Clarify Blueshield's superior.

[FlattestGuitar]

 

The game has conflicting information about who the Blueshield should report to. At gamestart it tells you it's the NT Rep, while a piece of paper on your desk says it's the HoS.

 

Reported that on github, got told to come here, so I do

#3115

 

I think it only makes sense if the Blueshield listens to the Rep and CC, not the Station's command structure. This will help keep the peace (or body count to minimum) in case of an internal issue of some kind. Reminding the Captain I'm not his secretery and denying him my revolver felt sweet (damn space amish Jebidiah).

 

[SomanB]

 

I've always thought if it in military terms. You've got your regular "core" members of the unit (the different departments), then the attachments (all the guys falling under CC).

 

NT Rep, that's the annoying civilian guy assigned to your unit by Congress to evaluate your work.

IAA, those guys are the grunt level inspectors for the Inspector General, the impartial outside department that handles "internal" military conflicts.

Magistrate, well he's the Inspector General himself, come down from on-high to render judgement.

 

As for the Blueshield....well, he'd be the equivalent of a Blackwater bodyguard, hired by Congress to make sure the Commanding Officers (read, Heads) don't get fragged.

 

 

Part of being attached to a unit like that in the real world is, while TECHNICALLY the unit chain of command isn't your boss, in reality, you do what they say because you're working for them day in and day out. Flipside of that, if said chain of command tells you to do something blatantly wrong, you scurry over to your ACTUAL bosses and rat them out. It actually works out as a decent check and balance....the unit command knows that they'll get ratted out for abusing the attached people, and the attached people know that pulling the "you're not my boss" card to get out of legit orders will result in life becoming hell.

 

[FlattestGuitar]

 

If the Captain's not a comdom I'm going to listen to him 100% of the time.

 

If the Captain is a Space Amish and wants to disable all electronics on the station, I'm going to politely ask him to go fuck himself while I'm getting drunk in the bar, looking at the crew monitor.

 

Let's wait for more people to confirm this, so the coder people can fix the issue with the ambiguity in-game.

 

[DayZ Me Trolling]

I had the same question when I first got Blueshield so I spoke to admins via ahelp and I was told that NT Rep is who you directly take orders from, if he's not available then the HoS and finally the Captain. I personally don't pull out the "You're not my boss." card unless a comdom Captain threatens to demote me if I don't listen to his rather stupid order.

[alexpkeaton]

I always thought the Blueshield took his orders direct from CC - hence the CC skin on their ID card. NT Rep makes sense in that regard. But any head doesn't, really. Especially because a shitsec HoS might try to conscript the Blueshield into doing sec's job. And while they are tasked with protecting the heads, as Captain, I typically allow the Blueshield to evaluate those threats as the Blueshield sees fit. In fact, a particularly bad Captain will make the Blueshield his personal butler, and that is totally wrong. So I think this should be clarified that a Blueshield acts much as an ERT does, independent of the station's command chain, but involving the NT Rep works.

[FlattestGuitar]

I think the optimal way would be for him to report directly to CC considering the NT Rep most likely has no idea what Blueshield's job is about, as he's a bureaucrat. That might be a bit too OP for the BS, so I dunno.

[alexpkeaton]

 

I think the optimal way would be for him to report directly to CC considering the NT Rep most likely has no idea what Blueshield's job is about, as he's a bureaucrat. That might be a bit too OP for the BS, so I dunno.

 

I honestly agree with this treatment, as I was surprised initially that the Blueshield reported to the NT Rep in any identified fashion.

 

Also, FlattestGuitar, you were the Blueshield last night when the Amish Captain was adding all of those electronics/livestock laws. I was the IAA. Good round, and you were a good Blueshield.

 

[FlattestGuitar]

 

Thanks. <3 You weren't bad too, considering you had the balls to contact CC. Still, I think you could have put the truth a bit more in favor of CC demoting the captain...

:*

 

So the few of us are talking about the coolness of Blue being directly under CC. Let's get some admuns to give their opinions and maybe change that in-game. Would be cool, tbh.

 

[DayZ Me Trolling]

I personally am really for a change that makes it so the Blueshield Lieutenants now directly report to CC, it would make so much more sense and would save a lot of Blueshield players from comdoms that think Blueshield is just a personal puppy to drag around.

[TullyBBurnalot]

 

As is, the Blueshield operates outside of standard Chain of Command, and doesn't hold authority anywhere. A counterpoint to that is that no one really has any authority over them as long as they're doing their job right. They've been appointed by CC directly to be bodyguards aaaaaand... that's it.

 

The "you answer to the NT Rep" part almost never comes into play, but is there to remind the Blueshield that, in case of an emergency, the Rep, being NanoTrasen's agent on the field, should be the one they defer to.

 

[alexpkeaton]

Ok. Can the paper on the Blueshield's desk with the info about the HoS be fixed then? Or is that something for github?

[FlattestGuitar]

I'll post it on github.

[Nakhi]

 

As is, the Blueshield operates outside of standard Chain of Command, and doesn't hold authority anywhere. A counterpoint to that is that no one really has any authority over them as long as they're doing their job right. They've been appointed by CC directly to be bodyguards aaaaaand... that's it.

 

The "you answer to the NT Rep" part almost never comes into play, but is there to remind the Blueshield that, in case of an emergency, the Rep, being NanoTrasen's agent on the field, should be the one they defer to.

 

I've personally played Representative like this, sort of. The Blueshield does their own thing, I do my own thing, but if anything arises within the command structure (as stated earlier) deferring to the Rep would allow a sense of neutrality, instead of having to take orders from the Captain only, which can result in... well, rather questionable orders. I've seen, in the past, Blueshields that were pets of the Captain, effectively an enforcer that obeyed unquestioningly because that was their superior. In other words, they'd break the law, break SOP, and never listen to other heads let alone protect them most of the time. That's probably the exception now though at least.

 

So yeah, I think the wording that they answer to the Rep is a good idea in this sense, but that paper needs updating. It's... well, default. I doubt it's changed since Blueshield was implemented.

 

[KasparoVv]

 

I think the optimal way would be for him to report directly to CC considering the NT Rep most likely has no idea what Blueshield's job is about, as he's a bureaucrat. That might be a bit too OP for the BS, so I dunno.

 

I honestly agree with this treatment, as I was surprised initially that the Blueshield reported to the NT Rep in any identified fashion.

 

Also, FlattestGuitar, you were the Blueshield last night when the Amish Captain was adding all of those electronics/livestock laws. I was the IAA. Good round, and you were a good Blueshield.

 

Lmao, Amish Captain-- I can't believe that actually happened. Bloody hilarious.

 

[davidchan]

 

As is, the Blueshield operates outside of standard Chain of Command, and doesn't hold authority anywhere. A counterpoint to that is that no one really has any authority over them as long as they're doing their job right. They've been appointed by CC directly to be bodyguards aaaaaand... that's it.

 

 

 

Pretty much how I view ERT, but that doesn't stop every single one of them from being a complete comdom who tries to arrest the captain.

 

[Coldflame]

Generally the Blueshield won't be given any orders beyond 'protect the heads' . If they do, it'll more than likely be either helping sec or doing the legwork for something bureaucratic. There's no single person the blueshield always works directly under, but generally they'll either stick to one specific member of command (more often than not, the captain or HoS), assuming they don't either become the one-man security force the station needs (which, thankfully, doesn't actually seem to be that common). I honestly think the best solution would to state the blueshield's direct superior as central (whilst also making it clear the blueshield DOES defer to command). If that were the case, it's make sense to giver them a fax machine (perhaps alongside a duty to report on wellbeing of the heads and possible security risks to them, like an actual bodyguard would do).

[TullyBBurnalot]

 

As is, the Blueshield operates outside of standard Chain of Command, and doesn't hold authority anywhere. A counterpoint to that is that no one really has any authority over them as long as they're doing their job right. They've been appointed by CC directly to be bodyguards aaaaaand... that's it.

 

 

 

Pretty much how I view ERT, but that doesn't stop every single one of them from being a complete comdom who tries to arrest the captain.

 

The difference is that the ERT aren't bodyguards, they're an Emergency Response Team. They detain ultimate authority over whatever they need to do, so long as it's to do with the emergency they were called over. If they need to arrest the Captain? They are fully permitted to do so.

 

The Blueshield operates outside COC.

 

The ERT supersedes COC.