Personally, I think that staff officer slots should be increased from 4 to 6.
There’s a couple main things that this does:
Now each Squad gets 1 SO (FOX and Echo can use the tent and arc for now)
SOs now have to be given things to do that’s not just “sit on this computer for 2 hours”
Hopefully with more slots, people see that SOs aren’t just sitting at a computer and will play it more often.
The main issue I see with Staff officer is simple:
Staff Officers are expected to sit at a computer all op
This is not the most effective way to use them, and it’s about the least fun way to use them.
Staff officers are extremely useful, and by stacking the role with more people than CIC can fit, I hope that only the people who enjoy overwatch can stay there, while the others can do other things that you might not have the amount of officers to do otherwise.
This includes
Manning the ARC
Being the Captain’s eyes and ears shipside (checking in on things like research during Greenos)
Being tent FOB Staff Officer
Being a frontline JTAC officer.
Along with this, Staff Officers are the most junior officer role. Knowing if they put the hours in does kinda matter. The difference between No hour and 10-25 hr SOs is massive (The former usually disconnect at CIC). We should make SOs with low playtime Officer Cadets instead of 2nd LTs to denote that they are new, and can be given a rank to fit them being a greenhorn.
Making the value of a singel SO lower by increasing their quantity would help a lot. Would reduce the cost a lot to allow them to do anything else but play phone connector.
+1
Btw, just make a PR about it. Thats just a job slot change after all.
This would be great! When I play captain I am sometimes fiending for having more officers to take care of tasks or watch over a department, because let’s be real research and engineering cannot always be trusted. Having an extra staff officer to work with the ASO to handle shipside tasks so the XO and CO can just focus more on the operation would be great.
It’s also weird how there’s basically only 4-5 SO’s if you wake up foxtrot. Like every other semi-important role is a 2nd lieutenant from the doctors to Intelligence officers.
Really cool ideas, however I’m not sure they are necessary.
In theory SLs and to a lesser extent FTLs, should be CICs eyes and ears on the ground and the good SLs fill this role pretty well. I feel like the deployed SOs would be to some degree stepping on their toes and encouraging SLs just being PFC+
We already get 6 FTLs and 3 SLs who are capable of doing frontline JTAC work plus anyone who takes an LD and a JTAC key which I think is enough. Although I do think that with FTLs being what they are now dedicated JTAC slot wouldn’t be a bad idea. Either 1 per squad or 1 as a separate officer role.
Currently you only really need 2 SOs for overwatch of alpha through delta. If you have more than 2 experienced SOs you can deploy any others with little consequence. Or have them delegated to what ever other tasks you need doing. Appeals, ARC etc.
While I like the idea of an officer cadet role, I’ve seen silver medal SOs not be very good at the role and no medal/bronze SOs be really good. So I’m not sure it would be that useful.
Also having an extra SO just for the ARC could be an issue as it requires 5 intel points and most of the time I’d rather spend those points elsewhere.
If we really want front line officers I think that it should be a separate role from SO. Similar to how Pilots got split into GP and DP.
In theory SLs and to a lesser extent FTLs, should be CICs eyes and ears on the ground and the good SLs fill this role pretty well. I feel like the deployed SOs would be to some degree stepping on their toes and encouraging SLs just being PFC+
I understand this, however SOs are almost always given backline roles like FOB Tent guy or ARC duty.
Currently you only really need 2 SOs for overwatch of alpha through delta. If you have more than 2 experienced SOs you can deploy any others with little consequence. Or have them delegated to what ever other tasks you need doing. Appeals, ARC etc.
This isn’t really properly communicated to anyone. Having a limited amount of staff officers and 4 consoles, especially the way they are doesn’t properly communicate what SO is supposed to do, leading to a trap where SOs are “supposed to be on overwatch.” When they can do many other, better things.
We already get 6 FTLs and 3 SLs who are capable of doing frontline JTAC work plus anyone who takes an LD and a JTAC key which I think is enough. Although I do think that with FTLs being what they are now dedicated JTAC slot wouldn’t be a bad idea. Either 1 per squad or 1 as a separate officer role.
JTAC is just something that SOs are often deployed for. That’s why I mentioned it.
While I like the idea of an officer cadet role, I’ve seen silver medal SOs not be very good at the role and no medal/bronze SOs be really good. So I’m not sure it would be that useful.
Another option is that we have XO /CO manually promote SOs from cadet to LT.
If we really want front line officers I think that it should be a separate role from SO.
This isn’t supposed to encourage frontline officers, just letting more SOs do more things that SO usually does instead of cooping them up in CIC at all times.
In short, SO is a very flexible role, but you don’t have enough to be flexible with them.
Staff officers are officers (it’s in the name) and are not meant to be deploying every single round. They’re meant to be important and limited. Losing one should be a massive blow. They’re expected to assist the marines at large by OW. You volunteer for the role. Maybe you don’t enjoy it but other people do. It’s been their job since day one. The advantage of good intel, orders, and coordination via SOs helps the marines at large more than a SO deploying so they can larp being a hero. (They are given special skill sets IF one deploys. A rise in SO deployments and I guarantee what makes them so “good” will be removed)
Everyone that plays CIC finds SOs who want to deploy 24/7 extremely annoying and one of the major issues with CIC. These “deploying” SOs often roll SO just to take CIC gear and then stay mute the rest of the round. There’s very few SOs that actually deploy and make decent leaders
Adding a dedicated SO frontline role (which has been denied many times already) is not a good idea. CIC gear will be nerfed or removed as it becomes more common with deploying lieutenants. This was done to SL after people kept rolling it just for the MK1 then would go mute
Shipside SO would feel much better if we had a waypoint system for marine huds.
As it stands I think that SOs should let marines do the primary frontline work. There are exceptions, and situations where someone with medic/engi/JTAC skills would be needed to assist the squad on the ground; but those should be rare scenarios where the CO gives the greenlight to do so, there’s no other option, and it’s worth the time to gear up and deploy. I don’t think a junior SO is what’s needed, just more ways for shipside SO to be helpful/feel important.
Meanwhile, all the other O1 Officer roles that arent even command roles and some of wich only deploy and never stay shipside.
Also, this isnt about a dedicated SO frontline role. This is about giving SOs breathing room by increasing their job slots. At least read rigth what your complaining about.
SO slots scale with pop already up to 5 SOs
/proc/so_slot_formula(playercount)
return job_slot_formula(playercount,40,1,2,5)
there was a round just yesterday where there were five SOs.
but CIC OW can run with two people if those people are good, and having potentially 8 people in CIC would just cause more bickering, useless arguments over who gets to OW who, who gets the short straw to OW foxtrot or whatever mostly dead squad 1 hour in, and more people being annoying about deploying because there’s no longer anything for them to do shipside.
Doctors are restricted officers, they have a shorter ocs cycle, and are unable to achieve military command. They only hold a commission cause of their specialization (such as a doctor). At least get your facts right before getting passive aggressive with someone who’s living this
That’s 2 more people who will be asking me to deploy mere minutes after joining.
No thanks. SOs are really only useful to deploy if your SLs are dead or to handle a task that marines are not organizing themselves (such as clearing and holding a relay) OR for nuke. The entire point of the role is to coordinate your squad(s) and assist them in implementing the strategy and directives of the CO, not take a Mk1 and suicide drive the ARC to the front and get capped
Increasing SOs to 6 would just result in morons trying to leave CIC and dying and it would take away control of the battlefield from SL to the 2 deploying SOs which is not wanted or cool and unbased.
On the rank thing. It’s fluff, you still see PFCs and Sergeant that dunno what they’re doing. Look at playtime medals. *shrug And on the flip side you can find PVTs and LCpls that actually know how to read.
More ranks is neat though but it really doesn’t add much.
If you have enough SOs to go check on other shipside things chances are you have some disposable bored MPs to do it instead. Or I dunno a radio.
SO should be mainly sitting on the computer. Because that’s how they know what is going on and how they can best relay information.
That’s why CIC personnel are only supposed to deploy if the remaining contingent is already competant enough.
Giving SOs more fluff to do. Or forcing deployment into more common place is just gonna make people cryo when they don’t get to be SL/Corps/Engi++ with one extra leadership skill level.
Also I still have no idea what the point of the tent is apart from an extra OW console. If comms die, you’re still using the phone.
Yeah, the ARC is kinda stupid enough as is- Foxtrot is just better because relying on CIC to actually click “update tacmap” even once in a round is like expecting a monkey to type out Shakespeare.
In many cases, the ARC simply doesn’t get used because the value is quite sub-par. Obviously it’s very powerful if used correctly, but we’re talking about marines here, so that’s not happening consistently. Ever. I feel like this would add pressure on CIC to deploy an ARC because the 5th and 6th SO are bored.
I also find SOs being groundside JTAC observers to be just role overreach. Groundside fire support and command is the jurisdiction of squad leaders and aSLs, NOT Staff Officers. Get your ass back behind that desk where it belongs, Lieutenant. If people want to roll SO to play groundside command, they should’ve just rolled SL in the first place.
Similarly, I think the example of “checking in on other departments” is also an example of role overreach- The ASO is already the officer in charge of running around shipside to RP with the CL so he doesn’t bug the aCO. Having another guy intrude on that role feels bad.
For these reasons, I am against expanding the number of SOs to 6.
I’ve had CICs with 1 SO function better than CICs with 4 SOs. Having 6 SOs so that two of them can immediately ask for armory access so they can PFC+ on the frontline isn’t a positive change.
This is the most effective way to use them. A Staff Officer is a support role meant to provide guidance, callouts, and information to the marines, not to frag out on the frontline with the ARC. If you want to lase for OBs and lead the marines with a MK1 you should roll Squad Leader and ask for a gun in req.
The ARC requires incredibly little maintenance and has a narrow use, being a mobile sensor tower - as a Staff Officer you cannot even make announcements with its console. If you want to be the eyes and ears of the XO or CO, roll an MP. If you want to overwatch Bravo from the FOB you should ask, 9/10 times you’ll probably get a yes. If you want to do JTAC you should roll SL or FTL.
Play SO and learn like everybody else, please. If you have questions about what you should be doing you need to ask them instead of expecting people to inspect your character for a lack of medal. The only reason the PVT to PFC change exists is because PVTs are quite literally brand new to the game and often need to be shown basic mechanics. If you’re rolling SO you should have the wherewithal to ask for help.
This sounds like you’re saying we need to add more SOs so that the XO/CO never have to interact with people outside of CIC, which is incredibly cringe.
I am begging and pleading on my hands and knees for people to use their words and communicate instead of asking for easy-fix buttons to their problems. A Staff Officer’s entire purpose is communication, we do not need a “waypoint system” for marines to mindlessly walk towards. We are capable of telling the marines to walk in a certain direction instead of placing a marker on their map with the words “Go Here.”
There are 4 consoles in CIC. In the original post 3/4 of the stated things SOs would do involve them deploying to the ground - two of which directly involve the frontline (JTAC & ARC). We already have SOs asking to deploy before briefing has even taken place (I take note of these people), nobody needs 2 more people rolling SO for the explicit purpose of deploying.
This is rolebloat. What is being asked for here is rolebloat. There are already too many cooks in the kitchen and we do not need anymore. If you want to lead from the frontline you should roll SL or FTL, then go to req and ask for a Mk1. If you want to be a watchdog for the XO/CO you should roll MP.
