Let's talk about the Detective

[Lefinch]

I will admit here that I know the PR has a lot of issues and is essentially the nuclear option, I did it mostly to spark further discussion and because I was bored and wanted to code something.

I can respect this and before anything else accept it's a very valid discussion, it certainly spurred some on the discord while I shook the cages like a stirstir about posting it on the forums. Also, I don't play detective, it's my last role I've really just not played, so I'm not dying on the hill of my opinion here and please take everything I say with this in mind. It's good to discuss things if they don't seem to be working out right.

As for the PR itself: It's absolutely the nuclear option. When I first saw it, my initial impression is "I see the item gathering dust on the RP server alongside the RP4 phasers and that feels like a shadow-removal of it more than an adjustment of it to dissuade negative behaviour with it" also a slight side of "Well what are people supposed to knock out of the detective's hands now?" but hey they've still got the cool forensic scanner.

To explain my initial thoughts, I make the entirely personal observation (that's again, restricted to just RP) that the RP-4 phasers are essentially a kind of weapon clutter: By the time the armory is being opened, its likely not for the lethal-only tool that has limited application. It's not the shiniest sunday best in there, and lacking blob-type enemies who might need a bit of burn-based energy whacking, they just sort of get to sit around for salvagers to maybe pinch out of confusion and the very occasional nukie round where someone remembers to hand a few out. I would expect that much the same for the revolver fairly or unfairly. It's a pretty minor thing, but this also would seem to make the trick revolver a tiny bit more conspicuous. I'm not sure if that's good or bad though.

Then I had a nap, and I guess my concern more here is that it feels like this is something worth trying last if we couldn't find a better alternative. It just feels a little wrong to lock away a department tool whose stated current problem is only half of the functionality of the tool. There has to be something we try first. This feeling is mixed with: It actually feels like this is a discussion about the detective's place on the station itself both practically and philosophically, and the conflicting interpretations of that. There, I think it would be a lot easier to accept the revolver going away if it was also coming alongside a general detective re-work (with some shiny new tools or refactoring to whatever direction people think they should go) than taking away parts of their current toolkit. it's clear at least that there's some debate about what detectives -are- at their core here. 

While I agree that it wouldn't do any harm to make the armory more of a consideration, I don't think the way you do that is by changing one of the detective's toolkit. I'm not sure that's the lynchpin of armory operations or temptation. I do think that's a good discussion in its own right though. The armory for me is both narratively interesting in an RP round (it generally indicates an escalation in potential drama) and a non-verbal indication of escalation (security telling me, Evil Guye, they're now on high alert so respond in kind) and there are times that takes longer than I'd expect to happen given how I've behaved.