Nuke Disk leaving the Z-level

[Ikarrus]

How do you guys feel about letting the nuke disk leave the z-level?

I understand that the checks used to enforce this fairly hacky. Some people want to remove the restrictions entirely and allow the disk to freely move across z-levels.

I don't like the prospect of nuke ops needing to go on a wild scavenger hunt in the randomly-traversed space. I feel that keeping nuke disk localized to Z1 is important to the Nuclear game mode.

If we absolutely cannot keep the hacky code, can we discuss alternatives? Would it be better to have the game check the nuke disk's location periodically and respawn it if it's not on Z1 or Z2?

[paprika]

Your suggestion probably fits the best. I don't care how its coded, as long as it stays on the station z-level. That's the most fair for nuke ops. Respawning it if it leaves the z-level is probably the best option as it doesn't 'block' captains from being spaced out of the z-level if they have the nuke disk on them, it'll just fling it from their inventory back onto the station.

[Neerti]

Be sure to not do the 'check' for z2 as well since it's centcom and the emergency escape shuttle transition.

[Ikarrus]

My only concern with a silent check is that is its easy to forget you're carrying the disk. If you run into a teleporter or space border, intentionally or not, you could inadvertently destroy the nuke disk without even knowing it's gone. Accidentally running into a griffer's hand tele portal could cost you your objective.

[paprika]

Put something in the description of the nuke disk that says that it is 'protected by a bluespace black box protective system that only allows it to be within proximity to NT space stations or shuttles' (syndie shuttle is obviously disguised as one) when it's active.

There's fluff excuses for everything.

Make a message appear when the nuke disk is respawned (or teleported away) to people in proximity of it when it happens. Especially if someone blows up the nuke disk by gibbing the captain, because then everyone will know it got respawned/teleported away and can go search for it, not just the nuke ops that intentionally gib the captain. Also, traitors carrying it who lose it while flying through space/etc will know of their mistake and not make it again.

[Remie Richards]

Stick your looping check idea in the Nuclear Gamemode Process() You can't complain it doesn't belong there when it's an important loop(process) of the Nuclear gamemode.

However this also has the added effect (benefit?) of letting the nuke disk leave the Z level on non nuke rounds, Which I could see being abused, so perhaps in the normal gamemode ticker, so it runs regardless of mode, the game ALWAYS has a gamemode.

[paprika]

>Start round as captain
>fly out towards end of z-level to check if there's ops

Nah, you can't do gamemode specific shit like this.

[Jeb]

Is it possible to do a time based check to see if it's on the zlevel? Have it show a message saying that the integrity of the disk is being destroyed, which gives people that might leave the zlevel by accident time to go back (if lucky) or if they're teleported away, gives them a chance to get back to the station.

[Remie Richards]

>Start round as captain
>fly out towards end of z-level to check if there's ops

Nah, you can't do gamemode specific shit like this.

Which is why I said the second thing Paprika. Regardless of gamemode, the Gamemode ticker itself still ticks.

[Miauw]

Just add the disk to the processing list and check in it's process().

[Lovecraft]

Adding some flavor text saying "This disk is built with experimental bluespace technology!" and maybe slap a little stand for the disk to respawn onto, instead of just a regular desk.
Make it float like the Captain's Gun, but not in a glass case.

[paprika]

Yeah the idea of the disk having some cannon fluff protective shielding much like the RD's reactive teleport armor makes a ton of sense rather than 'respawning'. It should also have a bit better of a custom sprite to represent this, maybe some cool armory thing around the sides of it or somethin.

[miggles]

>Start round as captain
>fly out towards end of z-level to check if there's ops

Nah, you can't do gamemode specific shit like this.

yeah because so many people call the shuttle to see if its rev

[Neerti]

The game won't let you call the shuttle in the first twenty or so minutes.

[paprika]

And getting your cap suit on and going to the edge of the z level takes 10 minutes tops. All they'd have to do is check their PDA, see that there's vaguely less players than how many readied, then fly out to confirm it's ops, initiate full meta. It's really, really hard to catch someone metagaming the PDA thing though, I'm not sure how we can fix that since it's like a surefire way of telling if there's nuke ops past 20 readies.

[MisterPerson]

Another, less interesting idea I had was that if the nuke disc wasn't detected, the station's nuke deploys, but that would require redoing nuke mode. nope.avi

As an easy fix, just having the disc magically teleport back to the station is pretty fine. The fluff is fluffable and it seems people accept it. It already does that when attempts are made to delete it.

[Cheridan]

>Start round as captain
>fly out towards end of z-level to check if there's ops

Nah, you can't do gamemode specific shit like this.

yeah because so many people call the shuttle to see if its rev

Except they used to, frequently, before the code was changed to make it unfeasible, by adding the point of no return and other tweaks.
If you seriously think "it's ok to add things that people can use to meta the roundtype, they won't abuse it!" then you're in for a reckoning.

Just add the disk to the processing list and check in it's process().

This is the lazy fix. The fix I'd prefer is an atom/movable-level on_transit() proc which would be called whenever moving across z-levels, using shuttles, etc. Why? Because the nuke disc isn't the only thing that needs checks when trying to move across z-levels. Things like meteors and immovable rods already do this, but in a non-OOP fashion (every time something bumps the border of a level, the code checks if it's a meteor). This could be applied to humans and other mobs too, so that things that they're pulling will move across the space transition, etc.
Projectiles should also be deleted upon transit, unless we ever change space to have consistent transitions, and shooting people 'across the border' is feasible.