Omega Squad - Baldie Squad

[solidfury7]

I'm glad the clickbait title got you in, but in all seriousness, this is something which I've thought on

Summary (a quick, 2-3 sentence summary): A unique squad (Omega) which only activates when a whitelisted mentor marine role (Drill Sgt, Enlistment Officer, whatever you want so it makes sense lorewise) is active, this role would put all marines which have played for less than a week in this squad, if they accept the onscreen pop-up prompt. This squad will be under the control of an experienced individual who can teach these newer players on mass,

Benefits (How this will benefit the server and game as a whole): This would help immensely for a number of reasons, you'd be able to teach the newer players the basics in a less antagonistic environment, in larger groups. This could also help increase the population as first time players will no longer spend the time on the server wandering around aimlessly, before going SSD or landing on the colony to die alone. This would improve the experience of the newer lads.

This squad would allow people to learn newer roles, ranging from standard, combat medic, squad engineer, specialist without throwing them to the wolves.

Details (Description of how you think this would work, the benefits, etc): There are two ways we could do this, we could have an additional Z level or area where the marines could spawn, away from the main forces. This would have all the essentials in a small area. They would only be able to leave this area with the authorisation of the Whitelisted Mentor/<Insert Marine Teacher Role here>

Or you could simply add the squad and have them deploy under the guidance of the whitelisted SL teacher.

One issue which made me dislike this idea a long time ago was simply the fact that marines would be cunts to this squad, but then I realised that they will be regardless or not, at least this method would have them on the road to improving in a better enviroment which is better for everyone involved.

Implementation (Optional, if you have an idea how to implement it): Alterations in map and/or coding changes (Perhaps additional changes like weapons being unable to FF on the Z-level, to prevent the need for a doctor being present, ect)

[misto]

problems with new players having difficulty adjusting and learning could be addressed out of game with a campaign to create and update wiki pages with as much information and as many answers as possible

[alekfenrir]

That sounds pretty good. I got lucky and a mentor found me wandering the halls and sorted me out, but a lot of people might not be so lucky. And anything that helps increase the knowledge of the player base in basic usage of things gets my vote. I can save a lot of greif for others later if fewer people ff with their ugl.

[caleeb101]

like it +1

[solidfury7]

problems with new players having difficulty adjusting and learning could be addressed out of game with a campaign to create and update wiki pages with as much information and as many answers as possible

This would be a step in the right direction, however I really think that using the wiki as a crutch for all the newer players isn't the correction solution. While it is a tool to help teach people, I'm sure the majority of you learnt from experiences and the wiki just pushed you gently down the right path.

Not to mention that it would still leave the issue of individually teaching each person one by one, rather than teaching all the chaps en-mass (Which during high pop can be quite a lot of fellows indeed.)

This could be a huge help to the mentor role, as they'll be able to identify, keep an eye on or even pre-emtively help these players, rather than waiting for myself or anyone else adminhelping it in after he's OD'ed 3 people on QC or shot up a school.

[Jroinc1]

Trouble is, I remember being a mentor, and it's not that easy.

To train a baldie into a decent marine, it takes roughly 45 min of CONSTANT attention (most mentors when I was there didn't want to do it, w/ the exception of Reno). You gotta cover how to equip stuff (basic), how to handle a weapon, how to NOT shoot your teammates, basic map layout, organization, BASIC first aid, and THEN how his job works, if he's a special job.

Each of those steps takes about 10 minutes, just due to typing speed alone, and while that's happening, you gotta watch him to see what he's struggling with.

Teaching a job takes longer, up to 20-30 min, and is different for every job. What're the medics doing while you teach the engi how to engi? What's the spec doing while you teach the medic how to medic?

Ideally, they'd be watching. Realistically, they'll AFK.

What're you gonna do when one of them griefs? And it leads to a chain fire-fight? You have sleep. Other than that, you gotta call a mod.


I like the idea, but here's a better one. Alter the thunderdome into a training facility (medical room, target room, engineering room, spec room), add 2 "training cryo pods" to the Allmayer, and give mentors a "train" "and "un-train" verb. These allow mentors to spawn someone in one of those special pods into the facility if they were at 100% health, and to return them to their original body once done. This allows one-on-one attention in a controlled environment.

[alekfenrir]

Right, but this gives 1 mentor the ability to talk to 1-~ new people at once. So as an e.g. to the idea, the DI spawns fully kitted, the newbies spawn in front of a standard marine locker and then the information can be given to a group at once, instead of one on one many times over.

None of it will be perfect, but having the DI with a script worked out;

"Good morning recruits, behind you is a marine locker, follow my instructions and we'll prepare you for basic training."
"step 1, Click on the locker. Since you have access the light on it will switch from Red to Green, it is now unlocked. If you didn't have access the lock would flash and you'd be informed on the side panel, *Access Denied*"

And so on, it's a blend of IC/OOC but if they get their own training room its a good place to pass along the information they need to manage playing the game, especially if they're not SS13 savvy from the outset.


Anyhow, thats my two cents, this idea could help a lot of the new people, and the rest of the pop from having to deal with uninfomred players who do somehting disaterious by accident, and keeps the concept of everyone who wakes up out of cryo at least did bootcamp, even if this is their first deployment.

[Snypehunter007]

Trouble is, I remember being a mentor, and it's not that easy.

To train a baldie into a decent marine, it takes roughly 45 min of CONSTANT attention (most mentors when I was there didn't want to do it, w/ the exception of Reno). You gotta cover how to equip stuff (basic), how to handle a weapon, how to NOT shoot your teammates, basic map layout, organization, BASIC first aid, and THEN how his job works, if he's a special job.

Each of those steps takes about 10 minutes, just due to typing speed alone, and while that's happening, you gotta watch him to see what he's struggling with.

Teaching a job takes longer, up to 20-30 min, and is different for every job. What're the medics doing while you teach the engi how to engi? What's the spec doing while you teach the medic how to medic?

Ideally, they'd be watching. Realistically, they'll AFK.

What're you gonna do when one of them griefs? And it leads to a chain fire-fight? You have sleep. Other than that, you gotta call a mod.


I like the idea, but here's a better one. Alter the thunderdome into a training facility (medical room, target room, engineering room, spec room), add 2 "training cryo pods" to the Allmayer, and give mentors a "train" "and "un-train" verb. These allow mentors to spawn someone in one of those special pods into the facility if they were at 100% health, and to return them to their original body once done. This allows one-on-one attention in a controlled environment.

J has the right idea, most players aren't going to seriously follow whatever leader that would be implemented. The problem with the entire idea with a training facility (that I find), is that you really can't "teach" marine roles. This may be the lens of time in regards to the difference between a veteran and new player but I am pretty sure that most players who don't know how to do something in, say, the medic or engineer role are going to ahelp it pretty quickly or LOOC ask other members of their squad.

For medics, all you would be really training them to do is learn what medical item did what. After that, it is entirely up to the medic's choice of loadout.

Engineers, granted, might actually need some more training seeing as they interact with objects a lot more often than most other roles, they might need to learn to hack and fix APCs if they are really new to SS13. They also might need to learn how to set up a sentry but after that, nothing else really needs to be taught to them.

You can't really teach SLs or grunts very much other than may designating targets and putting safeties on their guns.

Specialist is really a 100% combat oriented role, you have to learn as you fight what the best methods for you are.

Edit: If we did something like a training facility, it would most likely be its own gamemode or something else.

[UnknownMurder]

viewtopic.php?f=86&t=2424&hilit=echo+sq ... =50#p21651

Already attempted with a suggestion that has connections to the reason why it was denied. Though, to this date, I still really insist on wanting a fifth squad either baldie, norms, or professionals.

[jusa297]

This is a meme suggestion, asking this to locked : ^]

[Snypehunter007]

Going to run through this with BMC, tomorrow. Please do not post until after Monday (07/03/17).

[Bmc777]

Denying this, Snype gave a pretty good summary of why above.