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Lore Rounds, pressing buttons with a purpose

Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 5:44 am
by Helios
Okay, this sounds a bit autismal, but hear me out. Once a week, at a designated time, like as an example, first round after 5pm on Friday, it'll get switched to Extended, admin presses buttons, it relates to lore in some way, be it wizard/centcomm officials visiting, the clown/Mime war, trying to make a deal with the syndicates, xeno hive is discovered and the eggs are to be sent back on a shuttle to Centcomm.

Then, what people who play during that do is sufficed in a change, that would be commited at the convenience of coders, until the next week where another plot event happens, the old change gets reverted, and new stuff happens.
Some examples of stuff that could happen.
• Clown/Mime war reaches the station, depending on who wins there are no clowns/mimes until the next week
• Wizards attempt a peace treaty. Resolving peacefully results in a wizard Autodrober to be in Captain's office, poorly results in Wizards for the next week getting an extra spell slot.
• Science is researching a new type of weapon, syndicates are trying to steal it. Resolving positively and Autorifles are back in the armory, poorly and traitors can now buy C-20s
It'd be a lot of work, but the feeling that what you do during a specific round would carry over to future rounds and have a tangible effect seems like it could be neat

Re: Lore Rounds, pressing buttons with a purpose

Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 1:50 pm
by Xhuis
To do this, it would require coders to work a lot more every week and server updates to be frequent, if not instantaneous, as well as admins willing to cooperate. Sorry to burst your bubble, but there's almost no way this could happen in the way that you envision it.

Re: Lore Rounds, pressing buttons with a purpose

Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 4:27 pm
by tuypo1
that said a few of those could be interesting to have as an event i would not be against affecting later rounds but not for a fucking week more like 2 hours.

Re: Lore Rounds, pressing buttons with a purpose

Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 4:44 pm
by Helios
Xhuis wrote:To do this, it would require coders to work a lot more every week and server updates to be frequent, if not instantaneous, as well as admins willing to cooperate. Sorry to burst your bubble, but there's almost no way this could happen in the way that you envision it.
How much work does it take to add a vending machine to the cap's office, or take Mime/Clown from 1 to 0 openings?

Re: Lore Rounds, pressing buttons with a purpose

Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 4:49 pm
by Steelpoint
Honestly if it were just minor changes, akin to what was listed in the OP, then it would be pretty easy to do.

Only problem is getting the changes merged and on the server/s in a reasonable time frame, not to mention the mapping merge conflicts it could cause on a weekly basis.

The problem is not the difficulty of mapping the changes, its getting the maintainers on board to deal with PR's that would need to be merged rapidly (around 24 hours) to be relevant, as well as the certain to occur merge conflicts arising from these frequent changes.

Re: Lore Rounds, pressing buttons with a purpose

Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 4:51 pm
by Steelpoint
What you could do is list recent events as "news" on newspapers, holopapers, in the Changelog and on the alert consoles around the station.

These could be used to show the outcome of recent events and detail exactly what changes occurred due to them.

Re: Lore Rounds, pressing buttons with a purpose

Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 5:36 pm
by Xhuis
Helios wrote:
Xhuis wrote:To do this, it would require coders to work a lot more every week and server updates to be frequent, if not instantaneous, as well as admins willing to cooperate. Sorry to burst your bubble, but there's almost no way this could happen in the way that you envision it.
How much work does it take to add a vending machine to the cap's office, or take Mime/Clown from 1 to 0 openings?
The problem is that a lot of people have projects they're working on (like vampires, in my case) and trying to get someone to be bothered to do small changes is surprisingly hard.

Re: Lore Rounds, pressing buttons with a purpose

Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 5:39 pm
by tuypo1
also that many events could ever be planed in time

Re: Lore Rounds, pressing buttons with a purpose

Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 6:37 pm
by Helios
Well, the reason I am talking about this is that nothing people do carries between rounds, except for writing books. Non-coders influence on the map is voting on polls, making books, and the round vibe, as opposed to anything tangible. The idea of "Because I was good as a Head of Security, the station is going to be better equipped for the next week" has an appeal. That direct actions caused by a player can have an influence

Re: Lore Rounds, pressing buttons with a purpose

Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 7:51 pm
by FantasticFwoosh
Helios wrote:Well, the reason I am talking about this is that nothing people do carries between rounds, except for writing books. Non-coders influence on the map is voting on polls, making books, and the round vibe, as opposed to anything tangible. The idea of "Because I was good as a Head of Security, the station is going to be better equipped for the next week" has an appeal. That direct actions caused by a player can have an influence
Talking as devils advocate that would also imply that if the station was maxcap bombed for a few rounds straight we'd start out on a shell of a station with next to nothing but a big metal mass. (looking at you toxins :unknownman: )

Its a kind of logic that i agree does add up with appeal but has little practicality in maintaining game balance, what if in the next HoS improved round all antags get cucked instantly by powergaming sec whizzing in and just shooting them, creating a snowball effect in which playing antag is more or less useless until the mould is broken or admins step in and revert, force the antags to win (which is cheap)

Re: Lore Rounds, pressing buttons with a purpose

Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 9:52 pm
by Helios
FantasticFwoosh wrote:
Helios wrote:Well, the reason I am talking about this is that nothing people do carries between rounds, except for writing books. Non-coders influence on the map is voting on polls, making books, and the round vibe, as opposed to anything tangible. The idea of "Because I was good as a Head of Security, the station is going to be better equipped for the next week" has an appeal. That direct actions caused by a player can have an influence
Talking as devils advocate that would also imply that if the station was maxcap bombed for a few rounds straight we'd start out on a shell of a station with next to nothing but a big metal mass. (looking at you toxins :unknownman: )

Its a kind of logic that i agree does add up with appeal but has little practicality in maintaining game balance, what if in the next HoS improved round all antags get cucked instantly by powergaming sec whizzing in and just shooting them, creating a snowball effect in which playing antag is more or less useless until the mould is broken or admins step in and revert, force the antags to win (which is cheap)
The suggestions I had have implications beyond the station. If Aspie Lab Ten is bombed continuously, then Secret Fortess Fifteen won't be a bombed out shell.
Centcomm endorsing a side in a war
Centcomm having a weapons prototype stolen
Centcomm station having a wizard killed
All have implications outside of the specific station that was involved in that round