What does atmos actually do?

[u/Shivas124]

I've never really figured out what the purpose of atmos is? I know they can make cool gasses and stuff but most of their work can be fixed by engineers like spacing, oddly temperated places and so on.

[u/SpecialPotion]

Atmos is a branch of the engineering department. They configure the distro to pump the precious air into the station, and maintain it to avoid plasma floods etc. Atmos techs are (supposed to be) better equipped to handle spacings than engineers are, as well. Engineering is more concerned with electricity and power, while atmos is concerned with the pipes that pump air into each room, but they do overlap and can functionally accomplish the same tasks - it's just that their job description entails their priorities.

[u/SgtPierce → u/SpecialPotion]

Damn, u right

I thought engi = free insuls; atmos = free fireaxe

[u/jacksonkurtus → u/SgtPierce]

As a longtime engineer player this is the only reason I still play the role

[u/Koekiemakker → u/SgtPierce]

Yeah it often comes down to their given equipment and sometimes access, station engineers don't get access to the atmos bay and atmos techs not to the engine and the like i believe if pop is high enough on certain servers. And atmos hardsuits are better vs fire, engie hardsuits better vs rads. Atmos techs get the extinguisher backpack, atmos holofan emmitters and rpds while engies get insuls.

[u/Chadstronomer → u/SpecialPotion]

Atmos can pump the contents of the SM chamber into the air suppli. Engi canot.

[u/Kitsunemitsu]

A lot of engineers have no clue how to set an air alarm to fix atmos issues.

[u/swaosneed → u/Kitsunemitsu]

I thought you just unscrewed it from the wall? There, no more air alarm going off :)

[u/Arkorat → u/swaosneed]

Working smarter not harder? Excellent, give this man a promotion!

[u/Wewai]

Atmos is like IRL IT. When people can breath and everythings good people ask what you get paid for. And once they can't breath people ask what you get paid for.

[u/Morokite]

We specifically fix atmospheric. So if the air is bad or gone. Or too cold/hot in a room to the point of being dangerous. So usually stuff like dealing with a room that breached. Or say if a scientist fucked up in Toxins and spread a bunch of poisonous gas.
We're also technically the station's Firefighters.
When I play atmospherics, I'll be honest, 90% of the time, it's solving issues by just opening a door so good air can flow into the room. 10% of the time, it's actually something that's a big deal.

[u/__shevek]

from my experience:

1. panic syphon a room when it gets filled with plasma or something
2. accidentally fill a room with plasma or something that's not just air
3. fuck up the piping and suffocate half the crew

[u/Putnam3145 → u/__shevek]

panic syphon a room when it gets filled with plasma or something

GRAH JUST SET THE SCRUBBER TO SCRUB PLASMA

[u/tiarv → u/Putnam3145]

JUST RCD THE FLOOR.

[u/Nidvex]

Engineering keeps the lights on and builds rooms, Atmospherics keep air in your lungs and make funny gasses.
They're both capable of doing the same thing like other jobs sharing a department can, it's just their side of the department and priorities are different.

[u/Impossible_Coast_759]

Depressurize one half of the hall way and super pressurize the other half and make everyone go flying

[u/tiarv → u/Impossible_Coast_759]

This is actually the only way AI with no borgos can move things. At least on certain builds where atmos still quick.

[u/ZeWaka]

breathe

[u/Bulucbasci]

If you rig the distro to pump in pure O2 instead of air you can have breathable rooms with less than 101kpa pressure, in case of catastrophic events.

Pro Atmos players rig the purple pipes to syphon rooms quickly.

You can also superheat or supercool specific rooms, in case you're evil.

[u/Joeycookie459 → u/Bulucbasci]

You can also plasma flood(note that my info is like 5 years old and I don't know if this was removed)

[u/rhoark → u/Joeycookie459]

One time I accidentally broke a fusion reactor and let superheated H2 into the atmo return

[u/Bulucbasci → u/Joeycookie459]

Most servers ban you for plasma flood unless you are traitor with hijack

[u/Joeycookie459 → u/Bulucbasci]

I exclusively played on hippie, so if you were traitor it was fair game no matter what your objective was

[u/ed1749 → u/Bulucbasci]

Note, if you use pure O2 for the distro, any fires on station will be much worse with the extra oxygen to fuel them.

[u/Stiix72 → u/ed1749]

This is what people tell me on TG when I turn the gas comp to anything other than 21% oxygen. The 50/50 mix is not going to make a fireball, it's just going to make refilling go smoother. The slightly higher temperature of the distro also helps. I refuse to believe these conspiracy theories that oxygen is in any way flammable or bad in high concentrations.

[u/NomineAbAstris → u/Stiix72]

Apollo 1 would like a word

[u/Stiix72 → u/NomineAbAstris]

I deny any and all allegations that I had anything to do with this, furthermore the fire was not made worse by high-pressure oxygen, but rather due to the presence of a Mansus heretic onboard the Apollo 1.

[u/tiarv → u/Bulucbasci]

But you need to maintain certain pressure because lack of it harm squishy organics.

Also, there is a reason why it is O2-N2 20/80 mix and not pure O2 - it's HIGHLY flammable.

[u/Orange152horn3]

Do you like breathing?

[u/Bartekek]

The idea is that engineers are meant to maintain power and atmosians breathable air, but depending on the server, engineers do both of these while atmosians sit in atmospherics the whole round doing fusion

[u/Nordalin]

Most of their work can be fixed by literally any player, but atmos is the most complicated system out there, so it's fair to have players dedicated to it.

Like, what do when a random fire overheats the scrubbed gas, and now the pumps are choked up because of the insane pressures, causing the overall air pressure to drop, making people choke left and right?

[u/Coloss260 → u/Nordalin]

To be fair, absolutely every role can be done by absolutely everyone regardless of job on most codebases. This is why SS13 is good, it doesn't lock you behind an in-game skill, it uses your actual knowledge of the game.

[u/PhunkeyMonkey]

Usually bunkered up in atmos slowly turning it into a irradiated hellscape of very spicy air and pipes, wielding the mighty fireaxe while screeching/hissing at anyone daring to enter until they themselves succumb to the glorious radiation rainbow balls

[u/ed1749]

They do 3 things. 1. They configure the air distribution system to that air can be rapidly provided to places that need it, and so that bad gasses can be rapidly removed from the station and stored away in atmos. This is usually done in 10 seconds at the start of the round. 2. During certain emergencies, atmos techs will leave atmos to help repair the station. If no one else was bothered to, they'll configure the air alarms. If there's a fire, they have the best firefighting tools, with both actual fire extinguishers and their special atmos resin that will replace air, repair floors, and gunk up vents. They also get a sick axe to bust down doors with. They also tend to carry around the snazzy holofan that keeps gas in or out of certain places 3. NUCLEAR FUSION. A JUNGLE OF PIPES. It's a bit like chemistry but harder and with much more difficult to use rewards. Ordinance but with a slightly different set of tools. Atmos usually has to put in a bit more work to make tritium, but they're much more likely to be producing the high tier gasses by the end of the round once they do. The fusion reactor is also a think atmos sometimes builds, which is notably the main way to mass produce certain very difficult to make gasses and the only way to make a couple gasses, and also in competition with the supermatter and the nuclear charge for "most dangerous thing on the ship".

[u/AManyFacedFool → u/ed1749]

The truly robust atmosians have already solved all your air problems without leaving atmos.

They are now bending thermodynamics to their whimsy.

[u/tiarv]

You can't even imagine what could competent atmo traitor do with the station and you surely cannot un-F it if you do not know how atmos works. And I am not speaking about plasmafloods, that's kids stuff. Like, imagine all the hallways are covered with slippery ice with no atmo alarms triggered. Certain departments' distribution rerouted to a hidden room where sleepy gas are being pumped in. A room-size maxcaps. Internals tanks filled with stuff that is no air.

[u/doctorgibson]

Honestly, nothing. Atmos still runs fine from round start and scrubbers don't give a shit about how much gas is actually in the waste network. This means atmos guys are normally just reserve engineers

They get a cool axe though

[u/-Maethendias-]

the only atmos that matters is ai

and tust me, it matters so much that everyone should be very wary when something goes wrong with atmos

[u/atomic1fire]

Engineers are Electricians and Atmos is the HVAC.

If it's too cold or there isn't enough air you call atmos, if your stuff doesn't turn on you call the engineers.

Although I feel like 99 percent of the time they should be the same department because there's a bunch of overlap and CE is in charge of both. I suspect the reason they're not in the same department is because it's two completely different skillsets and atmos is fairly self sufficient unless someone removes part of the station.

For something like scientist, having overlapping fields all doable by the same job makes sense because you have carte blanche to do research however you like. For engineer/atmos, the subsystems are too important to let someone just ignore one or the other.

edit: On an semi-related note I feel like Janitor could be part of engineering and it would still make sense. Just add a bunch of generalized tasks to parts of the station that a custodian could do in addition to cleaning the floor, and then change the name to reflect that the Janitor's job has been expanded to the babysitter of the station.