Exploration Idea Mega Thread [Equipment, guns, mods, oh my!]
Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2019 7:30 am
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.
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.