Cross Department Bullshit

[rrrrrr]

I'm starting to notice this weird trend of characters working in different departments (usually engineering, sometimes science) and also security. It strikes me as sort of.. odd? AFAIK you have to get certified to work as a security officer, on top of being physically fit and having the experience.

I dunno, just seems weird. Is it just me?

[Garnascus]

The ease with which you can hop between departments changes drastically depending on what race you are, or how old your character is. An IPC for example might know security, medical, AND engineering on account of being able to "download" data for the jobs. There's an OOC restriction staff impose on them though, your IC knowledge is limited whatever job you spawned in as.

You can, of course always ahelp if you think players might be job hopping a bit too much, its hard to figure out a blanket assessment for all since every character is going to be a little different.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

As it stands,

You are expected to be qualified in your own department. You can jump around your own department, but it has to be in areas of a similar skillset. Unless it's one of the intern roles or whatever.

IPC's aren't exempted from this. The only current exception to the "one department skillset" rule are Skrell, and they're unrobust as balls and can't really do security well.(???? Frances??? is this right???)

[Frances]

Skrell characters still have to make sense. They can live for hundreds of years and become proficient in a variety of fields (though most would prefer to get very good in a few rather than average in all).

They're also expected to be polite and follow common sense, game balance-wise. Which means that if you're a surgeon and somebody needs cloning, you go to the geneticist and get them to clone that person. And then if there's no geneticist and your Skrell does have advanced genetics training, then they can politely ask the AI or their CMO to unlock genetics for them.

I don't really see many opportunities for powergaming from this (it doesn't really confer them any advantages against antags that a well-traveled RD wouldn't have), but if I see people powergame this in really obvious ways(mainly for the sake of being robust or "victorious" rather than creating an interesting character) I'll have a talk with them, or see if the guidelines need to be amended somehow.

[Dreamix]

The ease with which you can hop between departments changes drastically depending on what race you are, or how old your character is. An IPC for example might know security, medical, AND engineering on account of being able to "download" data for the jobs. There's an OOC restriction staff impose on them though, your IC knowledge is limited whatever job you spawned in as. (...)

Nope, not really true. IPC's are not connected to the extranet/internet, and don't have 'modems'. Quote and link:

This means that they cannot be remotely accessed. They're like a computer with no network connection.

And, (maybe) nope, not "believable" and "well-rounded". Quote and link:

They wish they had a hundred just like you. That's why they will promote your character away from the Aurora to do tasks more suited to their incredible skills.

So, IPC's are not an exception from the rule. I dislike IPC's (whether they are just TV heads, or cats acting like cats) that use their race as a excuse to powergame, or just to know, and do every job on the station. Yes, I changed my characters accordingly.

[Guest]

Nope, not really true. IPC's are not connected to the extranet/internet, and don't have 'modems'. Quote and link:

This means that they cannot be remotely accessed. They're like a computer with no network connection.

And, (maybe) nope, not "believable" and "well-rounded". Quote and link:

They wish they had a hundred just like you. That's why they will promote your character away from the Aurora to do tasks more suited to their incredible skills.

So, IPC's are not an exception from the rule. I dislike IPC's (whether they are just TV heads, or cats acting like cats) that use their race as a excuse to powergame, or just to know, and do every job on the station. Yes, I changed my characters accordingly.

 

When you make a robot, it's almost always made with the explicit purpose of being a specialized unit, so that it performs its job at its utmost optimal capacity without any chance for failure.

Not unlike organics, it's really good at what it's programmed/robot-trained to do, even if and when they come to the realization that all they will do in life is

[Zundy]

I'm starting to notice this weird trend of characters working in different departments (usually engineering, sometimes science) and also security. It strikes me as sort of.. odd? AFAIK you have to get certified to work as a security officer, on top of being physically fit and having the experience.

I dunno, just seems weird. Is it just me?

 

This is actually a pet pet peeve of mine. If you want to hop departments, make a new character for said departments imo.