Not sure if I should put this in this forum or the Suggestions forum, but I'm putting it here just in case.
I was talking to a few friends over Skype about security and how I usually end up playing Detective, as I'm just not the right kind of spaceman for security. Not yet, anyways. A ways into the discussion, I ended up realizing that I never end up doing any actual detective things as the Detective; I just (try to) watch the cameras, down my booze, and provide commentary over the radio with varying levels of snark.
That's all fine and good, but it begs the question: If the security team already has all of the forensic tools and most of the gear that the detective already has, is there SUPPOSED to be a point to the detective, or is it more meant to be a flavor job like the Chef or the Chaplain? Is it supposed to be both? The only actual tools the detective has to himself are thermals, which are next to useless nowadays, and his gun, which is pretty cool but doesn't exactly lend itself to detective work, you know?
Maybe I'm taking the detective job more seriously than I should, but it only seems fair that they have something that makes him more than sec-lite with a fancy gun and cool outfit. Getting godawfully drunk and smoking enough cigarettes to render you a twitchy, vomiting mess is a perfectly fine way to spend the round, but every now and then, it's nice for me to be able to actually do some investigating and interrogating. Does anyone else here feel the same way, or am I just a complete nerd?
There's a solution. Don't get piss drunk and smoke (do though) and actually search around in maintenance and disposals. If you do that and tell security you're checking those places out then you're usually good to go.
I am always in favor of doing things that establish the detective as Sec-, but I think the popular way of playing him is Sec+. I would prefer to see him as the fun gimmick character, not the guy people turn to when they can't be HoS and regular sec isn't flashy enough.
It's more fun when the detective isn't a cooler sec officer (who can also be a traitor) with better gear. Moving his grimy office to disposals was a good start, but I would like to see the him made even more into the washed-up security wannabe.
Take away his sec headset for a normal one, revoke his sec access. Let him keep the gun, but remove the secvending machine reloads - he only gets the clip that starts in the gun and one reload. No stun ammunition, because he's kind of a dangerous looney.
Idea being that he had better make every shot count and because he doesn't actually have any stun tools, he should actually do his job sniffing out criminals and call in actual security to do the arresting bit. More drunken noir detectives. Every sec officer ought to outrank him.
This scatterbrained post brought to you by a massive headache.
Sec has the tools but never uses them. Of course, the detective never does either, which is probably why he lost his monopoly on forensics gear in the first place - because otherwise no one would be able to investigate things when the detective is always too busy doing drugs or playing lone gunman.
Besides, sec has that fancy body armor and stun weaponry, while the detective is basically just a civilian. While they charge into the middle of fights or respond to radio calls summoning them to dark and lonely maintenance corridors, why not do some detectiving? Wait around in the morgue for bodies or demand that crime scenes be preserved till the out get there. Prowl maintenance for dead bodies, using your thermals only to avoid running into people. Detectives have plenty to do, if only they'd bother to try.
I'm fairly new around here, at least compared to most of the other folks, so my idea of Goonstation tone hasn't really been cemented yet, and I keep getting mixed messages on whether or not the Detective is actually expected to be a detective, or if it's lime the Janitor in that no one expects them to actually do their job because it's redundant/largely useless and instead expects them to run around doing whatever inane shenanigans they think of.
BaneOfGiygas Wrote:I'm fairly new around here, at least compared to most of the other folks, so my idea of Goonstation tone hasn't really been cemented yet, and I keep getting mixed messages on whether or not the Detective is actually expected to be a detective, or if it's lime the Janitor in that no one expects them to actually do their job because it's redundant/largely useless and instead expects them to run around doing whatever inane shenanigans they think of.
I don't think there's really any expectation. I've seen brilliant detectives and I've seen loose cannons that unload on someone for looking at em wrong.
It'd be nice to have a brig near the detective's office, and for the crew to use the detective as an anti-griffer. Clown keeps slipping scientists, causing explosions and robbing genetics? PDA the detective to bust their ass--sure it's likely a sec officer will come and negotiate a release--or hell you could even make the miscreant pay bail to let him go--but that feels like a niche the detective could fill while relieving sec so they can deal with traitors, wizzes and lings.
I like the detective a lot and I don't think he requires any major changes!
When security is short on staff, he's a dependable extra pair of hands. As capable as any other redshirt, but with a little more flavour.
In a high-pop round, with a full sec force, the detective can play a little more hands off. He doesn't need to be a beat cop patrolling the station and breaking up petty disputes. He gets a lot more free time to scope out potential threats, investigate events in more depth than his security officer counterparts (who've already been called away to deal with some other crime.) and really dig deep in to the schemes of stealthy antagonists.
Sure, a lot of the time crimes are cut and dry. The bad man with the gun shot all the nice crewmen and ended up in a cell because of it. But when a corpse turns up and nobody knows why, the detective gets to truly shine.
The detective has more time and tools at his disposal to root out those tricky undercover traitors,vampires and changelings that get missed in busy mixed rounds and that's a neat niche to fill.
It's very satisfying to match a set of prints from a couple of maint bodies, pin a guy for a crime and watch with a smile as the friendly chaplain goes horror form in the middle of the busy medbay and the HoS and his goons have to deal with the fallout.
the main reason detective isn't used more seriously is, i think, bc ~goon culture~ doesn't really work for in-depth investigating. most crimes you'd investigate are either done in plain sight and you won't have the gear to stop them, or hidden well enough that you will never find out about them (stuff like the door tracker is starting to fix this tho)
i think once we're on the bigger cogmap detective'll be a little more useful since it'll be big enough for him to snoop around without every goofball running into him
Eddie Valiant is a good role model for the Goonstation detective: some guy who has to deal with a bunch of over-the-top godawful shit happening all the time and jeez this was the worst day to stop drinking
BaneOfGiygas Wrote:I'm fairly new around here, at least compared to most of the other folks, so my idea of Goonstation tone hasn't really been cemented yet, and I keep getting mixed messages on whether or not the Detective is actually expected to be a detective, or if it's lime the Janitor in that no one expects them to actually do their job because it's redundant/largely useless and instead expects them to run around doing whatever inane shenanigans they think of.
Play detective however you want. Most people expect the detective to either drink all the booze and be incoherent and useless for the entire round, or don the thermals and a full backpack of ammo and spend the entire round playing super-vigilante and murdering anyone who looks even slightly suspicious. In other words, expectations for the detective are rock-bottom already, so just play however you like and you won't have to worry about disappointing people.
Some more machines for the detective to help him Invistigate crimes would be pretty awesome
Autopsy scanner- Place a dude on a Operating table and cut him up, Then use the Autopsy which tells when he died,Wounds and injurys he has and if he was dragged around after death
Allow you to get a video-tape from a camera- Currently the cameras are useless an AI or a security guard happens to be looking at that ONE camera when the crime happens, If we could pull out a video-tape that has recorded stuff the detective could re-watch the video-tapes and figure out "who done-it"
Crime-reconstucter-Allows the detective to reconstruct the last few moments before the dude dies and a few seconds after it too. This doesn't work unless the body is in the room where the murder happened. Use this to find out who attacked first and where the murder ran away to.
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