Operations changes and improvements - Feedback and future considerations

[TheGreyWolf]

Over the last while, I have been focusing on improving operations gameplay. These have lately ranged from improvements to the delivery program and fixing the manifests on the elevator, to a big overhaul of the commissary, vending machines and the addition of a cash register. For all of this, I would like feedback, thoughts, even suggestions for improvements if there are any.

Long term Goals

The primary goal with these improvements have been to increase the interaction between the operations department and the other departments, and to give them more crew interactions. To accomplish this, I judged that there needed to be better ways for them to handle orders, the crew needed to be encouraged to order more from operations and that improvements to the at the time barebones commissary would additionally help with this.

The secondary goal, more present in the earlier PRs, was to improve the atmosphere and feel of operations. Going into the warehouse should feel like a warehouse. Fetching orders should feel special and so should delivering them. For example the change for operations to have a massive cargo lift worked great for this feel.

To put it shortly,

• Interact more with departments (as a whole, for example medical orders)
• Interact more with crew/people (as individuals, such as pizza orders and the commissary)
• Improve the feeling/atmosphere of the warehouse
• Improve delivering

Future Considerations

Beyond continuing with the plans above, I also have a series of considerations for the future revolving around operations. Some of it is for NBT2, some of it is for the Horizon, with no particular distinction for the moment.

Price Rework

The big one I intend to do is going over all the prices in the game. The price scanner as it is now, is effectively useless in regards to the commissary for example, and as such it would need to be looked into, and in turn also need everything else with prices looked into in an attempt to either standardize it or at the very least make it more functional where it is not. This is something I don’t expect to be particularly visible to most on-ship chars, but the merchant role and hangar techs would likely feel it.

Warehouse

The warehouse has already come a long way from what it was before in my opinion, but more work could be done. The commissary now comes with restock packs, reducing the randomness, but this is about the only thing they have for certain. Among the things that I have considered for the future, is that the ship’s money helps determine what kind of goods the warehouse starts with. More credits = better equipment. This would however need to be tied to the persistent money system, and as such is likely not a near-future thing.

Mining

Something I hear often when I ask miners about improvements, is that they do not like the long rides in the spark to get to a place, having to dodge hazards and so on just to do their basic job. I lack a solution for this that would fit well with the coming setting. The shuttle can’t be removed, nor can I make it just bypass the overmap. A tractor beam that attracts an asteroid for them to mine has been among the suggestions I got, and is currently something I am considering, but otherwise I am severely lacking in potential ideas and improvements I can give them.

Planetside Supplies

Operations need a way to supply planetside ops (or miners, should the Horizon be near them). There are two big things to this one:

• The intrepid should not be required to move back and forth for every single little thing.
• It should not be a teleporter.

These two restrictions are hard rules set for it as I work on the plans for how to do this. The reason for the teleporter is that it is very high tech, something which lore-wise is extremely unlikely to be able to reasonably carry on to the NBT2 and secondly it lacks the proper atmosphere and feel that I aim for in operations. It is an instant way to get there once activated, requires command so not even an operations thing and that’s kinda it. No feel to it.

My current consideration is a multi-tile supply platform set up on the planet, which connects to a similar device on the ship. These two platforms can connect to each other and send resources, with a delay and cost (specifics TBD). The current flavor for them in my design document is a type of drop pod sent down and back up again, allowing miners to send their materials up again or for operations to send down equipment and supplies. This is however currently not intended to move personnel, for which I am still debating ways to do it. The specifics remain of course subject to change, particularly the fluff side of it.

Currently Implemented Changes

Warehouse Remapping and Crate Shelves.

https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/21561 

The intention with these changes were simple. Make the warehouse more organized, have a place to put the crates, and overall give it more of a warehouse feel than a messy room with crates all over the place.

Parcel Cart

https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/21288 

A smaller addition. This one was for atmosphere when handing out items, but didn't need an entire crate for it.

The Commissary Upgrade, Vending Machine Reduction and Cash Register

https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/21492 

https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/21434 

https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/21672 

https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/21583 

https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/21717 

I have worked on improvements to the commissary, with the intention to get operations to interact more with the crew and have potential work throughout the round, even when nobody is making specific orders for them. For this, there was the implementation of the cash register and specialized shelves to help them stock more. The big one though was the last commissary PR. A complete remap into a larger shop, with specialized restocks and what more players might have experienced: A severe reduction in the contents of the vending machines. The idris refresh is gone, most of its content now in the commissary and the rest in the getmore, who also lost a lot of its contents. The cigarette vending machine also had a lot of its content moved over and currently even the frozen meal vending machines were moved to the commissary. Based on what I have witnessed since then, it has looked very much like a success in getting more people to visit the commissary, but of course it is hard to tell just from my own personal experience.

Delivery app improvements

https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/21720 

The delivery app was changed to split the delivery and payment buttons, with the ability to now charge department accounts directly. A major change from previously where a command member was required, but not anymore. This was done so that operations could still function on rounds where command is too busy to pay in person or aren’t around at all.

Misc improvements, fixes and additions

https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/21483 

https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/21481 

https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/21447 

https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/21342 

https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/21313 

And more things. There have been a lot of smaller changes and mapping bits in an attempt to improve the department, so that each doesn't stand out too much compared to the major changes above.

[Fyni]

18 minutes ago, TheGreyWolf said:

Price Rework

This is something I toyed with off server - that is, putting a "recommended price" on the wiki for food and the like. The standidization of the credit to be roughly in line with value with a USD and the additional of coins worth less than 1 credit is what we've needed to make this a thing. I think a proper price rework, with consistant prices across rounds and between items, is extremely important to making persistant money systems which are proposed actually carry weight. I think an important thing here is to give EVERYONE a "appraise / judge value" verb, which lets them gauge the value of an item at a glance. Price scanners would obviously give an exact number. Tying this verb to the proposed skill system, so those who with more knowledge in an area get a closer value and those without would get a wide window, would be lovely too.

I also think we should have the value given by this and the scanner be equal to a "value if it is been sold to you". Obviously, how much getmore pays for a chocolate bar and how much the crew pay right now are very much different. We should keep the value standard to "retail price" as it were.

18 minutes ago, TheGreyWolf said:

Warehouse

I'd like to see a "persistant" section of the warehouse, where items could be stored and they would save. If not returned before round end, they're gone. However how you balance this would be difficult, and it would create a "pack up at shift end" mentality I'd want to avoid.

18 minutes ago, TheGreyWolf said:

Mining

A persistant material shelf or two in mining (and ONLY in mining / the warehouse) meaning mining even on quiet rounds is appreciated later on would be great. It would also mean operations naturally doesn't want to just dump ALL the materials mining gets on the machinist / RnD / engineering and would be more involved in tracking exactly what is needed. This would need to be balanced with lower on map every round spawns of materials however. I'd also like to see the Horizon get a guareenteed asteroid spawn directly under it every round. Just a basic small astreroid, which allows mining to do their thing or fly further afield if they want more excitement. IC, it makes sense that the Horizon would seek an exploitable resource to be on top of at the start of every shift.

18 minutes ago, TheGreyWolf said:

Planetside Supplies

I've advocated for a space elevator. A 5x5 elevator (6x6 if you include the wall around the drop site) which works like we have now, with one end in operations (and hopefully accessible from common areas for use as passenger transport) and the other end placeable around a beacon. If the beacon has to be set up, rounds will still need the "fly down in the Intrepid" as an opener for away mission, so this will only effect after the initial landing. I'd also love to see disposable delivery pods, like the drop pods we have now.

Putting the beacons for BOTH these in the hands of operations (but hand-out able if operations are low on numbers) would give more incentive to sending a HT out on missions too.

Edited February 5 by Fyni

[Tomixcomics]

Overall I'm happy with the changes and tweaks to cargo, and the commissary has become an inviting, nice place to visit. Feels like a nice little store in the middle of the station.

Having said that, these changes made to make cargo, and namely the commissary - made to make them more of a central pillar - feel like they kind of ignore the fact there's not always cargo players online and the commissary isn't always open, especially during slower shifts. Some things like the stuff that was removed from vending machines is supposed to be there for when you can't get it from other places.

Instant meals are supposed to be there for when there's nobody working the kitchen (or if, say, a particularly hotheaded chef banned you), or if you just want something quick so you can get back to medical. Even if cargo is online, if you just want to grab a quick thing that'll fill you up for mechanical reasons, sometimes you wanna keep it quicker and simpler than an interaction in the commissary will allow. And cheesie honkers aren't really a meal.

Some of the stuff is there because you want it to be accessible even when you can't get it elsewhere, chocolate, for example, is there not only because it makes sense for chocolate to be in a vending machine (which I feel is also true, though), but also so if the kitchen happens to not have cocoa and there is no gardener they can still make stuff with chocolate. If the kitchen doesn't spawn vanilla extract more often than not I just go and get white chocolate from the vending machine, and while, obviously not department should have EVERYTHING available to it without relying on other departments, I feel like there's plenty that service already relies on cargo for, and skewing the scales even more in cargo's favor is maybe starting to inconvenience service a bit.

Plus, on a personal note, it was a bit of a bummer going through the trouble of creating a new specialized vending machine (which I've never done before) for microwave foods, sprite it and everything only to have it removed a month and a half later in the kitchen rework without being told. Especially since it was originally placed in the upstairs cafe and I specifically asked mappers if they could move it to the commissary, where I wanted it to be.

I agree the commissary looks nicer and more streamlined without it, instead looking like an inviting grocery store, but it was still a bummer, and I also don't like that you can no longer "see" the meals being sold there the way you could when it was a vending machine. Is there a way to maybe, at the very least, make it so those fridges display items  the way vending machines do? Even just from a UI standpoint, it's not fun looking at a giant wall of text describing 50 different products all looking like white text on blue background. Now that the commissary is full of so many things, without visuals it really becomes an overwhelming wall of text. I never even look at the clothes rack in the commissary because I know there's no way in heck I can judge outfits based on their text name and I'm not about to pull them all out one by one.

Part of what I liked about the vending machine is that you could see all the products in front of you, kind of like, ironically, a supermarket fridge display (frankly maybe other types of smartfridges should display what's in them rather than just list it, too. Looking at you, smartheater)

Honestly, giving cargo a vending machine of microwave foods already felt like it would be taking something from service and giving it to cargo since it would make people less reliant on the kitchen (doubly so now that the commissary has a microwave), and I'm fine with that (again, good to have alternatives), but I also want to make sure kitchen isn't losing too much in the exchange to cargo.

Edited February 6 by Tomixcomics

[CatsinHD]

I think it's a valid shout regarding the microwave meal vendor and such. I think in general there's tiers and niches to each of these things. In my hyper idealized view that may not be practical:

• Vendors are the more expensive, but reliable option. You pay extra for convenience and for it always being there.
• Commissary exists for the bodega experience, cheaper prices for similar vendor items, a little bit of RP, and warehouse goods.
• Kitchen/Bar exist for right proper RP, larger meals/drinks, and more control over what meal/drink you get. And also it's free, but that's a different can of worms.

In this way, each has a lane that has minimal overlap. John Officer who has red hunger after chasing Jane merc through half the ship likely doesn't care to stop for a lot of RP with the chef, at least during an active event. The vendor is there to buy 5 bread tubes. People doing their shopping for the week, wanting an interesting items from the warehouse, or just want a little interaction while they buy their ultra-processed food stock (which is primarily snacks, of which the kitchen doesn't serve often), they have the commissary. Everything else is the kitchen. Post-antag RP, large meals, getting to choose that platter of ras'val clams and not another pack of tunasnax or D6 microwave pizza.

This rambling section was to say, I somewhat agree with Tomix.

As for my own suggestions and thoughts! I like the commissary. I like the effort put into making the center point of being in ops, cargo and deliveries, actually functional and nice to use. The matter of how to get more interaction with ops gets into a wider mess of how we draw the lines between what level of materials a department starts with. To that end, I don't really want to mess with it because that is far out of scope.

Let's ponder the name. Hangar Technician. Curiously, Hangar Techs have the access and availability (usually) to service the hangar. Yet little is done about it. The main part of operating the flight deck is refueling and cargo handling of shuttles. Who ends up doing this? Pilots or engineering. This is a bit of an issue, since a part of the duties of an HT are null and void because other roles do them instead. Normally the answer is the ID lock, but that is a bit lame, especially for pilots when no HTs are around.  A few changes in mind, or ideas that can be pondered:

• Give HTs a crowbar and wrench at round start.
  • Moving CO2 canisters is a key part of refueling, yet an HT doesn't spawn with a wrench. Additionally, removing Phoron cans needs a crowbar (afaik. Correct me if I'm wrong). So why not spawn with the tools essential to a part of the job role?
• Have the Marshaling Wand speed up landing times for shuttles
  • This is likely really hard to implement, I understand. However I think it will give some life into an otherwise useless RP tool. If it had a purpose, speeding up shuttle landings, it might lead to HTs being actively sought after for expeditions. Especially when a medical emergency is involved.
• Implement an optional pre-conditioning process for shuttles
  • Add a system that allow HTs to pre-condition shuttles for flight. Maybe this could make them accelerate faster, burn less fuel, or some other benefit. It shouldn't be a requirement, rather a buff that encourages the inclusion of HTs into the flight process.

These ideas are intended to not become requirements. Those can be lame. Having a benefit to including HTs, though, is nice, and also doesn't kneecap other roles when HTs aren't around. How feasible they are? idk.

Edited February 7 by CatsinHD
How does a lore writer have this bad of english comprehension?

[greenjoe]

The ability to cancel approved but unshipped orders could be useful. Maybe with a cancellation fee or needing OM/captain access.

[Nagito Komaeda]

On 06/02/2026 at 22:49, CatsinHD said:

Have the Marshaling Wand speed up landing times for shuttles

• This is likely really hard to implement, I understand. However I think it will give some life into an otherwise useless RP tool. If it had a purpose, speeding up shuttle landings, it might lead to HTs being actively sought after for expeditions. Especially when a medical emergency is involved.

 

This is an interesting idea, but that seems hellish to implement. But it got me thinking: what if the Marshalling Wand can work as a 'camera' for the pilot of a shuttle? It'd make it so that flight crew can see the conditions immediately prior to landing, and it also feels like it makes sense that you can better 'see' your landing zones if someone is waving around bright sticks to signify the area.

[kermit]

On 05/02/2026 at 19:02, TheGreyWolf said:

The Commissary Upgrade, Vending Machine Reduction and Cash Register

the commissary/vending machine changes have been fun for me and go hand-in-hand together rather well. i already liked the commissary but never really had a reason to visit it, but its quite easy to find a reason to pop by. so, nicely done

my one suggestion would be adding a a self-checkout, using the Idris Ordering Terminal like the one by the kitchen, for when there is no one staffing the Commissary. there's been a few rounds lately where the HTs are just too busy with other duties, so a self-checkout means other crew can still pay if they need something semi-urgently (eg. chocolate for the kitchen), but also loosens the shackles tying HTs to the commissary once its been advertised as open. bonus points if the Ordering Terminals can be turned on/off by the HTs as they staff/unstaff the counter., as im not sure if that functionality is present rn.

On 06/02/2026 at 21:49, CatsinHD said:

Have the Marshaling Wand speed up landing times for shuttles

• This is likely really hard to implement, I understand. However I think it will give some life into an otherwise useless RP tool. If it had a purpose, speeding up shuttle landings, it might lead to HTs being actively sought after for expeditions. Especially when a medical emergency is involved.

 

bluespace flare behaviour could be merged with the marshalling wands. 

press Z to continuously wave the wand, while doing so a new landing point is generated a few tiles ahead of whichever direction the signaler is facing. up until the wand-waving action is cancelled.

bluespace flares could remain as a limited resource for any expeditioner or entirely removed to necessitate a HT being needed to open up those extra/emergency landing points.

Edited February 9 by kermit

[NerdyVampire]

On 05/02/2026 at 20:02, TheGreyWolf said:

Operations need a way to supply planetside ops (or miners, should the Horizon be near them). There are two big things to this one:

• The intrepid should not be required to move back and forth for every single little thing.
• It should not be a teleporter.

High/medium cost short-range drop pods like the ones in rimworld seems logical yeah. Launching them should be a cost-benefit analysis, and can maybe take personnel if emagged ?Loading mechanics could be as simple as drag-and-drop of crates onto it? Maybe start with 1 or 2 depending on ships budget and the ability to construct more.

Maybe the requirement to send it back up is bounded by the fuel inside it?

Edited February 9 by NerdyVampire
Reread a bit

[greenjoe]

In regards to the payment system changes, info on the programs that an order was paid for by department account rather then the person's own account would be useful. It currently still says it is paid for by X person even if the departmental payment is used.