Hello fine people!
After having received positive feedback by @llol111 I have decided to try to spark some fruitful(and pleasant, I hope!) discussion about our command and heads of staff conduct.
This topic is born from this player report : For a Better Command
I will try to be concise, but knowing myself I will probably be verbose. So buckle up and get ready to read!
We all know that as heads we shouldn’t take the job just to use our gamer’s gear, to wear the cool capes and to powertrip at the expense of our dear personnel. And in the very vast majority of cases, I would say that this holds true.
What we lack though, is what follows from there on.
You see, not being a powergamer and being proficient at your job isn’t, can’t and shouldn’t be all that you’re aiming for. At least not if you’re aiming to be a valued addition to any command rooster.
What you should be aiming for is to be the best manager/mentor to all the crewmembers under you and near you. Being a shining beacon, an admired example. The professional equivalent of a parental figure, in a business environment.
In order to achieve so, you need to change your mindset.
COMMAND, THE GOLDEN ETHOS
Your job as command is not to insure your department is on the winning side against antag/problems. Your job is to let your people try their hands at it, while you’re coordinating them.
Don’t expect to win. Especially by your own involvement. Avoid being on the emergency’s scene for as long as possible and at all, if possible.
Expect to lose, directing your people, staying behind/on comms, in the most careful way possible.
COMMAND, THE GOLDEN ETHOS, NOTES
But how this ethos should translate in practical gameplay, especially during chaotic shifts?
Following not SOP, but what I like to call the GOLDEN SOP.
What follow is exactly the best way to act, at least in my opinion, on how to conduct yourself and communicate as command.
COMMAND, GOLDEN SOP
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Get informed of a situation. Immediately check for any angle to involve as many heads/department as possible. Do NOT relay too much on the AI. Assign a clear objective and clear names on WHO needs to do WHAT. Try to make everyone feel part of this evermoving entity we call the station!
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Be attentive on the comms, always adapting your instruction to the new conditions possibly reported by the personnel on the field handling it. Remember to continue to try to involve as many heads/department as possible.
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If the issue was solved, compliment the personnel who handled it and move on. If it wasn’t possible, do call a command meeting in person! Ask the chef and the barkeep to be present in order to supply such a refined party of high-ranking officer with the meals and the beverage they deserve! All together, decide if to raise the alert, rerouting the now lost department operation to another or just call the shuttle. Do announce after the meeting to the crew what was decided, using the pertinent announcement consoles.
COMMAND, GOLDEN SOP NOTES, AI
The reason why I wrote above to not relay too much on the AI is simple. Our dear AI players, being the most skilled, knowledgeable and efficient player we have on the server(otherwise they wouldn’t be playing AI, would they?) have become accostumed to be our babysitters. They are no longer the everseeing eyes that an AI should be, always on the piece, yes, but principally REACTIVE. And they have started to be increasingly PROACTIVE, no more simply aiding us waiting for our queries and offering us support, but actively leading us in the solution to everything.
Arriving to the point of even getting a shell and just do it themselves, if forced to… without even being asked to! That’s the reason why we have our AIs raising our alerts, instructing our officers where to go and even how to act, in some cases.
So please, by all means, do not ostracize them from being the vital piece they are on the station. But let them truly do their job, by asking and involving them, without relying on them for any physical or managerial final solutions, unless there is literally no crewmember/head still standing and able to do the job.
Bonus points if you get the AI holographically present for the command’s meeting!
In short, the AI should be REACTIVELY informing us of any issue/emergency, offering us a plethora of solutions. And only PROACTIVELY acting after hearing our instructions/if requested.
BUT I’M ALONE, I CAN’T DO IT
You know what I find funny in our SS13 community?
The false belief that ours is a community of degenerates, incapable of bettering itself. Just let me point to you the most clear-cut example of why the opposite is true. Back on golden I wasn’t even sure I would have been able to reach my office, as command, without being mugged by greytiders or killed by a plasma flood.
Now it’s the opposite!
I have still to live a single shift where I didn’t live up until the very end of the shift. Even if I was murdered during it. You can’t even imagine the difference this does make, knowing I will be fully able to play for the entirety of the shift, instead than being on the look out for my inevitable demise, probably in the first hallway just past arrivals!
There is still some validity in pointing out that a lone head won’t be able to be neither very conducive to RP nor effective in directing, without a cooperating crew.
And that’s why I devised a crewmember golden sop too.
CREWMEMBERS, GOLDEN SOP
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Acknowledge your superiors communication. Especially the captain. If you have a head but the captain is directly involving himself, this means the situation needs all your focus and expertise.
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Before starting to work on whatever has been assigned, if you have the chance to involve other crewmembers, do it. Clearly states when you and your colleagues are starting to act on the instructions received.
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Keep up to date your head at each milestone accomplished. “I arrived to cargo”. “The situation is worse than expected, the hull was breached and our environment is already inhabitable”. “I’m working on these doors and the air alarms”. “We just discovered the apc is broken too. We are working on replacing it right now/we’re returning to engineering to grab the pieces to fix it”. And so on.
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Inform on comms once the task is completed. Be ready to offer further explanation on the work you’ve done. Wait for further instruction if needed.
TLDR COMMAND : Quit acting as gamers as head. Park your back in your office and direct your deparment. Coordinate your workers on comms, preferably, or in person, if you must, and involve yourself directly only if your workers aren’t actively trying to solve the issue at hand. Be a head to direct and lead your department, letting them to shine and do not hug the spotlight.
TLDR CREW : Be very, very comunicative on comms. Keep your superiors up to date at each step. Always ask preemptively for backup, if available. Even if you don’t need another pair of hands to do the job, the time spent working on it will be far sweeter with some company!