluffy raises is extremely important. It does take a chunk of the round to try and manage an expedition, though, in my own experience, that chunk of time trying to get everyone together has taken so long because of a lack of leadership. I'm not saying people are stupid, don't read in between the lines, but having managed expeditions or led the setup time for them, these things can be set and done far quicker if there is leadership or some sort of fire behind it. For example: An expedition I led the setup for had two engineers, a member of security, a paramedic, and a miner. I helped organize and gather supplies, from announcing the expedition and a departure time to them leaving with well-stocked gear, it took maybe 15 minutes max, which is nothing. As a miner, I've found that, with other miners, filling out the manifest can take one to two minutes and going off of round time, from spawning at the lifts, I would usually be out within 7-10 minutes.

It absolutely should not take half a round for the crew to depart for an expedition, and that is absolutely not hindered by an IC requirement to communicate.

It is equally as annoying to be on the opposite side of an expedition, say Command or Bridge Crew aboard the Horizon, not seeing where the Spark or Intrepid departs to, and of course, being expected to hunt it down and rescue it if they don't come back at an arbitrarily set time according to yourself. On several occasions, I have seen miners who have died on a trip complain in dchat that Bridge Crew wasn't doing their job and recovering them across the map when that particular miner did not communicate where they were going or make any attempt to. It also doesn't make sense from an in-character point to not tell where you are going though I believe that was mentioned already in this thread. I think, given how many off-ship roles and away sites the mapping team continues to make, that a manifest or some sort of communication would be made a requirement would not be a wholly bad thing. 

The point of the manifest is to offer players a way to communicate with the bridge or whoever even if there is no bridge or command on when said players want to take off. The IC requirement for this can consist of anything from a little paper slip faxed up to someone, filling out the manifest, or saying it over the common radio. 

[furrycactus]

It always just sounds like a smart idea to let the Bridge know that you're headed off. With the manifest program coming on miner and scientist PDAs now it's also easier than ever to fill that out, so I'm generally supportive of the idea.

That said, I don't think we should make it require permission to depart on anything short of Red alert. Playing a job where you rely on going away on a shuttle and being told to sit on your hands in your department instead sucks a lot, and Blue alert happens so frequently that it'll just be a headache.

Honestly a big thing I wish was possible was the ability to adjust your planned return time while away from the Horizon. Plenty of times I've seen detours from space hazards drastically cut into the amount of time you had planned for an expedition, and then you either have to rush the actual exploration or run over time and cause someone else to come check on you. That might be out of the scope of this suggestion though. 

[greenjoe]

1 hour ago, furrycactus said:

That said, I don't think we should make it require permission to depart on anything short of Red alert.

It wouldn't be adding requiring permission,  just adding the requirement to announce you are departing.

[N8-Toe]

make departure "shall issue"

essentially "You are free to leave the horizon as you wish, however you should announce on hailing frequency when departing, and unless directly ordered otherwise, may depart freely"

basically you should I agree be telling people where you go, but you should be able to just go without waiting on a yes.

[OolongCow]

I think the best way to do it would be requiring the Intrepid need a filled out flight plan, but on green, the Spark will just auto-announce it's departing over the operations and command channels with a list of all mobs with a CKey attached aboard.

[Carver]

5 hours ago, OolongCow said:

I think the best way to do it would be requiring the Intrepid need a filled out flight plan, but on green, the Spark will just auto-announce it's departing over the operations and command channels with a list of all mobs with a CKey attached aboard.

Wouldn’t this absolutely shit on any kind of antagonism or otherwise stealthy departure with the Spark, though? If simplification is needed just add a device that ‘clocks in’ swiped IDs into the airlock so someone who boards can clock in when they leave, clock out when they return.