TGMC:Staff Officer
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This page is a part of the TGMC wiki.
TGMC is a project based on the CM-SS13 codebase. |
| COMMAND | |
 Staff Officer |
Access: Logistics, Dropship Piloting, CIC, Requsitions and Brig Difficulty: Medium Rank: Lieutenant (Starting), Lietenant Commander(25 hrs), Commander(50 hrs) Class: Navy Supervisors: Captain Duties: Babysit the groundside marines, lead them to their victory, tell the Captain important groundside information and tactics, get ignored because you made one bad call. Guides: Guide to Fire Support, Guide to Requsitions Quote:"I don't know why the marines groundside stopped listening to me, I only caused 40 deaths this op so far, I'm doing so much better than usual." |
Introduction
As the Staff Officer, you are supposed to be the highest ranking person onboard the ship second only to the Captain. If there is no Captain, you will be in charge of the operation, including Overwatch duties, manning requisitions, or giving orders to the Marine force in some situations. The Staff Officer is a very versatile role, able to perform Medical and Engineering duties alongside Overwatch and Requisitions. Keep in mind that as a Shipside role, you're only allowed to go to the FOB if you deploy.
Overwatch
This is going to be your primary responsibility, and what most people expect the Staff Officer to do. Your bread and butter is the Overwatch Console, located in the Combat Information Center(CIC}. There are 4 of these consoles, usually one for each squad. The Overwatch Console allows you to do several things:
- Assign an Acting Squad Leader (ASL) for each squad if that Squad has no Squad Leader or its current Squad Leader is unrevivably dead.
- Set a Squad's primary and secondary objectives.
- Transfer a marine to another squad.
- View a squad's composition and status using the Squad Monitor button.
- Manually fire the Orbital Cannon. (Be sure and look at where the OB is aiming before you approve it!)
- See what groundside marines can see to provide intel to everyone else.
Each Overwatch Console can overwatch one squad (except for the Main Overwatch Console manned by the captain) and can be switched if you are no longer interested in overwatching that specific squad at the moment. The squad will be notified when they are selected for overwatch, and who is currently overwatching them. All Command staff (even the Corporate Liaison and roles that typically won't be using it, such as the Pilot Officer) has access to the Overwatch Console and can perform overwatch duties. You just have this as your literal job description.
The radio commands are the following:
- .v for command
- .m for medical
- .u for requisition
- .e for engineering
- .s for fire support
- .q for Alpha
- .b for Bravo
- .c for Charlie
- .d for Delta
Assigning Acting Squad Leaders
So a Squad Leader has killed themself by charging carelessly into enemy lines (or there never was one in the first place). Oh no! Who will lead the squad now?! Well, it's up to you to decide.
By pressing the ASSIGN SQUAD LEADER button or using MMB on a Marine you can set a new Squad Leader. Typically, you'll assign the highest rank to be aSL, which can be determined by looking at the squad members list or their HUD icons if you're using the MMB method. However, it's really up to you.
Acting Squad Leaders gain access to High Volume Mode, Command communications and Orders/Markers, as if they were a real Squad Leader.
So a squad leader has charged headfirst into a xeno ambush and had his face bitten off. Oh no! Who will lead the squad now? Well, that's up for you to decide. By pressing the Change Squad Leader button(or Assign squad leader if there isn't one yet), a list of all living marines in that squad will appear before you. You can now choose what (un)lucky son of a gun gets to be the squad's new compass role model! While usually you would assign whoever is the highest rank to become the ASL, the console doesn't tell you the marine's ranks(yet), so common practice is to just ask the squad over radio who wants to be the new SL, regardless of their rank(though again, final choice comes down to you. if they disagree, they can suck it for all you care). The selected marine will gain the ability to Give Orders and have all other marines' SL pointers point to them, as well as gaining loud mode in comms and access to the command radio channel.
Objectives? More like suggestions!
You can set a squad's primary and secondary objectives by pressing the button(should be obvious). This will alert the squad members that a new objective has been set, and that they can see it in the Status tab. Thing is, most marines don't bother even looking at the tabs, so most players usually just use the objectives mechanic as part of a gimmick. The most used order is something along the lines of "kill everything" or "don't die". Feel free to put whatever in there though. Who knows, maybe, just maybe, someone might actually listen to it!
For an even more obvious way of giving objectives or orders, see Command Announcements.
Tactical Reallocation of Ground Assets
A request you may hear more and more often from Marines as Custom Squads are introduced will be to transfer them to another squad. This is a very simple process which can be done in 2 ways.
- While using the Overwatch Camera, use the
MMB on a marine and choose the 
switch option, then select a squad.
- To do this to a group of marines, use the MMB on a turf, like a floor tile or wall, and choose the
option, then choose the 
switch all nearby marines option, and select a squad.
- To do this to a group of marines, use the
- With a Squad Overwatch Console, scroll down and click Transfer a marine to another squad.
Checking a Squad's Status
Using the Squad Monitor button, you can see the name, role, state, location, and distance from the SL of every single marine in a squad. This can help you get a general idea of what the Squad is currently up to, and whether or not they are getting hopelessly bodied by the enemy. You can also click on the names of any marine to teleport the Overwatch Camera (more on that later) to them, so you can watch in horror as the marine you clicked on is getting crushed, ravaged, flung, and defiled, all while being hit with copious amounts of friendly fire at the same time. Ouch.
How Not to Kill Everyone with the Orbital Cannon: The Guide
For more information, see the Guide to Fire Support.
In the rare case that you need to manually approve an OB in the Main Overwatch Console, be sure and check the target area first before you fire! If you hit your own marines with it, and you were the one who approved it, you'll most likely have to explain this to God!
Clicking the target option allows you to see the area surrounding the target. Make sure the area is clear of friendlies. If you click the target and see a black screen or an area devoid of marines, that's a safe place to fire it. If you click the target and see it's almost on top of marines or they're actively pushing it, don't fire it!
The Overwatch Camera
By clicking on the name of any Squad member, you'll gain access to the Overwatch Camera, an AI-style free camera view that can view both shipside and planetside. It has a handful of features that you'll be using a lot.
- Obviously, it's a camera that moves around. You can see everywhere a camera is, so anywhere a Marine is and anywhere with a camera (shipside especially, but may include planetside). Places where you don't have line of sight will be a mess of static.
- Click your Jump ability
to select a Marine to jump to instantly. - Close the Overwatch Console window or click the Cancel Camera View ability
to stop using the Overwatch Camera. - You can view the Minimap through this camera. Be sure and click the second Minimap ability that appears when you start using the camera.
- You can issue Orders through this camera, as if you were actually there.
- 3 extra order buttons will be added to the top of your screen while viewing the camera. Using these allows your Overwatch Camera to act as an order beacon, but using the one that appears way behind it will just use the order normally. For some reason.
- Markers may be placed by shift clicking. They're useful for getting the attention of marines, as they add a waypoint and minimap marker, alongside a big message in chat.
- You can access most of the Overwatch Console's features using Middle Mouse Button:
- On a Marine:
Message the marine, displaying a message on their screen.
Set this marine as the Acting Squad Leader.- Switch this marine to another squad.
- On a turf, like a floor tile or wall:
Allows you to shine the orbital spotlight, a large blue light that doesn't work underground but can't be turned off by xenomorphs.
Message all nearby marines.- Clicking this exposes squad related options:
- Message marines in the squad you select.
- Switch the squad of all nearby marines.
- On an Orbital Bombardment laser:
Mark this laser on the minimap for 30 seconds.
Fire on this laser!
- On a Marine:
Rule of thumb: when telling marines where to go, it's recommended to tell them in cardinal directions from the FOB, rather than location names. Marines typically don't have a magical indicator what their area is - only the minimap, which may still be unreliable for some marines (particularly new marines), even when they're literally standing there. They will, however, know roughly where they are from the FOB since they probably came from there (drop pods and Tadpole notwithstanding). Or you can just use the Waypointing system mentioned above.
Command Announcements
You can also help nudge marines using Command Announcements. Through your Send Orders ability 
or the Main Overwatch Console, you can make an obvious announcement to Marines to convey important information. It's best to use this for short orders, as in the heat of combat, marines may have trouble reading the whole thing.
An effective use for this would be statements such as "PUSH [LOCATION]" "HELP AT [LOCATION]" or something else that may be useful. Just try and keep it short but still informative! Bad orders or berating marines with this isn't a good idea, especially if you want them to listen to you...
Going Groundside
As a Staff Officer, you may go groundside, however you're only allowed inside the FOB like other Shipside Roles. Frontlining's out of the question. If you aren't planning to go down, you should probably give your tactical binoculars to somebody who is going down.
Orders
All Command staff and assigned Squad Leaders have access to Orders which can be used to buff nearby troops. Using one causes you to shout out a unique phrase over the radio. After giving an Order, there is a one-minute cooldown period until you can give another one, but cooldowns for Orders and Markers are separate.
Order effects are influenced by your Leadership skill, which increases both the effect and range.
| Order | Description |
|---|---|
Move order |
Increases movement speed by 0.1 per Leadership level
Great for retreats and getting to objectives quickly |
Hold order |
Reduces damage received by 5% per Leadership level
Increases pain resistance, reduces the effects of dizziness and jitteriness |
Focus order |
Increases accuracy by 10% plus 5% per Leadership level
Makes Aiming instant |
Rally marker |
Places a directional pointer and a map icon, urging marines to Rally at a given point. |
Attack marker |
Places a directional pointer and a map icon, urging marines to Attack a given point. |
Defend marker |
Places a directional pointer and a map icon, urging marines to Defend a given point. |
Retreat marker |
Places a directional pointer and a map icon, urging marines to Retreat from a given point. |
Doing Other People's Work, or "Lowpop Guide"
Often, you'll find yourself on an understaffed ship where someone has to do all the work. Usually, this is the Synthetic, but sometimes those aren't present too! If you're unlucky enough to be the only person available to prepare, congratulations! You have more stuff to do, as your access allows you to fulfill Requisitions and Engineering duties, which are important before Marines have landed.
This part of the page is also useful on fully staffed ships or "Highpop" ships, as mentioned before, you have the same access as a Captain, meaning you can fulfill Requisitions, load the OB or do Overwatch duties. Be sure and read this if you want to be a truly useful Staff Officer.
Requisitions
For more information, see the Guide to Requisitions.
The RO's still asleep and people are screaming for Valkyrie Automedical Modules. Being a person with access to the ASRS console and the req bay itself, you're next in line to hand out the good stuff. This also means however, that technically, you can one-man set up a Supply Drop with relative ease! Though, someone still needs to drop a squad supply beacon for that to work, though that's nothing a little case of "screaming over comms" can't fix! Probably...
Orbital Cannon loaded and chambered!
Unless you have a ST or CSE that wants to dedicate themselves to the Orbital Cannon (OB), you may be the one to load the good hits device Orbital Cannon. The Staff Officer also has the best chance to coordinate with the ground side leaders of what type of ammo they wanted loaded on the OB using the Command Channel.
To load the OB:
- Find out what OB to load. Be sure to ask your fellow Command members and subordinates.
- Head to the OB room, again using your minimap or webmap.
- Use the computer, press "Check Fuel Requirements" and see how much fuel you need for the OB type you picked.
- Get inside the RPL-Y Cargo Loader
by click dragging your sprite onto it, and pick up your OB warhead of choice. - Take the RPL-Y to the Orbital Cannon, and deposit the OB warhead inside of it by clicking it.
- Using the fuel number from the computer, pick up the necessary amount of Solid Fuel
and load the OB to the correct amount. Note: You can hold two solid fuel at a time by swapping hands after you pick one up, then swapping between them to deposit. - Lastly, go to the computer and press Load Tray, make sure you have the right numbers (if you don't, you can press Unload Tray and add or remove fuel), then Chamber Tray Payload. After that, you are done! Anyone with tactical binoculars on the ground can laze for an OB, from which you can fire from the Main Overwatch Console yourself, or they can fire after a delay.
The Captain is dead. Long live the Captain.
Taking over as Captain might seem daunting, until you realize that it's basically what you were doing before, but this time, you are using the Main Overwatch Console. The key difference between the Main and regular Overwatch Consoles is that you have access to fire the Orbital Cannon. A great power with greater responsibility. The Orbital Cannon can be fired at any Orbital Bombardment laser. Checking the target before you fire is very important, as it is a very powerful weapon and High Explosive warheads are capable of gibbing every nearby marine!
People with Tactical Binoculars may be able to fire the OB from the ground, taking slightly longer than having someone shipside (you!) hit the button.
Another difference between the Main and Regular Overwatch Consoles is that the Main Console does not have access to viewing squad monitors, but it does allow you to view the Overwatch Camera on any of the 4 (or 2) Squad Leaders. This means that the Main Overwatch Console is best used in conjunction with the other Consoles rather than instead of them. Of course, you can always just one-man the CIC and switch between the Main and Regular Overwatch Consoles whenever. You are after all, the most versatile command role.
Orders
All Command staff and assigned Squad Leaders have access to Orders which can be used to buff nearby troops. Using one causes you to shout out a unique phrase over the radio. After giving an Order, there is a one-minute cooldown period until you can give another one, but cooldowns for Orders and Markers are separate.
Order effects are influenced by your Leadership skill, which increases both the effect and range.
| Order | Description |
|---|---|
|
Move order |
Increases movement speed by 0.1 per Leadership level
Great for retreats and getting to objectives quickly |
|
Hold order |
Reduces damage received by 5% per Leadership level
Increases pain resistance, reduces the effects of dizziness and jitteriness |
|
Focus order |
Increases accuracy by 10% plus 5% per Leadership level
Makes Aiming instant |
|
Rally marker |
Places a directional pointer and a map icon, urging marines to Rally at a given point. |
|
Attack marker |
Places a directional pointer and a map icon, urging marines to Attack a given point. |
|
Defend marker |
Places a directional pointer and a map icon, urging marines to Defend a given point. |
|
Retreat marker |
Places a directional pointer and a map icon, urging marines to Retreat from a given point. |
| TGMC Roles 
| ||
| TerraGov Marines | Command | Captain, Field Commander, Staff Officer, Pilot Officer, Transport Officer, Mech Pilot |
| Vehicle Crew | Assault Crewman, Transport Crewman | |
| Engineering and Supply | Chief Ship Engineer, Requisitions Officer, Ship Technician | |
| Medical | Chief Medical Officer, Medical Doctor, Researcher | |
| Marines | Squad Leader, Squad Smartgunner, Squad Engineer, Squad Corpsman, Squad Marine | |
| Civilians | Corporate Liaison | |
| Silicon | Combat robots, Synthetic, AI | |
| Xenomorphs | Tier 0 | Larva, Minions |
| Tier 1 | Drone, Runner, Defender, Sentinel | |
| Tier 2 | Hivelord, Carrier, Hunter, Wraith, Bull, Warrior, Puppeteer, Spitter, Pyrogen | |
| Tier 3 | Gorger, Defiler, Widow, Ravager, Warlock, Behemoth, Crusher, Praetorian, Boiler | |
| Tier 4 | Shrike, Queen, King, Hivemind | |
| Others | Zombie, Emergency Response Teams, Sons of Mars, | |