With all the changes over the last year it had been a while since I played an antag with the old objectives, and I honestly forgot how fun it was. Having known objectives to plan/work towards over the course of a round is really engaging. The sense of anticipation and build up you feel as you stake out your target's workplace and plan your attack is palpable, and something I've experienced far less with the implementation of the new traitor objectives.
With progression traitors I never really cared about succeeding on the end of round report, since it was tied to literally just a number. But finishing all your round-long objectives and getting the greentext? That's special. The reputation system with regards to succeeding as a traitor feels pretty artificial and game-y. Just grinding out the same bug/steal/vandalize objectives with the occasional kidnap or murder, all just to make number go up. Meanwhile the permanent objectives encourage you to interact with the round in more thoughtful and RP conducive ways. With prog traitor objectives, the goal is to get points and TC, but with the shift-long objectives the goal was the objectives themselves. Murdering crew members and stealing high value items was the big event, the culmination of an entire round's worth of planning. Now it's been reduced to a stepping stone to getting an extra c4 charge or maybe eventually a completely random final objective. The old objectives felt like they were a challenge you needed to overcome, and pulling it off really gives you that sense of pride and accomplishment™. I'm not saying that reputation and dynamic objectives are bad should be removed, I'm just heavily implying it. They 100% have their merits, I just don't think they should be a factor in obtaining the greentext.
To summarize...
- Give traitors shift-long permanent objectives that function like the old traitor objectives. These objectives should be the sole factor in determining if a traitor is successful.
- Keep selectable objectives / reputation, but they don't determine if the traitor was successful in the end of round report. Unlocking gear and earning TC is enough of a reward to motivate people.
- Bring back the greentext.