Turning them into civies creates no “roleplay” because I’ve rarely seen Medical and Research do much of that anyway outside of their own departments. Medical can be too busy, or just plain bored, and Research just sits on their asses all game doing, yknow, research, while begging for xeno bodies to be brought up, and when someone outside of their department enters research they will point and gawk at that person like they’re an alien lifeform themselves.
You haven’t seen personally a lot of “civilian” RP from your side therefore it’s a bad idea? I can assure you from my experience that despite these things sometimes being uncommon, it doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Nevertheless, it’s not a proper argument as not to make a change.
The issue isn’t military ranks, it’s the players, and in part, the mechanical state of medical and research - both of which are atrocious. But no, civilian research is just a powertrip for research players because they wanna hide behind the CL and PMCs again (like they always did in the past) when the CO and the entire MP department bust down their doors with the intent to BE or Permabrig them for disobeying direct orders not to create a green hive.
The fact that researchers are military or civilian changes nothing. If they want to be sheltered by an outside authority, CL/PMCs by their existence alone will always be the best pick. It’s still not an argument as to why researchers should remain military officers.
Still, I find this to be fine, conflict after all creates RP.
The Researchers being civilians is purely reasonable, and makes MUCH more sense them being part of the military… And yes, the military ranks ARE a mechanical way of blocking the researchers from what they can or can’t do. Obviously, the ranks simply do not block at any moment the obvious tendency for Researchers to actually ally with W-Y, as shown by SubjectD9341 multiple times.
Making them civilians WILL give more RP opportunities as that they would mean they are contractors of Weyland Yutani, and they would be able to be supervisioned by the Corporate Liaison and Company again, instead of just throwing them to the side.
And if your ONLY worry about ALL of the idea is the greenos, maybe would be reasonable to find a way to make the possibility of their production smaller, such as a specific round time, and even with that I STILL believe the Researchers should have the freedom to produce them, but not allow their exit of containment UNLESS Command explicitly authorizes, maybe that would sort the problem.
Dumping whole ideas for focused details have always been a famous thing to do around here, eh?
I do believe civilians will have to listen to commanders orders, and that would include WY research. But don’t forget being outside of Marine Company means you are subject to Kill on Sight orders if you decide to fuck around with xenos/greenos.
Edit: The idea of not being the same faction as USCM you can theoretically wiggle out a kill order on rogue researchers, something that wouldnt be possible if they are USCM.
I want to point out that the Alien universe is a universe of mega corporations (or a universe of THE mega corporation). So theoretically you don’t fuck with WY representatives because WY arguably has more influence than whoever in charge of UA.
If Weyland researchers have the auth to make greenos without command’s approval, I’d put my money on Weyland PMCs having the auth to show up and take them.
I really do believe that Researchers should be treated in their freedom in the same way that the Corporate Liaison is. The Corporate Liaison’s Office is inside the Almayer, but its not really part of the Ship, it tends to be much more like an ambassy, a place given by the United States Colonial Marines for the Representative to have privacy, freedom and where he have full, secure property. When the CL steps out of their place, they are now under the directions of the Commander of the Vessel, in the same way as crossing a frontier between countries. Research should be like that, have the freedom to pursuit ANYTHING inside their place, and no freedom at all to let any of it leave, unless authorized by the Commander.
I do believe you are missing the context on the faction point, the USCM is supposed to be dependent on W-Ys assets, you could theoretically BE an entire Corpo Research Team, and you would theoretically loose your rank and get expelled from the USCM because of it.
It is not like this.
The CL basically has his own department, but that department is still under the control of the CO and ML, the MPs can search it and have a 70% chance of arresting you if they find the weed.
Additionally the idea that a research sector of a fucking spaceship (even in a world where you have space truckers) would be private property (even when we have Weyland, they could easily have sent these guys to the Royce instead) or something that isn’t Shoot on Sight level doesn’t make sense to me.
There isn’t much of discussion here, wy researchers make live xenos on a ship owned by USCM against wishes of commander or not even informing them (wy is guest on the ship they dont own a single part, and contrary to popular belief ARMAT is supplying marines with weapons and armat is a rival company to WY not owned by them or something), commander can order entire research team purged with xenomorphs cause researchers arent part of uscm.
And for people claiming how COs are big bad destroying fun of researchers, seriously dont give a fuck, if researchers make greenos that can and will go rogue they destroy other peoples fun, moral myopia at it’s best.
It’s not only about weapons, a major example of WY control is ARES, the Synthetics. Hell, they even made the hypersleep chamber you wake up in. Not everything is about weapons and the Company certainly has more power than you can imagine. Even having a CL aboard is a sign of their power.
Arguing about how much or little power WY has is a fruitless endeavour since its a combination of soft power and situational circumstances, both of which are hard to measure in a given moment, and are more based on how much or little power a author/whatever wants in a particular moment.
Not actually, saying that it is a “department” doesn’t make an inch of sense, as the Corporate Liaison himself does not produce anything to the USS Almayer or to anyone at all. Time to say the offices of every person onboard are departments too? The CL Office is simply not in CO, ML or anyone else control (different from saying that the Corporate Liaison is, as he is a human entitety and IS under Military Law control while onboard the vessel), in the same way an ambassy is. If you declare war on a country that have an ambassy on your territory, you WILL want to break in with the troops and find ANYTHING that would help to understand the enemy and their plans, and in the same way it should work with the CL. Invading their place can happen, but it would mean actual damage to the relations between the USCM and W-Y, its not something you should do like buying bread in your local baker.
The Allien universe is literally composed of a capitalist monopoly, the W-Y is literally the personification of ultra-consumism and capitalism, and they have the money to bribe, manipulate or else to anyone they want, being only limited by damaging their reputation with the consumers. You really think they would want to loose time and money needing to build new Ships and hire more personnel to crew and protect those research laboratories, when they can just manipulate the own UA Government to make them able to install those laboratories in Military PATROL Ships, and use the FREE protection that the Marines can offer, including the obvious benefits of the problem being in another’s laps?
The W-Y adding Research Laboratories to Ships from a Government they can manipulate with ease is something very bold, and something you can actually expect a Corporation like Weyland-Yutani to do.
Embassies are mostly civilian, while having very little usefull intel (unless its a spy agency hub) on the country you are going to invade. And if you just go in guns blazing, then you are essentially firering upon innocent civilians, which are protected by the geneva (and now your embassy will suffer the same fate, along side your public reputation falling to the floor).
If you are gonna deal with an embassy, then you just “arrest” the people inside if they aren’t armed, or go through as if it was a hostage situation if they are.
Oh, no doubt. That one was spicy. This one actually has good back and forth with a good level of respect on both sides. Makes for a good read. CO thread was pure popcorn. This is a rousing debate.
