Job Unlock Timer Change

[Sollessa]

So I've been spending some time on the Bad Deathclaw server and they have a system there that I really thing should be something that we tried to implement.  This IS just a suggestion though as I lack the code knowledge to implement it myself.  Anyways, the first thing I noticed when I joined was that the different roles were all time locked, as per usual for all of the servers I've been on except CM.  But what was different was that each of the different factions on the server, the NCR, Brotherhood of Steel, all had different time locks.  So, for example, the Brotherhood of Steel had two starter roles, the Initiate Scribe and Initiate Knight.  In order to unlock the next role, the Scribe, you needed 10 hours of playtime as the BoS specifically.  The NCR had the same thing for the Sergeant and officer roles and the like.

Anyways, my idea is that this mechanic should be applied to every department except service.  So for example, in security, if you wanted to play Warden or HoS then you would need to play as a security officer for 5 hours to unlock warden and then 10 hours as Warden or Officer to unlock HoS, for example.  The exact timing can be figured out later.  Then for like medical, if you wanted to play CMO, you would need 10 hours of experience as an MD or Paramedic.  Maybe a 5 hour barrier on Virology.  Same for science with the RD.  Not sure about HoP.  Maybe like a 1-2 hour time block on QM with experience as a cargo tech.  And then for Captain you would have to play 10 hours or something as any of the other command roles.  AI would require maybe some time spent playing a cyborg or something.  I'm unsure how hard it would be to code but I think the game already keeps track of play time as specific departments already from what I've seen in the player playtime menu so the system is already there to track department playtime.  Anyways, that's all, appreciate any thoughts.

[McRamon]

Yeah I totally support this, i think i even have suggested the same thing somewhere in the comments, but i was talking more about nuke ops time block (hours of traitor playtime).  

[Veloxi]

This scheme was implemented on Oracle, so I was surprised when I first joined Paradise and found most of the roles open.

Honestly, I think they work best for players who are very new to SS13.
It keeps them from choosing roles over their heads on their first or second time playing the game.

My observation is that the time locks didn't significantly improve Oracle over what I see in Paradise today.
Nor do Paradise's lack of time locks make things significantly worse on Paradise than what I saw on Oracle.

So, nice on paper, but maybe not as effective in practice as I would hope.

[davidchan]

Aside from keeping new or inexperienced players out of certain roles, I don't actually think this is a good idea. Head Roles are the only ones that should be time gated behind certain amount of hours in a department, most other jobs should have enough variance between them that playing them requires different kinds of thinking and play to succeed.

For example, Security Officer, Detective and Warden all have very different responsibilities and play styles. The only shared ground and responsibilities they actually have are Space Law. Requiring 5+ hours as a Sec Officer before unlocking Warden could perhaps wrongly influence a person into thinking it's okay for a Warden to randomly patrol the station or spend most of their time in maintenance, when in fact their primary duty is to stay in the brig to watch prisoners and the armory.  Doctors and Paramedics have similarly different roles and Virologists and Geneticists have very little in common with Medical Doctors.

For Head Roles, I'm a little more willing to see department play time locks, though I'm skeptical about those as well as I feel a head of staff should be familiar to competent in most of their department and able to fill the gaps as needed, but heads of staff shouldn't be exclusivley working a job unless nobody else is available to do it (such as the RD running RnD alone, CE setting up the engine or CMO doing chemistry/setting up camp in Surgery, their primary job is getting other people do theirs, not do it for them.)

A far better system, in my opinion, would be for a backend where the game tracks player hours in certain roles, such as Head Roles or slightly more complex ones like Virologist or Warden, and if they have less than 10 hours in such a role, Mentors who are logged in (or via the Discord bot if that function is working) are notified and given a link to message the person directly to greet them and offer assistance and their knowledge as many new players don't know or seem to remember Mentor help is a thing but would probably engage in a PM conversation if they were more directly made aware mentors were active and willing to help without disturbing everyone else's rounds.

Beyond that, I would like to see interns added in some shape of form, dept specific assistants who can help during high pop rounds as an extra set of hands and during low stress and drama moments fully fledged dept members could try and help teach interns the ins and outs of the job.

TL;DR Time locks rarely improve the quality of play for most players since many locked jobs don't share the same responsibilities and mechanics as the jobs often used to unlock them, and a more proactive use of the mentor system would help educate players willing to learn a new job.

[Sollessa]

I will agree that a lot of the locked jobs do not have the exact same responsibilities then the jobs below them but most of them do require at least some knowledge of how to do the jobs below them.  For example, I've seen CMOs that knew nothing of Virology or Chemistry and a little bit of surgery.  I've also seen RDs that didn't know how to do xenobiology or R&D.  The current system allows players to spend all of their time playing Bartender for example, and then suddenly decide they want to be the RD when they have absolutely no idea what that job expects.

I will say that, as a mentor, we do try to help out new heads of staff frequently and we do get mentor helps from them quite often, but it is not our job to explain all of the intricacies of a command role.  The changes I've proposed would simply make it so that anyone who wants to play a command role has actually spent some time in the department they want to command.  It would make it so people that wanted to be CMO actually spent some time playing and learning how to treat patients and do surgery and hopefully as well as some time in medchem and virology.  I'm not saying it will fix all of the problems that occur sometimes when we get inexperienced command members but it should make them a lot less frequent.

[Landerlow]

I am totally in favour of this idea. I will never forget the warden who hadn't read up on roles a lot and had no idea what he was doing when he was supposed to put a guy in permabrig. He put him in a normal cell instead and tried to set the timer. When confronted by me (magistrate), ran off without prior warning to 'read up on roles'. I took over the perma'ing after that.

 

At least they were honest about their (then) lack of knowledge.

 

 

I think this is a very good idea.