Xenoarcheology; discovering the past.

[flimflamm]

 

I will try to keep this as short and sweet as possible, because if given the chance I could write endlessly about my xenoarch experiences. Instead I want to cut directly to the chase of what I think ought to be preserved from the old xenoarch code, and also what can be forgotten.

 

Large anomalous artifacts: Some of the objects that could be found through xenoarcheology were quite interesting and useful, others not so much:

 

Wish Granter - this has been repurposed from super-villain creator to hero creator. I'm not up on the details, but this is an example of what I want for some other things.

Hover pod - this is a white mech that cannot hold any equipment. It's only benefit is that it has air thrusters which can allow it to move in space or a gravity-less environment. The main problem is that it is incredibly incredibly slow. I'm talkin slower than durand slow. If it could be given a speed boost, and then inserted in somewhere as random loot in some of the hidden rooms, or in some other fashion, then a very interesting but useless piece of xenoarch could be brought back and given a new life and some utility as a viable transportation vehicle. Making it around the speed of an ody would make it very collectable.

 

Healing artifact- this was a random configuration of the lesser anomalous artifacts. It would either throw a healing wave on a regular basis to nearby people or it would heal people when touched. Whenever I found one I would bring it to medbay, despite their chagrins, and they proved to be quite wonderful. Creating a healing artifact out of some of the old models and inserting it in as random loot, hidden room variety or otherwise, would give miners a way to share their discoveries with the crew in a very productive way. By creating a unique artifact for the job we can do away with all the old code that is required to randomize them.

 

Ninja crate - this was a super rare find for xenoarchs and therefore not a balance issue (you could go mad hunting for one), but there is something special about a regular crew member happening upon a ninja crate, who has no malevolent objectives of any kind. The crew tend to take a liking to them, and they gain a protector if the newly formed ninja in question is up for the task (If found, I would encourage admins to send out a real ninja, with an objective to kill the one who stole their technology!). Not sure how it should be inserted RNG wise, but it should be mega mega rare. One in several thousand rolls rare.

 

Mob spawners -These are unique artifacts, sometimes fun, sometimes useful, sometimes dangerous. Perhaps somewhere off in deep spess, in some closed and hidden room in some debris field, a random mob spawner could appear (along with some other space goods of some kind) and when someone finds it, there's no telling what manner of creature will burst out at them. Would require the spawning timer to be reduced to once every ten minutes or so, this way there would be no real lag cost. Not really the best idea, but a potential way to re-purpose some code.

 

 

There are some other small artifacts that I would like to see preserved. Claymores and katanas, even though they sucked for the most part, were some satisfying rewards for scouring the asteroid, along with a few others.

 

I know any xenoarcheology that might emerge in the future will probably be nothing like the old one, so my only hope is to pay homage by suggesting the re-purposing of some of the old RNG rewards as rare additions to the current RNG system that is in place on the asteroid.

 

[Keilden]

The Hover pod can use a few equipments. Used to gear up mine.