Random event that spans SWORD in the asteroid belt or debris field

[Ikea]

For those who don't know, SWORD was a random event boss that was spawned on the station z level, and began attacking the station (pr here) https://github.com/goonstation/goonstation/pull/3666. This random event was disabled because it overshadowed the round and just got tiring after a while. It is in my opinion, an incredibly cool asset with a lot of work put onto it and it sucks it just sits in the code unused. So what if instead of spawning on the station z level, it spawned in the asteroid belt/debris belt instead?

This would reduce the obtrusiveness while still being a threat to any miners/debris field scrappers. Since it now no longer spans on the station z level, it can also spawn earlier in the round, giving time to play with the loot. For the changes besides the z level it spawns in, it also should probably be rarer then the initial implementation, and instead of the recipes being in hacked manufacturer's they're in a manudrive SWORD drops.

[Lefinch]

SWORD is very cool sure, turning it into a z-level boss for drops always makes me lairy but if it's truly mean enough that it's hard for a single nerd to do it then maybe that'll work. I just really don't want "another thing that one person does by themselves and eventually has to be spoken to by admins because they can't help themselves" syndrome to happen.

But like I said, the SWORD is kind of brutal, it has been very fun to fight (and die horribly to) every time I've seen it, and it's just a very spicy sprite so theoretically I guess it might be scary enough that it'd require at least a few people to do it, I just want it to be a collaborative experience rather than satisfying a pretty non-contributive margin of the player population. In fact it might work out well for that if you changed it up so that you require some debris-loot to summon/deal with it (thus sort of turning the debris field into more of a direct purpose an experience) That's more work though.

I am always also a bit nervous of "Make it so it's doable sooner" because of the reasons above: I'm not neccessarily saying don't, but the more possible you make something for one person to quickly cheese the certainty of it basically being ruined by this increases in my personal experience, and the more work the poor soul who worked on it has to do to make it work.

All of this in summary is: Yes I agree SWORD very cool I like the idea. Just please, make it a thing at least a few crew need to team up to summon/deal with.

[freedo5]

I love the sword, even if everytime I've seen it I got gibbed. With pods getting more modules and weapons we can get some very fun battles.

[RSOD]

i like the idea of making it spawnable (i have never fought this, nor seen it) but i feel like players should have to go out of their way to summon it rather than just "oh shit that's the grim reaper" while wandering the debris field for prefab loot. maybe it takes 3+ players to get along and do something specific?

[Kotlol]

i like the idea of making it spawnable (i have never fought this, nor seen it) but i feel like players should have to go out of their way to summon it rather than just "oh shit that's the grim reaper" while wandering the debris field for prefab loot. maybe it takes 3+ players to get along and do something specific?

As long as "Sword" only spawns in the debris field. It should be a non issue.

[Ikea]

i like the idea of making it spawnable (i have never fought this, nor seen it) but i feel like players should have to go out of their way to summon it rather than just "oh shit that's the grim reaper" while wandering the debris field for prefab loot. maybe it takes 3+ players to get along and do something specific?

I'd like this solution if there was some degree of randomness to where people can't do this every round. Could make it tied to a prefab in the asteroid belt, but that doesn't seem too fitting. Ideally there'd be a randomized debris field and it'd be tied to a prefab in that, but until then I think I prefer it just being a random event if it spawns as it both fits the game and prevents people from overusing the loot.

[freedo5]

i like the idea of making it spawnable (i have never fought this, nor seen it) but i feel like players should have to go out of their way to summon it rather than just "oh shit that's the grim reaper" while wandering the debris field for prefab loot. maybe it takes 3+ players to get along and do something specific?

I'd like this solution if there was some degree of randomness to where people can't do this every round. Could make it tied to a prefab in the asteroid belt, but that doesn't seem too fitting. Ideally there'd be a randomized debris field and it'd be tied to a prefab in that, but until then I think I prefer it just being a random event if it spawns as it both fits the game and prevents people from overusing the loot.

I think the best place related to summoning it would be the syndicate drone base in the bottom left of debris field. Maybe in some rounds it's not so abandoned.

[RSOD]

i like the idea of making it spawnable (i have never fought this, nor seen it) but i feel like players should have to go out of their way to summon it rather than just "oh shit that's the grim reaper" while wandering the debris field for prefab loot. maybe it takes 3+ players to get along and do something specific?

I'd like this solution if there was some degree of randomness to where people can't do this every round. Could make it tied to a prefab in the asteroid belt, but that doesn't seem too fitting. Ideally there'd be a randomized debris field and it'd be tied to a prefab in that, but until then I think I prefer it just being a random event if it spawns as it both fits the game and prevents people from overusing the loot.

I think the best place related to summoning it would be the syndicate drone base in the bottom left of debris field. Maybe in some rounds it's not so abandoned.

now that we're getting a lot more dangerous syndi drones, i could see that being a good summoning spot, having to fight off the drones (and maybe summon SWORD with their parts / a special item they drop?) before fighting sword itself