Time to elaborate on assistants

[deedubya]

>oh boy, another assistant thread from deedubya, I bet he wants them deleted from the game or something

Nah, chill for a minute. What I want is for assistants to have purpose again. Possibly even their original purpose as a job for newbies to learn the ropes, or a low-stress job with few expectations of you.

The idea is simple. You know that preference you toggle in your character settings that denotes your security department assignment? Have that also functions for assistants. What will this do, in function? It'll assign assistants to a department, with the intent that they...you know, actually assist with that department. This would also give them basic bitch access to that department. So entry into the engineering lobby, medbay, science wing, cargo office/maint, and their associated break rooms. No sub-access though, so no medicine room/surgery, no engine room/atmos, no RND/xenobio/robotics, no cargo shuttle/mining, and so on.(meaning no free insuls) This means that in order to get access to areas or tools to help do the actual job, they'll need the cooperation of someone working that department. But why would someone in that department open the door for some random assistant? Well, remember the multicolor jumpsuit change to assistants? Give it a purpose. Rather than the armbands that security officers get, assistants assigned to a particular department will get that color of jumpsuit to denote their status. Blue jumpsuits for medical, yellow for engineering, purple for science, grey for cargo. They could also potentially spawn with an encryption key in their bag for their chosen department, if necessary. Also, we'll be removing maint access from default assistant access. I'll go over why in the "what this will do" section below.

What this change is intended to do:
Give the assistant role a purpose again. They can assist with menial tasks in their assigned department, learn to do the job from someone that's more experienced with that job than you are, or help do the job itself without the feeling of responsibility associated with choosing the job from the start.
Cut down on the negative association departmental players have with the random assistant wandering around in their department. If you see an assistant there in the right colors, you can typically assume they're there to help.
"hold on, you said remove maint, what about the classic tider gameplay?" As much of a shitter as you are for playing this way, this is preserved. Cargo assistants will have maintenance access for the purposes of finding crates/tanks for cargo, and get the grey jumpsuit so associated with their shitty playstyle. On top of that, they'll actually get free access to the autolathe, meaning you won't see the ORM wrenched out every single round as it is currently. Further, there won't be any limits as to how many assistants can be assigned to a singular department. So if you want to flag cargo as your assistant preference just so you can continue to be a useless tiding piece of shit, there won't be any worry about there being limited slots.
"but what about the service department? don't they need assistants?" Assistants will still technically be service workers under this new system. Further, all the service/civilian roles are so self-contained that they don't actually need assistants to be there helping them out. However, all "unassigned" assistants will be service by default, so if you want an assistant in the kitchen/hydroponics, you could always just let them in.

Basically, I want to give more legitimacy to assistants that actually want to assist, and newbies that want to learn a department with no expectations made of them. Also, if we're not going to make a code solution to greytiding(RIP the randomized door wires PR) then their playstyle is still preserved.

[cacogen]

can you add a tl;dr to your posts

[deedubya]

The last couple lines at the end summarizes it for ADHD riddled brainlets like yourself. You're welcome.

[wesoda25]

I think something like this is in place on yog, you could look there and make a PR.

[Kryson]

This won't actually reduce tiding, this just lets tiders get more loot roundstart, especially if the engineering assistants get maint access since people already pick engineering just to tide with insuls + RCD.

[Gamarr]

This won't actually reduce tiding, this just lets tiders get more loot roundstart, especially if the engineering assistants get maint access since people already pick engineering just to tide with insuls + RCD.

This only works so long until the admins permabans them from engineering for it. If they aren't, then well thats the bureaucrats fault.

[deedubya]

This won't actually reduce tiding, this just lets tiders get more loot roundstart, especially if the engineering assistants get maint access since people already pick engineering just to tide with insuls + RCD.

1: Engineering assistants wouldn't get maint.
2: They wouldn't have access to the rooms that insuls are kept in, only the initial engineering lobby. An engineer would have to let them in/give them insuls for them to get their mitts, just like currently.(or I guess they could hack in with their free toolbelt)
3: They couldn't afford an RCD, nor would they have access to either of the three locations that an RCD can be obtained from. (EVA, engivend, engilathe)
4: I never said it was meant to reduce tiding. If anything, tiders get a very very slight buff by getting autolathe access at the start to print off free tools. But it would give some players more incentive to actually use the role for its intended purpose, which could reduce tiding somewhat.

[Super Aggro Crag]

if u want to fucking assist a department than you select that fucking department people select assistant cuz they want to fuck around and do whatever they want without copping a department ban for gross incompetence/deliberate dickery

thats why if t hey don't get one of the I Get To Fuck Around Jobs (clown, mime, lawyer, curator) they go greyshirt

[Tarchonvaagh]

I'm sorry to say that this is stupid, since jobs themselves exist to learn it and try to improve in it. Also this would just give more tools for greytiders to tide with.

Spoiler:

cargo assistants? really?

[deedubya]

I'm sorry to say that this is stupid, since jobs themselves exist to learn it and try to improve in it. Also this would just give more tools for greytiders to tide with.

Spoiler:

cargo assistants? really?

Have you tried playing a job with the sole purpose of learning the basics? You get hassled to no end by an endless horde of people that expect you to be perfect at it, and eventually tided by impatient assistants that'll just do the job for you while letting you learn nothing. This would effectively reverse that, if implemented.

[Tarchonvaagh]

I just had a round when a fellow scientist asked me to teach him the basics, I showed him rnd, the toxins site, chill room and the experimentor. Then another scientist taught him the basics of nanites. Round happened on Terry. It was great. Also if you really want to know the basics the wiki is there for you

[teepeepee]

if you want to learn a role, you play it
if you get yelled at so what?
do you really need a whole new role to stop being a little bitch?

[deedubya]

if you want to learn a role, you play it
if you get yelled at so what?
do you really need a whole new role to stop being a little bitch?

No, we don't need a whole new role. Just to improve an existing one so it actually has a use.

[Super Aggro Crag]

ok boomer

[cacogen]

is 2019 the year that we change everything about the game

What I want is for assistants to have purpose again.

They have never had purpose outside of the ones they currently serve.

assign assistants to a department, with the intent that they ... assist with that department ... No sub-access though

Opening/shutting doors for people is a pain in the ass, as is getting trapped in a room. Give them full access and assign them to a staff member like a golem. If they disobey them, abuse the access, or wander off, make it punishable IC. Briggable or made valid. We all agree that a Warden is fucking up if they're outside the brig hunting criminals when there's other security. Make it the same for assistants that don't assist. Then add a role similar to the old Tourist role from Goon that has no access or responsibilities.

But really I'm fine with assistants and don't see the problems other people seem to. I pick assistant when I don't want to do a job and don't want to fill a job slot and enjoy trawling maint, using what I find to survive if the station turns to shit (which doesn't happen often enough nowadays).