Fixing the MP problem.

Development Ideaguys
1

Clickbait title, I know, however…

MP gameplay has a low activity baseline with high-impact spikes.

That creates three systemic issues:

• MPs are often absent when suddenly needed
• Players are reluctant to roll MP due to boredom risk. (Barring odd CMP due to the fact they can also OW)
• CIC has no proactive tool to signal demand

Right now, MP presence is governed almost entirely by chance, not need.

This can impact multiple departments as well as survivors QoL. It can impact the roleplay quality if MPs are needed but are not present. In extreme circumstances, it can cause the round to be derailed due to, for example, a xenomorph shipside wiping the crew. (unless they abandon their duties to hunt it down, which causes issues for marines also)

Solution Track A - (CIC activated) MP Demand Indicator

What it is

A CIC-side indicator that signals when MP presence would be useful to freshly joining players.

This would be activated by the CIC console, or the “red alert” swiping console in CIC (gives it an actual usage)

Implementing this could be something as simple as changing the background colour of the roles in question.

A quick mock-up is included below.

msedge_vC1h4L1kAR
msedge_vC1h4L1kAR434×322 39.7 KB

Solution Track B: (CIC Activated) “Wake up MPs from Cryogenics”

What it is

A one-time emergency MP cryogenic thawing (“beacon style”) triggered by CIC.

How it works

CIC console option:

[ Activate MP emergency thaw procedure. Warning: For use only when Military Police are urgently required ]

Effects:

• Sends a deadchat ERT prompt. (No MP minimum hours required to encourage players?)
• Limits volunteers (1–2 MPs)
• Spawns them normally at Military Police cryogenics
• Standard MP gear. Cannot honour-guard to prevent players being used as mini-foxtrot.

Deadchat sees something akin to:

“CIC has activated an MP emergency thawing protocol, Military Police are being thawing from cryogenics.”
Would you like to spawn as a Military Police officer? MPs must follow marine law and SoP. These can be found…."

This could come with the limitation that it also needs to be approved by staff online, similar to the CL beacon, if a concern of misuse is held (although I trust the community as a whole with this)

10 Likes
2

Just add clings, vampires, and traitors for them to chase around. DUH. Problem solved.

6 Likes
3

ARES there are 1.000.000 marines revolting. Activate barn door protocol.

IMG_5475
IMG_5475220×116 12.6 KB

4 Likes
4

In terms of the highlighting: I love the idea but I would suggest that it’s highlighted green and not red for a couple reasons.

  1. This system is already in place in some other SS13 servers - but it’s green. So it’ll be more familiar to the SS13 community at large if it stays green.
  2. Red suggests ‘disabled’ or ‘do not pick’ in some contexts (think of the ‘do not disturb’ icon, stop signs, red traffic lights, etc.) so it might be confusing.

Also I think there’s no reason not to expand it to more roles at the same time like cargo tech, XO, doctor, corpsman, combat tech, etc.

Also also, the fact that it already exists in /tg/ might mean it could be ported over semi-easily.

8 Likes
5

Wouldn’t this just deepen the bottleneck of MP presence? If one of the issues is MPs not being immediately on the scene as they’re elsewhere shipside. Then turning the MP department into an ERT would only slow the response.

6

we should keep minimum MP hours as they will be expected to know and enforce marine law just like normal MPs, but i like this idea

3 Likes
7

Sends a deadchat ERT prompt. (No MP minimum hours required to encourage players?)

I think the no MP hour requirement isn’t great. People with no MP hours likely will not know marine law, so they’ll be confused about what they’re needed for, escalation, proper arrest, etc. I think an hour requirement of 5-10 would make this better, showing that the person has some amount of marine law knowledge.

Other than this, fantastic idea. I often find myself not having MP’s at the most inconvenient times when playing XO.

5 Likes
8

+1 with the additions from @mike and @kooarbiter

1 Like
9

I could see people hopping on and causing more chaos then the original problem.

4 Likes
10

Really good idea. I like playing lowpop XO, but I dislike dealing with ML. Being able to call someone who understands and enjoys ML would be really useful.

3 Likes
11

They arnt suggesting to make MP ERT only, just adding an ERT mp button ontop of normal MP stuff.

2 Likes