ERT naming and rank rework

[monkeysfist101]

 

Gather 'round, children, and uncle monkeysfist101 will tell you a tale. Long ago, in the olden days of Paradise mind you, when players were selected to play as Emergency Response Team members, they could choose whatever their little hearts desired for their name. This allowed for recurring ERT members such as Luca Rio and Hannibal. T'was a better time. The end.

 

Now for the point of all of this. I propose that a character slot be made exclusively for your ERT member. This would allow you to build them as you see fit, complete with appearance, name, flavor text, prosthetics, and the rest of the works. Your ERT would then be given the rank of Private starting out and work his/her way up through the ranks as you play more rounds. It would be something like one round per rank for the first three, then two for the next three, and so on. The ERT leader would be chosen as the ranking member and ties would be broken with RNG. The persistent system would allow command staff to judge how competent the team will be and would prevent five Staff Sergents from showing up at once.

 

[Nakhi]

 

I personally liked being able to at least name the ERT member that you play and give them an actual hairstyle and gender. And with seeing posters around the station advertising joining the "ERT Reserves", you'd think that you could still in a sense have an ERT character.

 

However, I don't think that that system would work. A lot of times people propose an automated rank system, but I believe it'd be too difficult to code in effectively. As well, you mention the ranking member being ERT lead. While that could cut down on bad leads, I am sure the situation you mentioned would still happen. If people play enough, I am sure you'll see an XCOM type squad forming (up to six colonels). As well, a dedicated slot may not be possible as far as I am aware, but that's only as far as I am aware.

 

Also, nice to be mentioned like that from when I used to have the regular ERT Luca.

 

[monkeysfist101]

While the XCOM situation may still arise, it would be a relief to know that each one is experienced rather than having six "John the ERTs" identifying "granade launchers."

[Fj45]

Seems pointless really. Not having to select race/gender/favourite cereal reduced response times.

[Blackmage199]

 

Seems pointless really. Not having to select race/gender/favourite cereal reduced response times.

What's probably suggested is having a slot, as in a special slot in the character select screen.

 

[FalseIncarnate]

 

While the XCOM situation may still arise, it would be a relief to know that each one is experienced rather than having six "John the ERTs" identifying "granade launchers."

 

You'd be surprised how useful that identification ability is. You never want to mix up a grenade and a granade.

 

ERT also has an account age lock on it now I believe, so it wouldn't be as likely to get a bunch of new people who don't know what they are doing.

 

Part of the reason for removing the naming and appearance selecting was to speed up the process, and part was to avoid people using existing characters as ERT.

 

[monkeysfist101]

 

You guys seem to be missing the point here. This would add a dedicated character slot that could /only/ be used for ERT. This would keep current response times and allow for custom ERT members like we used to have.

 

Also, FalseIncarnate, as far as preventing ERT who don't know what to do, despite the fact that I've been with Paradise over a year, I've played an abysmally small amount of ERT. (None to be specific. Go figure.)

 

[Deanthelis]

 

ERT's will almost always be made up of, primarily, the least robust on the station. Outside of sheer bad luck, the first to die are the least robust; the most robust are those who survive to the end consistently (and don't intentionally die). Observers are commonplace, of course, but they often chose to observe because they didn't want to participate in the first place, making them very unlikely to become an ERT. This leaves the few weirdos who enjoy being an ERT in spite of the disturbingly poor equipment they get and the tendency to be stuck with very unrobust teammates, and the unrobust teammates.

 

Also, the ability to select your appearance and name as an ERT was removed on purpose. We had far, far too many people use their existing characters as an ERT, and then attempt to pull rank when not an ERT. As it stands, absolutely no one besides the administrators have characters with permanent identities that are also Central Command staff (Novus Lem, etc).

 

What I WOULD prefer, however, is an ERT assignment preference. I personally hate Security ERTs. With a passion. Both playing them, playing with them, and playing against them, they almost always do more harm than good, or are plainly useless. However, I thoroughly enjoy Engineering and Janitorial ERTs - however, observers (even admins!) have no way of knowing what type of ERT has been called unless the Command staff selected more than one option. Let's face it, non-Security ERTs happen once in a blue moon. Comdoms want their red-suited goons with their big guns far more than anything else, and a lot of command staff of late have used any excuse at all that they can come up with to request one. If I were able to set an ERT preference in character selection and simply enable 'Engineering' and 'Janitorial', then simply receive a 'No Emergency Response Team matching your preferences has been called' if I try to join an ERT that doesn't match my preference, I would be a happy camper.

 

Tangentially related, Medical ERT's are shit. Seriously, they're shit. They possess almost nothing useful. Medical ERT's have to use station equipment to cure viruses, which is the #1 reason they're called, ever. And since most people assume ERT = Gun, many medical ERT members have no idea how to even cure a virus anyway - preferences would help here, too (though sometimes it'd mean nobody showed up for an ERT, that's FAR better than a bunch of people with all-access and no idea how to do a job).

 

[monkeysfist101]

 

(though sometimes it'd mean nobody showed up for an ERT, that's FAR better than a bunch of people with all-access and no idea how to do a job).

It would make an interesting mechanic to have your request bounced back with a message from CentComm that read, "No Emergency Response Teams are available in your area. Sorry, Cyberiad, you're on your own. -Central Command Dispatch."

 

[Deanthelis]

In the case of there being no observers/ghosts/etc with ERT preferences matching what they want? Absolutely, that'd be fantastic. Too many times I've seen heads call an ERT and make decisions based on them, only to have them never show up.

[Nakhi]

 

I personally enjoy Medical and Engineering ERT over Security/ERT Lead. One, because I like the Medical white suit. Two, because I don't think the white suit and yellow suit are as universally despised as the Red Suit and Blue Suit (coincidentally, the Red Suit has the life expectancy of the Star Trek Redshirt). Playing security ERT is... tedious. You're expected to be in a million different places at once and, of course, you can't be in all those places.

 

I like the idea of ERT job preferences and a bounce back to the station if none of the ghosts/observers meet the preferences. I wouldn't think that'd be too hard to integrate, but I'm not a coder. Of course this could, unfortunately, mean that the ERT most times can be comprised of John the ERTs, just one John has a blue suit now.

 

[davidchan]

 

I will say, having a character slot reserved/dedicated to being your ERT character would be great, and this could even double as the Nuke Ops character as well (with a random name, of course.) Picking your name and appearance and having it being a consistent factor over the rounds would be great, and possible open the door for non-human characters in these specialized event roles.

 

As for ERT in general, they need better guidelines and directives. 'Deal with the alert' is one thing, but depending upon the commander, some ERT members take this as an excuse to do what ever they want, I've seen ERT Commanders and Members try demote a Captain or boss around the heads of staff, even though they are outside the Chain of Command, it's pretty humurous.

 

I generally dislike being Sec ERT because 90% of Shitcurity sees Red Hardsuit and instantly thinks you are a Nuke Ops member and try to shoot you down, the suits really don't look that much alike but everyone sees red and assumes it's antag. Commanders are generally Comdoms, in my expierence, or just have no idea what the fuck they are doing and lead the team astray.

 

Janitor ERTs are not called enough, I find them hilarous and my favorite moments as ERT are as Janitor Ops (we ALL took the role seriously, screaming our dedication to the Custodial ways and laying down 'SUPRESSIVE MOPPING!' while eventually arresting the clown for spreading graffiti)

 

Medical ERTs need a relook at their equipment, as they are almost always called in to deal with Viral infections and nothing else, the combat stims they are supposed to get are locked in the Admin rooms and they could at the very least be given roller beds and Surgery kits so they could set up mobile triage stations.

 

Engineering ERT has it pretty much right, I can't think of anything that they could use they don't spawn with already, their Admin room just has jetpacks and other minor items, I believe there was an old bug/oversight that prevented them from spawning with gloves, but I think that has been fixed.

 

[DaveTheHeadcrab]

 

I've seen ERT Commanders and Members try demote a Captain or boss around the heads of staff, even though they are outside the Chain of Command, it's pretty humurous.

 

ERT have full command over the station after they dock. Period. Really only the team commander should be issuing demotions, but if an ERT officer tells you to do something, you could be the clown or the Captain, the order is valid.

 

[Spacemanspark]

 

I like the idea of a slot for ERT characters in player setup.

With that, the issue of what we claimed to have (A slow response time.) is nullified. In fact, it gets slightly faster.

>Click button.

>Do you wanna be ERT? Y/N?

>Click yes, immediately inserted.

>Win.

As for snowflake characters? You can literally do the same thing with a randomized name. Just takes more creativity.

 

Blow them up. Blow all the snowflakes up.

 

 

[Fox McCloud]

 

I like the idea of a slot for ERT characters in player setup.

With that, the issue of what we claimed to have (A slow response time.) is nullified. In fact, it gets slightly faster.

>Click button.

>Do you wanna be ERT? Y/N?

>Click yes, immediately inserted.

>Win.

As for snowflake characters? You can literally do the same thing with a randomized name. Just takes more creativity.

 

Blow them up. Blow all the snowflakes up.

 

 

This wasn't the only reason why ERT was made randomized; it was also to avoid people who had CentComm characters that were active on the station. Generally, as a rule of thumb, CentComm characters are forbidden by regular players and only allowed for admins--and that is still a veryyy touchy subject in and of itself (and most of the admin characters that have ties to CentComm are superrrrrrrrrr old); having character slots means this can and *will* return, as there's absolutely nothing preventing someone from using literally the same character in both slots. This isn't something we want to encourage in the slightest.

 

[johannhawk]

what about syndicate strike teams and deathsquads? they could also use the rankings and character slots.

[monkeysfist101]

 

I don't see the issue in this. Just prevent/ignore players claiming to be ERT while not.

 

As far as Syndicate teams go, My headcanon is that they're individual operators chosen for an operation, so the flakier, the better.

 

[Spacemanspark]

 

I like the idea of a slot for ERT characters in player setup.

With that, the issue of what we claimed to have (A slow response time.) is nullified. In fact, it gets slightly faster.

>Click button.

>Do you wanna be ERT? Y/N?

>Click yes, immediately inserted.

>Win.

As for snowflake characters? You can literally do the same thing with a randomized name. Just takes more creativity.

 

Blow them up. Blow all the snowflakes up.

 

 

This wasn't the only reason why ERT was made randomized; it was also to avoid people who had CentComm characters that were active on the station. Generally, as a rule of thumb, CentComm characters are forbidden by regular players and only allowed for admins--and that is still a veryyy touchy subject in and of itself (and most of the admin characters that have ties to CentComm are superrrrrrrrrr old); having character slots means this can and *will* return, as there's absolutely nothing preventing someone from using literally the same character in both slots. This isn't something we want to encourage in the slightest.

Then... Put a rule against having the same character name?

And ban from ERT or change the damn name if someone doesn't follow that rule.

 

[TheFlagbearer]

It was a sad day when Master Commander Fist McLaserbiceps Syndiestomper Xenokiller Zeusson Olympia Biggai Foryu Plasmaspitter Singulo-Suplexer McDonald Wolfgang Roosevelt Johnson MCLXXVIII was no longer an option for me.

[Kharshai]

I don't really see any harm in allowing the naming of ERT characters, it's simple enough to add a rule stating you can't have the same name for your station character.