Implemented Make SAOY Occupations More RPG Friendly

Green panels have extensive cross-disciplinary training and don't really specialize until mid-career:

Yuuki said:

Green panels have extensive cross-disciplinary training and don't really specialize until mid-career:

https://wiki.stararmy.com/doku.php?id=stararmy:eek:ccupations:science#skills

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does that go for big O officers as well? I generally assume most science officers had a degree in some science before becoming officers or as part of their academy training. Motion to call enlisted Science officers Science Techs or Science Specialists or something for clarity

Yuuki said:

Should it be assumed that anyone with the same color panel can sub in for another specialization in that group in a pinch

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Generally yes, but as others have said, some occupations don't fully allow for it. In SAINT's case: an operative can always do analyst things. And an analyst can do some operative things related to intelligence gathering as part of a standard unit. But an analyst isn't going to be able to assassinate someone or be a rough-and-tumble black ops commando. This obviously isn't a problem because the few operatives among the few who make up the occupation that assassinate and do commando things are usually employed directly through SAINT, but it's worth noting.

Just a passing thought but is there a reason why there isn't a RIKUPAT panel for Rikugun-centric professions? I suppose the question is how readily embarked Rikugun can act the same as fully qualified naval personnel wearing their same panel colours. But I don't imagine in a panic you want to confuse a starship operator with a tanker if you're an officer running towards the bridge for battle stations and the ship's taken some losses.

They'd only have the color panel in dress or whatever. They'd have the Rikugun field uniform for what they do all day, everyday, I would say

And there is no way to determine what occupation you are on that, oddly enough. Maybe they should have a "regimental/occupation" pin somewhere.

Also for most things like Vehicle operators and the like if they're in the field they're wearing dedicated gear like the Type 31 field uniform while somebody who's just like a tech is wearing the Type 37C uniform.

demibear said:

And there is no way to determine what occupation you are on that, oddly enough. Maybe they should have a "regimental/occupation" pin somewhere.

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I do support more unit patches

We do have a place for unit patches on the Type 35...

demibear said:

And there is no way to determine what occupation you are on that, oddly enough. Maybe they should have a "regimental/occupation" pin somewhere.

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Too much clutter can make a uniform look bad unless curated for formal functions like a dress uniform, and the current state of Star Army duty/working uniforms look fantastic without too many pins and patches. In addition, most Star Army personnel have computerized brains that can IFF each other and who they are with details such as name, rank, occupation, and assignment.

As an alternative that would be inclusive for the low tech naturals serving in or alongside the Star Army: The Type 42 duty and bodysuit uniforms, plus the upgraded Type 35, have a volumetric projector built in. Perhaps the default use for this in non-work duty moments where everyone doesn't know what you do could be to display the sub-occupation for any given Star Army soldier. Just something like "MEDIC" or "SURGEON" or "ARMORER" or "E-SYSTEMS" that hovers a centimeter over their chest when active. And, of course, update the Type 42s with colorways appropriate to the Rikugun.

Catching up on this, I think the 'session zero' approach of whitelisting what is desired is probably the best way to deal with the situation Wes encountered.

The various MOS do serve as roles that help shape the faction, draw the broader picture.

In my group, I have several participants whom have grown beyond their flagship characters, and use what I call 'side characters' to enjoy different aspects of the roleplay once they happen.

For instance, Nyton has Shimabumi sisters, whom are a caretaker duo. He's had Ayumu, whom is now the Chief Medical Officer in my plot.

Thanks to having those, he gets to put his thumb in a lot of different situations that may happen around downtime, conflict, or the aftermath of a conflict. It also helps flesh out ships with larger crew complements.

I'm surprised this doesn't have more votes. I definitely still see a need for streamlining. Maybe a better way to do this would be to make some minimi rank changes so that characters start as generalists and could migrate into more specialized occupations later or something?

Wes said:

I'm surprised this doesn't have more votes. I definitely still see a need for streamlining. Maybe a better way to do this would be to make some minimi rank changes so that characters start as generalists and could migrate into more specialized occupations later or something?

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I forgot that voting was a thing. I gave it mine!

If there is an IC component to occupation cutting then you could just have Yui or Hanako or whichever admiral is responsible for that do it anyway. I remember that you’ve wanted to get rid of Senior Enlisted Advisor for years and it’s still managed to stick around largely unplayed (let’s be a real, that one is a billet and not a real occupation). Some of the bloat should be easy to remove.

If the needs of the Star Army are something particular then an OOC vote has never mattered much. We don’t officially have a public relations code for clerks anymore, for example, and I assume that’s because you simply didn’t want them. So I’d go with your gut more than anything else when it comes to directing the Star Army.

I Don't know if anyone's suggested something similar as unfortunately I haven't had time to read through the whole thread, but we could do something like Job classes and specialties where there's a general set of skills and duties that's a specific job but then you have Specialties within that job; like how in the U.S. Marines every member is a rifleman first, and their job comes second. so essentially you could have infantry be a 'job class' and every character that is infantry has the infantry set of skills and then you can add in your specialist codes under that; that way if a GM is looking for infantry, they can be sure that that infantry character can do the infantry job, and their specialty is just sort of an extra/bonus.

Looking at the SAoY Occupations page it *looks* like it should be set up that way already, but it seems that people tend to play to the specialty more than the class, or perhaps I'm reading into this question wrong.

I was a bit distracted when it was posted. It has my vote, I don't like the occupational bloat. It feels like a lot of the bloat can be accounted to either MOS colors needing to be concentrated down to their core components for the average player to digest or it needs to have NPC positions that the average player will not use removed. I think each color should have around maximum three off-shoots- and that max is for really integral positions like bridge crew differentiation. Most only need two.

We don't need six different types of infantry. That is not a specialized occupation, that is a gateway position to start out. And I added the giretsu school to be something to do for additional training, not to make a new MOS that is hard to differentiate between regular infantry for the new players.

Band members should be a subset of caretaker and caretakers should be seen a lot more on huge ships as they take care of all of the daily needs moving parts of the ships, imo. But umbrella terming MOS and letting things naturally fall under pre-existing ones should happen more often.

We've got tons of red panels but the average player wasn't able to differentiate between them a few months back. I've never see anyone play a specialty beyond wanting to go on the away team so getting combat engineer vs wanting to be shipbound so gets technician from the GM.

Does command staff need to be broken up into every possible one-off position?

I think that specific occupations makes sense, honestly. I agree with there being a wide selection of possibilites that the GM of a plot says you can take, rather than a narrow band of generalists.

Kylindra said:

I think that specific occupations makes sense, honestly. I agree with there being a wide selection of possibilites that the GM of a plot says you can take, rather than a narrow band of generalists.

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There are 17 different occupational colors. Your character is from an occupation I updated that only has one mention on the MOS page, science. Instead of picking from one of the occupations that has 5+ specific occupations to chose from, you chose the generalist.

a) I'm reasonably new
but
b) By preference, I prefer to pick specialties as the character grows into them, rather than start with one, especially if it's something like science. In Himeko's situation, the primarily occupation needed was science, so I focused on that going in.

Kylindra said:

a) I'm reasonably new

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Being new is never a problem. New people say two kinds of things: the ones we've heard before or thought of ourselves, and the ones we've never heard or thought of before, and you don't know which it is until you mention it.