timelock captain?

[Ion Mage]

On RP servers, absolutely.

[vampirate]

Maybe make Captain more serious role with like a joke "Assistant to the Captain" role that also has all access except access to weapons, and their ID both cannot be changed, and cannot modify other ID's

[KikiMofo]

I think a good compromise is to time lock captain on the RP servers and leave the others the same.

[Lady Birb]

I have previously made my opinion clear that the "joke" of captains always being incompetent and/or traitorous is an incredibly shitty joke that has long outstayed it's welcome. Timelock captain and make them nonantag-only while you're at it. If anyone uses the word "tradition" in a counterargument to this I am disregarding your opinion on everything you say for the rest of time.

[KikiMofo]

Birb its a shitty 2D spaceman game. Captain isn't so important that it needs to be some super serious role that cant be antag.

[nefarious6th]

Just to follow-up with Kiki's thoughts, I definitely second that I don't want to go down the path of starting to timelock too many roles. I *know* security needed it. I understand fundamentally why HoS obviously has a lock on it. I know some people (myself included!) were bouncing ideas of potentially a timelocked, more-helpful form of a staff assistant to teach others. Given the griefing that people keep doing, I want Construction Worker to have a timelock too. I think a better answer to "serious" Captain responsibility would just be to make them non-antags/not-certain-antags versus timelocking. If it continues to be a problem, then it can be something for consideration again, like the Construction Worker.

But I worry, sincerely, about how many of those roles then are locking people out of them. At least with Security, people can poke around as a Vice Officer to see just what the role is about. For construction, anyone can be an engineer or a staff assistant with sheets of metal (or even a CE with the RCD). For Captain though, there's no way to play as like a staff assistant and get a feel for what it'd be like to be Captain; no one is going to assume you're good and let you have the hat and Stinkeye's. I just think the more we lock jobs, and the less linear the path is to playing them, the fewer people we'll have who want to fill those roles.

[Mouse]

Have the captain spawn with a little tutorial book that explains things, like, no, you can't order the AI to kill people for kicks, no, you can't murder people for kicks, yes, security is perfectly within its rights to arrest you if you commit crimes, and for the love of god any law that is overridden flat out does not exist stop using override as a nonantag!

Other options: remove the captain's egun entirely, instead give them the saber by default and add a stun mode to it.

The thing is, there are three separate complaints all getting merged together here.

There are complaints that antag captains are overpowered.
There are complaints that nonantag captains use the role to grief, and by virtue of their access and gear are very good at ruining the round.
There are, theoretically, complaints that captains flat-out don't know enough about the game to actually play. I say "theoretically", because, while they haven't been voiced here, this was one of the major reasons for the security timegate. (That timegate was also meant to cut down on sec griefing but it... hasn't really done that. While that situation has improved to some extent I suspect that's mainly due to the rather large number of new HoSes that have been added within the same time frame. The rest of the improvement would be good security not having to spend time teaching officers how to play the game and being able to devote that time instead to dealing with bad security. 13 rounds simply isn't enough time to weed any but the most egregious shitters out)

The extent to which each of these problems is a problem is different. The possible solutions to each of these problems are different.

Personally I expect the second problem is the one that the most players will agree to be a problem, and the one that most players will identify as the most pressing problem. I don't think a timegate will solve it.

[Wisecrack34]

I like your idea Mouse, give em a book, give em a saber and see how it goes from there

[KikiMofo]

Timelock wasnt really to weed out the shitters mouse. It was mostly just to stop brand new players who dont even know the controls yet from playing sec. At least thats how I thought it was.

[Carbadox]

Timelock wasnt really to weed out the shitters mouse. It was mostly just to stop brand new players who dont even know the controls yet from playing sec. At least thats how I thought it was.

It is

[Frank_Stein]

Timelock wasnt really to weed out the shitters mouse. It was mostly just to stop brand new players who dont even know the controls yet from playing sec. At least thats how I thought it was.

That was also my take.

I think we need to step back and look at what is fun for some people, and what isn't.

Some people enjoy an unpredictable Captain, some people would rather it be taken more seriously.

It's why we have two servers, with two rulesets, and two kinds of play. I think Captain should remain the way it is on the Standard server, but can agree to stricter regulations on the RP server. It makes sense there.

---

That said, I actually do like the idea of replacing the Captain's E-gun with the saber, while giving it some buffs to compensate.

For instance, the c-sabers projectile block mechanics. Or better yet, unique fencing mechanics.

Encourage more swordfights with the syndicate commander

[KikiMofo]

Im all for more sword fights and I would love to have the syndie commander have a sword duel with the captain. Though I also don't like the idea of losing out on one of the Eguns. The Egun is a very important weapon on station because in the right hands it can be one of the most powerful things. If we remove the captains Egun then that means theres only the one in the HoS locker left right?

[Frank_Stein]

Put the E-gun on the bridge, behind a glass panel that you break open, setting off the same alarm as the red button, but more eye-catching.

EDIT: This way you can know exactly how shitty the captain is by how soon the gun alarm goes off.

The alarm is weighted, and will continue going off until the e-gun (or some kind of gun shaped object, maybe a certain antique) is put back

[Wisecrack34]

Id suggest just swapping the job reward around so you spawn with sword as default

[Lady Birb]

best solution: timelock the egun. you can pick captain from the start but you need to play 20 rounds to spawn with an egun.