Quartermaster
| SUPPLY STAFF | |
  Quartermaster |
Access: Cargo Bay, Quartermaster's Office, Delivery Office, Mining Station, Mining EVA, Maintenance, Mineral Storage Additional Access: N/A Difficulty: Medium Supervisors: Head of Personnel Rank: Not defined Duties: Paperwork, order stuff, paperwork, send your underlings to collect crates, paperwork, coordinate mining, paperwork... Guides: List of the supply crates, forms, Guide to stocks Quote: "Why does the Quartermaster have more guns than me?" - Jeremiah Swift, Head of Security |
Do not play this without some experience as a Cargo Technician first, you'll ruin the round.
As a Quartermaster, your primary job is to flood the station with paperwork and more paperwork order equipment to help keep the station running. Make sure points aren't wasted, kick the clown out, and make sure your Cargo Techs aren't getting into trouble - and pull their arses out of the fire when they do. You have three helpers to run off with anything not bolted to the ground and ignore you help you redistribute things throughout the station. You also have authority over mining, and should try and coordinate the Shaft Miners to meet the needs of the station -- primarily, this means passing on requests from Robotics, Research, and Engineering.
You have sunglasses, a unique jumpsuit, mining access, and your own office. This is all that distinguishes you from a Cargo Technician. The Head of Personnel can waltz in at any time and order or take whatever they want.
Bare minimum requirements: Try to get some bounties completed and make sure your hard-earned cargo points aren't wasted.
Supply Shuttle Console
"Who the hell blew all our points on Wizard Costumes?"
The Cargo Bay and your office is filled with paper, paper and more paper. Most importantly, there is a console to order items. Everything that people will expect you to order that cannot be procured from the autolathe will show up on the Supply Shuttle once it arrives at CentCom.
Each order will produce a requisition form, which is usually best just shoved in the adjacent filing cabinet and forgotten until Security kicks down your door demanding to know who flooded the station with shotguns and clown outfits. Try and make sure that you know who ordered what. Your console and the one in the Cargo Office are ID-locked, requiring Cargo Bay access to function, meaning that only your subordinates (Cargo Technicians) and Superiors (Captain and Head of Personnel) can order stuff unless they somehow got access.
Supply Points
Every order on your console requires you to spend supply points. The pool of points is also used for other station purchases, such as custom shuttles, and to fund large station projects. As the QM, it is your job to make sure the station has enough points to do so.
Exports
You can earn bonus points by selling stuff to CentCom. This is done by shipping certain items back through the supply shuttle, including:
- 500 supply points per crate.
- 100 supply point per correctly stamped supply manifest (GRANTED if the crate had the right contents, DENIED if it didn't – must be in a crate when sent back).
- A full refund of any correctly denied supply manifests (some things to check: destination station, contents).
- 5-1,000 supply points per sheet of material (depends on material rarity, metal/glass the least rare and diamond/bananium the most).
- 100-400 supply points per fuel tanks and water tanks, depending on how full they are.
- ??? supply points per exotic seeds from Hydroponics.
- 50-200 supply points per animal hide. This includes human skin. The Cook might have some laying around if you ask nicely.
- 15,000 supply points should you get your hands on Syndicate Documents.
- 5,000-40,000 supply points for any rare artifacts that your Shaft Miners might find. Very low chance that they will want to part with their hard earned loot, however.
Crates are money. Find them. Hoard them greedily. Steal them if need be. The more crates you send back, the more stuff you can order.
Other things are money, too. If you think about, the station is really just a huge pile of money. Experiment! You can use your Export Scanner once linked with a Cargo Console to verify the price of an item before you export it. Just because you think a good might be worth something doesn't mean that Cent-Com wants it!
Direct Deposit, Direct Theft
The Vault contains a machine that accepts physical space cash and coins and adds it to the station's points total. This machine can also be robbed by unsavory individuals, causing you to lose supply points, but there will be a loud warning ("Unauthorized credit withdrawal") if this happens.
Crates
"Robotics is bugging me for a Ripley Crate - Everyone point and laugh."
Crates are the lifeblood of your department. Ideally, you'll be ordering quite a few of them. These can be delivered via MULEbot, via the mail office, via people picking them up, or your loyal workforce delivering them themselves.
There are very few jobs who will require a crate early into the round, so until something special happens or their progress gates are met, you'll have the pool of points to play with all to yourself. This includes the Autolathe. While you start with no materials, Auxiliary Tool Storage is just a ten-second walk away and will keep the lathe running for quite some time if you get all the metal and glass.
What's in Those Crates?
See the list of Supply crates.
Crates For You
You start with quite a few supply points, so here are some good first choices for the prepared Quartermaster:
- Insulated Gloves
- Engineering Equipment
- Metal/Glass
- Brute Medkits
- Standard Medkits
Crates For Everyone Else
Eventually, you'll get a feel for what different people want. The Roboticist will almost always want either metal and glass, while the Virologist will perhaps want a Virus crate. The Bartender might want to borrow a circular saw for his shotgun, and the Botanist might want seeds.
One of the marks of a good Quartermaster is the ability to anticipate someone's order and have it ready for them. This often means keeping a stock of insulated gloves and welding masks (if you're the type to hand those out to certain people) and checking out who walks in. If you just hand out everything to everyone, you are a security risk. Use your own judgement - an Assistant should not have an RCD, but an Engineer definitely should. Likewise, the clown should not have a combat shotgun, but Security can have one if they want it.
Other Stuff
Orbital Strike
You see that protolathe in your department? Well, if the eggheads in science do their job, you can create one of these babies. All you have to do is print the board and set up the computer. Now, for double the regular price, you can order anything instantly and make your bay even more of a mess!
Slave Revolt
"Confirmed Revs? Mindshield Implants and nothing but!" - Anonymous Quartermaster, shortly before suffering a tragic work-related accident
During a revolution, you can turn the tide for either side. The Quartermaster quickly becomes one of the most powerful people on the station, able to order mindshield implants or weapons en masse depending on what side they're on. Security will likely want to implant you as soon as possibl. Your sunglasses protect against flashes, but revolutionaries won't hesitate to beat you down and steal them to ensure your brainwashing.
And if you happen to be one of the scant few bourgeoisie who have taken up the cause of the working man, remember to convince your comrades that it is time to rise up and throw off the chains of the opressors. Those who suffer the most under the harsh yoke of the capitalists will be your staunchest allies in the glorious struggle. Always remember, comrade: A true revolutionary seeks a peaceful solution, if at all possible.
Tips
- If you're riding a MULEbot, you can't get facehugged.
- You can flip caps backward by right clicking them in hand or on your head. Don your trusty cap and tell the Captain to eat your shorts as you ride about on a MULEbot.
- Lethal projectiles can open crates, albeit slowly. Make use of a .357, the Bartender's shotgun, or any other projectile weapon to bust open Secure Crates.
- Packaging paper allows you to wrap things up and put them in your backpack when they wouldn't otherwise fit, like space suits!
Requisition Me a Beat(ing)
"Fun is Contraband. And we're all about contraband."
Many members of the station know that the QM can make things they aren't supposed to, and most security officers will overlook a little recreational hacking. Hack the Autolathe to make nifty toys like RCDs and Flamethrowers. You don't even need a multitool for this. Just snip and fix till you find the one that turns off the blue light - Remember your rubber gloves, because the green light makes it shock you. As long as you don't try to wall off Cargonia with an RCD, most people will forgive you for being prepared.
It's common for the Quartermaster to, at the very least, enable the MULEbots' nonstandard cargo and speed the motor up, though you can also upgrade the power cell if you have spares. The MULE is one of your best tools as a Quartermaster, and can make your life (and subsequently the lives of the rest of the crew) so much better.
See here how to use a MULEbot.
More Mundane Contraband
Contraband posters contain inappropriate themes that Nanotrasen has deemed too vulgar and have subsequently banned them from their space stations.
How to obtain:
- Get the circuitboard of your supply computer
- Multitool it and set its receiver to the appropriate spectrum
- Put it back in. You can now order contraband
- Note that contraband is illegal. Security can do whatever they wish to it, and therefore you for bringing it on board
There's also a certain way to open crates you shouldn't, if you can get your hands on it. Security will often panic about a Quartermaster that is better equipped than they are, so keep your ill-gotten gains hidden and secure until they are needed.
Ordering a Good Helping of Death
"Why is there a Singularity being built in Escape?" - Commissar Jesus, Chief Engineer
Being a Traitor QM is one of the best damn things in the game. As a Quartermaster, you have direct and easy access to weapons and tools many other jobs do not, and can easily conceal most of your nefarious deeds. Cutting the cameras is the first step to success drawing attention to yourself, followed closely by ordering and hiding a weapons crate. Better yet, send the crate back and stash the loot in your locker. Hell, you can even order a ton of weapons and give all of them to the greyshirts. Maybe they'll accomplish your objectives for you.
If you're feeling daring, order a Cryptographic Sequencer and use it to unlock any crate you want. You can even emag the ordering computer to get the Special Ops and NULL_ENTRY crates, which contain some nifty things. Problem is, this makes it a dead giveaway that you're a traitor, so pocket what you want to keep, space what you don't, and send the crate back. Don't forget to awaken the MULE's bloodlust -- that'll cause some havoc, creating an amazing distraction, and you can blame one of your slaves to take the heat off yourself.
Tips for traitoring
- Emitters can open locked crates, as can Gibtonite explosions.
- Crates can be trapped: Get a crate, put stuff in the crate, close the crate, apply cable coil, apply Electropack.
- Emagging the Cargo Consoles allow two special crates to be ordered:
- The Spec Ops crate contains several grenades and a parapen, as well as other assorted good
- The NULL_ERROR_ENTRY crate contains a random variation of syndiecate stuff like surplus crates
- You can emag your orbital strike console to make it able to fire anywhere (for 10k points). Recreate your favorite Simpsons episode[1]!
