Suggestions for new station goals? pls?

[BottomQuark]

So, today we had community meeting.

I asked "Hey, what about station goals?"

They answered "We would like to have more"

So, if you have an idea for one nice station goal, post it here, let's see if we come out with something creative.

Station Goals are supposed to involve whole station.Who plays in engineering knows, that it's mostly engineering, cargo and science.

Current Station Goals:

1.DNA Vault.

Basicly, you make room for DNA Vault, ask cargo to order crate with board, then you just wait for science to reasearch parts then collect DNAs. BOOM that's it.

Once finished every crew member can just come to DNA Vault and obtain one of 2 random powers.

2. Blue Space Artillery

Basicly, you make big ass room ((The hardest station goal for engineering)). make machine frames, ask cargo for boards, then insert them. Scream at cargo for bluespace stuff, scream at science for parts. install

Once finished, you have one big ass cannon on station

3. Station Shields

Basicly, scream at cargo, make one computer, place sats in space, activate them.

Once finished, you are "protected" from meteors. That's also not true, some meteors always breach the station.

 

Current station goals do not involve security, medbay and service ((except hydroponics)) at all.
As engineer main, I'd love to see more station goals, cuz people don't want to make the same shit over and over again.
I propably will come out with something myself but it's 0:44 am, SLEEP

[WingedYordle]

Build a miniature station with science, med, small security, bridge, and engineering

[BqRel]

An idea I had would be a NT-owned shuttle coming to the Cyberiad, and needing to be repaired before it could be sent off. It would dock where the Emergency shuttle would normally, be, and need to be rebuilt to repair any hull breaches, broken tech, and resupplied. 

It could keep all of the departments busy, with Engineering repairing it, and Security keeping it secure. Science could need a certain R&D level to repair a computer on it, with mining bringing them the supplies to make it. And then Supply and Medical could be needed to stock it up before sending it out. Maybe even have an injured pilot need to be cared for?

Main issues I can think of, is that it would require an above-average amount of admin involvement, and might impede calling the Emergency Shuttle until it is sent off.

[BottomQuark]

8 hours ago, Trubus said:

Build a miniature station with science, med, small security, bridge, and engineering

 

8 hours ago, BqRel said:

An idea I had would be a NT-owned shuttle coming to the Cyberiad, and needing to be repaired before it could be sent off. It would dock where the Emergency shuttle would normally, be, and need to be rebuilt to repair any hull breaches, broken tech, and resupplied. 

 

Even if it sounds fun, it's more of a amin event than station goal. It has to be something that you can code "BOOM constructed, switch that bool to true and there we go, green text at the end of the shift"

Building minature station is again, 99% engineering job, since people will come to the station after engineering fill the area with pressure, what means, already hull, power source atmospherics and piping, possibly already making windows, airlocks, etc. etc. to make it secure. What then? Engineering makes  shitton of computers, machines, what means science has to bring that from R&D, medbay sec and service would be involved really late if involved at all.

8 hours ago, BqRel said:

Main issues I can think of, is that it would require an above-average amount of admin involvement, and might impede calling the Emergency Shuttle until it is sent off

That would be the main issue, it has to be something that can be finished without admin involvement. Tho I'd love to see things like that happening, but instead ships docking to that 2-tiles-wide dock in arrivals. It's just not a station goal.

All current station goals can be completed on station, they do not require admin to do anything from what I know and provide something in return.

[Germ Man]

Here's an idea I had ages ago. Just making this up as I go. Dunno if it's useful or not, but I like the idea.

Anyone ever seen that warhammer 40k warp travel explanation?

Spoiler

Say it's an experimental warp drive, that NT wants to test, so they can build stations locally, and then warp them to their system of operation, rather than shipping millions of tons of building materials halfway across the galaxy.

(I'll use extreme hyperbole here. I know this would be a shitload of work for the spriters and coders.)
All we'd need is for some people to sprite a warp engine that engineering can build, and some coder to figure out how to make it do what it needs to do.
It'd require two machineframes for the engine itself, an SMES to charge it, and a direct powerline underneath both parts, and a computer with a warprive control board. Y'know, make it stand out from how the DNA Vault and BSA is built. Say the two machine parts need quad capacitors, some BS Crystas. The controls can be installed  away from the engine itself (like the station shield's controls) mainly so only command has access to it.

And here is what I think it should do:
Captain or RD have clearance to "Engage Warp" on the computer. This starts a charging sequences of 5 minutes (Kind of like the 10 minutes of cooldown on the BSA. Only that it has to be manually started)
Optionally, this could make a few lightbulbs burst at random, because the powergrid is getting overloaded to power this bad boy (Which involves the janitor to replace lights) or even the Gravity Generator kicking the bucket and needing to be manually restarted, solar tracking computers getting turned off, APCs changing settings, random doors being shocked, vending machines spitting out items. Anything power related. 
Once the station warps, the space background would change. Getting tinted either blue for bluespace, red for redspace, or going completely black or white for "nothing", green because the station was warped into an aurora caellus... It'd be random. And It'd last until the next warp, which will take you back to normal space.

Bluespace would force a minor event related to warp travel and stuff. Like wormholes, the immovable rod, a meaty ore shower, a minor radiation storm causing halucination, ion storms. 
Redspace would force things like xenomorph infestations, dimensional tears, very rarely auto traitoring someone to vampire, spawn bubblegum or a drake. You know. Redspace entities. (great for security) (emagging the warp engine will send the station into redspace.)
Warping into "Nothing" will get rid of all sounds, making people deaf for the time being. Maybe add colorblindness as well?
Completion of the objective would be very easy to handle. Did the station get warped somewhere and back? Success.
Every warp jump would require a full plasma canister inserted into the engine (they really don't serve any purpose other than the singulo right now, I think?)
 

Edited July 1, 2018 by Germ Man

[Eler00]

Humanitarian Crisis

A nearby planet/space station is suffering from a natural disaster and urgently requires aid. NT has taken a contract to supply said aid, now it falls on the crew to provide it. To fullfil this goal, you need to sent to CC via the cargo shuttle the following items (mostly in boxes)

 

X calories/points worth of meals, giving the chef and botany something to do.
Y points worth of medical supplies/medicine, provided by chemistry.
2 Oddys, for search and rescue.
2 Ripleys, for construction work and rescuing people from under rubble.
(can probably extend this list quite a bit more)

 

Now, I don't how how the cargo shuttle code works but it shouldn't be that hard to have it detect those things being sent away on the shuttle and adding them to a total, right? Maybe send a fax to the bridge with a running tally of how many points/etc were delivered and how many are still lacking.

[Biffthegreat]

Problem with RP / non engineering objectives:

Quote

All current station goals can be completed on station, they do not require admin to do anything from what I know and provide something in return.

The problem with non-engineering/science objectives is confirming whether or not they have been completed without admin checking. I.e., it can be automatically checked if they have been completed. This means that RP based objectives or ones which involve no specific construction can't easily be checked.

 

Solution?

Have it so command can call in a station inspector (like an ERT) to come and check that it has been completed. They can come on the ERT shuttle, observe whatever has been completed or done, read the reports / pictures and then head back to the ERT base. They can then press a button on a new computer back where they came from at ERT base  to confirm objectives complete. This way no admin involvement is required as it can be confirmed/denied in-character and it would give an extra role (or multiple roles) for those who have died to get back into the game.

That way we could have silly non-engineering objectives. Some ideas:

Possible objectives:

(1) Put on a play to raise morale (HoP responsibility)

(2) Organise a fun fair for tourists (Clown/Chef/Bar responsibility)

(3) Build and populate a biodome (Biology/Engineering responsibility)

(4) Establish a successful colony (Everyone's responsibility)

(5) Implement a rehabilitation program and successfully rehabilitate three offenders (Security/HoP/Magistrate/HoD responsibility)

(6) Hold a full station trial with jury (Security/HoP/Magistrate/Journalist responsibility)

(7) Run an apprenticeship program in all departments so each has to hire and train a cadet in a new role (Everyone's responsibility)

(8) Install toilets in each department (Shitty objective)

(9) Replace Cloning with a pod-person programme (Botany/Genetics etc.)

(10) Ensure the station is spotless and without any mess (impossible objective)

 

Having inspectors would open the station up to bribes, or worse - what would happen if an EOC got one? Oh no!

Edited July 1, 2018 by Biffthegreat

[BottomQuark]

The point is, that we don't want an event, we want station goal.

I do like the idea of sending CC some shit.

We could make a list of for example 50 items CC would want us to send them, randomly take 10 of them, list would be sent via communication console, just as every station project report is beeing printed. We could implement nice variety, one shift for example they would want us to send materials and tech boards, another round mechs, bluespace backpacks etc.
I have no idea how hard would it be to code, but that could involve every department if done right.

[Pennwick]

Its important to examine what we want from station goals. Was that went over in the meeting as well? I haven't played in a while but when working on ideas here's what I feel should be the goals of the goals so to speak.

1. Involves as many departments as possible. Preferably in a meaningful way. For example while the DNA vault typically involves engineering anyone can really slap that thing down in a hallway without too much trouble, so engineering might not count. Botany needing to provide plants is meaningful since while others could do the same via seed crates and the garden it would be much more difficult.

2. Provide a benefit to the station as a whole. Currently the DNA vault does this pretty well, everyone likes powers. The Shield provides a possibly deserved, underappreciated amount of benefit. The Artillery rarely is used for more than blowing up the test range. Its pretty badly hindered in use because there isn't much off station to target and nobody really wants to blow a hole in the station.

3. Provide a benefit/concern to antags. Have it somehow shake up the dynamic. Again the vault is good at this because it gives security and antags a boost. Security either has to screen the vault's use or accept that even though they've gotten a pretty significant boost so did everyone else.

4. Be feasibly completed before the 80 minute mark.  You want some time to enjoy the benefits. The vault being completed last minute is a prime offender but its actually not too bad if cargo, botany, and xenobio are really on top of their game. Its just got 3 chokepoints which often slow it down.

As such here is a possibility I have come up with:

=========================

{Anything in parenthesis is a way of expanding the idea depending on the scope it wishes to take.}

[Anything in brackets is a smaller, optional consideration for the players in the event.]

Goal: Create 3-6 Super Spess(wo)men

Involves: Cargo, Robotics, Surgery, Genetics, (Engineering), [Security], [Command]

Benefits to crew: Possibilty to be transplanted into a superior body, benefiting from colleagues being put into one, (Potentially easier access to powerful implants)

Antag balance concerns: Possible security supersoldiers wandering around, possibility of putting an antag into said supersoilder body.

Time estimate: 40 (60) minutes

How it works in detail:

Alright. First thing is Central orders up a batch of supersoilders. Depending on population the number requested is 3-6. Superspessman meat crates are available in cargo at 30-40 points a pop, Security ones are 50 each, Supersoilder assembly instruction crate is available for 10 each (Contains 3 books of instructions). Crates are shipped to robotics for initial configuration and setup. With a multitool Robotics [with guidance from command] choose which types they'll create. Security ones are preconfigured and thats the only way to get them. Other 'modules' could be almost anything but to start I have ideas for Engineering, Robotics, Medical, Service, Security. From there they slap some robots parts in. Usually involving at least 1 regular implant, several cyborg parts, and one experimental implant which requires a combination of one of the parts in the crate and a somewhat easy to get item. For example the medical setup might include: Cyborg exoskeleton, left arm, left leg, medical hud implant, surgical implant, experimental part made from empty autoinjector.

If all the proper pieces are inserted Robotics multitools the body and gets a supersoldier corpse. (This potentially comes pre installed with a Mindshield implant, though it can be removed/stolen after this point.) They ship it on to medical. Medical works with genetics to finish the body. A supersoilder needs a rather complex set of limbs, detailed in the book, to function otherwise the finished body is paralyzed. For example the Security module might require Unathi limbs but monkey hands.. So genetics gets the proper subjects to surgery who transplant them onto the supercorpse. Once you've repaired the rest of the damage you gotta shove a MMI or Posibrain in the chest and defib them back to life. Super individuals would not have a timer on defibulation. And you're done! Go be the hero/villian the station needs.

Heres some basic ideas for how they're diffrent: Across the board they have a bit of brute and burn resistance, Engineering are: spaceproof, implanted NV mesons, toolset implant, internal storage. Medical: airborne and contact virus immunity, Surgal tools implant, self refilling hypospray, Implated HUD (Maybe a defibrillator). Robotics: Tools, Diagnostic HUD, (Binary channel), nanopaste dispenser. Security: Implanted Taser, stun resistance, more armor, security hud implant. Service: Internal music sythesiser, burger gun. Clown: HONK.

(If you want to take things a bit further perhaps these individuals could be scanned. Once you have the target reached you get a board for a new machine. This machine will quickly and painfully produce and insert implants without long surgery. Choose what you want, step in, wait 5 seconds and step out. Of course if you're not on some painkillers you'll probably scream and pass out but you'll eventually be better than ever. Some of the experimental implants might be available this way too.)

[Of course this is a huge security risk. Security may wish to screen who gets put in a supersoilder body perhaps make chemical implants manditory. Command should probably decide which modules get made lest you get 4 more Clowns or buger shooting service modules. The HoP may want to get involved deciding who makes the cut.]

==================================

It would need a pretty significant amount of code work though to handle. Supersoilder would probably be a new race entirely. One that doesn't passively decay, can be defibulated past 5 minutes. The fact that if their body isn't configured correctly might be a bit snowflakey. It could be maybe handled by the heart not working but even thats a bit of an issue. The robotics end of things probably wouldn't be too bad but once the meat chunk becomes a body you're gonna run into issues. Ballance wise I don't see too many issues. The security module is powerful but more expensive and if command lets it go through two departments without notice either they're incompetent or someone is being sneaky enough to be rewarded.

As a whole I feel Super Spessman creation would be a good fit as a station goal, either in this way or something completely different. Good for crew, potential antag shenanigans, and very NT brand SCIENCE.

[necaladun]

36 minutes ago, BottomQuark said:

The point is, that we don't want an event, we want station goal.

Very much this - station goals need to require 0 admin intervention.

[Pennwick]

2 hours ago, TDS said:

Humanitarian Crisis

A nearby planet/space station is suffering from a natural disaster and urgently requires aid. NT has taken a contract to supply said aid, now it falls on the crew to provide it. To fullfil this goal, you need to sent to CC via the cargo shuttle the following items (mostly in boxes)

This could potentially work and does involve a decent chunk of the crew depending on what is in the request. Probably wouldn't be too difficult to code either. Issue is, what's in it for the crew? Warm fuzzies are great and all but typically people want more. Perhaps once the order is filled something else could be sent back. Idealy something that can't be got on station. For example Medbay always loves a medigun or staff of healing. Other departments are a bit more tricky to reward though. Hard to give them something that is all at once rewarding, balanced, and not ahelp inducing. Sure you could give Security NT longarms but 9/10 its not gonna end well and you could give Engineering an infinite power source but they already got the engine.

[Eler00]

41 minutes ago, Pennwick said:

This could potentially work and does involve a decent chunk of the crew depending on what is in the request. Probably wouldn't be too difficult to code either. Issue is, what's in it for the crew? Warm fuzzies are great and all but typically people want more. Perhaps once the order is filled something else could be sent back. Idealy something that can't be got on station. For example Medbay always loves a medigun or staff of healing. Other departments are a bit more tricky to reward though. Hard to give them something that is all at once rewarding, balanced, and not ahelp inducing. Sure you could give Security NT longarms but 9/10 its not gonna end well and you could give Engineering an infinite power source but they already got the engine.

I mean, the Bluespace Artillery hardly rewards any department (or even gets used), and the satellite shield most of the time does nothing. Hmm, how about anomaly cores or something to let science get research levels they normally can't reach? Say...perhaps the disaster was caused by a bluespace quake or whatever and they are sending back the resulting scan, which then lets the station get Bluespcae Research 7? Alternatively, a medigun could be very neat.

[McRamon]

Hey, while current goals focus more on engi team, there is an option to add not all-departments-involved goals but those which require for example mostly medbay or security to work on them.

Problem i see with them is, while engineers and scientists  work with constructions and machines, so it is easy to add more different "build something" goals, other departments work more with other players rather than non-playable stuff. 

Only thing i can think of that might help with implementing goals that focus on players themselves is to add new "antag" role which is not actually antag, just works in the same way codewise, which allows you to be that guy others are working on to achieve station goals.

So, speaking of my ideas:

1) security focused - dangerous individual should be contained  and delivered to CC. Not the best idea since the person playing that role is going to spend almost all of the round sitting in a cell (unless sec team wishes to rp with said criminal). Additional variant for antags targets, along with kill/steal/hijack, to prevent station goal to be completed might help with that but still...

2) medbay/scichem - making a lot of different chems/meds/stimulants, including viruses, experiment chems from cargo and anything else possible and delivering it to cc via cargo shuttle. Maybe add food and plants to it so it could be explained as "emergency supplies for someone going through tough times"

 

Another option for medbay is treating some kind of illness or infection which requires ingredients from other departments to make cure for. Noone is infected when round ends - objective is done.

 

3) a megaborg size of a mech made with different sets of modules/components, including like... bluespace tomatoes, fireaxe, hyposprey filled with meth, shotgun, jetpack... like anything you add to itt has its effect, but amount of modules should not be high and people could argue about what station needs and which rare and expensive equipment they are willing to sacrifice. The thing is, it should not be very hard to build under an one hour mark, so borg actually serves crew. Goal is accomplished when borg reaches CC (no matter which modules are installed) but never forget, there is a possibility of a tator holding emag (or hacked ai module, probably) lurking around. 

 

4) supersoldiers i suggested some time ago in a different topic, but i think it was tested by some admin, not sure of test results tho

5) something with computers, programming and database. Not sure what exactly, have no idea, i would just love to see more game mechanics about computers

These are rough ideas which came to my mind while i was on my coffee break at work, but i hope my thoughts are at least a bit useful