# Plasma Extraction

This is a collection of different ways a 'Plasma Extraction' Lavaland objective could work, which is based off of the Morkite extraction mission from Deep Rock Galactic. For some context, here is how the machine itself would work:

### Plasma Drill

A 3x3 machine with 3 sets of pipelines coming from all sides (except the north), which must be laid down to 3 different extraction points around Lavaland. Once piped, the machine can be turned on, causing it to slowly collect concentrated plasma to send to Central Command for processing, reselling, and any other purpose they want with it.

Pipes placed will have a light indicator that would either be green, to indicate that they are working properly, or red, to indicate that they aren't. Each pipe must be placed and built until connected to the extraction point to work.

While the machine is operating, fauna will slowly attract towards the pipes to break them for causing noise, which means Miners have to follow along red pipes to find the broken pipes, clear the fauna, and fix them.

Faunas can work through either waves of them rising as the miner is active (Similar to ore excavations), a specific amount of waves that will stop afterwards, but still be able to be broken by regular fauna afterwards, or just make faunas on the Z level slowly attract towards them and smash them up.

Once fully done setting up and getting through all the waves, the drill can perhaps give some bonus mining points/cargo credits/research points (Up to debate) while it and all its pipes are active.

This opens up a new path and excuse for Engineering personnel to be on Lavaland, and fits in the theme that the planet is being exploited for its resources, having players walking by pipelines going straight into the earth to pump the planet dry while they themselves are going to fight fauna and mine surface ores.

## Goals of the Extraction Machine

1. Add more diversity to things to do on Lavaland to prevent it from getting stale.
2. Make Lavaland more thematic as a planet being extracted of all its resources.
3. Add onto the content of ArcMining with related side missions.
4. Add some additional ways other jobs can have interactions with Miners/Lavaland.

## Non-Goals

1. Be a required machine to deal with.
2. Be too confusing aka locked behind "knowledge checks".

### Now for the different ways this can be implemented into the game

## Option 1: Station Objective

This was the first idea I had for the machine, making it a certain set of waves, with power required to run it (no APC required though, that would be lame), and having it as a station objective would add a station objective that miners can finally help out with, while benefitting majorly from Engineers. Compared to other objectives, this is most similar to the DNA vault requiring Botany work, relying on several jobs at once but still being possible solo.

PROS:
- Adds a new station objective that isn't just begging Engineers to do their job and diversifies the pool, it's especially been a while since a new station objective has been added.
- Makes this machine something that players would like to do, without having to give it any major benefit. People still build the BSA even if they know they will never get to fire it, just because "its our objective".

CONS:
- Puts the requirement of doing this task onto Miners whenever the objective is chosen. While objectives are optional, some players really want to see it done, and unlike other objectives, it's a much tougher challenge for a non-miner to do this task than, say, a non-botanist getting plant DNA.

## Option 2: RNG Ruin

This can be a ruin that just happens to spawn on Lavaland, which would require you to power it up and pipe it to get it mining.

PROS:
- Adds a new thing Miners can do if they so want to.
- Has no requirement to Miners, you don't HAVE to do it if you don't want to.

CONS:
- The machine is less visible to players and essentially hopes that a miner will come across it and think it is worthwhile enough to spend a good portion of their round working on it.

## Option 3: Auxiliary Base

The machine would be placed in the Auxiliary Base, and it would be up to whoever wants to send it down to lavaland and pipe it around.

PROS:
- Very open to anyone who wants to mess with it.
- Aux base already has RPDs, so piping and construction work would fit it just fine.
- Always being an option means if we wanted, we can replace mining point generation from boulder processing machines (which spits out dozens of thousands throughout a round, and can have more built throughout the round to get even more boulders at once) to one machine that we can easily control how many points we want introduced into the round.

CONS:
- Won't show up on IceBox at all (as they have no Aux Base)
- Turns this machine into a thing that can be done every round, possibly devaluing the experience you could from a time-to-time thing.

## Option 4: Full Expansion

The plasma extraction machine could be a single part in a large 'secondary objective' lavaland expansion, basically becoming a lavaland-sided station objective.
Bitrunners already have secondary objectives, perhaps it's time Mining does too?

Some ideas for possible secondary objectives:
- [Mining Expedition] Mine [x] amount of a new experimental material, either through rocks, special designated ore veins, or unique ore vents. This material would have no purpose on the station but can be exported on the cargo shuttle to get completion points.
- [Escort Duty] New level of lavaland full of rocks where you escort a tank of a minebot slowly mine through undiggable terrain, fighting off hoards of enemies and defeating a new megafauna boss at the end of it. This would be a one-time level similar to bitrunners loading a new domain up, miners who die there will have to be recovered, but there's no going back in once you're out.
- [Industrial Sabotage] Syndicate base infiltration, requiring you to take down their shield batteries and then destroying a syndicate-made AI-powered (essentially megafauna) defender of the blackbox and destroying it, sending the Syndicate back in their spying aganist NT. Basically a more powered up version of the Comms agent outpost base, but with AI instead of players.
- Your objective here, coder!

PROS:
- Adds a new objective for the Station.
- Doesn't interfere with existing Station objectives.
- Lets the machine be used by miners who'd like to do the objective, but isn't an obligation.
- Being a constant thing that exists, it's easier to balance material economy expecting miners to take some time from their round to work on this.

CONS:
- Won't work as nice unless more objectives are added in the future, lest it becomes boring and repetitive.