A Secondary Mine: Lavaland's Moon

[Skysorrow]

With a recent PR to update the parallax (I do hope it's merged in!), I took notice of something I normally ignore a lot...Lavaland has a crumbling moon. We already have a shuttle going up and down from the planet itself, why not have the moon be a destination as well?

I'm no mapper or coder, but I have put some thought into this...least it feels like it.

A secondary mine location, situated on lavaland's moon. It could serve as a "Safer" alternative to lavaland, and have a suitably reduced resource load to match. There would still be dangers there, and it's outpost smaller, and perhaps even naturally need some maintenance to maintain. This is also something that offers an "Emergency" location to get more materials in, should mining be gone and the outpost dead. Perhaps have the Moon locked off in red-tape requiring the QM to seek out allowance from the HoP and Captain to have them unlock the shuttle's navigation to such (Of course, SoP would need be written to dictate when such a thing would be acceptable: A large team of inexperienced miners, lavaland being lost, reasons why they would need the "Expense" of the outpost's upkeep and function in hopes of profit...So they don't just scream: "HEY HOP GIB MOON" "CAP, MOON?!" "YA MOON")....or maybe even just as an optional thing from admins to ping in from central, either in the station's actual need, or having a well written fax sent requesting such. Heads with access to central faxing really do need to remember it's NOT just the Rep who can fax central with questions/requests.

The Moon Itself
Most of the moon would seem lifeless (In fact, it pretty much should be), likely mostly iron, a trickle of silver, maybe even the rarest tidbits of plasma and uranium. The entire area would require EVA capable gear, likely involving a new mining EVA suit...just a re-colored station EVA at first, and Internals, instead of just the internals as there is nearly NO atmosphere on the moon. If it were laid out somewhat like lavaland, the outpost there would be on the left-most of the Z-level, and perhaps a laaaaarge abyss of a crater on the right-most side, to depict the massive hole that is the blown out portion of the moon.

What sorts of threats would be here? The occasional carp, maybe even a shark, but nothing so much that could instantly destroy the ability to function even should the outpost get smashed, though it will take work to restore it all the same. Perhaps even a (weaker) rogue drone or two.

"Derelicts" would be what I'd call the ruins/points of interest that could spawn there. Smaller in scale, smaller in loot/reward/items, but still serving as something interesting to stumble across. Things like crashed transports with some goods, tiny outposts that are either partially or entirely destroyed....perhaps even move the Xenomorph ruins to the moon! Total size of the area should only be a third of lavaland's, as the moon is quite a bit smaller, and a part of that is going to get taken by the massive hole on the side.

Random events/timers will be suggested further in.
 

The Outpost

The outpost itself should actually be very small, compared to lavaland. Barely large enough for 2-3 people. The kicker here is that perhaps the generator powering it actually needs to be refueled before the base largely functions, and the air supply is limited entirely, requiring the miners there to get air tanks from the station to keep the outpost breathable. No holo-fans here, the airlock and changing room are one, requiring the waiting to depressurize and re-pressurize to get in or out, if they force the doors to be lazy, the outpost will vent most of it's air very quickly.

The gear the outpost would provide isn't as strong as lavaland's....Some nearly no-armor-like EVA suits, picks, shovels, and internals. This isn't the place for any sort of need of combat-grade things, just enough for smacking the occasional carp, and maybe if you've come in or brought fun from home, the shark that might spawn here or there.

I'd envision the outpost to be...somewhat shaped like a small 4-5 rooms clustered together. The docking port leads directly into the changing area, providing that risk for if they open the area to the vacuum, to at least be able to mad-dash right to the shuttle. South of this would be two rooms, one housing the telecom array, and the other the entire outpost's life support systems. Generator that needs fuel, and the atmos system that keeps the place more or less supplied. No real hidey holes on this place for antags, that would take place on the moon as a whole, turn off sensors, chuck them in some far corner, or in to the abyss.

Major Events/Threats

Meteors: The outpost might have some "Grounded" satellite defenses, but not even shelters would protect you from this random happenstance weather pattern. What sort of warning would you get? Well, as the moon would have just enough atmosphere to not be considered space, and thus carry sound...It'd start with the echoing booms, leading to a warning in the text box.

Moon Fragment Collision Imminent: Attempting to display telegraphed strike locations

This would then start spawning "Meteor" hits with a momentary targeting pointer, much like the ash drakes firefalls, so a daring miner might attempt to dodge them and keep going, or at least have a chance at survival should they have been rather far from the outpost's safe area.

Moon's Haunted: A little meme-y, but...could be fun as a rare happenstance if a certain "Alien" derelict spawns or something. An eerie wind starts playing which...isn't something that the moon even has, hallucinations start occurring, if possible, as the various ghost sprites we have available, or even cult-constructs of all flavors. To try and spike it up more, perhaps some special space vines could spawn somewhere slowly creeping about ala Moons of Madness (AKA Secret World Filth)

And of course. It could be a place team antags build up and hide at. Moon Cults being slightly more accessible than Space Cults, yet also less so than Lavaland, as the need for EVA-capable gear does limit things for both sides on attacks/defenses. There also only being the one station shuttle, means it might not be docked there and waiting should you be on the run, or trying to escape to/from the moon, it might be at the station, or at lavaland....if possible, Station to lavaland/moon transports would take longer, while lavaland to/from moon would be shorter.



Anyway, there's my shower thought suggestion/typing blurb, at least I got it out there, instead of keeping it in.

Edited March 7, 2021 by Skysorrow

[Eler00]

Giving miners a secondary mining location is an idea I've floated around a bit in the past. I don't think we'd need to invent a new kind of EVA suit when we can just use mining hardsuits as we used on the old asteroid.

 

I'm sceptical it makes sense as its own z-level, especially one accessible only via a single shuttle. That has performance impacts and having only one way to get there makes it really easy for antags to build a base there. Even lavaland can be reached via the labor camp shuttle on top of the mining shuttle. IMO, it would make more sense to put a mining asteroid in space somewhere, not even one taking up an entire z-level but maybe half of one. That way, it can be reached via space.

[Skysorrow]

8 hours ago, Eler00 said:

Even lavaland can be reached via the labor camp shuttle on top of the mining shuttle. IMO, it would make more sense to put a mining asteroid in space somewhere, not even one taking up an entire z-level but maybe half of one. That way, it can be reached via space.

That's also an idea I had floating in my own head, though it'd still have to be somewhat meaningful in size to be an "Option" for the station, though....

Perhaps as a new (higher chance spawn) space "Ruin" would work as well, maybe even a few different layouts/things about to make each unique...still require some upkeep/rebuilding before it's sort of functional....Perhaps even needing explorers to actually find it, and get materials there to rebuild/activate it as a shuttle destination.

[Veterankyl]

This is actually very similar to the old mining station that Paradise used to have. It was an asteroid on a z-level accessible from space or shuttle that required a spacesuit to mine on. It had a few simple mobs similar to the ones on Lavaland, the occasional small ruin, but other than that, it was fairly plain. It actually made mining a very boring job. A lot of the appeal of Lavaland is that it's a dangerous adventure filled with loot and exploration opportunity. If a moon/asteroid mining location was brought back, it'd need to be given a lot more content to make it as appealing as Lavaland.