Chief Engineer

One of many Jobs
Chief Engineer
All right, who broke it?
Alt-Titles
Head Engineer, Foreman, Maintenance Manager
Department
Engineering
Access
Engineering, Atmospherics, CE Office, Bridge, Maintenance, EVA, AI Upload
Duties
Coordinate Engineering, fix bigger problems, ensure integrity of station and AI.
Supervisors
Site Manager
Difficulty
Hard

The Chief Engineer is the individual in charge of the station's integrity and of the AI's structural well-being. That means making sure there are no breaches, equipment remains operational, and the AI doesn't get any weird laws. As the chief engineer, you have authority over station's engineers and the atmospheric technicians.

Role

You are the head of the Engineering department, which includes not only Station Engineers, but Atmospheric Technicians as well. Essentially, your job is to boss Engineering and Atmospherics around and make sure the engine, atmospherics, and the solars are set up so that the power and air are constantly flowing.

Other than directing the workflow of the department, you're also expected to carry out general engineer duties and maintain the AI. To be a good chief it is imperative that you have a good working knowledge of how APCs, SMES cells, and power in general works, how to decipher atmospherics, how to efficiently set up the supermatter and solars and how to get your engineers moving.

Duties

It's no secret that engineers are more often than not the laziest of the station's crew, and that there is no job that surpasses the capacity for an atmospherics technician to be completely clueless about his own department. This is where you come in! As stated above, your duties consist pretty much entirely on telling the engineers and atmos techs to work or just doing their jobs yourself. Listed below are those jobs.

At the Start of the Round

Greet your team over the radio and establish your authority. Find out who you will be working with and how many of them, and make sure that everyone has a job to do. Designate someone to do solars (unless someone else volunteers first) and get everyone else working on the supermatter. If you take charge these first minutes of the round, most of Engineering will follow the rest of your orders until the round ends. If you stay silent then when you suddenly need something done halfway through the round, you can guarantee that nobody will listen to you or know who you are. If nothing else, speaking over the channel will at least tell you who on your team you can rely on.

Supermatter and the Setting Up Thereof

Setting up the engine and supplying power to the station should be the first priority of the engineering department. Most of the time your team will be fairly competent and you'll only need to supervise, but sometimes you'll have to step in. Read the guide, and make sure you know it. If someone's clearly new, help them out a bit and show them the ropes. If someone's clearly being an idiot then shout at them and forcibly demote if they continue. With these points in mind the supermatter should successfully start generating power. It's always a good idea to announce this to the crew when it happens. It is also a good idea to have your team set up the powers substations found on board.

Solar Panels

Whilst the supermatter outputs a ton of power, a hardened engineer like yourself knows that it's volatile, and failures and problems can, and will arise. This is where solars come in. Solars output a decent amount of energy and can keep the station running at bare minimum or ration power with substations whilst you inevitably sort out an issue with the supermatter, but they need setting up first! Luckily this is even easier than setting up supermatter and you can just designate one of your engineers to go out and complete the task, better yet if they volunteer.

Atmospherics, the Great City State of Pipes

The supermatter is radiating, the solars are wired and the engineering team are at your beck and call. The station is getting a steady supply of power and you're confident your team can maintain this and repair any damage to the hull. Your job is done, right? NOT SO FAST, my friend! Haven't you forgotten Atmosia?

Yes, as hard as it is to accept, that convoluted bundle of pipes and its clueless staff are under your jurisdiction and it's your responsibility to make sure that it's keeping everybody breathing. As the CE, you are expected to know the basics of how atmos works, how to optimize it, and then how to keep people from messing it up. If possible, it's recommended that you have as much experience in Atmospherics as you do in regular construction and engineering. Nobody likes a Chief Engineer that does not know how to re-pressurize a room correctly. Again, read the guide and learn it.

All you really have to do with atmos is get acquainted with its staff (You can do this at round start along with your direct minions, as they share the engineering channel), make sure they know how to optimize it (if not, do it yourself - better yet teach them), and then check back in if you feel necessary.

Continued Maintenance

Now that the station's systems are running at maximum capacity or are in the process of being made so, you can relax a little and order some pizza. Here is what you should be doing:

• Make sure the phoron tanks are switched out when they get low in the radiation collectors, or no power will be generated!
• Periodically check out Atmospherics to make sure nobody's messed it up.
• Listen to the radio for hull breaches. When you hear of one, send a couple of engineers out to mend the damage.
• Supervise the supermatter and take action when it looks like it's going to explode.
• Talk to your team. Make sure solars are wired or in the process of being done, and ensure there's always at least one engineer in Engineering to monitor power levels.

As Chief Engineer you may authorize autolathes to be set up to assist engineering. You can also ask Security if they will allow you to build a security camera computer to assist engineers in monitoring damaged areas.

Links to Other Departments

You coordinate actions between the captain, the other heads of departments, and your engineers. You'll be working with Security when they need to get into a crime scene that happens to be depressurized (this happens a lot), with Medical when they need to rescue someone in an area that's minus atmosphere or plus poison (do try to keep them from rushing in and adding to the casualties), and with Science when they blow something up yet again. Your headset lets you keep track of your engineers, where they are and what they're doing, as well as check in with the other departments to be sure everyone has the engineering help they need.

Scene Advice

As a chief engineer, you have access to a number of locations that you might find useful for your scenes. The most notable of which is your own cosy office, away from prying eyes! These include a variety of engineering facilities, such as quiet SMES rooms, and the atmospherics rooms. You technically have access to all of the tools that you need to enter any room to set up your scene, but use these sparingly and avoid inconveniencing others, and clean up after yourself! Lastly, you have access to all of the tools that you could need for constructing your own little room that fits just what you need, and easy access to the exterior of the base, for those romantic space walks.

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