Quartermaster - The Thread

[ferriswheel1]

So, some ideas for adding progression and general stuff to QM.

Fabricator Array:

Roll all of QM's underused fabricators into one large multi-tile building-machine, with a nearby console to control it. Should be able to build nearly anything, as well as accepting mechanics blueprints. Different categories of items are sorted underneath tabs for easier use. Makes fabricating stuff easier and quicker, rather than having to manage several different fabricators.

Reputation System: 

Building on Sundance's ideas (https://forum.ss13.co/showthread.php?tid=8155) a reputation system for traders. Different traders have varied likes and dislikes determined by traits, with consequences for pleasing or displeasing them. 

Adding on to this, the QM themselves also has a reputation bar/scale, measuring how "legitimate" they've been with their activities. Trading legally (selling ore, non-restricted goods and fabricated stuff) pushes the scale towards the "legal" end of the bar. Making shady or suspicious trades (Buying and selling firearms and alien artifacts without a licence, reselling NT supply crates on the open market) pushes the bar towards the "illegal" end.    

There's consequences for pushing to both ends of the bar, both bad and good. Going too far towards the illegal end means NT might withdraw your crate-ordering privileges, but also opens you up to more sweet black market trades for fun stuff and loadsofmoney.  Likewise, moving towards the legal end means some of the shadier traders will stop contacting you, but you'll unlock lowered supply crate prices and more useful gear to help out on-station.

Tying this in with Sundance's idea, traders have a trait that describes their "legitimacy", and affects their feelings towards you based on your reputation. If you have a somewhat illegal reputation, the more upstanding merchants will have a lowered reputation towards you, drop it too low and they'll leave for good until you patch it up.  

Communications Dish: 

QM's line to traders and NT. Now with a physical presence in-game, presumably being a big honkin dish and antenna  sticking out into space. Rather likely to get it blown up by a traitorous miner. You can trade for various upgrades to attach to it that improve your trading capacity, such as:

• Broad Wave Frequency Module: Increases the number of items for sale at all traders. 
  
• Long Range Stabilization Modkit: More traders per market shift. 
  
• High-Intensity Burst Relay: Unlocks a "comm burst" ability that instantly changes the market shift. You suffer a small rep penalty with the current traders. 
  
• Disruption Hardening Module: Allows trading and crate-ordering during solar flares. 
  
• Universal Translator: Cleans up weird alien language, vague trader-talk and other such stuff. Occasionally produces hilarious mis-translations when trading that cause reputation loss. 
  
• Tightbeam Communicator: Grants the "tightbeam comms" ability that ensures a trader will stay on until the next market shift. Uses an APC-draining load of power per use. 
  
• Anonymizer Modkit: Nullifies reputation change from illegal trades, disables crate-ordering and only allows trading with the shadier sort.
  
• Syndicate Encryption Key: Grants access to the "Syndicate Supply Network" trader, full of fun highly illegal goodies. Maybe a traitor item?
  

Transport Systems: 

• Universal barcodes:  

The belt-hell bar-coding system is now expanded to cover the entire station, with barcodes for each department. These barcodes 
work with MULES, Belt hell and mailpipes. 

Want to get a package to robotics? Slap a "robotics" barcode on it. If you shove it in a mailpipe, it'll come out at the robotics pipe. Put it next to a MULE, and it'll pick it up and take it to the Robotics MULE beacon. Shove it into belt-hell, and it'll come out at the closest belt hell dock to robotics. 

• MULE assignment to belt hell docks:  

MULEs can be set to have a "home" destination at a belt-hell dock, where they'll auto-pickup bar-coded crates and take them on to a MULE beacon closer to their barcoded destination. Taking the crate with a robotics barcode from earlier, if it arrived at the medsci belt hell dock with a waiting MULE, the MULE would pickup the crate and take it on to robotics. 

• Remove cargo-pads from roundstart, improve the other transport systems:  

Cargo pads are not included on the station from roundstart, and now must be ordered in a supply crate and built. I feel like cargo transporters are pretty boring, and outclass the other transport systems entirely. This gives QM much more of a sense of progression, and means the other transport systems will see more use.