# Phoenix-ing SS13 into a Good Game
###### Or how Uncle Maldo would turn the classic SS13 experience on its ass.

## WTF?

If I had to describe SS13 in a sentence:

**Traditional SS13 is a very interesting set of world dynamics but also has no real goals, player engagement, or risk/reward beyond what players create for themselves.**

This core lack of direction isn't really surprising, the heart of the game has been a history of layering systems and mechanics atop a simulator and calling it a game. Roleplay has bandaided over a lot of these issues, as well as creating new ones that further highlight the lack of a core game loop that makes use of the hundreds of smaller, context/mechanic specific loops that make up the game environment.

The core idea to fix this would be to completely start from scratch in terms of gameplay loops and the fundamental premise of the game.

1) No more monolithic player faction, instead build a somewhat-living world that continues without the player's intervention, but is responsive to player action/choice, and give the player options to freely associate with whomever they choose within it, while facing the consequences of that choice.
2) Long term, meaningful progression on an individual, group, and world level. Let players leave a mark on the world, create groups/factions of their own, and grow their character, and do so in a balancing act of risk/reward
3) Break up the game into directed and freeform gameplay, with directed gameplay coming in the form of jobs/contracts from the corporations, and freeform after players gain money/resources/equipment from the former that they can use in a sandbox environment.
4) Treat each gameplay "session" from the player's perspective as a time investment to achieve an objective for themselves/their group, with scenario-driven gameplay based on the jobs they elect to take.
5) Introduce gameplay asynchronicity, where instead of single shifts where all the players participate, break down into cooperative units. Make competitive contracts between these units appropriately rewarding.
6) Keep the game's unforgiving, mechanically driven world a centerpiece. Give players reasons to prepare for certain jobs/contracts/etc by setting up training wheels in entry-level work, with explicit levels at which they come off, and where the player is required to step up to the plate with their own equipment/augments/skill/etc.
7) A set of space and terrestrial frontiers with some amount of player settlement/claiming, and resources to incentivize it. Encourage PVP in this environment with resource scarcity and interdependence in whatever crafting systems may exist.

tl;dr, SS13 is a fundamentally rich simulation world to use as a bedrock by which to build a multiplayer world akin to Archeage or Eve Online, with a much smaller scale population.

## What

### The MVP

Three Core gameplay overhauls would be needed to make this work for an MVP:

- Server Architecture
- Not necessarily a pure gameplay change, but fundamentally persistence layers would need to be added into the game
- Character persistence would need to be implemented, triggered via cryo-tubes, a reworked evac shuttle, and similar "session change" mechanics.
- A proper "Hub" with some amount of automated protections for players moving about inside it, and essential services for purchase.
- Job/Contractor System
- A system that creates, orchestrates, and rewards players for completing discrete sets of tasks (i.e. Contracts) outside of the Hub.
- Tiered into 5 major categories
- Temp Work: Short, Self contained contract where supplies, transport, and security are provided. Lowest time/risk, lowest payout.
- Day Laborer: 2-3 Contracts in a chain with a related theme/scope, where most supplies are provided, and transport is provided. Usually no risk, low/moderate time investment, average payout.
- Hired Position: A more long form set of jobs, usually completed in cooperation with other players who have built reputation with the job issuer via the previous two tiers. Players are expected to maintain their own equipment, but not organize transport. Long-form compared to other contracts, success is based on the group's performance, and has high potential payout.
- Independent Contractor: One or more high intensity jobs, requiring multiple players, with their own equipment and transport. Solid rewards, moderate/heavy risk, and a significant barrier of entry.
- Factional Missions: Contract work to perform jobs specific to the needs of a given faction, lucrative, dangerous, and necessitating prepwork.
- Dispatched out a hub, starting with the core NT hub only for the MVP
- Give players finite, tracked, achievable objectives inside the contract's area of the game.
- Have some amount of competition in full planet/space environments in larger contracts, where one or more separate contracts might have similar objectives.
- Character Progression & Equipment
- Three key parts
- A storage medium guaranteed by the server with finite capacity
- A wallet/bank that safely stores the currency the player collects from the game world.
- A ledger of reputation/history with various factions, and what assets/equipment/tech/etc those factions make available to the player for lease/purchase.
- Core progression loop: Do Jobs -> Earn Credits/Reputation -> Unlock more gear/assets -> Get access to bigger and more risky jobs.
- Races should start with just Humans initially to focus on getting working core mechanics done before moving onto implementing meaningful mechanical gameplay changes to races/balancing races with existing content/etc.
- Strong delineations between what constitutes the various tiers of equipment and how effective those are for jobs.
- Ubiquitous Gear: Things you're likely able to just pick up at the hub for cheap right as you start the game. Cosmetic, or general purpose items that can help you do just about any job.
- Standard Job Gear: Things that you've got to go out of your way to purchase, and keep handy to do your job. This is a toolbelt for engineers, RPD for Atmos techs, surgical tools for medical staff, etc. None of this should be rare, but expensive enough where you'll notice if you forget a piece. Unlimited run blueprints for these items can be purchased with enough faction standings.
- Specialized Equipment: Nominal upgrades to tech or equipment you might use on the job. You'll likely never be provided these by your employer, but they make your life easier when doing contracts where they're useful. Jobs that require them will list them on the contract, and may not let you sign up unless you can prove you have them. Losing one of these is mildly/moderately annoying depending on how much money you have in your bank account. With a Faction's support, you can acquire limited run blueprints for these items.
- High-Tech Equipment: Can't buy this in a department store! These items are things you work for, or get very lucky to find. Usually have a unique feature, or unlock new styles of gameplay via their use. Usually found as part of an Independent Contractor's arsenal, or as requirements for Factional Missions. Blueprints for these items can be found during some high-end contracts, or as rewards from IC/Faction contracts.
- Experimental Equipment: End-Game gear, only possible to acquire through the hardest Factional Missions, requiring large groups of players to successfully complete. Equivalent to "Raid drops", and cannot be manufactured. This gear should have a limited useful lifespan, before degrading into the equivalent High-Tech variant, but trivialize the applicable part of the game while pristine.

**Note:** None of the above description includes the freeform/sandbox sections of the game. This is intentional: the success of those systems depends on the Contract system being tested/working.

Repurposing existing content falls into one of three modes:

1) Core Game Systems: i.e. things that make up the simulation. These things should be more or less left intact, but made independent from any global state/"station only" ties
2) Repurposeable Content: Parts of the game that can be made to work with the above system given enough effort. This includes antag gear, Overmap spawning systems, events, admin buttons, etc.
3) Asset-only Salvage: Parts of the game that wouldn't translate into the above design. Keep sprites, code snippets, or novel mechanics from these parts for reference later.

#### **Basic Gameplay Loop in Detail**

1) Player Logs onto the server, selects their character, and spawns into the Hub.
2) Player accesses their storage/bank to gather needed equipment for whatever job they're looking to take
3) Player opens the contract board and looks for jobs they'd like to take. Open Jobs that require multiple players that already have players queued are displayed first.
4) Player selects the category of job they want to perform, and takes a contract from the list. They are given a departure time/dock to meet their transport if applicable, or a destination they need to navigate to with their own ship.
5) Player departs the hub and enters the contract session area, completing the task as described in the contract. Likely includes working with other people, PVE, or at higher levels, even PVP.
6) Player having completed their job returns to the Hub, collects their rewards.
7) Player can go to a marketplace to purchase new equipment/cosmetics/etc for their character to use, group up in social areas, etc. while within the Hub
8) Player can use the cryo-stasis beds to leave the game, saving their equipment/items on their person.

### "Fully Fledged"

TODO

### Avenues of Growth

- Player Corporations/Organizations, territory control, persistent bases/etc.
- PVP arenas/PVP oriented content
- Exile/Penal Contracts/Player-driven Tribunals for some amount of self-moderation
- Multiple Hubs/Syndicate Hubs for renegade content.