Feature Request: Punch Clock & Working Hours

[dalmationer]

Orbstation Working Hours!

About: A thing that we often see on a number of /tg/station forks is the idea that players don't leave their departments enough or use the common areas, such as the Library, the Bar, the break rooms or the entertainment centre.
Many attempts at fixing this have been a carrot-and-stick mechanical approach such as using the hunger system and Mood system to impose speed-penalties.
This proposal covers an in-universe method of achieving this goal while also providing opportunities for antagonists, increased responsibility to some roles, and a useful feature for low population servers: the punch clock!

The Punch Clock:

The Doctor Is In!

The punch clock is a small, easily built wall-mounted machine which allows players from a specific department to clock-in by swiping their ID. Clocked-in players are paid wages, however players who are not clocked in are paid less. (wages may need to be boosted to compensate. (or not, nanotrasen IS a corporation, after all.)) Players who interact with the punch clock can see everyone who's clocked into it, plus heads of staff and the detective can see the history of who clocked in and out when, clear its records, clock out everyone currently clocked in.

Why: Lets you see who's in a department, so if you need to get some morphine, you can just check the clock-in to see if there's a chemist in. Gives detectives another fun tool, lets heads of staff shout at people for taking too much overtime.

Thoughts: Perhaps some doors only open for people who are clocked in? E.g., you need to clock in to access the AI core, leaving a record of your access.

Perhaps the punch clock can be hacked with a screwdriver and multitool to give everyone who accesses it head of staff controls, shock, or give overtime.

Perhaps the punch clock can be emagged?

Working Hours:

This is the main part of the proposal. The gist is that the station will no longer operate 24/7. Day-night cycles are already coded into the lights. During the night cycle, non-head of staff members in the department are given a warning when their working hours are done, encouraging them to clock out. After a short amount of time, the department will enter off-hours, with doors gaining off-hours access and lights powering down.

Players who stay on will earn overtime but may become fatigued. They also might have trouble moving around due to the increased access and low light.

Departments affected: Cargo, Science, Medbay, some parts of service.

During off-hours, players get a huge mood boost from being around other players, or from being in common areas.

Why: encourages socialisation and getting BLOTTO!

Security:

Department Security Officers gain a Night Watch Keychain for their department, which can open off-hours doors. Use this to roleplay being a night security mall cop.

Why: It's funny.

Janitor:

The Janitor gains a Massive Keychain that has lots and lots of keys (might need some rummaging to find the right one, though!) This lets him get into low-security parts of all departments during off-hours.

Wouldn't this make the janitor really powerful?: Yes. Look buddy, I'm a union organiser irl, and one of the big things we always teach in trainings is "ALWAYS GET THE CLEANER ON SIDE" because janitorial staff can be anywhere, get ignored, and see things they're not supposed to see. The janitor should be powerful as hell, as that's true to life.

Service:

Service department is likely to be most active during off-hours, so it doesn't do them in the same way. It's probably a good idea to take shifts, though. The Botanist probably takes a break during off-hours, so it's a good idea to stock up on ingredience while the lights are on.

Head of Personnel:

Can possibly set day length manually? If you set it over 12 hours a big warning flashes up saying "WARNING: THIS ACTION IS IN VIOLATATION OF SPACE LABOUR LAW, DO YOU WISH TO CONTINUE?" And if you hit yes, there are no consequences.

Antags:

The working hours system gives you a plausible reason as to why you might not be at work at a given time-- if it's off-hours, there's no REASON for you to be in your department. It also gives you a good time to do stealth and sabotage, as there are unlikely to be many players around during off-hours.