Goonhub
03-10-2013, 10:45 PM
I've come up with a concept for a new station. It may very well be terrible, but I figured I'd see what people thought of it.
Essentially, what I'm thinking is taking the concept of Outpost Zeta and going way, way overboard with it. Every department has it's own station, connected via a central hub station which has shuttles for every department and also contains Arrivals, Escape and the Head of Personnel's office. Each station has a small public area which everyone has access to, a power room for either furnaces or solars that is accessible by Engineering, and a small Security Office. There would be an Engineering station(with a cross z-level shuttle to Mining), a Research Station, a Medical Station, a Command Station, a Cargo Station, an AI station(containing both the Core and Upload) and a Public Station(For Hydroponics, Bar, Kitchen, Chapel and Assistant stuff, along with Storage areas like EVA and Warehouse). Security would not get its own station, but would have small offices with single cells on every station. Everyone would have access to a small part of each station, and Engineering would have access to power rooms on every station. There would be no shuttles between department stations. To get to another station via shuttle, you would have to pass through the Hub station. Each station would also have its own Pod Hangar, and with the amount of Pod travel that would likely occur with this set up mechanics might even become a job in their own right. They'd fall under Engineering, I suppose, although if Pods were fleshed out more(which they would have to be if anyone even considered this idea) then maybe having a Garage station would be interesting.
This whole concept comes basically from me thinking that there are a number of things which are underutilized because it's easy to just walk to wherever you need to go. The QM cargo router thing doesn't get a whole lot of use because QMs hardly ever actually buy anything for the crew and when they do it's way easier for the crew to just walk there and pick it up. Pods are really fucking cool but it's still easier just to grab a jetpack and use that instead of getting a pod, so part of the concept of this comes from trying to think of a way to make it so that people needed to travel through space enough that not everyone who needed to go through space could have their own suit and jetpack. Power is never a real concern because there's a single central Engine, so as long as it's working everything's fine.
It wouldn't be a station, exactly. More of a network of stations that all kind of rely on the Hub and Engineering stations to keep working. It'd give Engineers a bigger job, since they'd be going around to all the different stations to set up and monitor their engines. Security would have it rough, but that's a positive thing, to me. Pretty much every officer would have his own station to police, and backup would not come fast, if at all. Security, as it is, is kind of a huge obstacle for antagonists, seeing as it consists of several people who are each armed with a weapon capable of ending the antag's run in a single hit and will swarm when threatened. Having Sec be an isolated role who has power but no backup might make it a little less likely to attract dickheads, too, but I wouldn't count on it. Having no Head of Security might be a good idea in this concept, as well. HoS and Detective could kind of be rolled together, as with the station as spread out as it would be both of their jobs would essentially boil down to being Security Officers with no set station to police.
Less station, more space is what I'm thinking, I guess.
Essentially, what I'm thinking is taking the concept of Outpost Zeta and going way, way overboard with it. Every department has it's own station, connected via a central hub station which has shuttles for every department and also contains Arrivals, Escape and the Head of Personnel's office. Each station has a small public area which everyone has access to, a power room for either furnaces or solars that is accessible by Engineering, and a small Security Office. There would be an Engineering station(with a cross z-level shuttle to Mining), a Research Station, a Medical Station, a Command Station, a Cargo Station, an AI station(containing both the Core and Upload) and a Public Station(For Hydroponics, Bar, Kitchen, Chapel and Assistant stuff, along with Storage areas like EVA and Warehouse). Security would not get its own station, but would have small offices with single cells on every station. Everyone would have access to a small part of each station, and Engineering would have access to power rooms on every station. There would be no shuttles between department stations. To get to another station via shuttle, you would have to pass through the Hub station. Each station would also have its own Pod Hangar, and with the amount of Pod travel that would likely occur with this set up mechanics might even become a job in their own right. They'd fall under Engineering, I suppose, although if Pods were fleshed out more(which they would have to be if anyone even considered this idea) then maybe having a Garage station would be interesting.
This whole concept comes basically from me thinking that there are a number of things which are underutilized because it's easy to just walk to wherever you need to go. The QM cargo router thing doesn't get a whole lot of use because QMs hardly ever actually buy anything for the crew and when they do it's way easier for the crew to just walk there and pick it up. Pods are really fucking cool but it's still easier just to grab a jetpack and use that instead of getting a pod, so part of the concept of this comes from trying to think of a way to make it so that people needed to travel through space enough that not everyone who needed to go through space could have their own suit and jetpack. Power is never a real concern because there's a single central Engine, so as long as it's working everything's fine.
It wouldn't be a station, exactly. More of a network of stations that all kind of rely on the Hub and Engineering stations to keep working. It'd give Engineers a bigger job, since they'd be going around to all the different stations to set up and monitor their engines. Security would have it rough, but that's a positive thing, to me. Pretty much every officer would have his own station to police, and backup would not come fast, if at all. Security, as it is, is kind of a huge obstacle for antagonists, seeing as it consists of several people who are each armed with a weapon capable of ending the antag's run in a single hit and will swarm when threatened. Having Sec be an isolated role who has power but no backup might make it a little less likely to attract dickheads, too, but I wouldn't count on it. Having no Head of Security might be a good idea in this concept, as well. HoS and Detective could kind of be rolled together, as with the station as spread out as it would be both of their jobs would essentially boil down to being Security Officers with no set station to police.
Less station, more space is what I'm thinking, I guess.