Leaderboard

The Idea: Separate Assistants from Civilians/Businessmen/Traders by allowing Assistants to choose a department to assist. This gives them basic departmental access (e.g. can open the main doors, but cannot open lockers), as well as the usual maintenance access. They would get a basic title change (Engineering Assistant, Medical Assistant, Robotics Assistant etc etc) Changes Civilians to be just that; Civilians. Visitors to the station, in whatever form that may take but not actual crew members. There are a few ways of approaching this, one would be to keep them the same as they are now (i.e. not belonging to a department, retain all access and privilege), another would be to revoke access to maintenance and have them pay for food and drinks, as well as medical services beyond basic triage, or you could go somewhere between the two. Obviously the latter options would require more of an overhaul of the economy, but this is something which could be added later. The Reasoning: One of, if the not the biggest complaints I see from Paradise players is the lack of jobs. This change to Assistants would accomplish three things: Add a functional reason for Assistants to exist beyond pure RP. Adds more job to the server, especially to those which are often sought-after. Gives newer players a way to ease into jobs like engineering, medical and science. Of course, limits would need to be set on how many assistants can be added to each department (probably 2 per department). But even if this were set to two additional personnel, that could be a great increase to various roles. Implementation: Add the option to choose departments you'd be willing to assist in, and get randomly placed in one of the departments you choose if slots are available. Might be best to spawn in the usual Civvie/Assistant positions, Limitations: I believe arguments could be made that it could over-strengthen certain departments (or just add needless bodies for the sake of inflation). Although I can't directly contradict this argument, I can say that at the very least, Assistants have less power in the department than a fully-fledged member of staff would. They might also make some jobs less frustrating by having someone you can delegate to (e.g. a surgeon requesting meds from the fridge, or an engineer needing an airlock electronics). I'll be adding more in a bit, I'm at work at the moment but any feedback, and any questions/queries/comments/concerns are appreciated. EDIT: Since a couple questions have been asked that are totally relevant in Discord, here's the conversation: Frankly, I don't think it actually changes anything insofar as the number of players for the map size. I think it would take our existing number of players and make their lives less boring when they don't get a proper job slot. If we added two jobslots for assistants to every department (engi, sci, robotics, cargo, kitchen, botany etc) then that could really reduce both greytiding and the tedium that comes with being a civvie sometimes. As for implementation, I think it'd only be right to add specific slots to the department for assistants. That way, you still get X number of Engineers for example, but get 2 Assistants on top. I can't think of many jobs where they have a problem with too many people, but I think almost every department has issues with 'OH GOD WHERE ARE THE STAFF'

Department assist job slots would be great. Security Trainee? Department pet for the HOS or warden to take to the firing range to train! Medical assistant? I once offered to take a newbie as my surgeon trainee, he did great and fun times was had by all, except the patients under his meatgrinder surgeries but he had to learn! Engineering trainee? No more busted teslas or singulos (optimism)! Let him see how it`s done first! Service dosn`t really need any assistant slots, as they are, by nature, rookie jobs. Command underling? HOP or Cap`s little pet, fetch coffee, watch them boss around, get a grip of things.

Indeed, this is a problem that affects all jobs; there's nothing special here to make people any more or less likely to take gear and go fuck around. That said, my suggestion is to lessen their access to whatever area they are assisting. For example, an Engineering Assistant doesn't need engine room access; if they need to go in there, it should be with a qualified engineer.