Auxiliary Mining Base Improvements

[Gun Hog]

The Aux mining base is an area on the station that can be dropped to Lavaland at a specific spot. It is intended to be a place where station crew can construct a DIY secondary base, deploy it to Lavaland, and spread out from there. It can be accessed from Arrivals on Box and Meta, and other spots on certain maps. To be deployed, someone must venture out to the drop zone and activate the remote that all miners have at roundstart. Once deployed, the beacon provided can be set up nearby to create a new landing zone for the mining shuttle. The base also has a teleporter beacon and GPS signal.

The stats tracker tells me that this is a rarely used feature. I would like to find out why, and what I can do to improve it. I would like your ideas for making this a more desired feature, and a way to get more people to experience Lavaland content (and death. Lots of death.)!

Some feedback rules: Feedback suggesting complete removal will not be accepted, nor is anything containing the word "cancer", "tumor", or other worthless comments.

Some ideas I have had:

• A base construction computer which acts as a Xenobio console combined with an RCD. Feed the computer metal and glass (which is provided on most maps) and use it to build walls, windows, airlocks, and up to four tiny fans.
• Try to find a way to let people attach APCs and other fixtures (even though the base is self powered) to the walls and somehow not break pipes and such upon launch.
• Allow the mining base computer to pick a random spot if no miners mark a landing zone.

[Saegrimr]

1: Someone has to go out there to set a beacon in the first place, that person is a miner.
2: Someone has to go back to the station and build all the shit they want in that tiny little box. Or at least just fill it with whatever garbage. This person is likely going to be a miner since who else cares about lavaland? A really bored scientist maybe?
This is time that could have been spent getting more minerals or killing more shit.
3: Even after they establish their own forward base, they still have to drag everything they do back to the mining base and through cargo like they have been doing since roundstart, so why bother? This also locks the rest of the crew out as before, since they wont have the requisite access to go through cargo.

[onleavedontatme]

3: Even after they establish their own forward base, they still have to drag everything they do back to the mining base

The shuttle can actually land at the new base (or it could when I was working on the feature), but everything else you said is correct.

Rounds just don't last long enough to make it worth building a forward base (or anything for that matter).

Also the end game content of lavaland (bosses) are ironically easier to kill solo than with a group since they are far easier to predict with just one target.

Other than adding stuns or mob spam, not sure how to make it something multiple people are required for (and even then, it'd just not get done anymore).

[Saegrimr]

The shuttle can actually land at the new base (or it could when I was working on the feature), but everything else you said is correct.

This working would actually give it public use, though I doubt many people if any even knows it exists or if that's even a feature.

I don't wanna pull the old science powercreep by saying "Give it to science", but they're the only ones who could directly benefit from it. Unless a bunch of greyshirts want to just go drop on a ligger base and fuck things up.

[Gun Hog]

The shuttle can actually land at the new base (or it could when I was working on the feature), but everything else you said is correct.

This working would actually give it public use, though I doubt many people if any even knows it exists or if that's even a feature.

I don't wanna pull the old science powercreep by saying "Give it to science", but they're the only ones who could directly benefit from it. Unless a bunch of greyshirts want to just go drop on a ligger base and fuck things up.

Science players are indeed the ones which would have the most interest, and a few other codebases have a dock to an off station base from Science; I however would rather keep it accessible to the builders first, and to the public by opening the shutters. Perhaps location is also a problem? It is in Arrivals, which is out of the way in most cases.

The beacon found in the construction zone is there for you to set a landing spot for the mining shuttle - this is how you get back. Sadly, the shuttle does not return to the original aux base's spot, so maybe I need to find a way to incorporate that.

I must say that this is quite the discouraging feedback. No one builds because rounds are too short...building sucks in general anyway...bosses are easier to kill solo than in groups...You both are really making me lose hope here. It also requires a lot of cooperation, which people in this game just do not do very well except for Sec within itself and Cargo <-> Science. Is anything that involves so many people working together really this doomed to fail?

[danno]

I think the main issue is that there just isn't enough time in a round to do anything neat with it

[Anonmare]

I usually spend most of the time making sure the damn thing was airtight and had an air supply, followed shortly by "Emergency Shuttle called".

In the end I've given up.

[Gun Hog]

I usually spend most of the time making sure the damn thing was airtight and had an air supply, followed shortly by "Emergency Shuttle called".

In the end I've given up.

I could make it start with walls (or border windows to increase space, and a tiny fan at the entrance, but would that not hurt the ability to customize it?

[Armhulen]

I usually spend most of the time making sure the damn thing was airtight and had an air supply, followed shortly by "Emergency Shuttle called".

In the end I've given up.

I could make it start with walls (or border windows to increase space, and a tiny fan at the entrance, but would that not hurt the ability to customize it?

your xenobio building idea was good, if you had that be able to place at most 2 fans that would be fantastic

[TrustyGun]

Honestly I think adding border windows/walls would be your best bet. It would remove the first major hurdle in creating a base.

[XDTM]

The issue with transport is that the mining shuttle still lands in mining when onstation, which makes access an additional hurdle. Possibly too powerful, but i'd suggest adding a quantum pad that connects the base to the construction area.

[BeeSting12]

I remember doing some pretty cool stuff with it back when rounds were longer than an hour. There's simply not enough time in a round to use this now. Making the mining computer choose a random spot is definitely a good idea, I'd really like to see that implemented.

[Gun Hog]

I am give the base building console a shot for now. Hopefully being able to set up the basic shape and structure easily and quickly will help lessen the time investment required. I am not ignoring the other concerns raised, I just need to tackle one issue at a time.

[Dagdammit]

Giving it walls & the like won't limit customization because that stuff's really easy to replace.

This is armchair speculation, but maybe the main issue is that there's currently so little need for it? I mean, what use is it going to have for a miner that can't be served more simply through other means, like a bluespace shelter capsule?