Adds a Chemist and a few Technical professions

[Maze-GitHub]

Summary

Content "Adds a chemist and a few technical professions."

Purpose of change

• Adds a few professions that are true to life and I thought were missing from CDDA.

Describe the solution

• Adds a few new professions:
• Chemist
• Programmer
• IT Technician
• Maintenance Technician

Describe alternatives you've considered

• None

Testing

• Tested on experimental 09-17-0544

[NerosShadow]

My hero.

[github-actions]

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[kevingranade]

Please expand on what gaps you think these professions fill. We have a huge number of professions already and multiple different flavors of scientist seems like a stretch.

In particular the "doctor with a gun" thing doesn't hold up, military doctors aren't soldiers with medical training, and my understanding is they generally aren't doctors with soldier training either.

[Maze-GitHub]

Please expand on what gaps you think these professions fill. We have a huge number of professions already and multiple different flavors of scientist seems like a stretch.

In particular the "doctor with a gun" thing doesn't hold up, military doctors aren't soldiers with medical training, and my understanding is they generally aren't doctors with soldier training either.

To my knowledge we have no scientist professions at all in the game, at the moment. The closest thing I can find is "Lab Technician" but labtechs are definitely not scientists. The most obvious gap in this area is the Chemist, we have an entire chemistry skill but there is no dedicated Chemist in the game, the closest professions that we have right now are Lab Technicians and Pharmacists, but the duties of both are often really, REALLY different from that of a Chemist. The skillsets of Biologists and especially Physicists are not too well-supported in the game, so I'd get it if these two didn't make the cut.

As for the Military Physician, I did some surface level research on that one when I initially made this. Now that I am looking into it, the answers seem to be heavily tilted towards Military Physicians not being issued a sidearm, and if we remove that we might as well just resort only to having Doctors, but I thought it would be some good flavor to have a physician solely for the military now that we realistically took MD away from the Combat Medics.

Either way, with the new information that I have at hand, even if the Military Physician was to make the cut, I'd take the sidearm away as it now seems unrealistic to me that they would be issued one+get the training for it.

One workaround that I can think of to the Military Physician issue is making it a scenario only role, where it only appears in specific military starting scenarios without taking space in the profession screens of less specific scenarios, perhaps something similar for Physicists and Biologists (It would make sense for a Physicist to be able to start in the powerplant scenario, imo), although I am not too against those three getting trimmed off.

[kevingranade]

The most obvious gap in this area is the Chemist, we have an entire chemistry skill but there is no dedicated Chemist in the game

This is still assuming that, "If we have a major skill we need to have a profession that practices it". So that's your gap but why does it matter?

For example you say:

labtechs are definitely not scientists.

That's vacuously true, but why does it matter that there's a profession that does "practical science" (labwork) but not "theoretical science"? Theoretical science isn't really a thing in the game. Also there's an issue of demographics, there are only about 50,000 professional scientists in the us according to one source, and another indicated about 1.2% of the population has a PhD. Practicing scientists are incredibly rare, and you're very unlikely to run into one post-cataclysm.

One workaround that I can think of to the Military Physician issue is making it a scenario only role,

You're working at this backwards, it's not a matter of how to justify it, it's a question of does it make sense (no) and does it improve the game (no).

[Maze-GitHub]

This is still assuming that, "If we have a major skill we need to have a profession that practices it". So that's your gap but why does it matter?

It matters because it does not exist in a game where people might want to play a chemist in the setting of the Cataclysm? You could make this argument for any profession, really, why does the game need a clown? (and as a fun fact concerning demographics, there are roughly 50k to 100k clowns worldwide according to this one source, so imagine the US in particular) Why does the game need a BDSM guy/gal? Why does the game need a marine rifleman when we have the rifleman rifleman? The answer is that someone felt its lack in the game and spent their time and effort to try and fill in a gap that they saw there. We have a very extensive chemical crafting system, and since cooking got split into chemistry and cooking (iirc) I had been thinking, "Man, I wish we could play as a chemist in this game, could give me a good reason to do a playthrough where I am more inclined to use the chemical crafting system to its full extent." And at last, I finally took the time to add it in myself.

and another indicated about 1.2% of the population has a PhD.

And this source that I looked at indicates that you do not necessarily need a PhD to be a research scientist, although it is preferred. There are more practical positions out there where scientists can be employed, not every Physicist out there is trying to become Richard-Feynman, some are just helping design and improve nuclear reactors or cruise missiles, and more high profile scientists employed by the government are unlikely to be just left out by a government which is known to account for a lot of unlikely, catastrophic scenarios (See: FEMA and the camps), hence their survival.

...and you're very unlikely to run into one post-cataclysm.

One could present here a dozen professions that you are so unlikely to run into in the Cataclysm that you might as well search for a unicorn instead.

That's vacuously true, but why does it matter that there's a profession that does "practical science" (labwork) but not "theoretical science"? Theoretical science isn't really a thing in the game.

It is outright false to claim that none of these professions do labwork/practical science. None of these professions are purely "theoretical science" in real life, like I mentioned earlier. Chemists can be employed in hospitals, government agencies, ordinary factories where ordinary chemicals are produced, same goes for Physicists that can be employed in hospitals and power plants, not just to sit at a desk doing "research" all day but to actively consult and help solve problems, and in the case of Chemists, do some actual work themselves. Chemistry in particular is a field with a very wide range of applications, this is why I am inclined to defend the Chemist and its addition to the game (as again, we have a very extensive crafting system that utilizes chemistry and the prospect of playing a chemist is something that I had personally wanted to do for a long while in the game, but could not precisely without JSON edits). I am less inclined to defend something like Physicist and Biologist, as their integration into the game can come off as a little more shallow due to the current content.

You're working at this backwards, it's not a matter of how to justify it, it's a question of does it make sense (no) and does it improve the game (no).

Purely personal opinion. You could think that femboy bodypillows improve the game but I could disagree, but they would welcome you in a USS John F. Kennedy dorm anyway. I am not going to extensively defend something like Military Physician as it was more of a flavor addition that I had in mind and thought could add some more personality to the military starts in particular, but if you don't want it, that's cool, developers vision and all.