Making the mechanic and pods slightly less rubbish.

[Mrs Dobbins]

 

What is the mechanic's role at the moment? Because as far as I can tell, all they do is a build a pod and then go off into space or help engineering do external maintenance. So far, without whining to robotics for new pod cores, once they have their pod, the mechanic is out of a job.

Most of the time, the mechanics office ends up being broken into by bored engineers and atmos techs.

 

I suggest that the big unused corridor North of cargo be turned into a pod bay. In the pod bay, two or three pods and a few miniputts are parked for use. Mining also gets a pod. ( with this, I suggest that more smaller asteroids are added, and pods are used for getting around and mining).

 

The pod upgrades system would work in a similar way to the robotics system. Parts are produced in a fabricator, and then the pods access panel is crowbarred, and the new part is inserted.

Parts would be pretty so similar to the mech parts. Stuff like RCDs, drills, weapons, cargo bays and sleepers.

 

I suggest the mechanic's office be expanded, and they get a circuit fabricator, a pod part fabricator and full electrician's gear. They should be in charge of building new pods from scratch, and be better at repairing the stations electronics than an engineer. Engineering should still be able to repair electronics without a mechanic, but less effectively.

 

This would hopefully make the mechanic's job more fun, and make pods important.

 

Tl;Dr mechanic becomes more like an electronic engineer and is thus useful, and pods become more like mechs in space.

 

EDIT: what about keeping electrical engineering in the engineering job, and making the mechanic into more of a person responsible for all of the pods, so they are responsible for keeping them repaired, upgrading them ensuring that they are all returned to the roost, and launch control. (maybe from a mass driver, as flinging pods into space is cool)

 

[Fj45]

 

I have been wanting more pod content for a while, old discussion thread here:

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2144&hilit=pods

 

 

I have also started mapping a few expanded podbays, you can see them here:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2284

 

[Mrs Dobbins]

 

Those do all look pretty cool.

Do they still have the energy walls that pod bays had?

I never understood them.

Why would you have traditional airlocks in the rest of your space access, but then have some kind energy wall that holds the atmosphere in.

I'd rather have a big airlock for pods.

And a big market space like the one Goon has looks like a good general podbay, and then a few dotted around the station. Your designs look very close to what i would like.

 

[FalseIncarnate]

 

...making the mechanic into more of a person responsible for all of the pods, so they are responsible for keeping them repaired, upgrading them...

 

http://80.244.78.90/wiki/index.php/Mechanic[/url]"]As such, your main responsibility will be constructing and maintaining space pods for yourself or the crew.

 

So... make Mechanics more useful/engaging by making them do what they are supposed to do in the first place.

 

 

That part aside, while I'm definitely in favor of expanding their workshop (way too cramped to build and launch multiple pods should you somehow manage to get the components from science), giving them the fabricators and board printers by default seems like a bit of a bad idea. First off, you'd either want to somehow limit their fabricator to making ONLY pod-related stuff or else you'll have the mechanic suddenly rolling out in a Durand armed to the teeth with lethals, or just not give them one. A similar thing goes for the board printer, because suddenly the AI could find itself with an additional law upload in the Mechanic's workshop.

 

Both of those machines can actually be built, but you will need Science's assistance to acquire the necessary components, and possibly a raid on the Tech Storage with some help from science or engineering. However, giving these machines to the Mechanic at round start presents the same issue as the recent addition of an autolathe for science and engineering or the additional juices in the bar dispensers: they eliminate the need for department interactions.

 

While convenience is nice, taking out the interaction between jobs really hurts the RP-potential of doing your job, since you are missing out on talking with other players, trying to get on their good side so they'll help you out, trading favors, stumbling across a civilian fight outside the bar, etc.

 

TL;DR : I like the idea of expanding the workshop. I like the idea of continuing to develop this job more and add more variety to what you can build. I don't like the idea of making the Mechanic have every machine needed. I don't like the idea of the Mechanic becoming an Electrician, especially since that's already a specialization for Station Engineer you can pick.

 

[Fj45]

 

Those do all look pretty cool.

Do they still have the energy walls that pod bays had?

I never understood them.

Why would you have traditional airlocks in the rest of your space access, but then have some kind energy wall that holds the atmosphere in.

I'd rather have a big airlock for pods.

 

 

Don't like them all that much either. Best way to have the podbays would be with the large airlocks and the basic force field when the airlock opens. Maybe the force field would deplete if the airlock was left open for too long.