Another rant from me again.
So I will start of by saying that marines are not a bad addition along with boarding. However I think kmc already stated that it is not a focus of the game which I agree with.
Now we have a small problem with oversupply of marines and unfulfilled demand for critical jobs like engineers bridge staff and munitions technicians.
So I joined server yesterday with round 3 minutes in and there is 5-6 marines and no bridge staff and no engineers and pair of MTs.
So I join in as bridge staff and proceed to CIC where capitan is trying to sort stuff out. More times go by and few more marines join in and still no engineers. So of course ship didn’t even move from the spot and we might be 20 minutes in or something. So there I am on bridge as power goes out guns aren’t loaded, engine isn’t started, FTL unspooled and what do I hear on comms ? 10 marines yelling to combat jump that they are bored waiting in dropship for 10 minutes.
Then there are marines who think they became a master chief demanding access and stuff individually every marine for him self.
Marines should act in groups and stay in groups .
When I play MT every 30 seconds there is marines trying to get to hangar usually by means of destroying the window so I go open door for them just for next marine to come 10 after doing same shit or the same marine trying to get out.
Marines think they should just get hangar access ( and armory probably) I think they should just move as group so MT can just open doors for them once for whole group not every guy when its convenient for him. ( Also the space suits MTs have magically disappear with marine sightings nearby).
Some suggestions:
Rename marines to recruit or meatshield which reflects their mental capabilities more accurately and prevents newbies from thinking they became certified Rambo.
Give marines an away missions like being an ERT for some friendly ship or station overrun with cult or blob.
Limit marines by number or until crucial jobs get filled I write this even if I dont really think it is a solution or that it will be ever a thing.
Or what I think is , in my humble opinion, good idea is to give Bidge a console that can give marine squads temporary assignments, objectives stuff they need to be done and access required.
For example combat is some time away so we wont be boarding but we are low on engineers or MT. So capitan or bridge staff goes to console and gives squad A a job to start reactor and gives them engineers access ( that will be removed after the job is done). Or squad B goes to prepack shells that later sole MT can load during combat when marines are away.
This would give marines something to do other then tiding while they wait for boarding and it would help new players learn other jobs.
I know XO can do this to some degree but I think he has to give access one by one breaking squad cohesion. Also you dont always have XO and by placing it to cic ( and managing whole squads
not individuals)you can give gunner bridge staff something to do while out of combat like managing, coordinating and monitoring on cameras, of the marines squads making sure they have stuff to do and things that need to be done are done while making sure they dont abuse the extra access.
While I dont want to be kill joy for marines I dont want them to be dead weight ship carries around until we release them to do their hunting.
Edit: About that console to give objectives and access to squads would work remotely so the whole squad doesn’t need to crowd cic and can move from one job to next while their objective and access gets changed unlike XO that has to put their card in his console to change it.
Edit2: I just saw Ansome addressed some of my points in #talkpoints on discord.
Also marines could be split in 2 job like marine with gun and access and recruit which would act as marines sidekick that could recive a handgun from him if the marine sees it fit.
With this actual marine would feel like marine with gear but limited slots and recruits would be defacto assistant that could pair up with marine in hopes of glory and gun.
Edit: I just realized this is what marines are to security in theory.
Yeah. Marines happened.
But I don’t think it’s all bad.
It’s great to see some player numbers on the server for a change. And consistently too, even during hours that used to be deadpop prior to the marines update.
I’ll take ANYTHING that isn’t the same four guys on Eclipse the 999th time.
Also I feel most of the problems simply stem from the fact that there’s an influx of new players - I have the hunch many of them are from TGMC / CM - servers that aren’t necessarily known for their high standards of RP. They may just not all be fully aware of what’s expected of them in an “MRP” environment. Chain of command and SOP being things that you’re supposed to actually respect and follow may be new to them. Marines not being just badass street thugs but disciplined and organised badasses who follow orders.
It MIGHT be a problem that just goes away over time as these players grow accustomed to the server’s “culture” and adapt to it. Some of them may branch out and try other roles. Some may even become competent bridge staff (hah!)
Then again, in my experience, not even all of the veterans are great at respecting the chain of command or paying attention to ranks.
I’m not honestly sure what’s the right approach to “fixing” that or if it even needs fixing. Not all people are super into MilRP or pretend-hierarchies. And even I wouldn’t like admins going all Judge Dredd and banning people for not saluting at the right time or whatever. But I realise there are limits to just how much can be enforced through IC means.
We’ve got to remember though there’s two sides to discipline - there’s following orders, but the higher ranked officers also got to assert their authority regularly to be taken seriously. Enforcing discipline can’t be just the sole responsibility of MP’s. MP’s are kind of supposed to be the last line of defence that’s called when order completely breaks apart (or someone’s being really difficult) Too often I see officers asking people nicely to do things when they could just ORDER.
Let’s not also forget orders can also be used as punishments - taking a leaf from the book of IRL militaries - not every minor infraction needs to go through the MP’s, the space law and a brig sentence - you can just tell people to mop floors, run circles around the department or assist the cook preparing the potatoes if you don’t like them and they’re lower ranked. And if this is done often and consistently enough I believe it can condition people into actually being aware that yeah ranks, orders and following orders is a thing. And this awareness can save lives!
I like the idea of the marines command console. Not only it would give something more for the TAC officer to do - or even be a new bridge staff role in itself - it would also create a proper “seat of authority” for the marines to listen (or not listen I guess) instead of MP’s moonlighting in a role that probably doesn’t belong to them. MP’s should be the muscle that’s called to enforce discipline when needed but the actual orders should come from somewhere else - I don’t feel it’s quite right that security is coordinating marine ops outside the ship - sure let them tag along if they wish, gives sec players more things to do, but there probably should be someone in Command who’s in charge of these ops and coordinates things properly between CIC and the marines.
Just a quick reply for now since it’s 4AM, but XO does still have the Squad (“marine”) console in their office, and the HoS for now is the one designated in charge of Marines.
As for other points, we do have quite an issue right now with some rather vocal few setting a bad example for the rest, and with heads who leave things on autopilot unless they believe they need to fully demote somebody. I’ve been occasionally trying to suggest to heads things such as symbolic punishments and non-judicial punishments, but have yet to see it particularly catch on.
One important point is that crews should probably start shunning people who actively cuss out officers, or officers who actively just slew insults, and consider for reward people who do stuff like saluting.
When I say this I don’t actively mean milRP but rather have the minimum, and reward those who go above. An example of this would be during the marine test I went MAA, needed many crates hauled, so I went into the briefing room, found a random marine who Saluted and readily went to move the crates and some funds to cargo, so I gave them some hundred credit chits and a pat on the back.
To be honest I’m now gonna go talk to KMC about a medal box for Munitions and make a github suggestion for it.