I'm sure the topside medics would love a little extra spice to add to their chatter and RP!
I understand why this is a thing, because combat characters can just attack or kill NPCs to make extra money (but mind you with limitations, farming rules) and non-combat PCs want something similar that is also themely for their skillsets.
However, combat characters are taking potentially lethal risks when doing these tasks which the non-combat types aren't, if you want more automation there should risks involved too which I am not seeing suggested in any of these ideas.
For the most part I am against more automation, because you start prioritizing NPCs over PCs and this messes with the cooperative-competitive dynamic.
If my PC was in this position, I would collaborate with a combat character by paying them a flat fee per week (from my automate paycheck) plus a fixed commission percentage lets say 25% of the healing bill, for them to beat the living shit out of everyone they find in the street to get them injured so that I could heal them later and we both get rich at the expense of others players.
But you might ask: What if I am playing a friendly to everyone, slice-of-life, law-abiding, non-psychopath character?! I can't do that, it might upset my chummers!
Well you don't have to do anything you don't want to of course, but keep in mind that in CyberPunk more often than not nice guys finish last.
This would be just one possible example of why interacting with PCs with the cooperative-competitive approach is superior to automation in general, there are other ways and approaches to make flash if you work with and against other players and get creative (but this comes with risks and the chance spectacular failure or success).
The more we look to automated stopgaps, the less we'll look for "bridges" connecting PCs to PCs for more plot.
We're not talking about generating income for these people, simply providing them for -something- to do when there's otherwise absolutely nothing for them to do.
Violent crime topside requiring doctors is a very rare thing. Imagine having to RP bandaging imaginary people for a few months, and you might see why I'm suggesting this, because you can only milk non-existent things for so long. There's also a incongruity if you start talking about fixing someone's gunshot wound on green when there's been zero crime on green. Make sense?
@Ghost, if you want risk, it's fairly simple. Have each patient have different conditions and injuries. Maybe one's injuries were too severe for your skills and they die. Your boss is mad, you made the clinic/hospital/whatever look bad. Maybe they had a nasty infection or contagious condition, and you contract it. Maybe they're a broke mixer or servo, and pull a runner or scam on you after treatment, better hire a bodyguard!
Side note, I really wish more people went to doctors and the like for 'fluff' reasons, but my personal experience is that it happens pretty rarely. Partially why I think coded injuries would add a lot to this subject.
If there ain't crime on Green, work towards changing this along with other players that most likely feel the same way and in the long run you will succeed.
Off the top of my head I can think of at least 5 ways you can do violent crimes in Green and have great chances of not getting caught but it requires at least 2 players working together and some preparations.
Topside docs have a level of comfort, security and wealth potential that most Mix Docs will never have and I think the lack of patients is a good trade-off, otherwise everyone would be a Topside doctor.
@Sly I am fine with any kind of consequences in automation, I am just against automation in general. I like your suggestion of automated super spreaders. Topside could always use more Ebola and Black Plague.
For the record, I've had several medical characters both in the Mix and Topside over the years and I've pretended to heal ambient pop and all that jazz and then realized I was wasting my time and I should instead focus on players and start taking risks (aka crimes, violent and non-violent) so I know first hand the 'struggles' they experience and have found ways to overcome them.
I think we'll have to agree to disagree. There's a long-standing trend of doctors working their way up (doing medical careers, not the corporation option) and then swan-diving to the mix to actually have things to do. This used to be more of a universal thing for most corporate characters to do, but a large amount of improvements to topside life over the years has lead to much better player retention rates, in my estimation.
I've have numerous conversations with doctors who have ICly and OOCly told me that playing a topside doctor made them want to quit the career path, and to an extent, the game. That's a problem.
While you're correct in stating that topside doctors have it better, well, they should, and they shouldn't make less money and have less RP for going topside than staying in the mix. There's never going to exist a problem whereby there's 'too many' doctors topside because like with everything, there's a fixed amount of availability and that's that. I'd much prefer seeing people fighting over trying to get these jobs for the benefits, than artificially making RP for themselves just so they have something to do, personally speaking. I think this kind of struggle leads to a higher quality of RP and spirals out to more characters and more interesting plots than would simply generating RP for yourself via another person.
Topside people don't die often enough, and certainly don't get get into physically dangerous situations enough, and while I agree that this is a cultural problem, it's also a mechanical problem. Topside simply -is- safer to live in than the lawless sector. There is layers upon layers of safety nets that corporates have that the rest of the game does not, and this safety bleeds down into some of the corporate support characters not having a heck of a lot to do. As @Sly said, slapping a bandaid on a NPC a few times a week will give me a bit more to chat about and discuss as a doctor, and won't suddenly make me not want to heal PC's, run plots, or do other things of the sort.
Automation is used to a great extent in the mix in a multitude of ways, and it can be seen how successful things are down there. The sector is banging all hours of the day. There, medics actually can provide medical assistance to NPC's and are often tangibly rewarded for doing so by those NPC's via factional boosts or cold hard cash. Doing so does not degrade their RP, or the game's RP. It's literally just more content for those players to potentially engage in. That's it.
"Giving topside medics something to do" shouldn't be achieved by NPC scripts.
If suddenly you have NPCs doing crime, that creates two things. One, it helps combat inadvertent small-worlding, because any crime called out on SIC could potentially be an NPC, and not a PC. Two, it creates windows of opportunity when responders are occupied with another call.
This also has the added benefit of giving medical types some work to do with both PCs and NPCs. If a junior is randomly stabbed walking to the lev, someone if going to have to take care of that. And now the game is setting the tone and example for PCs to follow, instead of relying on PCs who aren't really motivated to act topside.
I used to do that, but I found that most PC medics are very uncomfortable with any kind of medical procedure that isn't covered by the code -- the answer is almost always 'I'm not sure about that, maybe you should talk to Doc Chow/Doc Baker/whoever.'
I am generally a big advocate for 'policy posts' and 'policy files' -- like I think Mobius' recent one on performance is great, and I think 'help tailor-play' is one of the best help files in the game. I think people want to follow rules, and sometimes they need explicit permission to do things. I wonder if a 'help medical-play' might help encourage more of that RP.
Big agree on this! It should maybe be (loosely of course) mandatory/expected for all citizens of Withmore to get checked every few months or something. Doesn't have to be a big production, but gives us a chance to RP with those medic PCs and vice versa. Maybe build some story within that, who knows!
Code-wise, and I fully get that this would be super inconvenient at the wrong time (but isn't it always?) PCs could randomly come down with something once in a blue moon. Chance of infection from a sustained wound too, no real drawbacks other than it maybe sticking out in your @nakeds but it's reason enough to go see a professional!
Though jokes aside, I saw more medical RP from the 'older generation' of medic PCs than from some newer PCs. I think there might have been an OOC mentoring gap where it was never explained that that sort of RP is okay.
However, for the people that don't like this... how is it different than say: troublemakers, NPCs to dip, messes, and other things which add life to the world?
I don't see these things as taking away RP but instead giving ways for people to enhance some RP and make your character feel like they have a job that matters and can play to the part.
I've not tried a medic so have no compelling care either way, but I don't see this as any different than some of the other automated systems that give people things to do occasionally. I've never thought CorpSEC players don't RP anymore because troublemakers come around and I imagine this would not stop medics from connecting to people either.
