Looking on feedback and ideas for the Captain role
Our current shifts feel like they are lacking static command players and the variety of players that fill this role, bring a lot of different features, which makes it a bit unclear for new players.
I also play Captain from time to time and I want to hear your opinions on my understanding of Captaincy and if you like what I do. I’ll list out a couple of goals, ways of behavior, that I as a Captain try to accomplish and would like to hear your opinions if you agree.
Here is the list:
Must be strict and professional, a captain should not turn off their brain and join in the greytide in distributing AA or other silly shenanigans that our assistants like to bring.
Perma, Executions sentences, I believe the current dynamic game mode forces a Captain to carry out these sentences, else the shift is going to be ended by 1 hour point, due to over abundance of antagonists that is being constantly spawned.
If you’ve bombed a huge portion of the station or attempted to execute someone after already being imprisoned = Death.
Enforce order, If someone starts trash talking command on comms or starts mentioning that other factions are better. They must be punished. (It is sometimes difficult convincing 2 security officers, to start arresting crew for this one, so it would be nice to have a space law for this).
Announcing what is going on, I believe every captain has to update the crew of what is going on and what is expected of the crew.
If you raise a security level, explain why.
If you wish to order some new rules, inform the crew.
Allocating resources to support defense, I believe some departaments can easily be converted into combatants in a matter of notice and these departaments should be ready to do so, when given the order.
5.1 Exploration is the station emergency security or as I like to call them our counter attack forces. They are already going out to bomb abandoned stations and assassinating abandoned syndicate agents, so this shouldn’t be something new to them. I like to allocate them tasks such as, finding the pirate or nukie ship and sabotaging it. (Would be nice to have a feature that allows the station safety pins to be turned off remotely)
5.2 Cargonia, this is coming more out of my heart than IC captain logic, but considering that some shifts fill the cargo with a big portion of players and given a Qm that communicates well with command, mobilizing cargo becomes a good option.
Constant communication within the Command, always discuss with the entire chain of command on anything that might affect the station. I’m trying to make everyone in the command feel like they have a voice and it matters, though not sure if that is always achieved.
Manage department heads, considering we are lacking heads almost every shift, I don’t have to do this. But given enough complaints from the department members, I’m up for demoting a head and replacing them with a new one.
I’m pretty sure I may have forgotten something, but this is an open discussion so share your ideas! Thank you!
Often captain has been taken by people who do not understand all roles on the station, which (correct me if I’m wrong) but don’t the rules say that captains should be able to do any role that cannot be delegated.
There have been a few times in my experience where someone has taken captain when they can’t do something as simple as surgery or set up the supermatter.
Ultimately I think making captain as a role need to know every single role kind of sets them up for failure.
If you expect the captain to know every single role then you are limiting who can play Captain to a very small pool of very high hour players, players that usually use that experience to do goofy things like create funny shuttles or breakfast machines or some shit.
I want captains that actually order the crew around once shit hits the fan. More often than not the captain just focuses on surviving or becomes sec+, when really they should be giving out orders and advice on how to properly combat things. What, the blob changed color? Yell at people to get extinguishers. What, the nukies have a chainsaw? Yell at people to use shields. The pirates are using guerilla tactics? Yell at borgs to find the ship. Etc etc.
Morale is also real. One captain speech is the difference between everyone running around like flies and a crew victory.
I sometimes I play HoP and there is a likely chance of there not being a captain I find the role of acting captain a nightmare as its just “Come to brig” or “me having to alert the crew of a known antag roaming around”. Though giving mercy to certain antags are great for roleplay like shoving a changeling into the xenobio holding cell.
I happen to have a screenshot to show what I mean of missed roleplay
Personally, I think the role of captain is to ensure the round is fun, rather then being extremely professional. A good captain will hold back security if overall antags are struggling, and work to support security if they are overwhelmed.
This made me thing some jobs should have higher hour requirements, we have a PR up for midround antags but heads of staff should have higher ours with Captain having the most
Having Captains to know how to set up SM is… a bonus IMO or Surgery if it doesn’t happen there’s always alternatives, i just think a good Captain is what Joanna mentioned, not neccessarily inside of bridge all the time but checking every department too.
I’ve been acting captain and real captain a few times but don’t actually have it unlocked compared to when I was admin.
I think the big adventure for captaining, is it can be hit and miss for delegating. Sometimes its a quiet round and you cant delegate for shit because departments are huffing welding fuel and galaxy gas nitryl.
Sometimes its a busy as fuck round and dynamic decided it hates the station - and you delegate easily.
In either scenario, I’ve found its tough to get a bit of time to really RP outside of a few brief scenes. I’ve also noticed having to not fall into the trap of schizophrenic levels of paranoia about people spam pointing to stop you in the hallway - ala the griefer I had the other day lmao.
There’s no right answer. Every round is different. You can also ask yourself what makes a better story, crew getting murked easily or putting up a heroic last stand together (and still losing).
Sadly, with how many antags are new (generally long time players turn most antags off) and how skilled security is, it generally is never near a heroic last stand.
Here recently I’d say I find anything except for like CE to be incredibly unfun to be command wise. Sure I CAN play the other command roles, but they seem to require this seriously stringent definition of roleplay, and that’s fine if the server wants to take that approach, just not going to be a personal choice of mine to volunteer for those positions as a result.
TL;DR feels more like a chore rather than a fun RP opportunity.
I personally like it when it feels like the Captain is somehow in the middle of everything. That’s not the same as doing everything but just being in the know of the general events around their own station and being involved as an authority figure.
I also like it when the captain sets up fun events for the crew, having discussed it with the other heads before doing so.
