Observation 1: The science department is the only department that functions partially as an antagonist. Anomalies and artifacts create threats against the station and its crew that only science is equipped to deal with. Other departments exist solely to keep the round going, whereas science contributes toward evac.
Observation 2: The science department is not held accountable for failing to handle anomalies and artifacts safely, by security or the game rules. There is also no accountability for them doing nothing. When science players fail, other players (engineering, medical, and security) have to clean up after them.
Observation 3: The interaction of the science department with the rest of the station is by far the weakest of any department. The only meaningful service that science provides in practice is robotics.
Observation 4: The tech tree is poorly organized and has lots of filler technologies. Many items made available by technologies are already abundant, others will rarely if ever be manufactured.
Observation 5: The game and maps are balanced in such a way that science is not needed whatsoever to have a long round.
Conclusion:
The science department is essentially a force multiplier for antagonists and negatively influences roundflow.
This is true, though a good Scienist knows how to safely handle Anoms or artifacts, Arti tells you what kinda thing itāll do when activated and its upto the Scienist if they want to risk that interaction. Anoms each have ways to control them that Sci can work around sometimes requiring help of another department.
This is a RP issue, As the RD should hold people accountable for fucking up. Iāve had people removed from accessing Anoms for incompitance before as RD as for Artifact mostly that just messes up artifact and wastes masterials if that goes wrong, if station wide destruction activates though then we have an issue and im pretty sure Ahelp deals with those folks as non-antags blowing up the station is self-antag.
You need to Observe science more. Science does ALOT to help the station here is a quick list
Arms SEC by allowing them to make better weaponary than the starting armory in their lathe
Allows botany to mass produce and process chems for Medical as well as handling their termal issues.
Get rapid rechargers allowing power cells and sec weponary to charge 87.5% faster allowing defib next to no down time
Allows Cagro to teleport crates directly from ATS to the station drammatically speeding up the delivery of goods to the station
Provides Advanced tools to engineering allowing engineers infinate weilding fuel blow torches and holofans for non-atmos giving all engineers a way to keep air in as they repair
Provides Advanced cleaning products to janitors such as infinate water mops
Can build and place a Mini-grav turning gravity back on for the entire ship if grav is sabotaged
Can build telecom servers restoring coms if coms is sabotaged
Provides normal tools to a bunch of people at round start (more people more tools they make)
Allows Musican to get their Digital Audio Workstation made without seeking out 6 insuments of different types saving cargo ALOT of Spacoes (it takes them something like 8 steel and a flatpack)
Creates microwaves for chems allowing for advanced topicals
This is true, and by design to slow down finding the āgoodā techs
False, Without good weaponary mid game with dragons, ninjaās and Lone ops will normally overwhelm Sec without support and anoms can form on their own without Sciās partipation.
I get what you mean but I really think you should put in suggestions after those observations. I like playing sci, and their techs are useful, but I just think it suffers from poor tutorialization and lack of certain management tools to sort out. The fixes could be guidebook updates and some roundstart papers, or hard management to keep the bots flowing and the tools shaping (since upgraded components donāt exist). I WOULD like to see some improvements like an upgrade that speeds up arti scannign to the point you can catch a STationwide before it blows, among other things, but I wouldnāt burden the admins with it.
Also needs more paperwork.
what SCI is missing is maxcap bombs and bomb research for research points, along with ātoxins researchā from ss13.
Anomalies are shit and boring, and wreak way too much havoc on the station, even if properly āmanagedā (particle emitter shooting at it to keep it from destabilizing)
I had a anomaly as the CE within engineering, one of those forest/grassland generating ones. Despite being fenced off with electrified grilles, having a A.P.E shooting at it, and being walled off with reinforced glass, it overgrew a good chunk of the engineering department and forcibly replaced floor tiles with grass that you canāt put wires down onto.
As for alien artifacts, those are just mid and can be annoying at minimum, and highly radioactive at worst.
i could have sworn capicitors were tiered. and you can craft better ones to improve the spead of arti scanning.
but eitherway I feel like science is one of those departments that is easy to get into (it isnāt that hard to match particles, beg cargo for materials, or take guesses at a artifact trigger)
Not really.
Only engineering is required for the round to continue (which as an engi main sucks tbh). You can treat yourself until newmed is implemented at least (assuming you even get hurt to begin with) so you do not need medical. The station has enough supplies for a full shift without cargo. Service is purely for RP. Security is necessary most of the time, but the results vary. Command is completely unnecessary outside of having easy access to the shuttle console. You could also argue that engi can contribute to evac with the singulo or poor atmos management when setting up some burn chamber or something.
Make it a role-ban worthy offense to make anomalies without attempting to take care of them
This is the main reason nobody really cares about dealing with anoms aside from the point gain. There should be a change to the rules that says if you generate anoms as a non-antag. You are REQUIRED to do your best to take care of them or risk a role ban. It would at least scare players into putting effort.
Just not true.
Scienceās work benefits all departments equally as they can unlock upgrades for all of them. They are not essential but also by no means inconsequential.
Wait for more content and make the technology more accessible.
The tech tree suffers from lack of content (since some technologies that could have way more items simply lack them due to them not being implemented). It is also difficult to get science to MAKE the researched tech once unlocked. Departments should have an easier time accessing unlocks without relying on scienceās front desk.
The issue is not really map dependent
As i said, only engineering is required to have a long shift. All other departments are technically optional to run. Only tier 1 techs are readily available round start and said tier is meant to allow making replacements.
Personally i think sciās desk is an important check and balance for the station, its way harder to declare an independant cargonia if you cant make machine boards.