Nanako Posted March 10, 2016 Posted March 10, 2016 I'd like to see heads of staff given a lore-friendly way to coordinate incoming personnel. How i'd envision this working is, each of the four department heads could have a new computer (ora new option on an existing one), to set the status of their department, and of various jobs within it, as either Short-handed, neutral (default, no effect) and Full Complement The captain, and the Head of Personnel, would have a more advanced system, that allows them to set thesse parameters for any department and job on the station, as well as marking departments with a priority level, Low, Medium, and High What's the purpose of this? This information would be shown in the lobby, on the Join Game screen where you pick a role. The join game screen could be divided into five categories. Requested: High Priority Requested: Normal priority Requested: Low priority Normal (the main list, still holds most roles) Filled (the list of jobs marked as not needed) These would act as a suggestion (no obligation) on incoming players to choose certain classes, according to what the heads of staff think the station needs. This would allow incoming players to fill roles that are useful, instead of ending up with six security people during an extended deadhour round. The lore justification being, you're sending a request to Nanotrasen central command for people with certain qualifications, and it's responding by allocating appropriate people to your station Thoughts?
Conservatron Posted March 10, 2016 Posted March 10, 2016 I'm not sure the work is really worth the payout people joining already have this information in two places, first if they click crew manifest they have a full listing of everyone in every role and if they're active or inactive and second when they click join jobs are listed like Scientist (#) showing how many of that job are currently on station (but not how many are active) this just seems like coding in redundant functionality that will be ignored by the kind of person who ignores the current information.
Guest Posted March 10, 2016 Posted March 10, 2016 Thoughts? If this suggestion means "open an absurd amount of clown job slots as HoP" then I'm all for it.
Nanako Posted March 10, 2016 Author Posted March 10, 2016 I'm not sure the work is really worth the payout people joining already have this information in two places, first if they click crew manifest they have a full listing of everyone in every role and if they're active or inactive and second when they click join jobs are listed like Scientist (#) showing how many of that job are currently on station (but not how many are active) this just seems like coding in redundant functionality that will be ignored by the kind of person who ignores the current information. I would argue it's definitely not redundant. A security department can have six people, and still be short handed if most of them are in emergency surgery, and/or outnumbered by antagonists. On a station with lots of borgs (which by the way, are not shown on the manifest) the roboticist can find themselves overwhelmed with work, and in need of a colleague. And if multiple departments have low staff, and the station is under attack by saboteurs, engineers are needed more than researchers, especially if the station is being powersinked or blown up If it's a quiet extended shift with no antagonists, then a detective isn't really needed, nor a large security team. Those positions could be set to filled, and the science staff all set to requested. If there's lots of RP going on, or someone wants to host a party, then bartender can be set as requested If there's a large engineering staff, but all of them are newbs with no clue how to setup the supermatter, chief engineer can be marked as requested (perhaps an engineer can break into his office and use the console) The overall idea here is to direct people, with two goals in mind: 1. First and foremost, fun. It will allow people to choose roles knowing they'll have something to do, instead of spending most of the shift alone in their office, or going into cryo out of boredom 2. To ensure the general well running of the station, and give it a fighting chance against powerful antagonists I believe it would also have the worthwhile effect of giving the captain and head of personnel more ability to control the station, by getting the staff they want, and can use
ForgottenTraveller Posted March 10, 2016 Posted March 10, 2016 While it can be redundant. There are significant times when it isn't. Mostly with engineering I have found though or medical staff. In that while you have some. They either are not doing what is needed. Or are overwhelmed by the current need that seems to be unending. Even just a priority call that would put an exclamation mark next to the join as options that are needed instead of a massive sliding scale would be a massive help in some cases.
Carver Posted March 11, 2016 Posted March 11, 2016 Being able to specifically request roles is nice, but if this 'filled' function /blocks/ people from picking a role they want to and could otherwise play, then this is a genuinely awful idea. Being unable to play what you want because some dingus is locking out roles is going to encourage people to just not join at all. Otherwise if it's just Lifeweb's sort of system where it says "Expedition Leader has requested X, do you want to play X? y/n" where you can ignore it, that's fine.
Conservatron Posted March 11, 2016 Posted March 11, 2016 Being able to specifically request roles is nice, but if this 'filled' function /blocks/ people from picking a role they want to and could otherwise play, then this is a genuinely awful idea. Being unable to play what you want because some dingus is locking out roles is going to encourage people to just not join at all. Otherwise if it's just Lifeweb's sort of system where it says "Expedition Leader has requested X, do you want to play X? y/n" where you can ignore it, that's fine. I suppose this would be interesting
Nanako Posted March 13, 2016 Author Posted March 13, 2016 Being able to specifically request roles is nice, but if this 'filled' function /blocks/ people from picking a role they want to and could otherwise play, then this is a genuinely awful idea. Being unable to play what you want because some dingus is locking out roles is going to encourage people to just not join at all. Otherwise if it's just Lifeweb's sort of system where it says "Expedition Leader has requested X, do you want to play X? y/n" where you can ignore it, that's fine. I'm very specific that it would be a suggestion to incoming players, not any kind of mandate. you could still play anything that's available
LordFowl Posted March 13, 2016 Posted March 13, 2016 If this suggestion forces you to play a specific role, that's a definite no. It would stink for both ends - we'd get a station in some emergency with an asshat engineer that mains as lesbay, and we'd get a disgruntled lesbay player stuck in the engineer position.
Nanako Posted March 13, 2016 Author Posted March 13, 2016 If this suggestion forces you to play a specific role, that's a definite no. It would stink for both ends - we'd get a station in some emergency with an asshat engineer that mains as lesbay, and we'd get a disgruntled lesbay player stuck in the engineer position. again, definitely not. nothing would be forced upon players. only advising them what roles heads of staff would like to see
Guest Posted March 13, 2016 Posted March 13, 2016 Being able to specifically request roles is nice, but if this 'filled' function /blocks/ people from picking a role they want to and could otherwise play, then this is a genuinely awful idea. Being unable to play what you want because some dingus is locking out roles is going to encourage people to just not join at all. Otherwise if it's just Lifeweb's sort of system where it says "Expedition Leader has requested X, do you want to play X? y/n" where you can ignore it, that's fine. Was about to suggest this until I saw the post. Agreed.
the_furry Posted March 14, 2016 Posted March 14, 2016 I do like the idea of knowing what's needed rather than what's just empty before joining the server. it's always annoying when I join the round to realize half the station is vented and im gona be spending my round siting in a box waiting for engineers to fix everything cause i didn't come on as my engineer
Guest Marlon Phoenix Posted March 14, 2016 Posted March 14, 2016 This idea seems rather complex and redundant... But the foundation is a good idea. We just need to make it simple. A Head of Staff should be able to swipe their ID on the authenticator to give the lobby screen a 20 minute "high priority" status on that department. So when someone wants to join, the list of available jobs has "High priority!" sorted at the top, or maybe that department is highlighted on the crew manifest. 20 minutes lets it be "set then forget" without it being stuck forever if the Head forgets or goes cryo or just doesn't bother even when the department is full.
Nanako Posted March 15, 2016 Author Posted March 15, 2016 This idea seems rather complex and redundant... But the foundation is a good idea. We just need to make it simple. A Head of Staff should be able to swipe their ID on the authenticator to give the lobby screen a 20 minute "high priority" status on that department. So when someone wants to join, the list of available jobs has "High priority!" sorted at the top, or maybe that department is highlighted on the crew manifest. 20 minutes lets it be "set then forget" without it being stuck forever if the Head forgets or goes cryo or just doesn't bother even when the department is full. I like this. Of course i like my idea more, but i have a strange love of complexity. your idea is probably simpler to implement, and mostly as useful too I'd definitely support this implementation
the_furry Posted March 15, 2016 Posted March 15, 2016 This idea seems rather complex and redundant... But the foundation is a good idea. We just need to make it simple. A Head of Staff should be able to swipe their ID on the authenticator to give the lobby screen a 20 minute "high priority" status on that department. So when someone wants to join, the list of available jobs has "High priority!" sorted at the top, or maybe that department is highlighted on the crew manifest. 20 minutes lets it be "set then forget" without it being stuck forever if the Head forgets or goes cryo or just doesn't bother even when the department is full. Can we implement this? the only modification I would suggest is after the 20min mark have an automatic pda message be sent to the head so they know to update the request if they still need someone.
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