On the subject of RP Security Officer access

[DasBrain]

The idea of secoffs particularly having to PICK which departments they get extra access to sounds particularly interesting.

Imagine if sec had a computer that they could put their ID into and then use to pick from a few departments. It would encourage officers to all pick different ones, of course.

I'd use a machine, like the one to modify IDs in that one adventure zone (I don't know how to do spites, so reuse...)

Each officer would get their own "beat", which would encourage them to RP with the other staff in those areas and form IC rapport.
And if SHTF, well, hopefully whoever is from sec for that department can let the rest of the team in, if the AI / command / crew are busy (Or dead!)

Yes, building rapport was one of the ideas here. So it is not that one random officer who happens to come to medical when a crime happens, but the same security officer you know from a few previous interactions.

Maybe if the number of departments an officer can pick scaled inversely with the number of sec at roundstart EG a saturated team all get like 1-2 departments each, an empty team gets enough picks to almost have everything ( I have no idea how programming that would work, mind) - or maybe secoffs can just come back and re-pick which departments they want on a cooldown?

Once the machine is in play, we could add "experimental" access modes based on some conditions as well. It is not that hard to check for some condition and if it is met, show them as additional "department".
Repick is a nice idea - but the problem is: Where do we store that information?
First, I'd like to make the machine only be accessible for IDs with Security Equipment.
And while it is easy to just add access to an ID when swiped, I only really want to work it once per ID. Or remove the old access when the department is changed.
A cooldown is in my opinion not needed - yes, a security officer could go "let's check science", get science access, then return, get medical access, do their stuff there, then return for engineering access... but that requires the officer to return to the machine and change their access. I don't really like that, but I'd be fine with that. It might even be good enough for low-pop.

The alternative idea that Sec would have 'classic' access and then get it 'upgraded' to their current nigh-AA status if someone hits red alert also sounds pretty workable.

I'd use armory authorization, I feel that button is more often used by monkeys mailing themself to the bridge than by the heads of staff.

I like the idea of a system tied to alerts, but unless there is some alternative way that allows lowpop sec to enter departments this would just be crippling all sec on lowpop 4. It can already be incredibly frustrating to play against a skilled antag on 4 who will get AA within the first ten minutes and then do crimes you can barely track and sometimes aren't even aware of due to lack of personnel to inform you. With this nerf you now can do literally nothing against an antag with AA without outside assistance or resorting to hacking your own stations doors. Frankly with the improvement I've seen over time in security behavior this doesn't seem super needed to start with, tbh.

For low population, we could make a "department" giving the old access, which is only enabled if there are 2 or less security officers.

Oh an additional idea that I've just gotten from working security IRL: give sec access to more general departments with their IDs, (like the main part of medbay, but not robotics or surgery, science but not any of the actual work rooms, etc etc.) And then provide them with something like a physical master key or override (or just an ID with upgraded access I guess) that allows them to enter departments in an emergency, but theres just the one for the department. That way a lowpop secoff who really needs to still get into departments in an emergency can do so, but not every secoff can walk into any room they want at any time.

(This is inspired by the fact that security personnel at the hospital don't have card access to the pharmacy or drug storage, but the larger sets of keys issued to the Team Lead and Assistant Team Lead [Or Acting Team Lead, if neither of the former is present, which is the important thing here] still have a physical master key which can open the door im the event of an emergency.)

My problem with that is: It is probably one of those things that get stolen first.
But I have no real problem with putting one or two spare IDs into the Armory.