Engineering Guide
Written by Jenson
The engineering department is one of my favorites. It is the most active role you can play (besides the CO) and is a job that is both engaging and fun. I personally recommend that you do not take an engineering position unless you have a fairly good knowledge of Star Trek and its technology. While you won't have to necessary use technobabble, knowledge of what you are maintaining will serve you very well. As a Chief Engineer, you'll have to divide your time between your two posts, the bridge and main engineering. This is a very difficult balance to maintain and it's difficult to describe when you should be in either place. As a rule of thumb, be on the bridge when things are calm in engineering, there are no repairs to be mounted, and no outstanding work for you to do. Also, be on the bridge when critical situations arise where it is unlikely you will take damage. Being on the bridge during these times can allow the CO more plot opportunities and give you a chance to be more active in the plot during what would normally be your downtime. Anytime there is an alert, it's probably a good idea to be in engineering. If you have someone working Ops during an RP, you don't need to worry as much about keeping the bridged manned, as the Ops officer can assume a lot of those "engineering on the bridge" duties. Let me quickly run through the cannon engineering procedures during Red Alert.
During Red Alert you should do the following:
Go to engineering (unless there are special circumstances)
Seal blast doors
Raise warp core containment field
Run level-3 diagnostics periodically (Cannon says 15 minutes, but RP time is obviously different)
The first two should be done by any CE, the third is completely optional. I tend to announce via local chat that a level 3 diagnostic is being run but that's just me. You can actually "do" the diagnostic as well if you have downtime during a Red Alert.
During Yellow Alert you should do the following:
Be in engineering (unless there are special circumstances or a situation that probably won't involve damage)
Run level-4 diagnostics periodically (see the note I made below RA procedures)
After a situation where you are damaged, you will need to effect repairs. You should delegate some of the work to your NPC or PC subordinates and yourself work on repairing the systems. How you do this is completely up to you and varies from person to person. If you'd like to see a demonstration of what I do, please let me know sometime on the server. Even if the ship is not damaged and you have some downtime, you can always tweak some systems if nothing exciting is happening on the bridge. Find ways to engage in your fictional workâthat's what role playing is all about.
One quick note, core breaches are to be avoided unless explicitly asked by the CO. You may create a situation in which you say a core breach is possible; however, do not actually create the breach without the consent of the CO.