/tg/Station 13

One of the core mechanics of the game Space Station 13 is the ability to call an emergency escape shuttle, which is the main way that the round ends. However, the way the mechanic is treated in game is very confusing as it contradicts with roleplay and gameplay.

The first issue with the emergency shuttle is that players will get bored and may call the shuttle simply because they want to move on to the next round, even if no dangers are present. This goes against the core concept of the escape shuttle, which is meant to be called in case of an emergency only. Nanotrasen isn't going to send an entire emergency escape shuttle just because some people are bored. No, "Time to go home" is not an emergency.
At some point, pretty much all of the crew get bored and want to leave to start new round that has actual danger. We've accepted that people can call the shuttle in this situation because nobody wants to play a game where they do nothing for hours. Forcing people to not call the shuttle is definitely not the solution in this case, especially when leaving as a nonantagonist is frowned upon and can get you in trouble from the admins. The solution to this problem could be to introduce a "Crew Transfer Shuttle" that can be used for non-emergency purposes. Although it is still somewhat unrealistic to end your job after just an hour or two, it could be explained by space station work being very taxing.

Even calling the escape shuttle in an actual emergency can be an issue, but for the opposite reason. Realistically, the crew should always call the shuttle as soon as people start dying, but that isn't any fun for the actual gameplay. Players WANT to play on a dangerous space station death trap with antagonists everywhere, that's the whole point of the game. While calling the shuttle without an emergency makes no sense for roleplay, calling the shuttle with an emergency makes no sense for gameplay.
Furthermore, calling the shuttle can ruin the gameplay for the antagonists who have very little time to carry out their plans ( As well as engineers who almost never get an opportunity to repair the station as any damage will lead to the shuttle being called.) Traitors rely on progressively getting stronger to unlock equipment, but if the shuttle is called too early, they may not have enough time to do anything. The same is mostly true for heretics, although some skilled heretics can rush to kill all of their targets when the shuttle is called. Calling the shuttle is the best way to combat progressive antagonists and that really shouldn't be the case. One possible solution to this issue could be to introduce more abilities for other traitors to disrupt the shuttle, similar to what cultists and revs do.

In conclusion, the escape shuttle mechanic in Space Station 13 makes little sense either in an emergency or not in one. According to how people would realistically act, the crew should call the shuttle as soon as possible in case of a genuine emergency. However, this just isn't fun for the gameplay, as an emergency occurring is the entire point. It is a flawed mechanic in either situation.

On the ISS they have missions that last about 6 months, so at some point they DO go "Time go home!" and leave

Before dynamic, you were only supposed to call the shuttle if the station couldn't handle the threat. If you handled the threat, then the round would end without the emergency shuttle being called (and presumably, with no reprimands for command by Nanotrasen).

With dynamic, however, that's changed. Every round is, theoretically, supposed to go on until the station can no longer function and an emergency evac is warranted.

You raise a good couple of points, I think the solution is to brainstorm alternate-game end scenarios that don't nessacaly tie themselves to any specific antagonist.

In dynamic, we currently have:
(standard)
Escape shuttle docs at central
Escape shuttle is hijacked
The entire universe is consumed by the supermater

(admin intervention required)
Station is exploded by the onboard nuclear device by its crew or insurgents
An admin manually ends the round (with or without an in lore reason)

(specific antagonist)
Station is exploded by syndicate nuclear operatives
Station is exploded by central who is trying to stop the cult of nar-sie from summoning their dark god
The cult of nar-sie successfully summons their dark god
An out of control blob devours the entire station
The AI activates a protocol to wipe out all life on the station
Revolutionaries take control of the station (pending)

As we can see, the only endings that aren't directly tied to an antagonist are the escape shuttle, the hijacked version of being functionally the same, and the supermatter consuming everything which may as well be a specificified to the traitor

So, what we are looking for, is some other round ending effect or event that is not nessicarally tied to a specific antag, but can be influnced by players actions. Ideally, we also don't want this event to feel like a round end timer, or some other contrived nonsense with no other purpose than getting people into the next round faster.

The clear solution is to rename it to "Shuttle"

"CentCom Transportation Vessel"

Some servers have a "crew transfer" vote (like with maps) after a set amount of time. I feel like that's a good IC explanation.

If there is one mechanic so many other servers decide to acquire that I despise its the "crew transfer vote" or similar codifications of "we are bored" shuttle calls. We really should have more variety in our round ends.

Completing the station objective should unlock a transport vessel to go home.

chocolate_bickie wrote: ↑Mon May 01, 2023 9:06 am Completing the station objective should unlock a transport vessel to go home.

Meteor satellites take like ten minutes