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Recently, I was thinking about the smallest possible crew roster you could have while keeping an SS13 feel. I decided immediately that the Clown, Captain, and Assistants are all core to the essence of the game, but after that I hit a snag.
What I'm not thinking about here is what people's favorite jobs are, but what jobs are essential to the game flavor. As much as I love Robo I don't think the game would be unrecognizable on its removal.
So what do you think? What job is next on the chopping block, and who's essential to the nature of the game? Antags are on the block too, we'll assume the syndicate and friends are dealing with the economic downturn too.
Why have Assistants if you don't have Security, am I right?
Spoiler:
yttriums wrote: ↑Tue Jan 16, 2024 12:13 am
borg players shouldn't be able to ahelp. you signed up to play as a piece of equipment. this is like a table ahelping you for wrenching it
Justice12354 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 15, 2024 4:01 pm
Why have Assistants if you don't have Security, am I right?
Just Secoffs or the whole department? Or maybe some weird halfway point?
Fuck it. 3 SecOffs. Enough to make a tasty sec train
Spoiler:
yttriums wrote: ↑Tue Jan 16, 2024 12:13 am
borg players shouldn't be able to ahelp. you signed up to play as a piece of equipment. this is like a table ahelping you for wrenching it
I feel like heads aside, you can bring it down to just the core role for engineering, medbay, science, and sec (Engineer, Medical Doctor, Scientist, and Sec Officer), plus clown + janitor for service.
kieth4 wrote:
infrequently shitting yourself is fine imo
There is a lot of very bizarre nonsense being talked on this forum. I shall now remain silent and logoff until my points are vindicated.
Player who complainted over being killed for looting cap office wrote: ↑Sun Jul 30, 2023 1:33 am
Hey there, I'm Virescent, the super evil person who made the stupid appeal and didn't think it through enough. Just came here to say: screech, retards. Screech and writhe like the worms you are. Your pathetic little cries will keep echoing around for a while before quietting down. There is one great outcome from this: I rised up the blood pressure of some of you shitheads and lowered your lifespan. I'm honestly tempted to do this more often just to see you screech and writhe more, but that wouldn't be cool of me. So come on haters, show me some more of your high blood pressure please.
Not-Dorsidarf wrote: ↑Mon Jan 15, 2024 5:54 pm
I feel like heads aside, you can bring it down to just the core role for engineering, medbay, science, and sec (Engineer, Medical Doctor, Scientist, and Sec Officer), plus clown + janitor for service.
But what about cargo and silicons? Are their whole departments worth letting go?
Not-Dorsidarf wrote: ↑Mon Jan 15, 2024 5:54 pm
I feel like heads aside, you can bring it down to just the core role for engineering, medbay, science, and sec (Engineer, Medical Doctor, Scientist, and Sec Officer), plus clown + janitor for service.
But what about cargo and silicons? Are their whole departments worth letting go?
I feel like if we're cutting the station down to the bone, they're ultimately superfluous. The QM can be the whole of cargo at this level of extreme cornercutting. He has MULEbots and so on. I dont feel they're vital. You need engineering, because the electric and mechanical systems of the station are important to the feel of the game, you need science because its a RESEARCH station and science's progression is a fairly major cornerstone of the round, you need at least some medbay because the station is a deathtrap and insane men want to kill you (not to mention the antags), and you need sec to keep a lid on the boiling pot.
kieth4 wrote:
infrequently shitting yourself is fine imo
There is a lot of very bizarre nonsense being talked on this forum. I shall now remain silent and logoff until my points are vindicated.
Player who complainted over being killed for looting cap office wrote: ↑Sun Jul 30, 2023 1:33 am
Hey there, I'm Virescent, the super evil person who made the stupid appeal and didn't think it through enough. Just came here to say: screech, retards. Screech and writhe like the worms you are. Your pathetic little cries will keep echoing around for a while before quietting down. There is one great outcome from this: I rised up the blood pressure of some of you shitheads and lowered your lifespan. I'm honestly tempted to do this more often just to see you screech and writhe more, but that wouldn't be cool of me. So come on haters, show me some more of your high blood pressure please.
Speaking of antags:
Heretic and all of the side antags (except maybe xenos) are definitely out. But is Wizard really quintessential SS13? I would say so but there are those who may disagree. I guess it all comes down to how you view the setting.
Honestly, I only think Traitor and Cult (maybe Clockies too?) are the only ones that are truly iconic to SS13. Wizard is good for helping boost the feel, but in this case of CORPORATE DOWNSIZING, is just one that I'd argue is chaff.
HERES THE FULL LIST:
Captain
CE
Engineer
RD
Scientist
CMO
Medic
Botanist
Janitor
Clown
Assistant
QM (not as a head)
Cargo Tech
ANTAGS:
Traitor (Pre-Progression Traitor)
thats it
If you have a competent CE, you do not need an engineer, especially on low pop. Heck, if you have an engineer, you don't need a CE either.
You only need one engineer to keep power going.
Instead of an engineer, you could also have an engi borg instead.
The minimum crew in my opinion?
A miner, and a CE.
The station will be running and have mats. The CE can hold the disk.
That's all you need.
Oh you wanted traditional ss13 experience? uhhh...
I'll get back to ya.
► Show Spoiler
► Show Spoiler
Btw admins Volkan is a free admin abuse character I will take it. I am happy for trialmins to push buttons on me for science. Bluespace does hate him canonically, after all.
kinnebian wrote: ↑Tue Jan 16, 2024 2:14 am
HERES THE FULL LIST:
Captain
CE
Engineer
RD
Scientist
CMO
Medic
Botanist
Janitor
Clown
Assistant
QM (not as a head)
Cargo Tech
ANTAGS:
Traitor (Pre-Progression Traitor)
thats it
Very good list, but who is in charge of cooking the food? Also pair down the traitor uplink and give them objectives that target the station as a whole.
Cut all jobs except clown. Heck, cut the entire station. A single clown slowly dying in the cold, empty void of space is the first image my brain conjures upon hearing 'Space Station 13'.
if you want the true og classic experience i don't think there were even assistants. could be wrong tho, maybe we just always picked jobs and never assistant.
i remember it being nothing more than captain, scientist, medical doctor, engineer or security officer. the AI was implemented really early too, but we rarely used it because AI with 10~ people sucked ass back then too.
the only gamemodes were traitor, meteor (the rate of meteors was so fast that the round was over in less than 10 minutes), monkey (a virus turned people into monkeys, basically unplayable) or extended.
MrStonedOne wrote:I always read dendy's walls of text
It seems like we have a pretty good consensus on what jobs people think are fundamental, but what about subjobs? Science is the biggest example with all the weird ways of doing things, but medbay and engi also have a lot of spare mechanics. Is xenobio more important than circuits? Do solars matter more than the SM?
For science, I suppose research is essential, or at least some method of unlocking new items to print.
For xenobio, it consists of sitting in a room for 40 minutes to an hour, usually only giving slight buffs to the doer of science, and rarely having any impact on the round, so it can go.
For Cytology, there still isn't even a reason to ever do this besides dicking around and showing off weird creatures, so it can go.
Toxins wouldn't make sense on a ministation, maxcaps would be too strong. Plus, it doesn't ever seem to have a crew sided impact on the round other than a one time bump in research points.
Circuits seem to only ever be used for personal gimmicks. They don't have any real importance to the round, but they don't take up much space and they are cool. Perhaps you would have to assemble all the required machinery as a compromise.
If the AI and borgs are gone, we don't need a dedicated robotics section.
Atmos is alot like xenobio in that you can spend the whole round creating something kinda neat that usually wont have any effect on anyone. Maybe you get some credits to cargo, but by no means is it important.
I frankly think the supermatter is too technical for a ministation. Something more paired down with clear and understandable mechanics would fit the bill better. A nuclear reactor perhaps.
I never see anyone bother to set up the turbine, but that's probably because they don't get how it works.
Telecoms is fine, but I would perhaps roll some of the machines together.
Solars are fine to keep I think.
Chemistry could use an auit, cutting the fluff, and simplifying most recipes. Chemlabs are removed.
Genetics as it stands is another wait 40 minutes for a gimmick jobs. If it had some importance to the round it could stay, but as it stands its worth cutting.
Viro is obviously gone.
Head of Security
Warden
Lawyer
Chief Engineer
Quartermaster
Chief Medical Officer
Chemist
Geneticist
Virologist
Research Director
That and a couple of the other smaller maps I've seen are what sparked up this train of thought a few years ago. It's interesting that while those stations removed head roles most people here think they're important to the feel of the game.
