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Thread: The State of Ship-Side RP

  1. #1
    Whitelisted Captain/Retired WL Maintainer Snooper44's Avatar
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    The State of Ship-Side RP

    It has come to my attention in the past months frankly how worthless ship-side roles have become. Doctors and Requisitions are not the departments I am talking about entirely. Doctors busy themselves with marines losing limbs and being face-hugged, researchers can now busy themselves with xeno eggs, or making extremely deadly chemical grenades that can one-shot a queen. And Requisitions is always occupied with getting marines what they need to survive on the field and build a proper FOB. These departments have a purpose, a purpose that keeps them engaged throughout the round as if they are contributing to something worth-while almost as if they are on the ground themselves keeping the fight going.

    Then comes the Military Police. Honestly, their purpose is extremely limited to the start of the round. Military Police stop early marine shinnanigans so mods don't have to. Some which sometimes are punished harder to others because the MPs have the power so they want to use it because they know fully by the time the marines deploy they won't be able to again anymore. Once marines are deployed, nothing is left. MPs are left to go AFK unless by some slim miracle a xeno gets up to the Alamyer and or the researcher/CLs/MTs do something stupid so they can do arrests again. Or for example admins decide to do some sort of event which gets MPs involved or a mutiny happens which again is quite rare. Unlike in vanilla SS13 servers security (their version of MPs) on the station are constantly doing something. Yes, some are utter trash and abuse their power. But others often have the role of hunting possible traitors, revolutionaries, or some spiders that breed in the maintenance tunnels. It gives them purpose so they are not solely a force that relies on having to arrest people for small things so they can have something to do rather then just AFKing until something happens.

    Finally, the MTs. Honestly this department has irked me as I personally have played it multiple times and frankly you do absolutely nothing. You start, set up the generators, reload the OB which can be done in seconds. Then you are done, there is nothing left. You either try to build your own room out of complete boredom until the MPs try to stop you for government property damage, or you do minor repairs due to a marine setting off a grenade accidentally which doesn't mean anything because it is not as if there is a breach in the ship as atmospherics was removed. MTs are one thing only, glorified engineers. When they realize how useless they are on the Almayer they just end up deploying and building up the FOB because their purpose on the Alamyer is entirely worthless. Unlike vanilla SS13 servers where engineers are constantly doing something such as setting up a shield generator to stop meteors from destroying the station, fixing lights, repairing small breaches that appear on the station, or making spears to fight off some random spiders that appear and invade their department. It brings something to do and something to look forward to as maintaining the station rather then just setting up the engine, then doing nothing for the rest of the round and then deploying to be regular engineers.

    My point? I feel like the vessel needs some sort of more randomized events, possibly based around how many people are in each role. Maybe for MPs a random stowaway spawns randomly, sole purpose is to avoid being captured (and not to kill), maybe some sort of creatures spawning random in tunnels that have to be cleared out before they do damage, maybe a RARE case of some specific crewmember being of CLF/UPP origin and having to acquire something such as the Alamyer's codebook from the Captain's safe and the MPs need to figure out who it is (I believe this used to be a thing). For MTs maybe bring back breaches but limit them to certain areas of the ship so it doesn't impact the round heavily but could if left alone for too long, electrical bursts which could destroy entire section's of the vessels lighting which they have to fix, maybe even some random fires due to some sort of malfunctioning wiring that MTs need to get firesuits and extinguishers to fight off.

    I understand the fear of shipside events impacting the round for marines, but why even keep these shipside roles if they are just glorified engineers, and for MPs they just end up enforcing the law a few times in the beginning then go AFK for the rest of the round as nothing happens and most end up abusing their power because they don't have much else of a purpose. In rare occasions admins may do small events but this is rare and usually only a select few admins do this because again they fear how it will impact the marines on the surface. I am just generally offering thoughts for some sort of mechanics in the future as I know the devs are busy balancing the game and fixing lagging and crashes and also working on a new map. But I always feel bad watching these departments just fall to semi-AFK activity and then cryo later because they have practically nothing to do of worth. If anything they'd just be better as manpower on the surface fighting as marines.


    Commodore Greg Lauffer



    Whitelist Maintainer

    January 1st 2021 - June 28th 2021

  2. #2
    Admin Taketheshot56's Avatar
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    Buff MTs when?
    Former member of the Commanders Council, PM me if you want help with making a whitelist or have a question.

  3. #3
    Senior Member Madventurer's Avatar
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    Very much this. MTs and MPs are so incredibly boring that I might aswell just sit in a corner and come out to do my job every 30 minutes while playing something else.

    Probably the best thing to do as an MT is to deploy and build a FOB, except someone has to keep maintaining the ship...
    MPs don't even have that option. They could have a role in FOB guard, but right now they're just downgraded security, barely able to handle actual security threats with their low numbers.

    And, as a synth, I've noticed that the entirety of an MTs job is a side-gig for me at roundstart. I can handle the entire job, reactors and OB, then head down for an hour, then come back to do it all again and nobody even notices. Literally every other role has SOMETHING to do during that hour.

    One thing for MTs could be the addition of combat drones and having MTs use them. That way they'd have both something to engage with everyone else while allowing them to do their current primary job.
    Tyson 'Bunny' Sphere


  4. #4
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    Who ever took away MT access to the dropship printer had no idea what they were doing. It wasn't a full time job but an MT could stay reasonably busy arming and changing DS loadouts while juggling the OB and other small tasks at the fore of the ship. Now the POs have to print everything and they might do it themselves since they have to run to the hangar to do it.

    I'd like to see some kind of ship side fabrication. Once research does their part they could hand off schematics to MTs to build and assembly line or fabricator setup that would allow them to convert materials into basic ammo, attachments and gear for Marines or even help research make advanced mods for Marines to test in combat. It'd give the Marines the same potential for growth and strengthening their forced over time as xenos so if benos decide to delay it's on them.

    If Marines can secure enough Intel and resources planetside and shuttle them up, perhaps even allowing support staff to make their own OB rounds or dropship supplies.

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    It doesn't help that the players who usually make these roles interesting (Gerdy) keep getting banned because the admins have a shit concept of what "high RP," means. Why would anyone even play these roles if they don't have the privilege of acting a little bit wacky, and actually making their contributions to the rounds entertaining?

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by SandersdeKFC View Post
    It doesn't help that the players who usually make these roles interesting (Gerdy) keep getting banned because the admins have a shit concept of what "high RP," means.
    Forcefeeding people soy milk is not HRP or even MRP by any means.

    On topic, shipside RP has been on low since Sulaco. At least you get walkmans now i guess.

  7. #7
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    But it's FUN RP. And that is the definition of HRP in my book. Playing yourself in a scenario isn't "roleplay." It's just playing a video game.

  8. #8
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    MP main here. MPs could use some sort of buff. Even if it is a rare chance (15% or so) that a CLF or UPP boarding party could spawn after an hour elapses in the round, filled by deadchat participants similar to ERT. They get a message saying something along the lines of "A boarding party is headed to the Almayer, press Join Response Team to toggle your candidacy for this team!" Then their shuttle can appear with no notice at a docking port which they would need to blast open or something. Their goal would be to take CIC or disable the ship somehow. MP's would likely be slaughtered, but that's something, I suppose.

    I don't know how realistic a stowaway would be, and unlike many SS13 servers there just aren't many places to hide in maintenance. I don't think that's the route to take here.

    I also think a relaxing or removal of the don't switch sides rule could be interesting. As in you could be a "peaceful" survivor but be a member of the CLF who decides to hide that fact until they get aboard the Almayer when they commit a terrorist act. It could be required that a survivor ahelp with their intent prior to starting trouble in a switching sides situation, similar to mutiny. It doesn't help the case of MP boredom that the only survivors who make it onto the ship are peaceful ones, and the only ones who make it to the ship who are violent are in cable cuffs already and handed off to MPs to brig without any conflict. I mean mutiny in itself is a switching of sides (albeit for cause), why cannot survivors do this also? I also think fake surrenders in a mutiny could be a thing. As in you surrender at first or even play along as a supporter of their action when the mutineers assault CIC but wait for an opportunity to grab a decent weapon and shoot them in the back.

    I get that the rules about switching sides are meant to prevent grief, but the situations where it applies are narrow. I believe no marine should ever be allowed to decide randomly they are a CLF agent or something, though I do believe they should be able to in a mutiny situation but only if they are on the list of mutineers given to admins or a commissioned officer. I'm not after everyone getting a so-called ticket to grief. But of the 0 to 3 survivors that make it onto the ship, I'm fine with one or two of them starting shit. There are enough MP's, marines, doctors and MT's aboard to deal with their actions. I'm also fine with fake surrenders in mutinies, because the first thing a successful mutiny would do centuries ago IRL would be to either execute or strand the loyal command of the vessel, and the latter isn't really a viable option. So let there be a bit of intrigue there.

    I get that mutinies are extremely rare and successful ones even more so, but if boarding parties occur 15% of the time and late-deciding hostile survivors happen 35% of the time and mutineers/loyal command switching sides in a mutiny is 5% of the time, it adds up to a bit more intrigue for MPs to sort out, adding a bit of edge-of-your-seat tension to the round, even if none of that comes to pass. Is that survivor going to grab a gun and shoot me while I take their photograph? Is this guy with me who said he supported the mutiny (and who was on the list of 5 names given to the admin) actually a vigilante who will take us down from within when he has a chance to do so? The CLF and UPP have been an issue in this sector for a while, could they mount an assault on the Almayer while we are distracted in order to deliver a knockout punch to one of the main USCM response teams in the sector?

    All of that might make for a more colorful round for the MP squad, and present a compelling reason to play during the lull following deployment.

  9. #9
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    GAH! My message posted twice! Has this forum been hella borked for the last 24 hours for anyone else?
    Last edited by alexpkeaton; 10-31-2019 at 06:08 AM.

  10. #10
    Member Varnock's Avatar
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    I'm sad there's no CL love here. I try to RP every round, but alone I can't do much...

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