Engineering Alt-Titles Feedback

[Sniblet]

I don’t interact with engineering very much.

Damage Control Technician does not jump out at me as implying atmos tech, especially next to Maintenance Technician meaning engineer. I was not aware that atmos techs were more on the emergency responder side.

Systems Engineer sounds vague. What systems do you engineer? The ship’s full of systems. Surely you don’t do environmental systems?

I happen to know an electrical engineer. He designs and builds circuits for his job, but as a consequence of his education and experience, he could probably transfer his skills to wire up a house, not that he’d want to.

[KingOfThePing]

If anyone else has anything meaningful to add then please take the time now, since the PR will be merged soon.

[Merlin1230]

On 17/08/2025 at 09:48, Sniblet said:

Damage Control Technician does not jump out at me as implying atmos tech, especially next to Maintenance Technician meaning engineer. I was not aware that atmos techs were more on the emergency responder side.

Atmos techs are probably usually the first ones to deal with most breaches and fires and such, things that would be need the damage to be controlled before properly fixed, such as setting up inflatables, fighting fires, etc. Comparatively to engineers, atmos techs having work to do is probably emergency response most of the time, with most of the non-emergency work being stuff engineers would do, and a decent portion of atmos tech duties would make sense for what DCTs do IRL. Not all, but some.

That being said, I do second that DCT will be mostly confusing, since engineers still do some damage control (in fact, its common from what Ive noticed for "kits" for engineers to be called "damage control kits" by other engineers), and I think most people wouldnt relate it to atmos at first glance. Maybe itll be fine and people will be adjusted for it over timeee, but it might not be the most clear for the average person.

[rrrrrr]

9 hours ago, Merlin1230 said:

Atmos techs are probably usually the first ones to deal with most breaches and fires and such, things that would be need the damage to be controlled before properly fixed, such as setting up inflatables, fighting fires, etc.

Going to chime in to say that, as someone who regularly plays engineer, I don't think this is actually true. This is not an actual division of labor that exists. (I do support DCT being an alt-title for ATs, though.) Who deals with breaches and fires first tends to depend more on who arrives there first. I will grant that when there is an extremely hot fire (i.e, INDRA explosion that causes the burn chamber to leak into the reactor room) ATs will be the ones dealing with it because their suits can deal with hotter temperatues (5,000 to 10,0000.)

21 hours ago, KingOfThePing said:

If anyone else has anything meaningful to add then please take the time now, since the PR will be merged soon.

My one criticism is that I think any suggested alt-titles that are three words should be cut down to two for brevity, where possible; i.e, Propulsion Systems Technician/Engineer to something like "Engine Technician."