Alternative to Assistants: Tourist drone

[Midaychi]

 

Amid talks of changing assistant to various civilian jobs, and theories on what the result could be, let's talk as if they were removed altogether. What would they be replaced with?

 

How about a new spin on an old idea?

 

Nanotrasen has been getting a lot of flak from its numerous mutiny attempts as of late, hitting the galactic news like firestorm. Share prices aren't going up as fast as NT execs would like, so their PR department has come up with an idea!

 

In one fell swoop, strongly reduce their workplace accident rate by stopping the hiring of assistants, and bring back the inviting of tourists!

 

After the old PR messenger's brutally beaten corpse was disposed of, another appeared and mentioned timidly, "But not actually let any onboard. Instead, use our new VR technology and have them remotely control drones through bluespace!"

 

So there it is. Instead of spawning as assistant, you'd spawn as a little tourist drone. Wear hats, look up people's skirts, pinch their ankles, take pictures of the detective hiding in a closet, chill with botany, and socialize with 'off-duty' employees.

 

Your module would be very limited and mostly useless for accomplishing anything, but you would have a pneumatic grabber that could pick up minor things like drinks, cigarettes, blunts, photographs and pieces of paper.

 

You'd have pens and paper and a PDA, the ability to hide out of the way of industrious working nanotrasen employees, the ability to drink and virtually experience the sensations of really being there.

 

Your access would be very limited and while it can be upgraded manually by someone on the station, you're likely stuck skittering around tables.

 

So basically a socializing roleplay version of a maintenance drone that doesn't really have useful modules and would find it difficult to interfere in rounds.

 

Nanotrasen takes no responsibility for misuse of the tourist drone system, and would like to remind you that the contract you signed does not permit you to reveal nanotrasen secrets or other confidential info. They would also like to remind you that there is a heavily armed security guard waiting outside of your VR pod looking for misconduct, in the unlikely event that a syndicate agent compromises your remote drone.

 

Nanotrasen lets select news stories leak out from observations about the station that look at them favourably, covers up the unfavourable ones, and potentially hires people that learn the job well enough through observation.

 

[Midaychi]

 

In addition, it'd be good to note that these tourists controlling the drones aren't NT employees, and wouldn't know what say, a nuke ops was or such. Not sure how you'd go about forcing people in this role to roleplay that, but whatever.

 

Instead of laws they'd have guidelines based on their terms of agreement, and breaking those guidelines can lead to the crew shutting them down, or even worse, legal action and removal of your VR privileges.

 

Most likely people to sign up for this program are: students, prospective employees, voyeurs, syndicate agents, and journalists.

 

[Fj45]

Seems like it would end up as another assistant really. (Maybe with less riots and greytide though)

[Midaychi]

 

Seems like it would end up as another assistant really. (Maybe with less riots and greytide though)

That's the point! Combine the best parts of maintenance drones and assistants while still keeping them assistant-like. Some sort of "job" that people who latejoin into jam-packed rounds can go to be around the station and add to the ambiance or chaos or whatever's going on.

 

[Eldrin-Kanthos]

I would never play this. I do not want to be a drone with no drone function/access or an assistant with barely any capabilities.

[sirwinsalot]

i feel a spectator would be better than drone honestly, why not a ghost with the ability to "haunt" for new players and they have to haunt certain area's and freak out semi-new players without causing destruction? like the god for cultists can do but with less destructiveness. or a "tourist" class

[Fj45]

 

Seems like it would end up as another assistant really. (Maybe with less riots and greytide though)

That's the point! Combine the best parts of maintenance drones and assistants while still keeping them assistant-like. Some sort of "job" that people who latejoin into jam-packed rounds can go to be around the station and add to the ambiance or chaos or whatever's going on.

 

But its just replacing one useless thing with another useless thing! I mean, why not just observe anyway?

 

[Midaychi]

 

Seems like it would end up as another assistant really. (Maybe with less riots and greytide though)

That's the point! Combine the best parts of maintenance drones and assistants while still keeping them assistant-like. Some sort of "job" that people who latejoin into jam-packed rounds can go to be around the station and add to the ambiance or chaos or whatever's going on.

 

But its just replacing one useless thing with another useless thing! I mean, why not just observe anyway?

 

Well I dunno, why do people go Pai?

 

And on that note, what if instead of replacing the civilian job, this was an upgrade you could do by using a pai on a spiderbot? It'd turn it into what I described above as the tourist drone, but it'd be the pai drone instead?

 

Suddenly it's overpowered instead of useless? :V