Objectives overhaul

[Ryguy]

One of my favorite things about ss13 is how freeform it is in how you want to play it. But one thing that always stuck out to me was how limiting certain antag’s objectives are. In fact people have started to just ignore objectives altogether because they’d rather choose how they play.

So what if we were given a choice? 

I suggest that at the start of each round where you’re an antag with a more freeform playstyle (wizard and traitor) you’re given a selection of three groups of assignments to pick from. Not only would this allow more freedom in your playstyle (always a good thing in my eyes) but it could allow for the addition or more job specific objectives. I’ve always been against objectives that require you to buy specific gear (ie collect x souls with a bargain kit), but if you have a choice in what group of assignments you have, then you can just not choose the option that has those. I mean people are always suggesting objectives like, polymorph x people as a wizard, ensure you escape on the shuttle with a mindslave, have x department be filled with kudzu. 

Not only that but maybe the options can also be based on level of difficulty. For example, the end round goals: escape alive, escape alone, and die a glorious death. Or the assasination goals: kill x the staff assistant, kill x the security officer, kill heads of staff.

Furthermore, there’s been talk for a while about having fulfilled missions reward the player with spacebux for buying trinkets. Higher levels of difficulty could give larger rewards if chosen.



TL;DR a lot of complaints and suggestions about objectives can be fixed just by making it so you’re given an option of your objective set at the start of the round.

[Recusor]

very cool idea, I like the difficulty level idea with gradient rewards. A downside might be variety of objectives, but there was another thread suggesting new objectives recently too.

[Wisecrack34]

Reminds me of heat signature's job system and any game with this good of a trailer deserves to be repeated: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifgjEMIqRO4

[Superlagg]

The goals could be handled similar to the thief targets, through the PDA. Every so often, the list changes, and you can pick from the list anything that looks fun or doable, and if you get it done, you get a reward, like a sticker or space bux.

[NateTheSquid]

personally i think objectives Should be ignored cause they encourage people to do boring traitor rounds, i.e. murderbone, silently take people out of the round, etc. so any objectives that don't encourage that kind of stuff are alright

[Ryguy]

personally i think objectives Should be ignored cause they encourage people to do boring traitor rounds, i.e. murderbone, silently take people out of the round, etc. so any objectives that don't encourage that kind of stuff are alright

You’re absolutely right, and that’s another reason for why I think that this is a good idea. My idea isn’t “have three levels of difficulty to choose from when getting your objectives” it’s “have a the ability to choose your objectives” the choices don’t have to be “easy” “medium” “hard” they could be “funny” “normal” “chaotic” or maybe even “just untrackable objectives”

I mean the largest limiting factor when designing something like traitor objectives is that they are assigned automatically, so they have to apply to almost every playstyle. Which leads to most objectives being very murderboney. But if you had a choice in your objectives that would also allow for more fun objectives to exist in the system and allow people who didn’t have a plan for what they wanted to do in their traitor round to choose a gimmick. In fact by having creative objectives it will lead to less traitors just going on a murderbone spree since it’ll give them something else to work towards.

TL;DR:
The largest problem with creating objectives that aren’t just “murder x” is that they can limit other types of playstyles, but giving a choice of objectives fixes that problem. This can lead to less rampaging traitors

[Firebarrage]

I do like the idea of rewards for completing objectives. I also think that randomized objectives encourage doing interesting things instead of "wee im a traitor time to murder people 1 minute in". Allowing people to choose also encourages picking the autowin objectives. I like the idea of objectives being a way to push yourself to see what you can do in game and coming up with fun things to do with the crew.

Also this thread needs more objective suggestions. Those arent too hard to add. Trackable ones are better.

Some of my suggested traitor objectives:
Have the trinkets of at least 4 crewmembers on your person by the end of the round.
Ensure that the AI thinks you are the captain with the MakeCaptain module by the end of the round
Suplex crewmembers 25 times this shift
Be wearing the captain's/hos's hat at the end of the round
[Staff Assistant] Ensure that three crewmembers have a butt stapled to their head at the end of the round
[QM] Steal the shoes off of at least X crewmembers and then sell them via the cargo bay
[Clown] Ensure that people slip on bananas at least 100 times this round
[Clown] Successfully pie someone in the face 25 times
[Clown] Ensure that your clown shoes and mask are never removed
[Doctor] Remove at least 6 legs from crewmembers

[warcrimes]

I think there needs to be a little more variety to the Escape Alive / Alone / Dead circle.
New body states: [gibbed] [unconscious] [deep-fried] [limbless] [borged]