# Salvage but real (cool mirror edition)

*Written primarily by mirrorcult.*

> Old salvage doc was a mess so here is what will become the One Source of Truth on salvage until I move it to wikijs. This is just for feedback so we can get a prototype for salvage done faster

## Basic idea

Salvage is a mining replacement. It's technically part of cargo (like mining was), but it's more of its own thing. Salvage is composed of two jobs, technicians and the director/captain, but both defer to all other heads with regards to any matters.

Salvage pulls in wrecks and asteroids close to the station so that the salvage technicians can pull them apart for resources. This is done using the *Bluespace Tractor Beam*. Salvage has their own substation which primarily powers this device, as it runs on MV and takes a lot of power.

How long the asteroid/wreck remains pulled in is determined by the power usage of the tractor beam, which increases *quadratically* with time. This rewards skilled engineers that can provide lots of power to the station, ensures that it can't stay around for too long, and is just a more emergent mechanic overall (traitors can sabotage salvage by cutting their power, a traitor could intentionally keep salvage running for longer than it should to drain station power, etc)

Wrecks/asteroids are pulled in relatively close but not close enough to make mapping for it a huge pain--IMO, envision how far away the toxins testing site is on most maps and that's about how far away the stuff should spawn.

For now, derelicts/roids/wrecks will be hand-mapped rather than procgen, but in the future should be procgen out of smaller parts. This isn't a big deal as in my mind it's less about having a novel experience with deconstructing each wreck and more about the preparation that goes into it and the skill required to execute the job efficiently.

## Design considerations alongside salvage

- Most cargo items will need to be nerfed or raised in price. Salvage is the preferred way to get goods when it comes to most things
- The station should probably be undersupplied slightly at roundstart, to give an incentive to salvage to actually look for stuff. Things like: not enough tools, not enough medical supplies/chems,

## Gameplay loop

Gathering equipment & crew help -> collecting resources -> trading/distributing gathered resources -> collecting resources etc etc.

### Gathering equipment & crew help

Salvage is about collecting resources for the rest of the crew to use. However, the salvage technicians are not powerful enough on their own. They start with only sparse equipment:

- Unarmored spacesuits, survival masks, oxygen
- Pickaxes for asteroid mining and light self defense
- Small depth charges for breaching walls
- Tools for deconstruction
- Bags/crates for collecting large quantities of items (not too large, can't have them carry back everything all at once!)

This is enough to do some work with on lowpop if you need but it's not enough to get the biggest loot of all or to engage in any real combat. If the salvagers want to do more involved things, they need to get other crewmembers involved, like security, engineering, scientists, or any random assistants with some gear.

Salvage intentionally spawns with more spacesuits than job slots, so that potentially anyone can come in on the fly and help as necessary. This increases crew interdependence, makes salvage a big part of the round gameplay loop, and is more emergent than simply having people who selected the job help.

### Collecting resources

Salvage has little control over what they pull in. They can select from a list of three (give or take) potential targets, along with some minor hints at what they might contain. Different targets have threat ratings, and larger ones have increased power consumption. At the beginning of the round, you might go for smaller targets that aren't as dangerous, but at the end of the round once you have more gear and help you can take on harder jobs.

The two main kinds of salvage are derelicts and asteroids. Derelicts are ususally metal, wrecks of ships/stations/etc, can be any size, all that jazz. Asteroids are asteroids. I don't know why I bothered explaining this I'm pretty sure you get the idea. Pulling in roids functions like goon's mineral magnet/vg roids but better.

Here's some examples of the loot you can find in derelict-type salvage:

#### Engineering/machinery

Novel machines or machine parts. Some will be fully working and you'll be able to unanchor and cart them into the station, but sometimes you'll have to decon them for the board. Cloning machines, protolathes, stock parts, singularity generators, containment field generations, emitters, chem dispensers, etc. Rare gas canisters and atmospherics equipment. Thrusters and gyros for shuttlebuilders as well.

#### Medical equipment

Old first aid kits with bruisepack and ointment, bottles of unknown, rare, or dangerous chemicals, syringes, large beakers

#### Service goodies

Rare foods/ingredients for the chef, lots of alcohol for the bartender, rare plants for the botanist, costumes for the clown and mime

#### Carbon lifeforms

Dead bodies to harvest for meat, livestock like cows/chickens

#### Weaponry

Old shitty laser guns, rare armor/helmets, ammunition for various types of guns, RARELY working guns, batons/flashes/flashbangs/etc.

#### General gear

Lots of tools, raw materials like steel or plasma/uranium/diamond (rarely, mostly have to process these from roids), instruments, plushies, rare floor tiles/carpeting, that kind of good stuff.

EXTREMELY rarely you can find caches of telecrystals or even traitor equipment.

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As for asteroid-type salvage:

#### Free pokemon


#### Ores

Diamond, uranium, iron, plasma, all processable (floyd had ideas for processing these in a cool way, IDC right now just make it use an ORM)

#### Salvage-specific equipment

More depth charges, better pickaxes, more suits, etc. All from dead salvagers from other stations, woo!

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Obviously this isn't going to be free. The idea is that you won't be able to get everything from one salvage and may need to pick and choose depending on what resources you need at the moment. Here's some dangers/obstacles you might find while trying to harvest the blood and meat of a dead ship:

#### Underpressurization

Obviously, they aren't all gonna be perfectly pressurized. You'll need equipment to breathe in low-oxy environments and a pressurized suit, or pressurize it your own damn self.

#### Overpressurization

A room in the ship is severely overpressurized. Better not open that door, or it might just fling you into space.

#### Dangerous gas

A room in the ship is filled with plasma/tritium/somethin nasty. Watch out for any lit matches.

#### Booby traps

Whatever inhabitants last occupied this ship really fucking hate you. Small explosives or chemical-based traps (foam, smoke, injectors, nades) are laid on the ground and you should be wary.

#### Radiation

Something on the ship is irradiated. Your suit doesn't protect you that well, so you'll need to gather mesons, bring people who have more rad-protective equipment and pressurize the area for them, or just bring doctors with dylovene/anti-rad medicine.

#### The local fauna

Xenomorphs, spiders, carp, rabid space-dwelling monkeys, oh my!

### Locked doors / walls

You'll have to get someone with proper access, or just use your tools to decon this. Some stuff might be locked behind several layers of Rwalls, so you'll need to either work fast or find a novel way to get past it all.

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That's it for collecting resources. Obviously not all of these have to be implemented (some can't even be implemented right now without some effort) but I tried to keep it within the scope of reason for what we have right now.

### Trading/distributing resources

Salvage gotta give stuff out. There's bound to be a lot of people who want what you got. Heads of the station have authority over the salvagers, and thus can request items from them at high priority. For other crewmembers, give out loot at your own discretion, in exchange for labor, after bartering, or just not at all.

Salvage -can- keep everything for themselves, but expect a lot of angry crewmembers that are undersupplied, including sec who want those potential-traitor-items or weaponry. Crewmembers are a lot less likely to help you if you're just going to keep everything for themselves, and they're a lot more likely to help you if it means they'll get a cut of the funny loot.

### Misc considerations/stuff to encourage

- Salvage is a good source of shuttlebuilding resources. Expect people to break into salvage from space and take stuff for themselves (this applies to more than just shuttle stuff, too!)
- Salvage should never be a singleplayer game, and if salvagers are able to exfiltrate stuff without any crew help or equipment, then something is off balance-wise.
- Salvage is a high-prio target for traitors because of the loot, so make sure that it's mapped decently securely (especially the substation)

## Conclusion

Salvage is cool. Make sure its tied into the rest of the station well. Make sure that people actually understand what they're meant to do. Use this as an opportunity to get people into mapping/contributing (to map their own salvage). This is basically the first actual gameplay loop SS14 will get (and its a novel one) so make sure we actually get this right