The captain, what are they to you?

[Bananabits111]

The substitute teacher in a classroom of dumbasses

[JanusRose]

I think the Captain should also be able to be a tyrant. Generally it was in the prime position to do social experiments and test many bad and good ideas. Locking captain from antagonizing was one of the worst decisions made by developers in this regard in my opinion.

Sure you can be this competent good guy that fixes everything; however, leadership is often flawed and having an evil captain should be a unique challenge that exemplifies this.

When I was an antagonist captain I did many plots focused around power grabs. I hired staffies to become my private security team then gave a chaplain access and equipment to start a theocracy which I supported over announcements. Another example was making a bunch of ID's and framing heads of staff for crimes so they could get arrested, or breaking in ai to make chickens become captains based on who hatched latest.

I like seeing the Captain being played in a unique way and using their tools to pull off extreme gimmicks. My favorite captain gimick to play as ruined by the PR was the paranoid leadership. There is a famous trope where the guy in charge let's their power get to them and declares everyone as an enemy out of fear and back when Captain was cool, I went to a radio station and accused everyone of being spies with my sword drawn. Causing lots of paranoia.

The Captain is a character that can shift and cause significant narratives in gameplay and a few lazy players shouldn't be able to limit the capacity to use them for goofy villainous tropes.

[Daisybell]

As captain, for most of the time I goof around or run regular checks on the departments. Y'know, captainly things, like making sure medbay is up to scratch, kicking up a fuss about a puddle on the floor, trying to make sure everyone is working at their best. However, when the shift turns to disaster, I like to use the captain role as a coordinator, someone who protects the crew. The station is flooding? I'll gather all the oxygen lockers, scn my card into the oxygen vendors, and direct the crew to the nearest points of safety. Everything is on fucking fire? Coordinate the crew to get civillians to safety, and to get medical to the front lines, and to give enineering everything they need to fight the fire.