The Abysmal State of POs

[SirMandrake]

Yeah the most rewarding part of transport PO is the rp, which is nowhere near as engaging as researcher or CL. Hell you're more important to the op as a PO too. Most people don't give you the time of day though so you're left with shitty "in the pipe" jokes as rp with some exceptions. As it stands, transport PO is not very fun unless you make silly personal objectives. Last time I played PO was able to secure Jones, Lisa and Wiggles; boosting marine morale seeing them on the Alamo.

A runner tried to attack me and killed Lisa instead before running away, leading to some funny IC moments. That's all outside the role though, so again, gotta make your own fun which is lame

[Heraclitus]

About 7 or 8 months ago I enjoyed PO a lot, and personally I prefer transport to CAS. CAS is great fun too, but I often found there was very little to actually do as a CAS PO. There's no particular reason I stopped playing in other than PFC is more fun in general.

I got back in recently and made many bald mistakes even though I've played the role in the past. Here's my thoughts on it, and how other roles can be a positive influence plus what makes it frustrating for many players who try it right now. I do enjoy the role a lot though and I know I'm not the only one who has fun with it.

1st drop: CO/XO should always set a time for first drop, make a red announcement stating it, and POs should stick to it. You can get brigged for launching too early, and plus having a definite time (to make 1st drop I must be on the Alamo by X) is honestly better for all combat roles IMO.

The actual transport: You should be making runs as often as possible - the only exception being if you're onloading tons of wounded or you need a mount a new module. What matters most is throughput of marines. In transport I normally have an HF2 and I'll send up reports on wounded to medbay, specifically which limbs are missing.

On the ground: If you have 2 PO's in the cockpit one should be on doors and the other on sentries when you land. On LV lockdown all doors, and then open left hatch. On prison I just lockdown the right hatch. Ice and BR don't matter. Once down I just help load wounded/crates/intel before I head back up.

Evac: Probably the most important moment in the whole operation for POs, if it happens. Both POs should be in the cockpit, preferably with the door closed. One should be on the cameras and the other ready to hit the switch when the time comes, the one ready to launch can keep the door open and be looking into the back if they're alone. As evac is happening you can have a PO in the back moving wounded marines around so they're not next to the doors instead of on the cameras though.

Since playing PO again with shorter rounds I've actually found it a lot more fun. It's the only role to benefit from shorter rounds really, but that tells me that PO can be a more enjoyable role even when rounds get a little longer again with a bit more to do and less frustration to deal with.

Lets talk about what makes PO annoying: it's all about how they control their dropship, specifically the shitty UI for the launch/door controls.

-Normandy doing transport instead of flyby because the console reset itself and the PO didn't notice
-a marine opening a door before the PO hits lockdown and then having it stuck open for the rest of evac.

This might be a good representation of IRL military software (made by the lowest bidder) but not for a role where people should be having FUN! Neither should be possible, and I think both could be fixed. Lockdown should close all doors, and then bolt them, with no way to open them before they're bolted. When a PO sets the mode to flyby it should remain in flyby for the rest of the round unless set back. Sure someone who's played PO enough won't make these mistakes, but they shouldn't even be possible in the first place.


For the flyby thing I can get that with multiple consoles able to access the DS controls window there may be potential conflicts/stuff to be resolved, so it might not be as easy as it sounds. But whilst all this is less interesting than the rework that's coming, I think it's more necessary.

[Kocoa]

I picked up PO as my first command role when starting CM. My biggest takeaway to being a good PO is communication, communication, and communication.

CAS PO's need to have all comms on incase a call for CAS or medevac comes on. Tell your medics when you're launching, when the winch is off cooldown, who needs priority medevac, and what injuries are coming to medbay. For CAS, you need good SL's or lucky battle lines. Communicate when you're in the air and when you can fire. Make sure lazes are only up when you're spam refreshing that weapons console.

For transport PO's, communicate to command when the bird is up and down, to medical any injured, to req any supplies coming up or or going down, and to squads if any injuries are coming to Alamo.

But the biggest and most rage-inducing aspect of PO is during emergency evac transport. The ol' xeno swarm is licking the cades and you gotta make sure NO XENOS GET ON BUT ALL MARINES GET ON. This involves a careful combination of looking at all cams both on and off the Alamo, having a designated SL or talkative marine call when everyone is on so you launch on their go, and having a sort of meta knowledge of which doors to have locked (LV LZ1 NEEDS right side and bottom side doors to be locked on every landing to be an effective LZ).

So tldr yes, PO mechanically is a button pushing role. This is where the meme of POs being an easy and noncomplex role comes in. The indirect skills POs require is good communication skills to coordinate landing, lazing, or evaccing. Thats where the PO skill gap comes into play; a lot of ss13 players neglect communication. And because PO isn't a traditionally fun role players who ARE capable of communicating won't often roll PO leaving a small pool candidates capable of fulfilling a competent PO spot.

So how do you get more capable PO's? Give the role more weight. But as everyone is touching on in this thread, that requires IC perspective changes of PO importance or OOC addition of more fun mechanics which will take a very long time to actually manifest.

[Heraclitus]

So tldr yes, PO mechanically is a button pushing role. This is where the meme of POs being an easy and noncomplex role comes in. The indirect skills POs require is good communication skills to coordinate landing, lazing, or evaccing. Thats where the PO skill gap comes into play; a lot of ss13 players neglect communication. And because PO isn't a traditionally fun role players who ARE capable of communicating won't often roll PO leaving a small pool candidates capable of fulfilling a competent PO spot.

So how do you get more capable PO's? Give the role more weight. But as everyone is touching on in this thread, that requires IC perspective changes of PO importance or OOC addition of more fun mechanics which will take a very long time to actually manifest.

Absolutely this, you summed it up better than I could. Every role, at the end of the day, is what you make of it. I'm not saying people are doing it wrong if they don't have fun playing PO, even when you make the most of it that's still not for everyone. But I like the fact that CM has a community filled with people who like different things.

PO can be more fun for everyone though, without even needing any massive changes!

[KittyHawkpilot019]

Turn on a movie, play PO. simple as that, useless role, can be replaced with 2 clicks from CIC.

[ColonelCorazon]

I like playing as PO but usually I'll grab another more interesting role. I really only grab PO if I latestart and see it's needed.

[FGRSentinel]

One solution I can think of is maybe expand dropship prep and transport runs to include some "checklist" activities for the PO. For instance, maybe have the dropships start with all systems deactivated and have the PO need to go through a startup process for the engines, computer, and electronic systems. Meanwhile, maybe instead of allowing the transport PO to shave half the time off a transport flight, they have mini activities each flight at random times where they do certain things in the cockpit to allow the dropship to fly more efficiently. For instance, maybe the PO might need to adjust inertial dampeners or something to safely fly through more turbulent air instead of going around it/slowing down or change engine operation modes before the ship enters/leaves atmosphere to prevent engine performance drops that the computer would be slow to correct on its own.

Basically just base it off something like the Apollo spacecraft where a computer handles most of the flying, but the crew could alter the programming on the fly to adjust the flight pattern and the computer couldn't change any of the configurations of things (like turning on RCS, switching on fuel cells, etc) on its own.

[Heraclitus]

One thing I always played around with in my head was adding a refueling system, where at round start you need to refuel both dropships and then top them up as the round goes on. As a safety measure you wouldn't be able to launch the dropship without a minimum amount of fuel. This could create a sort of 'deck crew' role for that 4th PO who doesn't have much to do on transport, or an MT.

In my mind you'd need to pick up a nozzle using the power loader and attach it to one of the engines, or maybe you could just remove empty fuel tanks using the PL, refuel them, and then put them back in. The only thing is that this would need a little sprite work and could be a bit tedious.

And for the queen we'll just say she can override the safety measures and burn the last drop of gas to get to the Almayer.

[Steelpoint]

The day we get a more involved Piloting system that is not button click simulator 2000 will be the day we see more competent people. Until then, enjoy your NPC pilots.

[Ventyas]

I personally play Europa Universalis IV on my second screen when I play PO. This way you can play both without the boring waiting moments