Detective's Eye - making the Detective role matter.

[Mixer21]

So, the detective can be fun as a role but in my opinion it's not really in a great spot. It's not just the fact that you're mainly a scanning machine, it's actually worse than that. Roleplay-wise you're a skilled technician able to recover and identify evidence, a vital part of security forces; in game however a lacking detective is not really a problem, HoS can just go into his office, grab himself a scanner and drop it into processing, available for the (RP-wise uneducated, inexperienced and unable to properly handle evidence) rest of security. Here's how I think it can be changed:

Every single generated trace (fingerprint or fiber) will have 15% chance to be "hard to spot". An inexperienced eye i.e. everyone except a shuttle arriving detective (to prevent abuses) will not be able to spot anything, the surface will not show any scanning results (except food and chemicals, you would still be able to scan them for contents). The other 85% of the traces would be scannable by anybody like now.

I think this change would be subtle enough to not upset security's work but mighty enough to turn detective into a necessary component of the departament. The % chance can obviously be tuned to your liking.

Tell me what you think.

 

[Gaty]

I dont think detectives should be made indispensable at all, they are usually there to support sec in their job just like the brig phys.

Making sec's duties even harder just because 1 guy is not really a thing I would like to experience.

[Mitchs98]

6 hours ago, Mixer21 said:

(RP-wise uneducated, inexperienced and unable to properly handle evidence) rest of security

Citation certainly needed for this. I've not read anywhere at all that says security isn't able to handle this. The detective scanner is also highly advanced. Point it at something and scan. Search fingerprints/such on it that it pings out.

Most of the detectives' 'work' outside of mental work is done for them with the device that's, at best, a tiny bit complicated to use.

I also agree with Gaty. I don't believe making the Detective a pivitol role is a good idea.

[Gatchapod]

I'm pretty sure majority of shot-callers in this regard are against skill systems.
And what you're suggesting is just a skill system lite that would open the road to fully blown skill system. Next would be non-chefs messing up correct recipes, non-surgeons botching surgeries when they shouldn't, etc.

While I personally wouldn't mind, Paradise is unlikely to deploy such a system any time soon, if ever.

[Dinarzad]

As a person who has been gone from existence for like a year and a half or some ungodly number an only just coming back, here's an opinion that carries no weight to it, cuz Iunno how this stuff works anymore, I'm old:

I don't think any one job should be "irreplaceable" for a department. Where if that job where not present it would cripple the function of a department. And I feel like limiting the reliability of the Detective's gear/abilities to him and him alone, opens the door to that problem arising.

If a round has no Detective, that should not impair security directly; the absence should be felt, but not cripple.  And I think it does that right now.  Right now a Detective is a guy dedicated to putting a case together so that Security knows who the right guy to arrest is, and when that guy inevitably starts to scream "Shitcurity" over the radios and gets the IAA and the Captain breathing down your neck, you can pull out all the little bits and bobs necessary to tell everyone else to cool it cuz this is a dirty crime boy.

 The Detective makes the life of an Officer easier but is not -required- by the Officer in the event no Detective is not in a given round, if necessary an officer can do it themselves, it's just riskier and more annoying cuz that's bogging down their loadout with other gear.
Or at least he SHOULD be making it easier, if he's doing his job right. ((We're sort of entertaining the hypothesis of 'How things are intended to work, not accounting for derp officers or Detcurity.))

[Xyd]

I've seen much more complicated iterations of the detective role on other codebases. Aurora's version of it is interesting, but then their version suits the far slower paced server that Aurora is. One might argue that their methods simply add further steps to achieving the same result and added complexity may not add any value to the role on paradise.

Will echo the above sentiments that detective role should not be turned into such an important role that security will be handicapped by their absence. It's a supporting role and is there to complement security's efforts in tackling criminals, not to be an essential part of their taskforce. 

I wouldn't be against seeing the role have some more complexity to it but as I mentioned, it is debatable whether or not it needs it.