New Space Mini Department (Mechanic Major overhaul)

[Boxy]

Ive been playing mechanic recently and making a space podder club  and that gave me a great idea.

@Kyet

Now in the start of every round i had to get materials tools and effort to build a hangar  and expand mechanics office to the nearby maintenance empty room and to be able to hold and launch 5 pods with out anything getting in the way if parked correctly.  by that time i probably hit 45 minute mark.   and by the time i had all the resources and pods ready i had hit the 1,00 to 1,15 hour mark. 

I managed to gather members from the whole station and came up with paperwork for pod ownership,   I distributed the pods for free for the member of our club. 

And they all went to have their space adventures,   Wile it was a fun round it took really long for us to really get started and there were not many interesting things to do after all this time has passed.

I feel like the regular mechanic play through right now is   Build your very own pod,  fuck off into space,   collect goodies, come back to the ship.  

And at most you create one extra pod for some one who asks,  its not like in the job description where you make pods for multiple crew.

 

So i propose a New mini department,  full overhaul on how mechanic works,  a new layout for the part of the station and a new karma job Space Pod Driver.

Layout changes:

i have color coded what should be where in the map bellow

Gray = Empty space (runway)

Yellow = Pod Parking spot

Green = Mechanics Office (Where all the paperwork is writen kept about who drives what and does what with what pod)

Cyan = Podbay Workshop  ( Does not include an deconstructive analyzer any more and instead boasts a Porto lathe and a smelter?)

Red = EVA suit storage

Department changes: There is a new department in town  The Space Operations department. 

The space department is was put together to handle situations out in space,   they work for literally every other department   (Or fuck off irresponsibly collecting artifacts)  From petty salvaging  to Recovering bodies from space  To providing fire support against the blob any space threats.  Anything that needs to be done in space they do.

New radio frequency  [Space Operations]

Mechanic Overhaul:  Now the mechanics job is not literally fucking off to space with no responsibilities to inevitably die in a z level.

The mechanics boss is literally any other head of personal.

Now the mechanic is the head of the space department (Kinda like Quartermaster)   And has to  1: Supervise their department and keep tabs on things  . 2: Create Upgrade and Repair pods. 3: Command and supervise space operations (from their cozy office)  4: Take orders for space operations from literally any other department.

In this addition mechanic now costs 45 karma and will be refundable for wile giving back 30 points for those who don't like the changes.

New Karma Job Space Pod Driver:  A space pod drivers job is exactly what it implies to drive a space pod.   They are to follow orders from the Mechanic.

They do the following.  1: Do specific space operations set out by the mechanic under the request of other departments. 2: Scavenge space for resources and treasure when you don't have a specific task.

They have the same access as the mechanic but don't have access to the mechanics office  and podbay workshop.

Costs 5 karma (or asking the head of personal at every round start) . Maximum amount in a round are 5 members.

Misc Changes:

The mechanic now has the space pod multi key that unlocks any and all pods.

5 GPS devices

At the start of the round  the hangar starts out with one pre-made default pod with an empty locker a crowbar and keys nearby.

 

Effects on Development:   From my understand the changes are not too hard to commit mostly using things that are already there,  i can't comment too much though because i don't have developer experience.

Gameplay effects:  A new pretty fun new and unique department,  a great place  for new players to learn in space where they can't really hurt anyone.  More potential for future events in space.  Z levels are more easy to reach by the common player are are seen by more players.  Gives security pod pilot an actual reason to exist.  Lots of potential for new gameplay experiences.  Possibility to grow and become even better in the future.

Please tell me your thoughts and if you would consider something like that.   And if decided  keep me posted on the progress please i would really love to see this being a thing,  and i think its my best suggestion so far.

[BryanR]

Right so... I've got good news and bad news for you.

The good news is that this sounds very interesting and I wouldn't mind seeing it myself, if only as a test run.

The bad news, what you think would be simple is actually a pain in the ass code/mapping wise and unless you're volunteering to do it yourself I doubt we'll ever see it come to fruition.

Advice: Learn to code and to map.

[Boxy]

I am pretty bad at codding but i can sprite and i could also learn how to map and help.

[BryanR]

Hope you're silver tongued then. It isn't impossible for someone to code it for you but, I'd place better odds on winning the lottery if that tells you anything.

[Gatchapod]

Party poopin' time, or the bad things you should consider.

Roundstart 5-6 space explorers invalidates nearly all threats designed in space. Syndie depot is already free loot for decently experienced mechanics, your changes would make it a complete joke.
Having a group of people dedicated to space operations might affect the flow of the game more than you expect. Blobs now have to deal with 5 space pods they can't even touch. Hiding anything in space will be a nightmare if it's constantly patrolled by people with nothing better to do.

The final gameplay problem might be me misunderstanding maintainers, but I'm fairly certain they want the action to focus on the station. Your idea pushes in the opposite direction, one that makes other Z-levels part of regular gameplay.

That doesn't even touch the issue of writing brand new SOP, which is anything but trivial.
You want the mechanic to respond to the entire Command? Did you know geneticists belong to two departments, but most of the time neither wants to take responsibility for the geneticists' actions? In your idea, the mechanic would answer to de-facto no one, because everyone would assume it's someone else's problem.

Overall, it's not a horrible idea, but you're hyped and you haven't considered the potential negative impact it might have.

[thatdanguy23]

Yeah, I don't mean to piss on your parade, but none of this would really work, especially not on our station.

For starters, we don't have enough ruins for 5 explorers to make good use out of. You thought it was boring when it was near the end of the round? Yeah, welcome to an entire round of that, but with 5 people. You'd be in space for all of half an hour and then you'd be in cryo because you've done it all - and that's if the shift has rolled interesting ruins. Most of them are fluff, because it's not supposed to impact the game as much.

For seconds, you don't have to make it a department. That's not the point of the Cyberiad, it's not home to a flotilla of space pods. If you want to make a pod group and subsequent garage as a Mechanic that round, fuckin' a, go for it, fill that niche, it's your gimmick - but just because it's cool once or twice does not mean it's compelling for an entire constantly running departmental type. People would get burnt out of this wicked fast, and then you're back to one - maybe even zero - Mechanics; left wondering why it was even implemented at all.

If you want a more likely-to-be-implemented version of this, you'd be looking more at making Gateway Explorer a real job as opposed to "civilian with a deathwish". 

Edited December 7, 2020 by thatdanguy23

[CourierAsy]

Wouldnt work for the plethora of reasons stated before, should not be made because exploration,at least in my opinion, is not what the Cyberiad should be foccused in.

As far as we know, Central Command already knows whats around the station every shift, and finds it simply not lucrative enough to be explored or dealt with, for them, in my understanding, its a pleasant surprise when a "civilian with a deathwish" as Dan perfectly stated, comes back with the secret documents for the Syndie Depot, but no more than a pleasant surprise.

So i dont think they'd be willing to create an entirely new department in a research/mining station that its already filled with departments, just to invest on the possibility of one explorer, which they had already fully supplied, and spent resources on giving a pod, getting lucky enough to find...What, exactly? Contraband? An bunker in space? It simply feels, yeah, not worthy of their time, when a simple mechanic who's kind enough to make pods for the other explorer, can solve the problem.

[Boxy]

I feel like some of you are kind of looking it from a wrong perspective.  Wile i see plenty of valid concerns there the central idea is not that everyone fucks off to get artifacts like an average mechanic does.  its that they mostly do scavenger missions most of the time reclaiming resources  and removing possibly dangerous space Debry.   and do some space operations when asked. 

We don't want everyone to be like a civilian with a deathwish like gateway explorers,  we more want it to be a dedicated team to handle things going on in space and gather resources much like the miners,  also offering a safer alternative if every miner dies.

I can see lots of potential from a lore and gameplay standpoint here.

 

For some of the things you mentioned  you make it sound kind of like a really overpowering force that would fuck up the balance.   But its literally  a bay starting with simple pod and pretty little equipment.   If its efficient enough. I really can't see a team of 5 pods shooting lasers all together organised at the blob to take it down.

Lets be honest there will always be a few weak links in the chain generally super team work projects rarely work in ss13. Its more like everyone will be their own brand of poorly equipped psychopathic spessman that attempts to do space objectives given to them by a slightly more experienced psychopathic spessman.  And many of them will be pretty new players that just die in space most of the time.

It will be more like a loose association of space pod nerds  i really doubt they would be any more op collectively then any other department besides maybe service  they will basically be mining but in space.

Hiding shit in space still won't be that hard considering how much potential space you have.  Even all of them won't really  explore everything unless they are really trying.

8 hours ago, Gatchapod said:

That doesn't even touch the issue of writing brand new SOP, which is anything but trivial.
You want the mechanic to respond to the entire Command? Did you know geneticists belong to two departments, but most of the time neither wants to take responsibility for the geneticists' actions? In your idea, the mechanic would answer to de-facto no one, because everyone would assume it's someone else's problem.

This a some good shit to consider  but  i don't think it would be to different then miners.

[MattTheFicus]

Agreeing with most of everyone's stuff from above.

On top of that, the Map is currently in a freeze, with little to no changes to be made until some other LARGE ports are done. And then you would have to compete with the Engi Remap, the Service Department Remap, and the new Medbay/Sci Remap, all which are MUCH more important from an overall standpoint as well as needed WAY more.

But, as @BryanRsaid, unless you're willing to code it yourself AND convince the Maints to back it, it wont be seen anyways.