Exploration Idea Mega Thread [Equipment, guns, mods, oh my!]

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Kazkin
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Exploration Idea Mega Thread [Equipment, guns, mods, oh my!]

Post by Kazkin »

Expeditions at the moment follow a formula that is hardly ever varied. When on an expedition combat revolves around primarily shooting and only switching to melee when out of ammo or when pinned. This method is actually highly viable to such a degree that the meta for ss13 combat in virgo code is to max speed, ignore armor, and always stay at range by carrying multiple range weapons (usually 2 frontier phasers). My proposal is we much more widely vary combat by giving expeditions their own forging room and additional options when gearing up.

This is mainly by giving them armor and weapon choices by expanding what we currently have to be more in depth. At the moment anyone with wire cutters, 20 wire lengths, a bucket, and 4 metal sheets can make body armor and a helmet. This armor is... interesting, as it greatly slows down the wearer but gives a massive defense boost (steel sheets drop damage by roughly 33% on average while plasteel does 45%). Unfortunately the hefty slowdown combined with it not blocking the arms or legs make it a rarely used choice because the meta is don't get hit versus tanking hits.

The simple addition I want to start with adding is allowing for gloves, boots, and shields to be modified into armor similar to steel sheets and buckets so someone can get a full suit going. This makes armor and non "speedster" type player characters more viable. The simple process is this:

Gauntlets: Gloves > add wire > add 2 metal rods > add 2 material sheets.
Greaves: Boots > add wire > add 2 metal rods > add 2 material sheets.
Shields: Material armor plating > add wire > add metal rods.

A pretty minor addition over all but it gives a great amount of variance in gameplay choice and benefits the players who want to play brutes or melee focused characters without handicapping themselves.

The second part of this idea would be far more complex by adding variations on melee/range weapon choices through a forge room. My vague idea is something along the lines of a high-tech anvil/forge that allows you to put materials in and create a custom melee weapon while also allowing you to modify it in various ways. At the moment explorations have only a handful of melee and range weapons to really choose from:

Starting Weapons
The plasteel survival knife
The machete.
Frontier phaser
Hold-out phaser

Crafted weapons (only practical weapons listed)
Baseball bat
Spear
Butterfly knife
Crossbow (powered or unpowered)

Science weapons (only practical weapons listed)
Advanced energy gun
Phasers types (currently only damage animal mob types)
Prototype SMG
Now, the idea I want to implement is for the tech forge to essentially produce a variety of weapons for explorers. At the moment I want to preclude armor from the tech forge as some explorers will choose void suits for required missions and the base explorer suit for speed so keeping those as simple crafts seems more appealing from a gameplay standpoint. The current working idea is to make a station that functions like an autolathe for weapons, insert materials, select material type and then select which weapon to craft and what qualities. For now, this would only include melee weapons but depending on community feedback I’d also consider putting in ballistic weapons such as shotguns or rifles (likely of pipe weapon quality so on par with phasers but not great).

With melee weapons I’m currently looking at putting these in the tech forge:
[Legacy/craftable weapons]
Machete – Added to allow material customization. Cleaves.
Survival knife – Added to allow material customization. Fits in boot.
Spear – Added for easier construction. Reach.
Bat - Added so people know it exists. Only blunt weapon.

New weapons
Hammer – 1h blunt weapon, high armor penetration but slower swing.
Axe – 1h cutting weapon, moderate armor penetration, cleave, slightly slower than machete.
Katana – 2h cutting weapon, incredibly high damage, effected greatly by armor (can’t pierce well).
Great Axe – 2h cutting weapon, high damage, good armor penetration, slows movement speed.
Great Hammer – 2h blunt weapon, high damage, immense armor penetration, slow swing speed, slows movement.
Halberd – 2h cutting weapon, reach, slightly higher damage then spear but slightly slower swing speed.

Weapon Qualities
Weighted – Increases blunt weapon damage, slows movement speed. (Blunt weapons only.)
Sharpened – Increases base damage, weapon now requires whet stone repairs. (Cutting weapons only.)
Magma core – Changes damage type to burn. (May have this require upgrades from science, definitely will have cool high tech sprite similar to main servers mining hammer)
Rocket core – Hits cause knock-back, blunt weapons gain chance to stun, cutting weapons gain increased damage. (May require upgrades from science.)

Accepted material types (in order of quality):
Steel
Plasteel
Durasteel (IT FINALLY HAS A USE!)


This rough list is very much open to suggestion but the general idea is to allow explorers to start each round and think this: “Do I want light armor and speed? Do I want cutting weapons for the high damage or blunt for armored enemies? Do I want a heavy hitter or a shield for blocking? Melee or range?” The goal is to give options to change up the gameplay. Some of the implementations will be easy to code while others will be far more difficult but this is my current plan of action to make. Detailed further down is the ideas presented to me by Te.name on discord who wants to implement further mob types to change up enemy variation.
This next section isn’t so much about changing how mobs function or rewriting AI (as it stands it can be stupid at times but often functions optimally). This is to expand the type of enemies that might appear and give them a wider selection of abilities, stats, and sprites. Now, the current mob ideas proposed are hesitantly being classified into three areas to make sorting them simpler.

Basic
These enemies are very weak by themselves and only pose a threat in serious numbers. These mobs are generally pretty stupid and don’t offer much more than cannon fodder.
Examples: Red spiders, giant rats, man hacks, giant toads, faithless.

Support
These mobs are either entirely useless alone or not much of a threat unless accompanied by others. These mob types generally use stun weapons to weaken explorers, passively heal allied mobs, or lock down an area.
Examples: Turrets, infested spiders, stun spiders.

Bruiser
These mobs are either intelligent, well equipped, or have strong stat blocks. These are far more rare and provide the function of being a moderate to high threat to explorers. These enemies are the one capable of putting in some serious damage.
Examples: Mercenaries, deathclaws, corrupted hounds, xenomorph praetorians, combat drones.

Bosses
These mobs are the be all end all of death and can wipe entire teams if unprepared or caught unaware. These types of enemies should be extremely rare and generally linked to points of interest. These enemies also generally come with basic enemies to make them more dangerous.
Examples: Xenomorph queens, syndicate gygax, giant white space carp, statue.

This tentative list is to make it easier to classify community suggestions in this thread. At the current moment Te.Name and myself propose these new enemies.

Basic
Metal head – Created by the result of a heavily augmented humanoid with a nif that unfortunately was infected with a malware program called the void worm that corrupts them similar to hounds. Weak but fast and can hit mildly hard.

Support
Spark drone – Same speed, durability, and qualities as a man hack but uses a taser in place of melee. Found in the company of man hacks, hive bots, mercenaries, and void worm infected.

Bruiser
Chrome dome – A larger and more dangerous version of the metal head. Just as fast and packs a highly damaging punch that has a knockdown chance.

Bosses
Fountainhead – A military grade durand with a void worm infected mmi brain placed inside. Can spawn with multi-lasers, shotguns, or machine guns. Slow but has a devastating melee with high knock down chance. Highly resistant to all forms of attacks besides melee.

Suggestions, criticisms, and shitposts welcome. At the moment only myself and Te.Name are looking into working on this but any help is appreciated wether it be coding, ideas, or suggestions.
Characters: Momcat RD, Rat monk, Vampire idiot, Giant troll woman.
"History is a set of lies agreed upon."

VARKA & Selyn
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Re: Exploration Idea Mega Thread [Equipment, guns, mods, oh my!]

Post by VARKA & Selyn »

I'd be wary of overcomplicating the equipping phase of explorations. 40 minutes whilst the shuttle fuels is a pretty decent amount of prep time, but it can still take twice that for a full team to be ready if they're disorganized and waiting on other departments for additional supplies, especially if they want cool toys from R&D.

Only way I could see this working without adding a lot of delays is if the exploration hangar was modified (not too hard, there's a lot of spare space on the side of the showers) to allow the team to print and assemble their own gear (once any necessary research is complete) instead of having to go back and forth with the main R&D department.

New hostiles certainly wouldn't go amiss, but I'm drawing blanks on critter types.

As a final note for now; I'd also like to see the exploration shuttle layout get some tweaks for sleekness and space without making any major changes to the actual contents/loadout. I have a couple of draft designs floating around that I'll dig up later.

Ed: here we go-
Image
LEFT: The current shuttle.
CENTER: Redesigned.
RIGHT: Deluxe, aka Fatty.
General changes; telecomms relay is standard-issue now, because they're installed pretty regularly anyway. Might as well save everyone some prep time. I tossed out the airpump because let's be real, when is that actually used? They would both have window shutters/electrochromic windows because people are going to ERP in the cockpit anyway and external cameras installed, in the event of landing in a hostile environment.

In both models the hull offers slightly more cover and general access when leaving the craft via the central-rear airlock portion, so that teams aren't bottlenecked as badly.

Specific changes;
Redesigned - sleeker and slightly longer.The sleeper is center-aisle but could be placed to one side with a SAR seated next to it. The Pathfinder sits up-front with the pilots, who have camera access.

Fatty - much like the redesign but a bit chubbier and with more away team space (although imo even 6 team members is pushing it). Manages to be the same width as the basic shuttle but still longer. Pathfinder sits with the rest of the team but has their own camera console. More vents means the airlock can cycle faster, but more vents can easily be added to the redesign too.

Te.name
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Re: Exploration Idea Mega Thread [Equipment, guns, mods, oh my!]

Post by Te.name »

Here were some draft ideas for the sprites we had for the metal heads. These got accidentally deleted recently and will have to be done, hence the low quality of the gifs sorry. Image
Image
This is not a final product but a general idea. The goal is to have the mobs visually appear to be made of repurposed equipment. I am also exploring the possibility of developing a mini defunct corporation with minimal lore for the metalheads, including special equipment that explorers can recover and their own uniforms.

Te.name
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Re: Exploration Idea Mega Thread [Equipment, guns, mods, oh my!]

Post by Te.name »

VARKA & Selyn wrote:
Tue Apr 23, 2019 2:36 pm
-Snip-

As a final note for now; I'd also like to see the exploration shuttle layout get some tweaks for sleekness and space without making any major changes to the actual contents/loadout. I have a couple of draft designs floating around that I'll dig up later.

Ed: here we go-
Image
LEFT: The current shuttle.
CENTER: Redesigned.
RIGHT: Deluxe, aka Fatty.
General changes; telecomms relay is standard-issue now, because they're installed pretty regularly anyway. Might as well save everyone some prep time. I tossed out the airpump because let's be real, when is that actually used? They would both have window shutters/electrochromic windows because people are going to ERP in the cockpit anyway and external cameras installed, in the event of landing in a hostile environment.

In both models the hull offers slightly more cover and general access when leaving the craft via the central-rear airlock portion, so that teams aren't bottlenecked as badly.

Specific changes;
Redesigned - sleeker and slightly longer.The sleeper is center-aisle but could be placed to one side with a SAR seated next to it. The Pathfinder sits up-front with the pilots, who have camera access.

-snip-
I am planning on redesigning the shuttle but I am not a fan of any of those models due to the fact they lack any other method of editing thst does not require going through the airlock. The size of it will also result in a general lose in cycle speed as there is more air to filter.

Te.name
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Re: Exploration Idea Mega Thread [Equipment, guns, mods, oh my!]

Post by Te.name »

What I will probably do is add a tiny atmospherics room on the shuttle with a cooler for hotter gasses, room for the pilot to upgrade the system if he is knowledgeable in atmospherics, and a waste tank and ejection system. This should increase airlock speeds and give opportunities for mistakes.

Te.name
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Re: Exploration Idea Mega Thread [Equipment, guns, mods, oh my!]

Post by Te.name »

And depending on how things go the shuttle might be more like it's own small ship requiring power, but no promises.

VARKA & Selyn
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Re: Exploration Idea Mega Thread [Equipment, guns, mods, oh my!]

Post by VARKA & Selyn »

Te.name wrote:
Wed Apr 24, 2019 5:24 am
I am planning on redesigning the shuttle but I am not a fan of any of those models due to the fact they lack any other method of editing thst does not require going through the airlock. The size of it will also result in a general lose in cycle speed as there is more air to filter.
I feel like these problems could be solved with slightly better airlock logic, and more powerful vents to allow for faster cycling without having to add piles more. I was also considering adding one or two a smaller hatches up-front for quicker pilot access though.

A possible alternative would be to have a second shuttle that can be used for low-hazard environments (e.g. V4), and a heavy shuttle that is capable of operating in more hostile conditions. There's a huge dead/empty space just to the left of the expedition hangar that could easily accomodate a second small shuttle.

Te.name
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Re: Exploration Idea Mega Thread [Equipment, guns, mods, oh my!]

Post by Te.name »

VARKA & Selyn wrote:
Wed Apr 24, 2019 6:50 am
Te.name wrote:
Wed Apr 24, 2019 5:24 am
I am planning on redesigning the shuttle but I am not a fan of any of those models due to the fact they lack any other method of editing thst does not require going through the airlock. The size of it will also result in a general lose in cycle speed as there is more air to filter.
I feel like these problems could be solved with slightly better airlock logic, and more powerful vents to allow for faster cycling without having to add piles more. I was also considering adding one or two a smaller hatches up-front for quicker pilot access though.

A possible alternative would be to have a second shuttle that can be used for low-hazard environments (e.g. V4), and a heavy shuttle that is capable of operating in more hostile conditions. There's a huge dead/empty space just to the left of the expedition hangar that could easily accomodate a second small shuttle.
No additional vents will be added, just more piping. I am not sure adding a second shuttle would be the best idea, while there is room for a second shuttle next to the hanger there is no room on the transit z levels and they would have to be completely redone to support two crafts at once. My preferred course of changes would to make the excursion shuttle less of a shuttle and more of a short range ship with a science area for anomalists to join the exploration teams and a small medical bay. This would make the job of pilot much more meaningful and encourage non-combat roles to join the exploration team.

kevinz000
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Re: Exploration Idea Mega Thread [Equipment, guns, mods, oh my!]

Post by kevinz000 »

it'd be nice if the exploration shuttle was expanded with potentially two airlocks, two SMES, more space for engines, a larger passenger compartment, and a larger bridge.
needs to be a proper cruiser-type thing for projects.

VARKA & Selyn
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Re: Exploration Idea Mega Thread [Equipment, guns, mods, oh my!]

Post by VARKA & Selyn »

Well, if we want bigger, that's absolutely doable. It was a fun challenge trying to find a design that I felt was both aesthetically pleasing/aerodynamic, yet also had a minimal amount of wasted space and wasn't too much larger than the existing shuttle.

How big are we talking in terms of "expanded", though? The problem with making it too big or adding too much space is that RP might not actually have enough people to use it.
No additional vents will be added, just more piping.
You misunderstand me here, I think. I'm not saying it needs more vents, but that the existing vents can probably be replaced with ones that are more powerful when it comes to their air intake/output rates. That said I'm not intimately familiar with atmos systems so idk how practical that is.

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