I have stated that I believe the manual shuttle call makes no sense from a lore perspective in this anarcho-capitalist dystopia. More importantly it is bad for round health since it literally ends it.
So just remove it. No, really! Get rid of manual shuttle calls and replace it with a CentCom inspection.
Look at what happens. First, more RP because now there is an inspection coming every round to the station to decide if we really need a shuttle call or maybe an ERT. Not to mention if you know an inspection is coming you have at least some incentive to follow SoP.
Secondly, more roleplay and conflict. No longer will a potentially interesting blood cult or nukies round be interrupted by a boring shuttle. It now must play out.
Still keep the crew transfer vote at 1:30h. That is a good round length. And maybe have the shuttle call happen automatically when enough crew die. Or too much of the station is inhospitable.
This makes so much sense to me. Tell me how this is not a great idea. You can’t!
On paper this is a decent idea, but practically speaking it’s not really feasible. It requires pretty consistent admin supervision and willing ghosts to spawn in as the inspector.
This idea definitely needs refinement on the finer points. But for now here are my thoughts:
Command decides to call the shuttle. He asks for an inspection to do so. If no ghosts then return a automatic message and then either have them swipe as for red alert or have it done as it is now to call the shuttle.
If there is a ghost who can do the job then… The CentCom official should be a command level scrutiny role. It needs proper guidelines and SoP. They should have the power to call in an ERT or a shuttle. But they should be trying not to. It should be in their personal interest for the station to remain “fine”. Instant RP there.
ERT calling without admins is controversial. Maybe not give the power to the official to call in the security ERT one on their own. But surely a two man engineering squad if the station is lacking power or is blown up. Or a medical squad if there is a huge viral outbreak wont be that bad worst comes to worst.
Edit: The more I think about it more complex it gets. The current system is very simple indeed. This one would b better, but the question of implementation is a hard one. Well it pointless anyway because wyci.
I honestly dislike the idea of CC roles being involved at all without admin oversight. Not necessarily because they’d be abused, or for balancing reasons. But because in my opinion half the actual fun of those roles comes from having an admin be involved and how that can effect the round.