Gloves for the gloved, and other engineering loadout ideas

[ChevalierMalFet]

My primary character is Sarad Amrapurkar, and while playing as him, I have noticed a great deal of things i do at round start, or see others do, as a matter of course. As such, i have a few small ideas on what sort of procedures might be implemented to get us going. My suggestions are small, but I think they will create great convenience for those affected at very minimal cost. Please excuse any rough diction; I am currently on a Thai beach and have no access to a real keyboard. I will be back on the 11th.

1 - station engineers and chief engineers, ie those with access to insulated gloves, should start the round already wearing them. Saves the trip to pick them up. The chief, also, should either begin the round with an industrial welding tool or else have one in the locker.

2 - big blue oxygen tanks, of the kind you get from dispensers, should either start empty or start at 1013. Everyone I see fills them up to 1013 whenever they have a convenient moment.

3 - plasma tanks should also start either empty or full, with empty being my preference. At the very least, the hardsuit storage / dressing room tank dispenser should either dispense empties or should dispense no plasma tanks at all.

4 - get rid of the derelict tools in the singularity area. Other than the free multitool, which I grab sometimes, everything else out there is a waste. In fact, get rid of derelict tools in the engine area generally.

5 - Poly should stop being able to grab things. I appreciate the comedy of having him yell at us, but whenever I'm the chief and he snatches things out of my hand, it's a total drag.

6 - This may be beyond the scope of such suggestions, but possibly a way to toggle tools between 'tool' and 'weapon' modes, or to have tools work only as weapons in the harm intent and only as tools in all other intents. If I want to whoop ass, I don't want to accidentally remove a floor tile; conversely, and as is the more likely scenario, I don't want to be fixing the floor and accidentally break someone's jaw.

7 - one final thing. If memory serves, the universal constructor holds 30 dollops of ammunition, and 50 dollops - in five sets of 10 - are in the chief's office. Purely for microscopic convenience, I'd ask for there to be two clips instead of five, with 30 dollops - a full load - in each.

These changes are all small and irksome, I know, but I think they are all unambiguously positive, and simply reflect the automatic round-start equipages of every engineer.

I await your comments, if any.

[Guest]

2 - big blue oxygen tanks, of the kind you get from dispensers, should either start empty or start at 1013. Everyone I see fills them up to 1013 whenever they have a convenient moment.

3 - plasma tanks should also start either empty or full, with empty being my preference. At the very least, the hardsuit storage / dressing room tank dispenser should either dispense empties or should dispense no plasma tanks at all.

 

Point 2:

It's eh? If I recall from playing a year ago, tanks were around 600-ish kpa or something? (maybe it was 300-ish?) I can see where you're coming from but if people know a thing about oxygen tanks then filling it to the max wont really change their round. The only time they'd run out is if it were a very long round, and I mean very long, probably 3+ hours.

Point 3:

I believe the plasma tanks started with that amount so the singularity could still be started without a Chief Engineer as they have access to secure storage, where the plasma tank is stored. Not that it matters because a decent CE wouldn't really bother about an engineer breaking into their office to get that plasma fill for the day. There's always atmospherics too I guess to fill them?

[Xelnagahunter]

Point four is likely for people outside of engineering to do the job. A captain might not carry tools but might be trained in engine setup. As such they can start the engine without having to collect tools first. The tools outside make sense if an Antag can get tehre fast enough to claim some/all of them, and even antags like the ninja need power so they might actually setup the engine them damn selves.

[Guest Menown]

There's a certain candor to gearing up and working together with your team to get the engine running. That'd all be lost if you didn't have to get gloves, fill the tanks, deligate tasks to your team, ect. As for the tools, things being left there assigns character and life to the enviroment. It implies that people were working there at one moment and couldn't be bothered to clean up.

(Not to mention it'd be good EVA training to send an apprentice outside to collect the tools)

[ChevalierMalFet]

With regards to point 2, that's certainly true - it takes a long time to go through 1013 of oxygen and i do yes mean quite a long time. Simultaneously though, if you have a free minute, there's no real reason -not- to do it, nor any downside to having all that air except for a hypothetical scarcity that never materializes. Unless they are purposefully being left half full, there's no reason to have them less than full.

As for number three, I see your point - though I confess I've never been in a round with neither ai nor ce, but then again there's nothing impossible about it - but even with that proviso, plasma should be in the engine area, in keeping with its status as the very precious shit that justifies our salaries. My mantra is as such - if any of it should be in secure storage, then all of it should be. On that note, I also think that the tank dispenser in atmo should also be behind a few more doors, perhaps in the same room as the pipe dispenser.

But your comments are certainly appreciated.

Ah! As I post, I see a new post made. Now, this hinges on something I haven't tested yet, the onus never taking root, but isn't the captain or hop also authorized to get the tools out of the vending machine? (I wager that only these two fine gentles might have the hypothetical experience to start the engine, outside the department - we in ooc can go to the fine bay station wiki and follow one two three, but IC it's a very complicated process requiring a four year apprenticeship. ) in any case, it strikes me as somewhat slovenly - either the tools are waiting for you at the fixed site as a policy matter, or you bring them with you. If the wrench is waiting for you at the Pa, then wire coils and cutters should await you at the solars.

As for the antags, that's malege speed. If the goal is for the antag to get a multitool or radio - the rest there is all worthless - then I'd put them at some other place. As it stands, they get collected - well, I collect the multitool, the rest get mulched - within fifteen minutes. If someone has actually collected the multi or radio from the singularity zone, and used it for antagonisms variegated, I'll retract the point - but here is a mind boggled by the notion.

And a third appears, jizo kshitigarbha. I agree with you that this camaraderie is precious, but in the overall survey, I don't see how these changes would affect the dynamic of startup except, possibly, queueing up to fill your oxygen - which startup doesn't have to do because the tanks come with over an hour of air. I like filling plasma tanks as a startup element, which is why I'd have them - all of then - start empty.

[Synnono]

Oxygen tanks of the like dispensed in the hardsuit room start with enough oxygen to run an EVA for the duration of most Aurora shifts. That odd five-hour RP-Rev round might be the exception, but in that instance, I hope we're not spending the whole time outside!

This is a complete rider and I'm sorry for not otherwise addressing the OP, but would it also be possible to consider allowing Engineering Apprentices to start with the engineering bandana in custom loadout? I love that thing, and I can't put it on my engineering newbie's head.

Edit: I just noticed the custom loadout sticky on this forum. Crossposting that second bit there!

Edited January 4, 2016 by Guest

[ChevalierMalFet]

Oxygen tanks of the like dispensed in the hardsuit room start with enough oxygen to run an EVA for the duration of most Aurora shifts. That odd five-hour RP-Rev round might be the exception, but in that instance, I hope we're not spending the whole time outside!

This is a complete rider and I'm sorry for not otherwise addressing the OP, but would it also be possible to consider allowing Engineering Apprentices to start with the engineering bandana in custom loadout? I love that thing, and I can't put it on my engineering newbie's head.

That's a true point, but then again still - unless we are rationing the air, or unless it's from a game balance perspective, why /not/ have them start at full?

[SierraKomodo]

Regarding number 3, even if you can't get into secure storage or atmosphereics, there's a plasma tank on the engineering outpost that engineers can access.

[ChevalierMalFet]

Regarding number 3, even if you can't get into secure storage or atmosphereics, there's a plasma tank on the engineering outpost that engineers can access.

Can apprentices use the shuttle? I sincerely have no idea.

[Conservatron]

(Not to mention it'd be good EVA training to send an apprentice outside to collect the tools)

sadly with the rate of power consumption and default cells in areas, spending the time to prep and dispatch an apprentice to collect the tools would result in 3 major secure areas losing power before containment was brought up. As it stands, even with a competent engineering staff its not unheard of for atmos to lose power before engine is up.

 

Regarding number 3, even if you can't get into secure storage or atmosphereics, there's a plasma tank on the engineering outpost that engineers can access.

Can apprentices use the shuttle? I sincerely have no idea.

i believe they can use the shuttle, but they lack the access for the actual doors on the outpost

Now my own points, I'd love for air tanks to be full but it doesn't really matter. Plasma tanks, I think they're OK the way they are actually. Everything else I agree with entirely, but as an engineer im pretty biased.

Except keep poly stealing stuff. Side note, make poly a bird cage

[Chaznoodles]

Game not user friendly, make everything less work pls

[Conservatron]

the one major engineering thing i want changed is make it possible to actually clear the waste loop

once you get one or two rooms in it, the thing is clogged for literally ever. IDK whats wrong, but I suspect its either the injectors or the filters

[Carver]

1 - station engineers and chief engineers, ie those with access to insulated gloves, should start the round already wearing them. Saves the trip to pick them up. The chief, also, should either begin the round with an industrial welding tool or else have one in the locker.

They don't start with gloves for the same reason Security doesn't start with tasers or stun batons, balancing and a pseudo 'rationing' of rare/important items. With insulated gloves historically renowned for generally being something everyone wants, which now typically only holds true during rev/cult/traitor, it still makes sense to keep them in limited supply for all parties. Especially if an antagonist seeks to deprive Engineering of their precious gloves.

 

4 - get rid of the derelict tools in the singularity area. Other than the free multitool, which I grab sometimes, everything else out there is a waste. In fact, get rid of derelict tools in the engine area generally.

The point of most of the derelict tools, atleast by the PA, is to give new engineers an idea of what they should be using to set up the engine. As for the ones around the singularity, ones like the multitool are less important but it's still generally a nice enough touch of flavour.

 

6 - This may be beyond the scope of such suggestions, but possibly a way to toggle tools between 'tool' and 'weapon' modes, or to have tools work only as weapons in the harm intent and only as tools in all other intents. If I want to whoop ass, I don't want to accidentally remove a floor tile; conversely, and as is the more likely scenario, I don't want to be fixing the floor and accidentally break someone's jaw.

The one downside I see with this is the guy who /wants/ to rip up floor tiles in combat, since they make wonderful throwing weapons. Although a tad less so after the nerf. As for accidentally hitting someone, they should probably get out of the way if you're doing repairs... Unless this is a subtle way to ask for a safety because you keep hitting yourself during repairs which makes sense.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

The foundation of this suggestion is to shave off seconds of pre-time for engineering, but I don't really think it's necessary. Gearing up is part of spawning in a department.