OOC Eucharis Discussion

If it's an IC thing - being used to calling Hanako by her first name - it's perfectly fine. I just wanted to point that out in case it was an OOC mistake since so many people were doing it, it made me wonder oocly. =P

I am off to StellarCon in the morning. I will not have access to the internet, so I will be unavailable until Sunday afternoon EDT.

Could we get a slightly more detailed description of what the technician's positions are, and where they are located? I mean, with only two technicians for the whole ship, running the reactors, power systems, and damage control is going to be pretty daunting. Basically, I just want to make sure we all understand exactly what we mean in reference to these duties.

Alright! First off forgive me for not being more elaborate. I tend to take things like this for granted sometimes.

Aside from asking in-game, which would be nice, I'll make sure to expound upon the traditional duties of a Technician (in general) in the duty section post (which I havn't written yet. =|...).

In the meantime, a technician's day to day duties include:

- Maintains the condition of ship equipment with annual maintenance. This is something that you are more or less going to do every other day. Every system has things to be fixed. This could be anything from making sure the mobile camshaft on the antimatter engines receives its weekly oiling (probably monthly), to replacing gaskets and power couplings on some of the capacitators (annually), or overhauling the entire goddamn ship (yearly, depending on make/model).
- Fixing shit. Sometimes things break. It could be a button sticking on a keyboard, or a critical exaust failure on the gravimetric array. Either way, YOU are fixing it, since you are - as the technician - ship's bitchgirl.
- Operates the fabrication bays aboard ship, and any machinery shop or similar. You're going to need replacement parts and so on.
- Monitors and logs temperature, pressure, and power readings. I think on this sort of a ship, you can remotely monitor more or less everything, but it still needs someone with eyes on it. Auxiliary systems, for reference, are such things as; life support, potable water, waste water management and conversion, ship's electricity etc.
- Reports all irregularities to the Mainspace Supervisor, who reports directly to the bridge. Irregularities are essentially things breaking, going wrong, or what-have-you.

It could get a lot more complicated, but those are the 'main' jobs.

Second, you're quite correct that a two-man (or woman) team running the entire hole isn't going to work out terribly well. In-game, this translates to long days of hard work. Six hours on, six hours off. You roll out of your rack, get to work, get done, and eat/shower/sleep. Someone always has to be on duty down there. Always.

I think Wes put out that he's hiring another two technicians, although nobody's stepped up yet.

In terms of the day to day activities, between what I could find on the wiki and my own assumptions and knowledge, my conception pretty much meshes with what you wrote. My question, perhaps not phrased well enough, might be better stated not as what are the duties of technicians in general, but rather what are the more specific duties of the positions you assigned to Junko and Kumiko? Who is superior? For instance, in the IC post, you say Junko mans the consoles and passes along damage control information. However, in the points you wrote out in your OOC post you say that the Mainspace Supervisor (Kumiko?) handles this. Basically, I understand the myriad jobs needed to run a starship’s systems and that the technicians have to handle all of that. What I don’t understand is the current division of labor.

Also, I’m not going to ask ICly as this seems like the kind of thing that would be either taught or common knowledge.

Aha.

In that case, it's a division of labor that goes something along the lines of what systems the technicians are responsible for. There are 'primary' and 'secondary' engineering systems. The duties of a technician do not change with their station, only what they're working on.

The Mainspace deals primarily with propulsion and ship's power and weaponry. They tend to spend a lot of their time hanging around in what I like to call the 'mainspace' - that place belowdecks with all the panels and shit - watching the power level of the capacitors and making sure that the auxiliary, combat, and propulsion systems have a proper load to operate with.

The Auxiliiary deals primarily (as I mentioned above) with ship's life support, health and comfort, and 'secondary' systems. This includes pretty much everything that isn't propulsion, weapons, or the power grid infrastructure.

As strange as this may sound, the work is actually fairly evenly divided - the primary systems require a lot of maintenance, monitoring, and upkeep due to the fact that Ketsururi tends to build more on a high-performance concept than basing their designs on safety, longevity, or ease of maintenance. The Auxiliary systems tend to be more 'stable' and, while they still require maintenance, it tends to run less along the lines of holy-shit-system-failure-explosion-ahhh! and more along the lines of the-damn-pipe-sprung-another-leak.

For a little further clarification on the difficulty of the mainspace position, consider that up until recently, the 'hole' was largely manned by disposable, programmable sprites. They were more or less expendable and few captains cared. Also, due to the advent and golden age of hyperspace drives, ships don't actually have to have the survivability they once would have had to have. Journeys that would have taken years, take hours. Why build an engine around any other concept? Really, I like to think of certain Yamataian ship systems as Trojans - they're only good once. Then you either have to switch them out (or maintain them, which is less applicable for comparison), or else they're probably going to break and you're going to be in a world of hurt.

In terms of superiority, they are both important jobs, but the Mainspace is, obviously, posted in the mainspace during battlestations. It is the responsibility of the mainspace supervisor to co-ordinate with the other engineers belowdecks, and to maintain communications with the bridge, because out of the two of you she has a better view of the overall condition of the systems most important to combat.

Also since this whole naming convention thing is getting on my nerves, just to make absolutely sure we're clear;


Was that of any help?

That does, indeed make sense. I guess the term Auxiliary by itself had thrown me off, because my conception of the Mainspace was in lockstep with what you said, but for the Auxiliary, I kept picturing some secondary engineering post, like in Power Systems or something. At any rate, works for me.

For another question, how do we decide what damage has been done by a hit? Do we as the players of technicians handle making this bit up, or is there some reference provided, like from Wes or more broadly from a GM?

Combat damage and damage that would cause a loss of ship systems or operational function is commonly dictated by the GM/ST/DM. Superficial damage, such as fixing a leaking pipe or replacing a busted gasket, are - I gather - in the hands of the individual technician to determine.

For instance, a power bus transfer cable from the main aether generator to one of the secondary load capacitators develops a tear in its insulation. That is reasonable to say.

If that power bus decided to catch on fire, or ground itself and create a short circuit leading to the portside gravimetric array load failing to function properly, that's a level of damage that would be unreasonable.

To a certain extent you have to feel it out, but it's a good rule of thumb to think in work hours.

How long will it take to fix?

If it's a short time and doesn't interrupt the operation of the ship, usually the GMs will let it slide. If it's going to take hours to fix, or interrupts the normal work evolutions of the vessel you are aboard, that's probably something you should ask about.

Make sense?

Yep. That takes care of all of my questions for the moment. Thanks.

Thanks, that helps. I was actually getting ready to ask the same thing.

FYI, I am now back online at weekends (yay!) starting this weekend so there shouldn't be any down periods for me any more

Welcome back!

@Aendri: Please post ASAP so we can move on to the combat simulation.

Hey Gallant,

Given that the non-Neko crew members are Yamataian, you could send to them as well. The Taisa did when we were back at Hanako's world.

This is the message she sent out.

Bridge

Taisa Ketsurui, Bridge Commander
- Taii Hamada, Mission Operations/Com.
- Nito Hei Himeya, Weapons Systems
- Nito Hei Ramiro Valencia, Navigation and Piloting

Ship Service/Security

Nito Heisho Yamamoto, Master-At-Arms
- Itto Heisho Blackberry
- Itto Juni Blueberry
- Nito Heisho Pineapple
- Joto Hei Lime
- Joto Hei Mango

Medical Staff & Casualty Team

- Itto Hei Jalen, Status Pending
- Nito Hei Konoka, Status Pending

Engineering

- Nito Hei Himeya, Posted Engineering Mainspace
- Nito Hei Takeda, Posted Engineering Auxiliary

Click to expand...

Question: what's up with Engineering? Is Junko now in charge of the mainspace? Why is Irenika in charge of auxiliary systems? What happened to Kumiko?

Probably a cut-and-paste typo...

In any case, the battle simulation has started. :roll:

Hwoops.

Ehem. Aha, ha, ha.

You know what I mean (I'll fix it when I get back from breakfast).

Its still not changed yet... :lol:

Question: During the battle simulation, only the Eucharis is involved... how about the other ships with the fleet?

Why is Ramiro doing weapons as well? I thought Irenika was already in charge... :roll:

Oh right, my bad. I'll have to remember to limit how much I'm doing at once from now on, sorry.

Updated the list and corrected my copy/paste typo.

Also, that's a good point. Yamatians can probably receive that sort of thing as well. In that case, I'll just state here that if you could logically receive the message you would receive the message. Welcome to the wonderful world of intergalactic communication.

Randomly, the pilot actually controls the fixed, forward-facing guns. The weapons seat controls everything else. I could swear the bridge spots had been posted somewhere before. I'll see if I can't dig them up.