Additional Station Goals

[Nabski]

This somewhat ties into the other post I made about moving the gateway.

We have three station goals, and they pretty much never get completed. They require ordering expensive items from cargo, significant effort, and have a questionable payoff for the people that worked on them.

As it stands I would like for there to be more goals, one tied to each department. Only one goal would be available per round still, but at least enough to get started on the project would be available. Ideally there would be something on the station that gets it started but you would need to put forth extra effort to get it done.

Command: Auto triggers a centcomm inspector after 5 minutes. The room starting room is just a dining room table.
Security: HIGH VALUE ARTIFACT. Room has a tracker built into it pointing towards the artifact, goal is completed by having it end on the station undamaged in the starting room.
Medical: A minimum number of improved organs needs to be implanted into people. Starts with the organs.
Engineering: Station Shield. It falls into the building and construction theme, and they have suit access for it. Starting room has the control computer and a shield crate. Additional can be ordered from cargo and maybe it scales with power generation?
Science: Something about anomaly research? Completion doubles research speed and unlocks some locked techwebs.
Cargo: BSA. This goes to cargo because it requires a large number of bluespace crystals, and would likely have the mineral costs increased.
Service: DNA Vault. Completion of this objective requires mostly work out of botany currently. Start with the vault and a maybe one or two samplers.


Honestly I just want ideas for the departments that don't already have existing goals. I was going to say telescience makes it's comeback as the science one, but no, that feature is bad.

[onleavedontatme]

We need to figure out how to make station goals worth doing at all before we add more.

It doesn't make sense to work on a long term goal if by the time you finish it the round will reset and erase your prize (or all the antags will be dead and you'll have nothing to use your prize on)

[PKPenguin321]

add an achievement you can get if you are a head of staff when a station goal is completed
if you have the achievement and you start a round as an assistant you get a party hat

[D&B]

Perhaps add a system of GBP that keeps track, such as megafauna kills, of personal achievements.

It would have no bearing on gameplay except for bragging rights, but that would be enough for most players.

In universe make it seem like these achievements are engraved in the genetic data of the player, and so NT clones them with these extra biological tidbits. Call them chromosomes, or something of the sort, for short.

[kevinz000]

add an achievement you can get if you are a head of staff when a station goal is completed
if you have the achievement and you start a round as an assistant you get a party hat

[Gun Hog]

We need to figure out how to make station goals worth doing at all before we add more.

It doesn't make sense to work on a long term goal if by the time you finish it the round will reset and erase your prize (or all the antags will be dead and you'll have nothing to use your prize on)

What if some nerfed remnant of the previous goal shows up in the next round?

[oranges]

another idea is that acheiving a station goal unlocks some tier of techweb research preemptively ahead of the next two or three rounds?

I.e you can get early access to high level mechs if you acheive some station goal for the next two or three rounds.

[RandomMarine]

For a while I've had an idea of there being station budget tiers that would affect which objects spawn at map start, where the station's set on low/normal/high budget mode depending on how frequently goals were accomplished in earlier rounds.
Low budget would leave departments with only the bare essentials.
Normal budget is as-is.
High budget has extra supplies, tools, and other goodies.

Too bad it's a pipe dream because even if that was coded, it would require maintaining and balancing the maps for them which is enough of a hassle already.

[Not-Dorsidarf]

another idea is that acheiving a station goal unlocks some tier of techweb research preemptively ahead of the next two or three rounds?

I.e you can get early access to high level mechs if you acheive some station goal for the next two or three rounds.

DNA vault would be a good one for this, start with biotech discounts?

[somerandomguy]

It might be interesting for one of them to be a normal vault, that can preserve items into the next round. It would probably be pretty OP though.

[NanookoftheNorth]

Let me ask, what makes antag goals worth achieving?
Personally, the greentext associated with your name at the end of the round to me says "look at how badass I am" Let's make a way to associate players who contributed toward the goal and made it to the shuttle have greentext. A notification like when you're antag notifying you of the station objective would be nice too. Honestly, the majority of the time no one even notifies everyone of the station objective. How can people do an objective if they have no idea what it is?

As nice as tangible next round equipment and upgrades, or items may be, they mess with the balance of things. Realistically, I think that's the hardball argument that's difficult to get past.

Edit: this topic reminds me of another one from not too long ago.

[Dr_bee]

another idea is that acheiving a station goal unlocks some tier of techweb research preemptively ahead of the next two or three rounds?

I.e you can get early access to high level mechs if you acheive some station goal for the next two or three rounds.

DNA vault would be a good one for this, start with biotech discounts?

Making the DNA vault actually fucking doable would be nice. the amount of animal and plant DNA needs to be reduced and basing the human DNA on station pop screws over the station if they try to set up the vault late into the round.

I can count the times Ive seen the DNA vault completed on one hand with room to spare. The DNA vault is significantly more difficult than the BSA and the bonuses it gives arent even better than the RnD surgeries or implants.

[Nabski]

another idea is that acheiving a station goal unlocks some tier of techweb research preemptively ahead of the next two or three rounds?

I.e you can get early access to high level mechs if you acheive some station goal for the next two or three rounds.

DNA vault would be a good one for this, start with biotech discounts?

Making the DNA vault actually fucking doable would be nice. the amount of animal and plant DNA needs to be reduced and basing the human DNA on station pop screws over the station if they try to set up the vault late into the round.

I can count the times Ive seen the DNA vault completed on one hand with room to spare. The DNA vault is significantly more difficult than the BSA and the bonuses it gives arent even better than the RnD surgeries or implants.

I think the comments about things carrying over to later rounds are fun, but the most abuse-able. If nothing else unique shuttles being unlocked by these would be fun. The asteroid shuttle requiring you to complete meteor shields seems valid.

I actually think the DNA vault is about the gold standard for station goals. It has a reward that's worth getting, but not worth abusing for power gaming purposes. It's doable by yourself, but greatly benefits from teamwork. The rewards on it likely could use a slight push up, but really the reason it's good is the interactions it requires. You have to hunt down people, go into different departments. It gives botany a reason to do a mass spread of random plants other than trying to acquire perfect traits. You'll either need help from heads to sample all their pets, xenobiology to create monsters, or lavaland for their samples. It can cause strife over access, materials, and maybe even what the job is working on.

[onleavedontatme]

[but the most abuse-able

Elaborate

[D&B]

[but the most abuse-able

Elaborate

Black Box?

[somerandomguy]

[but the most abuse-able

Elaborate

Black Box?

>get wiz/endgame/admin-only/OP thing in round A
>put in cross-round storage
>get antag next round (or any round that you can still access it)
>beeline for storage
>haha now you're an antag with OP gear

also holds for weakened versions of the station goals, you can probably still use them for antagging

[onleavedontatme]

I don't think an infinitely refreshing spellbook is really the same as "you finished the vault so now biotech techwebs are unlocked next round"

[somerandomguy]

I don't think an infinitely refreshing spellbook is really the same as "you finished the vault so now biotech techwebs are unlocked next round"

The spellbook thing was brought up, but both kinds can potentially be used for meta-antagging, some much harder than others though.

[Nabski]

I don't think an infinitely refreshing spellbook is really the same as "you finished the vault so now biotech techwebs are unlocked next round"

If I spent 20 minutes working on the station goal, only for the next round to be a 3 minute wizard round if the rewards are too large I'd be pretty unhappy.

Which brings up another good question.

How long should a competent single player with things going well take to finish the station goals?
How about if 2 people are working on it?

Obviously for the more roleplay related ones this doesn't count.

[Mickyan]

Would it be possible to tie the duration to real time instead of rounds?
You get the goodies if that station goal was accomplished in the last X hours and completing it again refreshes the duration if it's still ongoing

You could further balance goals by giving them different durations and add more goals with less powerful rewards that last longer (i.e. a cargo goal that makes the station start with extra funds, medbay goal that gives NanoMeds extra stock etc.)

[onleavedontatme]

I don't think an infinitely refreshing spellbook is really the same as "you finished the vault so now biotech techwebs are unlocked next round"

If I spent 20 minutes working on the station goal, only for the next round to be a 3 minute wizard round if the rewards are too large I'd be pretty unhappy.

Thats why oranges suggested the rewards lasting several rounds. If all three rounds end immediately after then tough shit I guess, rewards get blown up or reset constantly in our game.

[EagleWiz]

Persistence is a bad thing and we have tried to avoid it. Better station goals is fine, persistence is not.

[Cobby]

WHERE ARE THE VANITY ITEMS

[DemonFiren]

>bsa goes to cargo
>no more guncargo
>now we have cannoncargo

[Nabski]

Bad news: The mapping subsystem and template spawning is more frustrating than I thought. I'm no longer getting compile errors, but it throws up errors on launching the game and (obviously) isn't working yet. The rooms are mapped, I just need to get them to succesfully load at the landmark location roundstart.

Good news: I thought of a better medical goal. SYNTHS. The special order item would be the chest that you start working off, and the ability to use a positronic brain in a body.

If I can manage it the reward would likely be an automated surgery machine, and if I ever get ambitious enough to try cross round things the ability to start with with an augment/as a synth.

I'm also considering increasing the amount of glass required to build the BSA by 500, then making it the security goal. Sure you could wait for mining to bring it back, OR SEND EVERYONE TO THE GULAG UNTIL WE GET THAT GLASS.