this is an idea following several long discussions over explorers. it is meant to build over/redirect the commonly accepted points - lavaland proper is dead long live lavaland procedural - asteroids exist to be pulled and mined - explorers and miners are one with 4 slots by default theese points exist to solve the major mining/explor flaw of the jobs being very detached from the station. isolated and not interacting with crew. and crew not interacting with them. it has been commonly accepted that theese issues must be solved by any means. bacon's aproach (asteroids) - a compromise (lacks exploration and offstaiton activities) i write today to provide a solution that adresses this issue without giving in to said compromises # minerexplo department - the basics explo is now a department for mining AND exploration. heavily theddered to the station both in terms of needs and cause&effect - the operators - explo is now handled by up to 3 operators. (cap,RD,AI). they can SEE the ship and bodycam footage of the explorers. and easily talk with them - exploration bay is equipped with the THEADDER:tm:. multi purpose device used by the operators. its main purpose is asteroid mining. but it can also be used on the explo shuttle to RAPIDLY pull it back to the station and then send it once again (less rapidly) to its last docked location. downside is the shuttle gets damaged (usefull if explorers are dying and you need to grab the shuttle to send a rescue team) - there are several forms of exploratiomining - asteroid explomining - quick easy and **DANGEROUS**. if explorominers are lacking it can pull an asteroid/derelict. however this can be dangerous as only god knows what lies on those meteors and derelicts and you are putting them right next to the station (small derelicts and meteors are just docked... big ones exist as a multistage structure. with an entrance docking to the thedder port. that has a z-ladder to the meteor/derelict proper. *just solved your docksize issue*) - exploration proper - a "safer" procedure. larger structures like derelict stations,lavaland,lavaland bases can be explored this way. missions only spawn on theese as well. you can still just dock on meteors and derelicts - crew interactions > operators operators keep an eye on the explorers(bodycams,shuttlecam) and are the first to call assistance/supplies when need comes. they can also hack and observe any drelict cameras that exist around to assist the explorers. they are also the ones who pick the explorer objectives - crew interactions > linking - the gateway can be used to send people to the explorers's ship quickly. however this is a 1 way trip and they must come back proper with explorers (usefull for tots hunting explorers and station providing assistance to explorers) - the theddeer as afromentioned can YOINK the shuttle (or asteroids/derelicts). works great if they are stuck with no fuel or dead on it. but if not you at least get the means of transport to send a rescue team - the old mining fulton device. relabled as BS teleporter or something. now very expensive and rare - crew interactions crew -> explorers - some objectives may require various crew assistance for the job (more on that later. its quite scizo) - explorers may need additional assitance by sec for some situations - explorers are now more reliant on service's supplies (fear and service update [you need goods from service for your mood. or bring a psychiatrist or chap]) - crew may need to rescue explorers form time to time - crew interactions explorers -> crew - (idea curtesy of pigeon) butterfly effect - random triggeres will spawn ocasionaly. when exploring... when interactied with in sepcific way they will affect the station somewhat (example. spawn random npc/ghostchar. if X done to them... do Y on station) (pigeon provide examples if you read this) - mission sucsess/failure effects - probably on economic basis. maybe a midround event or two as well - organic mission development - (we went to kill a horrible beast... we failed and now the damn thing got back to the station OHGOD) - organic exploration development - we found something in space... it did something on the explorers/ship... now its on station or affecting more people - asteroid/derelict mining effects - we yoinked an asteroid from space... there was an eldrich god inside... o well - new missions (grow in power and variety with each major PR added. to fuel more options. economy,anomsci) https://hackmd.io/W6_CUCmWQ6y7l4x5Ev0NEQ i believe we should use objectives either dynamic or heavily reliant on hostile ghostroles (the kill objective was the only ok objective) by dynamic i mean objectives that are generated form multiple initial variables. the more varibales to mix and match the better (think in the form of a matrix. with the matrix dimentions as the intial vars and the dimention leghts as the amount of possible vars .it grows exponentually in variety). hostile ghostroles dont NEED (could still use) massive variety. just some sturdy base to begin with (spawning a clown with nothing in a derelict where he has 60% to die from the station itself is not a sturdy base) # new random or not so random events. may spawn randomly or as the consequence of a mission failure/butterfly effect * infested ship - spawns a shuttle moving towards the station (cant be controlled but may be docked by the ocupants (random if they cant do that)) it will be filled with any of the following * 1-2 xenos with huggers - standard xeno affair * nightmare - standard nightmare affair * 1-3 changelings - with the objective to commit 1 traitor crime and escape on the shuttle (planning to rework lings's objectives... once and for all hopefully) * 1-2 heretics - latejoin antags wtih a severe disatdvantage * 3 cultist prepers - must convert 3 people and use the apocalypse rune (that for this case needs 6 people). (lorelore... this is culties preparing the weakspots for narsie summon in a future cult round) * 2 clockie prepers - no reebe for you... must cog the shit out of the station for power... theese cogs siphon power to 0% * mad grey - 4-6 "assistants" no gear no id no nothing. they have a traitor objective to fuffil and survive * blob - odds are it will get spotted in transit and doesnt have the luxury to pick its location. but it starts in a big shuttle and some prep time to build up (while transiting to the station) * hostile drone - a hostile syndicate drone has awakened. it will now fly about and assault any sats and ships * hunter - high tier well equiped traitor,cultist,ling with varying gear has the explorers/command crew on his crosshair. to either assasinate or kidnap (kidnapping he must take the target and bring them to a specific exporation site. where he may put their target in a pod for kidnaping. pod alerts all crew and takes 3 mins to eject) * mad predator - a high tier beast awakens in your next obj site to visit or asteroid/derelict thedder... not that you know that