# **Explorator14 Design Document**

This document serves as the core design and philosophy guide for Explorator14, a Space Station 14 server designed around exploration of the galaxy, completion of co-operative tasks and emergent story-telling without sacrificing the chaotic social charm of normal Space Station 14 gameplay.

[Permanent Discord Invite](https://discord.gg/ZgNTFUWjJ2)

Ship Departments
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### **Command Department** - Blue & Gold
**Captain** - O6-O7
**First Officer** - O4-O5
**Staff Officer** - O1-O3

### **Security Department** - Red
**Chief Security Officer** - O3-O4
**Brig Officer** - O1-O2
**Security Specialist** - E1-E6

### **Engineering Department** - Yellow
**Chief Engineer** - O3-O4
**Reactor Engineer** - O1-O2
**Atmospheric Technician** - E3-E6
**Maintenance Technician** - E1-E6
**Salvage Technician** - E1-E6

### **Medical Department** - Cyan
**Chief Medical Officer** - O3-O4
**Medical Officer** - O1-O2
**Paramedic** - E3-E6

### **Research Department** - Purple
**Chief Researcher** - CIV - Professor
**Researcher** - CIV - Doctor

### **Requisitions Department** - Brown
**Requisition Officer** - O1-O3
**Requisition Specialist** E1-E5

### **General Crew & Staff** - Grey
**Crew Chief** - E5-E9
**Culinary Specialist** - E1-E4
**Mixology Specialist** - E1-E4
**Sanitation Specialist** - E1-E4

Passenger & Other Passenger grade Jobs

Below listed is a general idea of the duties of the ship's different departments. Command, Security, Engineering, Requisition, and the Crew Chief hold military ranks, while most of the crew do not. Research and Medical departments hold accreditted PhD holders in their respective fields.

| Department | Duty |
| -------- | -------- |
| Command | Runs the bridge, plots the navigation course. |
| Security | Runs the brig, keeps the peace, arrests any traitors. They act as the primary security force both aboard the ship and on any away shuttles, and generally are the only ones authorized to carry anything larger then a sidearm. |
| Engineering | Runs the engine, atmos, and conducts maintenance to keep the ship running. Collects salvage on EVA missions to gather materials which requisitions can use to procure items, or research can use to further scientific development. |
| Medical | Runs the medbay, keeps people healthy, fights pathogens that may be introduced on the ship. |
| Research | Researches artifacts and various anomalies found by exploration, away crews, salvage, etc. Maintains the borgs aboard the ship. |
| Requisition | Procures necessary resources through the matter exchange array, pilots shuttles for the away teams, makes sure there's enough bean burritos in the mess hall. |
| Crew | Live on the ship, hope to one day settle on a colony in the unknown regions of space, keeps themselves occupied by watching the clown get thrown out the airlock. |

Naval Pay-grades
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| Pay-grade | Rank Name | Abbreviation |
| -------- | -------- | -------- |
| O7 | Commodore | CDRE |
| O6 | Captain | CAPT |
| O5 | Commander | CMDR |
| O4 | Lieutenant Commander | LTCM |
| O3 | Lieutenant | LT |
| O2 | Lieutenant Junior Grade | LTJG |
| O1 | Ensign | ENS |
| E9 | Sergeant Major | SGM |
| E8 | Master Sergeant | MSG |
| E7 | Gunnery Sergeant | GSG |
| E6 | Staff Sergeant | SSG |
| E5 | Sergeant | SGT |
| E4 | Corporal | CPL |
| E3 | Lance Corporal | LCPL |
| E2 | Private First Class | PFC |
| E1 | Private | PVT |
| CIV | Civilian | CIV |

**Basic Outline**
-

**Roleplay**
The server would be medium roleplay and high roleplay depending on the role selected by the player. Anyone with an official ship job would be expected to fulfill their duties, and positions such as the command department's jobs would require a high degree of roleplay. Officers are generally expected to have a defined character and act with a roleplay-first mindset, while the general enlisted positions are more job focused.

The highest positions on the ship are expected to drive forward the round and take genuine command of the ship, and are responsible for the success of the crew. Willfully ignoring these duties will result in a roleban. Similarly, players who ignore the responsibility of their role may land themselves a roleban from their department.

The usage of ranks in roleplay will be reflected by the rank abbreviation being included in the display of their name, and enforcement of the chain of command.

**Weapons**
Weaponry will not be scarce aboard the ship, although only combat personnel will generally need to carry combat arms. All officers O1 and above will be authorized to carry a sidearm for self defense, and security personnel will carry rifles in the event of an emergency or as a part of their duties. Most weaponry will be kinetic based, with laser weaponry being a research objective.

**Round Expectations**
A single round of Explorator14 is expected to last around 2-3 hours, with the crew making multiple FTL jumps to different sectors of space. Some rounds may naturally last shorter due to unexpected circumstances.

The round would end either when a major objective was done, such as nukies setting off the nuke, or upon the successful completion of at least 2 objectives and return of the ship to Nanotrasen HQ.

**Exploration**
All rounds will begin with Command receiving a set of instructions from their fax outlining a few required locations to explore. These locations will have a general goal assigned to them, such as geological survey, collection of flora/fauna samples, investigate a distress beacon, destroy a rogue space station, etc. Each FTL point will include a defined point of interest as set by the fax at round start, as well as a few randomly generated ones that the crew can investigate. Derelict ships/stations or planets/moons to land on.

Ideally, although potentially difficult to implement, would be scaling difficulty and increasingly random events the further the crew make it on objective completion to create a rogue-like difficulty curve.

**In-Game Currency**
Upon the completion of the game all players, in accordance to their pay-grade, will receive payment which can be used to purchase round-start drip/cosmetics in the lobby, or can be used to purchase items during the round from vendors at specific FTL locations. Payment will scale on the amount of successfully completed objectives.

**Pay-grades**
Player pay-grade will be decided partially by their position on the ship, and will also automatically increase after set amount of playtime in that specific job. For example, a new Security Officer might have the rank E1 - Private, but a 300 hour Security Officer might have the rank E5 - Sergeant. The more senior the pay-grade the more money the player would earn.

This encourages players to dedicate time honing their skill in a specific department, as well as showing seniority through time-in-department beside the typical positions. All jobs will have a minimum rank and a maximum rank, with the most important positions having more defined rank status.

**Antags**
Round-Start hard-antags will *never* occur, and will only begin existing after the first FTL mission objective is completed. Any sleeper agents within the ship from the Syndicate would activate at this point. Nukies would have their listening post at the 2nd objective, and they would attack the ship as it enters the 2nd area. Any other hard-antag event would occur at the 2nd FTL warp, although soft-antags can still occur at round start.

Completion of Syndicate objectives will award a large amount of currency, similar to the pay-grade of a Captain, but only on the successful completion of all tasks. Syndicate operatives will never have the death objective, and should make an effort to stealthfully avoid capture.

**Whitelisted Roles**
The only whitelisted role will be Captain, although a Captain is not 100% necessary for the operation of the vessel. A First Officer can act as the commander in the absence of a Captain. Some special permissions may exist only for the Captain of the vessel, and not a commander.

Only the Captain or vessel commander can use the console to FTL to the next zone, although there will be hidden ways for traitors to override this to force a warp to a different region.

**Tone**
The overall tone of Explorator14 should be similar to that of Star Trek, with the brave crew adventuring out into the unknown and each round acting as a separate story-arc which is self contained. Friendships may blossom between rounds, but the actions of an antag does not carry over into the next expedition.

Each round is defined as an expedition, as they are not defined shifts like SS14 is. An expedition, due to the nature of void travel, can theoretically span a multitude of real-space days despite only lasting a few hours for the crew.

Between expeditions, the crew return to a space station on the edge of unknown space to restock any crew members and perform restorative maintenance.

**Expanded Mechanics**
-

**Research Progression**
Exploration is required for research to progress. Different levels of researchable technology will be unlocked as the ship explores and finds various research fragments which can have points invested into to unlock that part of the research tree.

Fragments are typically found in the various POI that spawn in an area, and not typically the objective itself. Researchers should want to take to the forefront of away-crews as conducting scans of artifacts out in the field remains one of the fastest ways to accrue research points.

Researchers may also want to capture and study xenobiology, and the ship will accomodate them with testing chambers. Xeno fauna placed into a testing chamber will become ghost roles which dead players may inhabit for RP purposes.

**Procedural Generation & Space**
Large bodies of rock may be clumped together, or salvagable ship parts, will randomly generate in debris fields. These can be harvested for material and components which the requisition department can use. These may contain various space-borne fauna which is dangerous to crew.

The bodies themselves are potentially hazardous to the ship, as collision damage would be enabled. Small away-shuttles would be necessary as the ship would not be nimble enough to get close to the debris without risking damage and spacing.

Atmospheric simulation would emphasize explosive decompression, so if a hole to space appears the crew may risk being violently shot into the void.

**Random Events**
The various events that SS14 has would be utilized, such as the vents expelling goop, telecommunications malfunctions, etc. but lasting damage would occur to the ship as a result of these events and would require the Engineering department to repair them before they become functioning again.

Asteroids hitting the ship, monsters lurking out of the vents and a ravenous disease spreading onboard are events that would be tied to the location of the ship and the actions of the crew. For example, a disease might only spread intially to an away crew who don't wear their helmets due to the atmosphere being breathable, and then spreads further because the medical department did not quarantine the away crew first.

**Requisition**
The requisition department will be able to take advantage of raw materials provided by salvage technicians and away crews, as well as the research done by the researchers to fabricate materials needed by the ship and crew. These include more advanced weaponry, machinery, armor, and tools. Requsition is also responsible for using these materials to fabricate reactor fuel and jump cells which the Reactor Engineer will need to power up the ship for FTL warping.

**Engine**
The ship will be powered primarily by a nuclear reactor, which will require resources such as fuel cells, water, and gasses to power. There is also an FTL drive inside the engine bay which must be manually powered to activate the FTL warp, and requires coordinates plotted by the command bridge to activate *unless EMAGGED*.

The engine will produce hazardous waste which will need managed to avoid irradiating the ship.

**Atmospherics**
The ship will not have miners which generate infinite air, so a proper handling of atmospherics will be necessary else the ship may become uninhabitable. Additional gasses can be harvested and refined from planets during exploration to acquire more air if needed, but this will need managed and monitored.

**Mechanical Breakdowns**
Important ship components will break, especially during FTL which puts a lot of strain on the vessel. Power cables, pipes, machines, and various machinery can suffer void-strain which requires repair by a maintenance technician. Borgs can also suffer void-strain which may cause unexpected law alterations. This increases the job of the engineering department compared to base SS14 while also creating a reason for the malfunctions.

**Shuttle Acquisition**
Shuttles are purchased using points from the bridge's vessel printer. A set amount of points is granted to the ship to spend on purchasing shuttles, and a few different models of shuttle will be available. These shuttles will be necessary for away crews and salvage to function, and the piloting of the shuttles themselves fall under the duty of the requsition department.