Goonhub
01-15-2014, 04:56 PM
Syndicate Remote Strike Squad
A mid-point between normal traitors and nuke ops, the Syndicate Remote Strike Squad spawn in deep space with basic space-faring equipment and maybe revolvers and some dedicated technical gear, as well as disguise materials. Their task is to find various experimental weapons beamed in by their incompetent overlords through use of specialised space GPSs. These heavy-duty prototype weapons are capable of causing incredible damage - one might fire a carrier-class beam cannon that tears a diagonal hole through the station, vaporising everything in its path (I remember seeing an admin gimmick event that did just this, which is what gave me the idea), one might send a singularity on a path for the station, another might cause a high-pitched sonic signal to emanate from the station, drawing drone/Martian attack forces.
However, due to syndicate budget cuts, these experimental weapons are incomplete! They are lacking vital parts, and those parts can only be found on the station itself! Agents will have to sneak into the station through duplicity and stealth, stealing various items to flee and complete the deadly remote weapons. The Squad's objective will be to set off three out of five weapons, and the crew objective will be to kill all the Squad members, as in nuclear. And, of course, if the Squad put together the weapons in the wrong way, or set them up badly...
This incorporates a few ideas that I'd like to see more of in the game. There would be a real sense of "escalation" - maybe the crew know from the start that there's a Remote Strike Squad (some sort of message about strange debris found in space? Not sure, since everyone would know exactly what this meant after the first few rounds of it, and begin acting accordingly), and this becomes clearer and more frantic as holes get blown in the station, a strange signal frees the AI from its laws, every pod spontaneously explodes due to targeted EMP blasts, every fifth crew member mutates into a werewolf and goes feral, whatever. There would be an element of distinct randomness - not every weapon would be in the same place, or even there at all, every round. There would be a cheerful balance between constant need for sneakiness, stealth and taking careful and strategic advantage of mayhem - do you send the pulse that confuses all doors into thinking that everyone has Captain access so you can then storm the bridge and steal the bottle of Stinkeye's required to activate the Drunkenator, or do you start off with maximum disruption by beaming vicious wendigos and feral Georges into the bar? Many of the weapons would lead to a generally-lacking situation of the crew having to work together to fight off the Terrible Dangers of Space and the Station instead of each other, which is always great fun - imagine trying to organise two teams, one to look out for suspicious thefts and one to arm themselves and hunt down the roaming space lions, all the while keeping a terrified and paranoid eye on each other as well. It would hopefully avoid the problems regularly encountered in two similar gamemodes, nuclear and spy, whereby if the round doesn't end quickly in a couple of specific ways it ends up being dragged out endlessly as the crew hunt one deep-cover dudes/the most vicious and lucky spymaster carves an endless bloody 50-minute swathe across everyone else on the station, because there's always another few options available for the badmen and the crew can take matters into their own hands by seeking out and dismantling the weapons.
Problems with this I guess would be that it would require a dedicated area/z-level and it would be hard to stop the crew just suiting up and heading out into space as a lynch mob to find the giant obvious weapon platforms and blow them up as soon as the first one fires.
I think it sounds fun though
A mid-point between normal traitors and nuke ops, the Syndicate Remote Strike Squad spawn in deep space with basic space-faring equipment and maybe revolvers and some dedicated technical gear, as well as disguise materials. Their task is to find various experimental weapons beamed in by their incompetent overlords through use of specialised space GPSs. These heavy-duty prototype weapons are capable of causing incredible damage - one might fire a carrier-class beam cannon that tears a diagonal hole through the station, vaporising everything in its path (I remember seeing an admin gimmick event that did just this, which is what gave me the idea), one might send a singularity on a path for the station, another might cause a high-pitched sonic signal to emanate from the station, drawing drone/Martian attack forces.
However, due to syndicate budget cuts, these experimental weapons are incomplete! They are lacking vital parts, and those parts can only be found on the station itself! Agents will have to sneak into the station through duplicity and stealth, stealing various items to flee and complete the deadly remote weapons. The Squad's objective will be to set off three out of five weapons, and the crew objective will be to kill all the Squad members, as in nuclear. And, of course, if the Squad put together the weapons in the wrong way, or set them up badly...
This incorporates a few ideas that I'd like to see more of in the game. There would be a real sense of "escalation" - maybe the crew know from the start that there's a Remote Strike Squad (some sort of message about strange debris found in space? Not sure, since everyone would know exactly what this meant after the first few rounds of it, and begin acting accordingly), and this becomes clearer and more frantic as holes get blown in the station, a strange signal frees the AI from its laws, every pod spontaneously explodes due to targeted EMP blasts, every fifth crew member mutates into a werewolf and goes feral, whatever. There would be an element of distinct randomness - not every weapon would be in the same place, or even there at all, every round. There would be a cheerful balance between constant need for sneakiness, stealth and taking careful and strategic advantage of mayhem - do you send the pulse that confuses all doors into thinking that everyone has Captain access so you can then storm the bridge and steal the bottle of Stinkeye's required to activate the Drunkenator, or do you start off with maximum disruption by beaming vicious wendigos and feral Georges into the bar? Many of the weapons would lead to a generally-lacking situation of the crew having to work together to fight off the Terrible Dangers of Space and the Station instead of each other, which is always great fun - imagine trying to organise two teams, one to look out for suspicious thefts and one to arm themselves and hunt down the roaming space lions, all the while keeping a terrified and paranoid eye on each other as well. It would hopefully avoid the problems regularly encountered in two similar gamemodes, nuclear and spy, whereby if the round doesn't end quickly in a couple of specific ways it ends up being dragged out endlessly as the crew hunt one deep-cover dudes/the most vicious and lucky spymaster carves an endless bloody 50-minute swathe across everyone else on the station, because there's always another few options available for the badmen and the crew can take matters into their own hands by seeking out and dismantling the weapons.
Problems with this I guess would be that it would require a dedicated area/z-level and it would be hard to stop the crew just suiting up and heading out into space as a lynch mob to find the giant obvious weapon platforms and blow them up as soon as the first one fires.
I think it sounds fun though