*Edited for some formatting and to clarify that this was personal opinion and rambling that I posted as a blog on Confluence.*
Well yesterday was a holiday here in the US, 2.4 is bound to be released soon and I felt the need to ramble on some about SOP and what's coming in 2.4.
The One About Rescue SOP Changes for 2.4
I'll end up cross-posting this wherever it can best be seen.
After 18 months of Ratting and with a pretty big update (hopefully) days away that introduces new mechanics that we need to understand and account for. These and other changes need to be reflected in our Rescue SOP and I want to go through a history of what those types of changes are and how to get SOP changes made.
When the Rats started I'm guessing that what we today call SOP was mostly based on the understanding of the game mechanics and what worked at the time. There were certain things that made common sense (!prep'ing to reduce fuel usage), things that made sense from a technical standpoint (sending multiple Rats to fight instancing), things that needed to be done to keep others notified (updating dispatch) and things where a decision just needed to be made for everything else to work (moving to IRC, drills, etc.). As time and the game progressed some of the SOP changes needed to change for technical reasons (introduction of Xbox and PS4) or simply weren't documented before (Xbox and PS4 Troubleshooting). Then there were the SOP changes that didn't really need to be added because they kept with our Ethos, but the questions kept getting raised if we would do something (jumponium rescues).
Through my time as a Rat we've never had a Rescue SOP change that wasn't caused by something mentioned above. And those changes have always been by the same relative group of people. I'm not sure if it's just that no one thinks they can recommend or make those changes, or if they just don't want to be bothered. Since we started using JIRA/Confluence we've had a couple proposals for SOP changes, some that clearly needed to be made for reasons above (PS4 documentation) and some that may improve certain things (instancing based on IPR information) but would have a snowball effect of new vs. returning rats and how to educate without creating pure chaos.
But we find ourselves again with these two items that can/will affect SOP to some degree: hull/canopy repair limpets and o2 synthesis. I personally view repair limpets as no different than jumponium rescues. If a CMDR needs help and we can help them, of course we will. To avoid situations where it is someone who can easily repair themselves, or they're involved in something that the Mischief should stay out of, we will be issuing some SOP involving questions that Dispatch can/should ask to evaluate the situation. As always any Rat can choose to call their jumps or not to.
The question of how to address o2 synthesis is going to be one of those unspoken things that simply exists as an option, it's looking like. Like other changes, the Mischief has as many opinions on the matter as we have Rats. Newer CMDRs may not have synthesis or know how to use it, and these are likely the CMDRs to go CR. More experienced CMDRs may know exactly how many materials they have, but they're less likely to go CR. So for now, I think it's probably best that it stays as an available tool, but doesn't become formal SOP. No one has been able to provide a solid case one way or the other on how to handle it in all (or even most) situations, so an SOP wouldn't be possible, we'd need multiple new SOPs for different situations. These would then need to be taught to Dispatchers, Rats and most importantly explained to the clients who are often times new to the game and using IRC for the first time.
I know there are many different opinions and thoughts about portions of SOP needing to be updated or changed for reasons not specified above. As with anything, getting more involvement would be great on the discussions having to do with SOP. I know that sometimes the discussions can get heated, but if everyone remembered why we're here (to help others), that there isn't always a one size fits all solution and that changing one thing may have huge ripple effects causing even more friction these discussions while productive don't actually need to reach a conclusion leading to something changing these discussions are still useful. We really do like to base our changes on hard facts and data. Using subjective views and opinions isn't always the best way to change someone's views. I'm sure that most of you may know this, but for the past year with every major (and most minor) game releases we've tested various game mechanics on each platform to confirm our understanding and SOP. Everything from limpets causing damage to how relogging affects CMDRs in/near a station (yes there was a point that it was different between platforms). That information is collected and used to confirm our SOP, which is why most of you have probably never seen the version of the SOP that had clients keep their shields up and fly backwards slowly when limpets were fired...and hopefully never will again.
Also available at (access may vary):
https://confluence.fuelrats.com/x/KgHT
https://www.reddit.com/r/FuelRatDis...e_sop_changes_for_24/?st=j77ixkcd&sh=79faed15
https://paste.fuelrats.com/ametatolex.txt
