An Option to Vote for Calling the Shuttle?

[Waffles64]

I think I can say that anyone who's played on these servers long enough has encounter a problem when calling the shuttle. Many times the captain/AI calls the shuttle without informing or consulting the crew. Sometimes they refuse to end a long-running game when the station is destroyed sl they can achieve their personal goals.
I'm not saying it happens all the time, but we've all had rounds where people despite whether or not it's time to end the round.
So I was thinking, why not give the captain/AI/whoever the option of bringing it to a crew vote? Instead of calling the shuttle, they'd be given an option that would message all the living crew members a yes-or-no vote to call the escape shuttle. Maybe it'd could be some kind of pop-up message, or maybe something on your PDA? Voting booths?

Just a suggestion.

[BaneOfGiygas]

I do think that the ability to call/recall the shuttle without anyone's consent whatsoever should stay, if only as a panic button in case things are going to shit and you don't want to wait out the whole bureaucracy thing.

With that in mind, however, some way of automatically polling for station interest in the shuttle aside from pitching a question into the radio, getting no response for five minutes, and calling it anyway (which has happened to me on multiple occasions) would be appreciated.

If it's PDA-automated, this could also pave the way for sneaky traitors managing to steal/reverse engineer a bunch of PDAs to rig the voting, which would be pretty neat.

[Frank_Stein]

Someone once suggested polling booths before, with a console on the bridge for custom topics to vote on.

Like, if they wanted to do a trial, the Captain could enter

1. Is Joe McPub...
A. Guilty?
B. Innocent?

2. If Joe McPub is found guilty, should their punishment be...
A. Forced Borging?
B. 100 farts?
C. Being demoted to the Clown's butler?

If polling booths were a thing, I think ATMs could be easily converted to be multipurpose consoles that could serve both purposes.

[Paineframe]

The AI, the captain, any head, anyone who stole a head ID, and anyone with all-access can all call the shuttle, and all of them can recall it except for the AI. That's, what, a half-dozen people? If all of them are dead and gone with lost or destroyed IDs, then the shuttle should probably be allowed to come. Personally, I've found that remedying an early shuttle call is easy - break into the HoP's office and make an all-access ID if you need one, go to the bridge and recall the shuttle, and then wait for the person who called it to come back so you can beat the shit out of them, steal their ID, and chuck them unceremoniously out of the bridge.

The thing I don't like about voting is that it's low-effort. Someone put a whole lot of effort to call or block the shuttle, foiling it should take more effort than just clicking a verb.

[Waffles64]

I do think that the ability to call/recall the shuttle without anyone's consent whatsoever should stay, if only as a panic button in case things are going to shit and you don't want to wait out the whole bureaucracy thing.

The vote option would be ADDED, and would not replace the direct "call/recall shuttle now" option. This is just in case the round is running 60+ minutes and people want to know if it's a good time to call or if enough people have stuff going on. I don't know. We've all seen arguments over calling/recalling the shuttle. I'm sure you have your own examples.

Someone once suggested polling booths before, with a console on the bridge for custom topics to vote on.
If polling booths were a thing, I think ATMs could be easily converted to be multipurpose consoles that could serve both purposes.

I would love polling booths. Or maybe re-purposing some of the ATMs or wall-intercoms into voting booths. I'm also a big fan of that "Make a vote on anything" idea. Making a shuttle call poll wouldn't be hard to do if the need arises, and you could do some more wacky stuff with it.

The AI, the captain, any head, anyone who stole a head ID, and anyone with all-access can all call the shuttle, and all of them can recall it except for the AI. That's, what, a half-dozen people? If all of them are dead and gone with lost or destroyed IDs, then the shuttle should probably be allowed to come.

That's fine, but what about the times when every one of those players is alive, but no one can agree on whether or not to call the shuttle? It usually involves one person asking everyone on the intercom if its time to call the shuttle, getting maybe one or two replies, then calling the shuttle anyways. Then someone asks "why is the shuttle called" and the shit-show begins.

The thing I don't like about voting is that it's low-effort. Someone put a whole lot of effort to call or block the shuttle, foiling it should take more effort than just clicking a verb.

Would you rather have one player make the call without anyones consent, or atleast give an OPTION to tally the crews vote? Sure, some people might not vote. They might ignore it or just not care. Then so be it. You'd still have the option to bust in and call the shuttle on your own anyways. Like I said, this wouldn't replace the old option of imminently calling it, but just add a new option that gets some player input.

[DyssalC]

The thing I don't like about voting is that it's low-effort. Someone put a whole lot of effort to call or block the shuttle, foiling it should take more effort than just clicking a verb.

Lets say that the way this is implemented is the whole ATM thing.

This makes for about four places you can vote if I'm remembering the station correctly.
Two of these places (Primary Central Hallway next to EVA and the hallway outside of Sec) are high-priority bombing targets and prime changeling feeding grounds, and to a lesser extent one could say the same thing about the ATM in the Jazz Lounge, considering the Bar is also a pretty big bomb/ling hangout, and there's also a good chance that you can't go to the Cargo Bay because somebody turned all of engineering into a god damn gas chamber that's burning hotter than the sun.

This means that there is a reasonably high chance that these places are incredibly unsafe, especially considering that shuttle recalls are usually initiated by lings looking to get a few more meals or rampaging traitors who are likely to bomb the station or fuck with the engine.

It also opens up a new opportunity for traitors to lay traps for victims. Start the vote, wait for a crew member to come to the ATM you're near, bam, got the jump on them, take em' down and wait for the next one.

It also helps in other situations, like when the blob has devoured the Bridge and the AI is braindead, or the AI is subverted and somebody bombed/walled off the comms console.

[Paineframe]

aboute="Waffles64"]
That's fine, but what about the times when every one of those players is alive, but no one can agree on whether or not to call the shuttle? It usually involves one person asking everyone on the intercom if its time to call the shuttle, getting maybe one or two replies, then calling the shuttle anyways. Then someone asks "why is the shuttle called" and the shit-show begins.

The thing I don't like about voting is that it's low-effort. Someone put a whole lot of effort to call or block the shuttle, foiling it should take more effort than just clicking a verb.

Would you rather have one player make the call without anyones consent, or atleast give an OPTION to tally the crews vote? Sure, some people might not vote. They might ignore it or just not care. Then so be it. You'd still have the option to bust in and call the shuttle on your own anyways. Like I said, this wouldn't replace the old option of imminently calling it, but just add a new option that gets some player input.[/quote]
If the heads can't agree on whether to call the shuttle, that's easily fixable. One of them will call it, and then everyone who actually cares will go beat the shit out of each of each other in the bridge.

I don't see anything wrong with a single player making the decision on their own, but if they decide they want to poll player opinion, they can already just send a call out over the radio. I feel like you're trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist. The people who whine the loudest about shuttle calls are usually the ones who are too busy dicking around off-station somewhere to physically come back and vote anyway.

[BaneOfGiygas]

If the heads can't agree on whether to call the shuttle, that's easily fixable. One of them will call it, and then everyone who actually cares will go beat the shit out of each of each other in the bridge.

You are saying this like it is a good thing, and I'm utterly perplexed as to why you would possibly think that it is a good thing.

The problem is that some people like to get things done in a round, be they antagonists, scientists, or gimmick-runners. To have those plans come crashing down because someone decides to call the shuttle for no other reason than to see if any of the other heads WANT it called is really frustrating and disappointing. In addition, with how much radio chatter there tends to be in any given instance, a lot of people tend to completely ignore the chat box entirely when they're intensively working on things. I know I've done it as a Scientist, and so polls for shuttle calls sent out through the radio end up blending in with the other greentext entirely, leading to a lot of people missing it.

Even something as simple as being able to click a button that sends out a "Yo we're thinking about calling the shuttle if that's alright with you guys" message in a more prominent font (bold, red, etc.) would be a huge improvement.

[Waffles64]

I feel like you're trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

Tons of people have had this problem. I've had this problem several times. It's not an on going MAJOR HUGE issue, but I'm saying the implication to tally a vote would be nice for the crew on those few rounds where some people might want to end it and some might want to continue.