Build 26443269

Get up (F5)

Until now, SYSADMIN Hell happened on one screen. Not any more. Press F5 (or the new little person on the taskbar) and you get up from your desk onto a map of the office: the IT room, the server room, the supply cupboard, the kitchen, open-plan desks, a printer that has opinions, and a lift. The queue doesn't stop while you're away. A pager at the bottom of the screen tells you how badly it's going.

Some tickets now have to be fixed in person. Automation can't do them: it doesn't have legs. You walk to the pin and do the job with your own hands:

• Plug the loose cable into the port it actually fits
• Pull a paper jam out the way it went in (pull it the other way and it tears)
• Pick the right screwdriver bit for each screw on a monitor arm that gave up
• Find the empty toner cartridge (not the full one next to it)
• Swap a dead keyboard, mouse or monitor for a new one
• Set the thermostat to the number on the sticky note. Not 22. NOT 22.
• Change a flickering light tube, in the right order, if you'd like to keep your eyebrows

Your staff can do these jobs too, as long as the parts are in stock.

The supply cupboard, the workbench and the server room

• The supply cupboard on the ground floor holds the toner, cables, spares and PC parts. Take what you need (you can carry three things). When it runs low, order more: standard arrives tomorrow morning, express in under a minute at twice the price.
• The workbench, next to your desk. New starters need PCs. Each order comes with a spec: a processor, enough RAM, a big enough disk, maybe a graphics card, and a power supply that can run it all, inside Finance's budget. Build it, carry it to their desk, plug it in. The CEO's nephew wants his to cost more than yours.
• The server room. Servers now develop faults you can't patch from your desk: a drive with an amber light, a cable that has worked loose, fans full of dust. Go in, find the one that's wrong, fix it. Leave the unlabeled one alone.
• The lift goes to every floor the company has grown into. It doesn't stop at 4. It never has.

Investigate

Some of you told us you could get through the game by holding Space. You were right, and that was our fault. On a ticket that has quick fixes, holding Space now Investigates: it crosses out a wrong fix halfway, finds the right one at the end, and then you still have to pick it. Reading the ticket is faster, and that's the point: the tickets are where the jokes are. Tickets with no quick fix still need Work on it, as before.

Projects

From Day 3, Management proposes IT projects: replace the printers, single sign-on, proper backups, a second monitor (for you, personally), rebranding IT as "Digital Experience"... Approve one and it costs budget and your own time, because automation and staff won't touch it. Finish it and it improves the rest of your career. There are thirteen. You'll want all of them.

Controller support

You can now play with a controller, and on the Steam Deck. The left stick moves the cursor, A clicks, X works a ticket, B goes back, LB/RB switch programs, Select gets up from the desk. Touch the mouse or trackpad and it takes over again straight away.

Also

• Careers in progress carry on. You'll find the supply cupboard stocked when you arrive.
• Everything new is in all six languages.
• The Server Manager shows faults that need someone in person, and Stapley explains each new thing the first time it turns up.

Thanks for playing, and thanks for the reviews and the honest feedback. Both shaped this one.

Clock in. Then get up. You're already behind.