Antag idea: "The Rival Company"

[Kotlol]

Wait NT has a rival company? No of course not silly, it's a Syndicate Sponsored Start-up company!

These lil companies and their tiny stations started working in your stations sector and is trying to cut into your profits!
So best hope your crew of 60 is more compitent then their crew of 3-7.

So how does this work?

Basicly put... there will be a mini station where the "Start-uppers" will spawn. Similiar to the battle cruiser.
It's in it's own zone.

They got everything your standard station needs to sell products, but here's the kicker... since it's a syndicate station. They can also make illegal stuff.
Think like every traitor gear, mutant plant and such... so yes these antagonists will be working on their own station making illegal things and NT can't do anything about it... RIGHT?

Well no.. their station lacks 1 fatal flaw:
THEY HAVE NO CARGO ROUTE!
All cargo has to go via your station, including theirs. Though.. they don't have to order do they? They can also sneak onboard and steel some materials and such.

What's the start-ups goal?
Basicly beat NT at their own game. They need to make a certain amount of money while increasing the costs to NT.
It's a business vs business thing.


Alright.. let's get into the mechanics for this silly idea.

No, more summarizing and being vague. Let's get into the nitty gritty.
Basicly put you and a few others are in charge of a syndicate start-up company that provides many services.
This means you have a budget you can use to spend on orders to come in (Wich you need to pick up or steal from the NT station). Or pay triple to warp in.
Since your budget has to increase...spending more and more is probably not the way to go, so you and your fellow interns must find ways to get as much profit as possible (even stealing from NT)

So what kinda gear do you have? ...Nothing. You only have an ID, backpack with life support, PDA and ID of YOUR company. Any gear you might need to do your evil deeds has to be made. Luckily each station does start out with some smaller equipment to do your things, but certain parts and materials just have to be ordered as you do not have the blueprints or devices to fabricate such things.

So discuss with your fellow employees what you will focus on and how you will maximize profit, even if it means sabotaging NT or stealing from it.

This sounds like an advance form of Spy/thief

Yes. While Salvagers are fun and dandy... I would like to see these antags make items to sell to the black market to make a profit, but also steal from the station to sell off on the market for more profit while never blowing up cargo... cause they need it themselves.
Infact I also recommend things like "high valued items" like "xxxx's Liver is worth 10k" to give them something else to do.

What if they just stay in their station?

Well that's still for me to figure out. I do think this "Start up" needs to lack certain things to force the antags to go to the station for various things.
For example... scanning devices to get blueprints for them to make it at their own base or just stealing materials and components.
The whole point of the "Start Up" is the fact they have to go to the station for something or another to do their antagging.

What kinda gears can they make?

Only black market gear aka... traitor gear / spy/thief gear. The better the gear the more certain items they need. It's not like they will come in and plant nukes.
They basicly start with certain blueprints and fabricators to make their starting gear, but have to order more blueprints and "syndicate components" to get more options... thus the Cargo idea.

I know this idea is kinda incomplete, but I wanted to throw this concept out there and see what people think of it's initial design.
What do you guys think of a "Coorperate Battle" with the Syndicate?
I mean the syndicate has gotta get their gear from somewhere.

[deathrobotpunch]

It’s good, I think that for the round it will set up a cargo deposit randomly on the station or somewhere in space and the start up is tasked with objectives to obtain a certain item and bring it to a drop off point and then they are rewarded with trade secrets and they use that to produce antag items or sell for profit and their main goal is to earn enough money to buy out NT.
NT is tasked to find out where their secret base is and detonate it using some sort of button on ship and also to stop enemy corporations from taking secrets off station

[Dhaidburt]

I like the idea of working against cargo without blowing it up, but I'm not sure I can agree with the concept, especially since it's so close to salvagers gameplay. The nature of 'getting as much money as possible' doesn't feel as immediately rewarding as breaking apart the station and shooting up the fools who get in your way. There's also the fact that the underwater maps can just have a hole into the trench and everything inbound goes in there for a time. Very little risk once you have a diving suit, which there are several for free around the station.

But, the idea of a 3rd party outside of nanotrasen or the syndicate working for maximum profit? That sounds like a fun time. Being able to haggle with cargo for usually unavailable items, seeking out and selling traitor gems to any undercover agents, or as you said, be able to MAKE cool stuff normally unaccessable. You (and maybe your team) have the power to bring chaos to the station and all they'll have to pay is credits and maybe their life.

[Kotlol]

Thanks for the positive responds (and someone one starring it)

The idea is very haphazard and everytime I tried to think it out more it became more a mess so I figrued posting the concept and ideas that I thought works would be fun.

As for some time thinking I was thinking of some changes.

1st off... their activity on the station.

The cargo thing is gonna make people meta around the cargo, to prevent this. There will always be 1-2 inflitrants.
Aka people who are hired by NT, but are there to help the company. They will have a company headset and their PDA can mail to the company.
Inflitrants will always be a QM.
They can also print "Stickers" to re-route packages to the "business" from their PDA.

Next change:
INTERACTION.

While theft is fun and all and causing chaos too. I think this company needs another way of doing business and incentive players to interact that isn't "KILL"
"Selling things"
Take the chaplains contracts but make em actual contracts.
Like a life insurance that pays out the moment you die kinda stuff.
Have players want to "help" antagonists to get things in return.

But how will these antags reach their targets? "SPAM MAIL on PDA"
Yep.... thats what I am going with. Pretty much players who have "bounty" stuff on them, can recieve spam mail from these antagonists to setup a deal with them.
"Have a spare Liver? Trade it in at XXX Company for a [insert reward], Come to "LOCATION" and meet a representative."
Heck some of these rewards can be items/stuff that can help a lot during your shift. Aka chemicals or materials that are hard to find.
But the antagonist can also just kill you and swipe it after.

Last but not least:

MLM business models! Cause why not add a pyramid scheme to the company.
The company will have to order items in bulk and sell em off to make their profits. They cannot "BUY 1 ITEM" They have to buy 50 and sells them off.
But this dumb mechanic is just a fun "maybe"

[Dhaidburt]

The cargo thing is gonna make people meta around the cargo, to prevent this. There will always be 1-2 inflitrants.
Aka people who are hired by NT, but are there to help the company. They will have a company headset and their PDA can mail to the company.
Inflitrants will always be a QM.
They can also print "Stickers" to re-route packages to the "business" from their PDA.

Next change:
INTERACTION.

While theft is fun and all and causing chaos too. I think this company needs another way of doing business and incentive players to interact that isn't "KILL"
"Selling things"
Take the chaplains contracts but make em actual contracts.
Like a life insurance that pays out the moment you die kinda stuff.
Have players want to "help" antagonists to get things in return.

Having it locked to a specific job will limit things, but it also means the informant would need more flexibility. Stickers can be obvious, so I suggest the additional options to either:
A. Have a special barcode modifier you can secretly apply to crates in order to send them out
B. Put a tracker inside of a shipment in order to deliver it to your location instead
C. Have either the option to pay extra for a shipment to go directly, or to have the specific shipment be looped back to the station so you can send it at a more appropriate time.

But how will these antags reach their targets? "SPAM MAIL on PDA"
Yep.... thats what I am going with. Pretty much players who have "bounty" stuff on them, can recieve spam mail from these antagonists to setup a deal with them.
"Have a spare Liver? Trade it in at XXX Company for a [insert reward], Come to "LOCATION" and meet a representative."
Heck some of these rewards can be items/stuff that can help a lot during your shift. Aka chemicals or materials that are hard to find.
But the antagonist can also just kill you and swipe it after.

Last but not least:

MLM business models! Cause why not add a pyramid scheme to the company.
The company will have to order items in bulk and sell em off to make their profits. They cannot "BUY 1 ITEM" They have to buy 50 and sells them off.
But this dumb mechanic is just a fun "maybe"

Ah, glorious spam. But spam e-mails aren't the only way people try and get you to buy things right? Why not have various options depending on funding, with the cheapest being PDA spam? Paper fliers can be sent out or thrown out like gangs do, maybe even have a promote-bot who runs about the station with flashing lights and loud noises telling you to get this man's liver!

Basically a way to ensure that people can still get the word even if they throw their PDA away out of frustration.

[Kotlol]

The cargo thing is gonna make people meta around the cargo, to prevent this. There will always be 1-2 inflitrants.
Aka people who are hired by NT, but are there to help the company. They will have a company headset and their PDA can mail to the company.
Inflitrants will always be a QM.
They can also print "Stickers" to re-route packages to the "business" from their PDA.

Next change:
INTERACTION.

While theft is fun and all and causing chaos too. I think this company needs another way of doing business and incentive players to interact that isn't "KILL"
"Selling things"
Take the chaplains contracts but make em actual contracts.
Like a life insurance that pays out the moment you die kinda stuff.
Have players want to "help" antagonists to get things in return.

Having it locked to a specific job will limit things, but it also means the informant would need more flexibility. Stickers can be obvious, so I suggest the additional options to either:
A. Have a special barcode modifier you can secretly apply to crates in order to send them out
B. Put a tracker inside of a shipment in order to deliver it to your location instead
C. Have either the option to pay extra for a shipment to go directly, or to have the specific shipment be looped back to the station so you can send it at a more appropriate time.

But how will these antags reach their targets? "SPAM MAIL on PDA"
Yep.... thats what I am going with. Pretty much players who have "bounty" stuff on them, can recieve spam mail from these antagonists to setup a deal with them.
"Have a spare Liver? Trade it in at XXX Company for a [insert reward], Come to "LOCATION" and meet a representative."
Heck some of these rewards can be items/stuff that can help a lot during your shift. Aka chemicals or materials that are hard to find.
But the antagonist can also just kill you and swipe it after.

Last but not least:

MLM business models! Cause why not add a pyramid scheme to the company.
The company will have to order items in bulk and sell em off to make their profits. They cannot "BUY 1 ITEM" They have to buy 50 and sells them off.
But this dumb mechanic is just a fun "maybe"

Ah, glorious spam. But spam e-mails aren't the only way people try and get you to buy things right? Why not have various options depending on funding, with the cheapest being PDA spam? Paper fliers can be sent out or thrown out like gangs do, maybe even have a promote-bot who runs about the station with flashing lights and loud noises telling you to get this man's liver!

Basically a way to ensure that people can still get the word even if they throw their PDA away out of frustration.

These are good ideas! I do think the inflitrant / informant works... I also debated on not making them QM only... maybe any class but how will they effect the cargo line or should i drop the cargo line all together and just make em a "Spief" kinda antag.


AND I LOVE THE IDEA OF SPREADING ADVERTISMENT ON THE STATION! The Ad-bot is perfect!