Design document: Job Trainee

[Landerlow]

This design document is part of three things we'd like to see in the server. The other design documents can be found here:

Design document: New role: Constable: (https://www.paradisestation.org/forum/topic/24514-design-document-new-role-constable/)

Design document: New mechanic: Fines(https://www.paradisestation.org/forum/topic/24515-design-document-new-mechanic-fines/)

This has been copy-pasted and originally been written by @Norwest  (Copied over from the post in the admin section)

Discord project discussion: https://discord.com/channels/145533722026967040/1158446817105690735/1158446817105690735

 

Job Trainee Design Doc

Inspiration: A 'student driver' bumper sticker
I think we've all seen dead players bitching endlessly about "dipshit doctors not able to fix me," unaware that the MD in question has only played on Para once or twice before. Similarly, we've seen powergaming antags robust the hell out of new Sec Officers without mercy, whereas they might have shown more sympathy if they'd known the player in question was just starting out. It's no cure-all, but giving our playerbase knowledge of who's a newbie should make things easier for the new players, both IC and OOC.

Problem is, we need a way to notify players 'hey, this guy's new' in a way that's a) respectful to everyone involved, b) clear and unmistakeable, and c) requires no extra effort, either from overworked admins/coders or from newbies still struggling to figure out the controls. This DB change aims to accomplish all three goals, ideally without major changes in code to boot.

Changes Needed:
1: Joining a job for the first 4 hours (effectively 2 shifts) causes a player to receive an alternate job name. All other factors - access, gear, name, etc. - are unaffected. Affected jobs are as follows:
-Security (Security Officer => 'Security Cadet')
-Engineering (Station Engineer => 'Engineer Trainee,' Atmos Tech => 'Atmos Tech Trainee')
-Medical (Medical Doctor => 'Medical Doctor Trainee')
-Science (Scientist => 'Scientist Trainee,' Roboticist => 'Roboticist Trainee')
-Cargo (Shaft Miner => 'Shaft Miner Trainee' or 'Junior Shaft Miner,' depending on the coders' preferences)
Alternate titles, such as 'Electrician' or 'Surgeon,' are affected in an identical fashion ('Electrician Trainee' or 'Surgeon Trainee'). Anyone who already possesses >4 hours in said job type will be unaffected.

2: After the DB logs 4hrs gameplay for a player in an affected role, the 'trainee' alt name is removed. On their next login, prior Sec Officer Cadets will be Sec Officers, MD Trainees will be Medical Doctors, etc.

This will require adding alternate job titles for the various jobs listed above ('cadet,' 'trainee,' 'junior [X],' etc) so that they're logged appropriately in-game. No other rule, wiki, SOP, or other code changes are expected; this is meant to be as low-effort as possible. This will also require no further effort from players or 'mins, and can be altered in-game if the player affected wishes to alter it. Since they're just alternate job titles without any other mechanical differences, the IDs should update appropriately from 'Electrician Trainee' to 'Electrician' if an ID computer is used in-game. Job slots will also be unaffected by the number of 'trainee' players around, although admins or in-game Command players are ofc free to add more relevant slots if a particular department is chock-full of newbies.

Q&A:
1. Why those jobs in particular?
I chose the 'generalist' jobs because a) they're obvious targets for newbies learning the game, and b) these jobs in particular have major effects on others. I see no need for a 'Cargo Tech Trainee' role, for instance, because newbie CTs are already expected and won't screw over other players or the round as a whole when they make mistakes. Meanwhile, I'd suggest adding a 'trainee' tag for Miners because the role is not newbie-friendly, and dying is expected; it won't necessarily compel action from others, but players are more likely to search for a dead newbie Miner who didn't know how2internals than they would for an experienced Miner who got ganked while trying to fight megafauna.

2. What about additional jobs, like the Detective or Geneticist/Virologist/Chemist, etc?
While I'm willing to give those jobs a shot too, I think it's best if we try a limited roll-out with obvious jobs like the ones listed above. If that goes over well with the playerbase, then I think we can consider adding similar tags to other jobs.

3. What about Command roles? Should there be a 'Junior CMO,' say?
I'm on the fence about that too, as Command roles depend on authority from the people being governed, and I worry that people might automatically disregard any words coming from a 'Junior HoS,' say. For that reason, I think we should avoid adding it to the initial roll-out, and that if we decide to go ahead with it in the future, that it should be done by an opt-in approach (i.e. that anyone taking the role with <10 hours as CMO can choose to select 'Junior CMO' but won't automatically have it assigned to them in a similar fashion to above).

4. What do you hope the playerbase's reaction will be, and what do you worry it will be?
On the one hand, I hope that players are more sympathetic and understanding to anyone with the 'Trainee' job title, and show them more sympathy and understanding. I worry that some people will inevitably see 'Sec Officer Cadets' as easy prey, or scream at any 'Medical Doctor Trainee' who tries to help them out, and as such I'd want to roll this out with some general announcements and reminders how we as a server want to be welcoming and accepting towards newcomers. Over time, I expect that our playerbase will end up fairly receptive to the change, albeit with some occasional corrections and prompting needed; there will inevitably be some assholes, but I expect that social pressures will keep them from being too dickish over the larger scale.

Edited October 2, 2023 by Landerlow

[LforLouise]

TL;DR:

Spoiler

Some departments already have the culture to not need this, but it's a useful tool for department heads and mentors. Also raise time limits

Full:

I used to 'main' CMO - my pet peeve was incompetant doctors who didn't ask for help, and did more harm than good. Having this will help (good) CMO players, and other medical staff, to know who to watch over incase they need a nudge in the right direction.

Currently I play antag a lot, and yea, I do feel sorry for the new secoffs I drain as a vamp. (Though its worth noting I always bring all my drains to medical no matter who they are). However, I don't think the problem with antags targetting newer officers for the gear would be the issue, like, sure theres plenty of asshole antags who WILL do that, but I think the problem is other security officers, mainly security officers known for redtexting and overescalation, who will see the 'cadet' and completely disregard them or refuse to come to their aid when they need it, or prefer other robust/redtexty partners. Yea, I also know that these types of officers are the loud minority, there are plenty of amazing officers who are great at teaching new seccies, Corvidium & Oorm are two examples.
Side note: With the other proposal (Constables), why not have Constables as the 'entry to security' role?

As for engineering, I believe they already have the 'help new guys' culture perfected already, whenever I've asked for help on the (admittedly few) times ive played engineering, there has ALWAYS been someone there who is enthusiastic about teaching me.

I can't speak much for science, or cargo, as I don't play those at all, and with the Upcoming 'NT Careers Advisor' thing thats proposed and being made, Service will also have a mentor to help them out in character.

Fiiiinally, I do believe it should be a bit more than 4 hours - 10 hours at least. Its hard to grasp the basic game mechanics in 4 hours, let alone learning a somewhat complicated job with lots of dead ends and weird niche mechanics such as Medical Doctor.

 

[evergreenpilled]

I think this is great, though perhaps a more immersive "intern" title might work well. Eg:

-Security (Security Officer => 'Security Cadet')
-Engineering (Station Engineer => 'Engineering Intern,' Atmos Tech => 'Atmos Tech Intern', 'Electrician' => 'Electrical Intern')
-Medical (Medical Doctor => 'Medical Intern')
-Science (Scientist => 'Scientist Trainee,' Roboticist => 'Robotics Intern')

But of course that's a mild cosmetic thing that doesn't make much difference. I've seen other servers (notably tgstation) do this and it works great there, I'd love to see this on para. I also agree with Capella's comments that it should be more on the order of 10 hours. It would be nice if players had the option to keep the intern/trainee/cadet/etc suffix for longer if they felt it was necessary, or perhaps even just as part of their roleplay, though I'm sure that would make it harder to code which isn't desirable. My inspiration in suggesting this is the wakaba mark () used in Japan. It's a mandatory sticker for those who have been driving for less than a year, but drivers can continue to display it after that period if they choose to or feel it's necessary.