What is your opinion on deployed staff officers?

[Dreven]

Never really seen the point of deploying SO's tbh, if I roll CO I'll usually end up sending my XO planetside as my field adviser and so the marines have a higher leader they can rally on. But then again plenty of SO's don't really contribute much tbh (not to say that their aren't fantastic SO players who add lots to the round for both their squad and fellow CiCers), so I could see how sending down redundant officers to the meatgrinder could be more benefical than having them look through helmet cams.

I get sad though if im all alone in the CiC, and we have IO's now as a dedicated groundside officer class. Maybe we ought to add more for the SO's to do shipside (Like things other than just SOing?).

[FGRSentinel]

My opinion is that a number of SOs lack situational awareness and should never set foot outside the CIC. I had one bodyblock me into a spot in the FOB during evac where I couldn't escape a boiler gas cloud and I got captured as a result of them and the tank, for instance.

[WinterClould]

Yeet those SOs out of your CIC and just get good at working all the consoles yourself

[Boersgard]

Playing staff officer requires being a masochist. Everything about the role SUCKS

You get NO EQUIPMENT
You have NO ACCESS
If you sit in CIC you're mostly eating popcorn watching marines die
If you deploy you're spending 35 minutes BEGGING people for gear before you can even think of going anywhere, and that's assuming you don't get some mouthbreathers harassing you for not being in CIC eating popcorn
Oh and then when you do sit in CIC watching television, some jackass will inevitable come up and change the channel on you every five minutes. My god I just want to watch these marines die and tell them inane things like "Enemy forces concentrated to your northwest" as if they couldn't figure it out themselves; STOP FLICKING THROUGH MY CAMERA WHY AM I EVEN HERE IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO THAT

I hate what staff officer is like right now

They need better tools for directing squads
They need actual equipment vendors !!!!!! (something I gitlab'd for IO's+SO's, and only the IO's got vendors!?)

They have medical skills
But have no medical glasses
No medical pouches
No medical gear at all

It's like the dev team can't decide if they want SO's to do anything besides sit in CIC watching TV.

Right now, being in CIC is 90% useless past what the CO/XO do. SO's have no tools that actually markedly assist marines on the ground, and no tools to enable them to deploy and fight. It's a cuck role that's only worth playing if you don't feel like playing and just want to observe the game.

Here is a quick and dirty fix for SO:

Give them vendors
Put basic tools they can use in that vendor: toolbelt, medical pouches, medical glasses, backpack, etc.
Give them regular marine armor/weapons, gloves, helmet
Let SO 'issue orders' work through the TV cameras
Give the XO/CO a universal squad monitor so they stop messing with the SO's

There, now SO's can be useful in CIC, and don't need to spend half an hour begging people for gear so they can deploy. It's not perfect, but it's like 80% of the way towards what SO's need.

[juliansl]

How on earth are you spending 35 minutes getting gear as an SO? Your locker has armor and a gun, so that only leaves at most a medical belt, some tools and a setvof tactical binoculars.

[Steelpoint]

CO/XO's really do need their own way of observing helmet cams. It'd be a major boon to the roll and it'd help stop cases of SO's being interrupted because the CO/XO is getting bored and wants to see what is actually going on.

[Mafs]

Plus, if ypu're a good and recognized SO, just go down to the squad you're overwatching amd ask for some gear. Sometimes I go down to Charlie Req just to talk to people & if they want to trade gear for gear, it's a plus. I can get an M39 with one mag in a holster and some attachments and that's all I really need. items like medhud, tools, tac binos, medical bag you can get from their respective departments and req.

[NoahKirchner]

Staff Officers are entirely useless on the ship unless they are exceptionally good, with an exceptional SL AND commanding officer. I mean, if you think about it, all the SO can do is send OBs and supplies - something which the XO is much better at. They can also relay information, but the CO can just look at helmet cams or ask the squad leaders, they're an unnecessary step in the information pipeline from squad member to CO, and more often than not they're the weakest link in the flow of information because they're alt tabbed at the command console or handling three squads because the other SOs cryod.

Sending them planetside to coordinate FOB construction, supply drops, orbitals or even just as a general "marine blob movement coordinator" is normally more useful than sitting them at a console with their thumb up their ass. You can even send them planetside as dedicated CAS lasers, to give pilots more to do, or to coordinate the mortar so that it actually gets used - but in the CIC they're doing like a quarter of a job instead of an actual role. I hope this isn't the case and that they get more toys to play with, but as it stands, the planet is where they are most useful.

[Stripetail]

9/10 of them don't use their orders.

[SirMandrake]

I like playing SO and don't mind staying at OW, but most of the time you are more useful planetside. Especially during "low pop," cuz you really only need one person at CIC when there are 3-5 marines in each squad (excluding delta). Your engineering skills and issue orders alone makes it worth it.