Goonhub
Yesterday, 12:10 PM
So, from talking with people on the discord, I feel like option B is the most popular of the 3 options I have currently. Going forward, I intend to use this space to organize my thoughts on developing the project while leaving it open to community feedback.
Multiple members of the community have raised concerns about escalation. Part of the escalation, I feel, would be a watchful eye announcement making the Ancient Satellite's presence known to the crew. Beyond that, it would be up to the players controlling the Ancients to fill in the gaps. This opens up a few issues in terms of meta knowledge and proper progression for the Ancients. Something that was discussed would be the Ancient artifacts speaking through certain members of the crew, similar to how normal artifacts can make players say gibberish. I think it would be cool if certain members of the crew were designated as "conduits" for the Ancients and could be spoken through while also being able to tell where the drones were. I would like to come back to this at a later date, once I've fleshed out the mechanics more.
An idea that was pitched would be to have the Ancient drones be tied to an energy system that would deplete similarly to the cyborgs. The drone would need to return to the satellite in order to recharge and repair for the next engagement. This would prevent a lot of rampaging issues, as the drone would need to think out their plan of attack and not over-extend. However, a downside would be that this would promote hit and run gameplay that would make the antagonist unfun to fight. I do think the energy system is necessary in order to balance out the drones' combat.
The scout drones, or the "snatchers" would have their own tools to incapacitate the crew before teleporting off with their quarry. I think a basic shock prod would work, and someone suggested having a "blink" ability that would teleport them a few tiles forward. Once the snatcher latches on to a target, there needs to be an interval between the initial grab and the teleportation in order to give the crew a chance to prevent the grab-and-go. The victim would lose eyesight but would still be able to vocalize and move around. While the drone is latched on, they would be able to control the player's hands but not their movement. This could lead to some interesting interactions with the crew, where a crewmember could be calling for help but would still be attacking the crew.
I think, for the sake of simplifying an already complex project, I need to nix the resource gathering component of the gameplay loop. The central intelligence would have access to abundant resources, but would only be able to work on manufacturing so much at one time, dependent on how much information you've gathered. This would curb the snowball effect that the game-mode might introduce if the satellite was able to manufacture a ton of stuff at one time.
I have a few ideas for how the crew can combat the Ancient threat. Each drone would drop components that the crew can use with different departments in order to fight back. (i.e. engineering could use components to develop shields that reduce the effect of some of the drones' weapons. Research could develop weaponry that could damage the drones' systems.) I'd like to think that the armory weaponry would be moderately effective against the Ancients as a middle ground for the crew to gain some footing, but I don't want it to be a situation where someone sees a drone and goes "Oop! Auth the armory!" Something that could be worked on WAY in the future would be to repurpose the Ancients as "mech suits," where, after a lot of research and teamwork between departments, the crew is able to cobble together a working Nanotrasen:tm: drone. We'll see if this idea sticks.
After a certain point, I'd like the crew to be able to go to the satellite and fight the central intelligence core. I don't know how this would work progression wise. I've talked to some community members about it, and the consensus is, there shouldn't be an early round end on RP, and I'd like to keep this so both servers can enjoy it. I don't think this engagement is necessarily needed, but it would be cool to explore down the line.
I think that's all I've got so far. If I missed anything, or if you want to talk about something else, let me know in the replies! Thanks, y'all!
Multiple members of the community have raised concerns about escalation. Part of the escalation, I feel, would be a watchful eye announcement making the Ancient Satellite's presence known to the crew. Beyond that, it would be up to the players controlling the Ancients to fill in the gaps. This opens up a few issues in terms of meta knowledge and proper progression for the Ancients. Something that was discussed would be the Ancient artifacts speaking through certain members of the crew, similar to how normal artifacts can make players say gibberish. I think it would be cool if certain members of the crew were designated as "conduits" for the Ancients and could be spoken through while also being able to tell where the drones were. I would like to come back to this at a later date, once I've fleshed out the mechanics more.
An idea that was pitched would be to have the Ancient drones be tied to an energy system that would deplete similarly to the cyborgs. The drone would need to return to the satellite in order to recharge and repair for the next engagement. This would prevent a lot of rampaging issues, as the drone would need to think out their plan of attack and not over-extend. However, a downside would be that this would promote hit and run gameplay that would make the antagonist unfun to fight. I do think the energy system is necessary in order to balance out the drones' combat.
The scout drones, or the "snatchers" would have their own tools to incapacitate the crew before teleporting off with their quarry. I think a basic shock prod would work, and someone suggested having a "blink" ability that would teleport them a few tiles forward. Once the snatcher latches on to a target, there needs to be an interval between the initial grab and the teleportation in order to give the crew a chance to prevent the grab-and-go. The victim would lose eyesight but would still be able to vocalize and move around. While the drone is latched on, they would be able to control the player's hands but not their movement. This could lead to some interesting interactions with the crew, where a crewmember could be calling for help but would still be attacking the crew.
I think, for the sake of simplifying an already complex project, I need to nix the resource gathering component of the gameplay loop. The central intelligence would have access to abundant resources, but would only be able to work on manufacturing so much at one time, dependent on how much information you've gathered. This would curb the snowball effect that the game-mode might introduce if the satellite was able to manufacture a ton of stuff at one time.
I have a few ideas for how the crew can combat the Ancient threat. Each drone would drop components that the crew can use with different departments in order to fight back. (i.e. engineering could use components to develop shields that reduce the effect of some of the drones' weapons. Research could develop weaponry that could damage the drones' systems.) I'd like to think that the armory weaponry would be moderately effective against the Ancients as a middle ground for the crew to gain some footing, but I don't want it to be a situation where someone sees a drone and goes "Oop! Auth the armory!" Something that could be worked on WAY in the future would be to repurpose the Ancients as "mech suits," where, after a lot of research and teamwork between departments, the crew is able to cobble together a working Nanotrasen:tm: drone. We'll see if this idea sticks.
After a certain point, I'd like the crew to be able to go to the satellite and fight the central intelligence core. I don't know how this would work progression wise. I've talked to some community members about it, and the consensus is, there shouldn't be an early round end on RP, and I'd like to keep this so both servers can enjoy it. I don't think this engagement is necessarily needed, but it would be cool to explore down the line.
I think that's all I've got so far. If I missed anything, or if you want to talk about something else, let me know in the replies! Thanks, y'all!