Potential New Vox Raider replacement

[HereticChurch]

 

As it stands right now, Vox Raiders/Traders as a roundtype is incredibly dull. The original appeal of the round type was the incredibly alien creatures, the Vox, and their interactions with the crew. With all the implementations we've had of various mechanics and such, the round type has lost a lot of it's appeal. Stuff like the Vox being a (rather common) race to be seen aboard the station, or the overall behavior of the Vox when it comes to trade, isolating themselves to a select few. They don't even have things to trade, really.

I propose we do a bit of an overhaul to the gamemode. To something more akin to Collectors from Mass Effect!

Assuming Direct Control

 

I say we should get a new race going for the raid n' trade gamemode. Something I think would work well would be the Wryn race we have in the code, a bug-like species with antennae that allow them radio-like communication with all other Wryn, and an extreme vulnerability to heat. They should also be given a large supply of trade materials that the station would actually want, such as advanced research materials, interesting and exotic creature pods, or perhaps even advanced weaponry. And they would be armed with a good array of tools as well, similar to the Vox, but inherently different. Capture tools, and proper weaponry for defense as well.

 

Their objectives would be something for discussion. The Collectors would make bizarre requests, such as a bunch of left-armed Salarians, or green-eyed Turians, or stuff like that, so they would clearly have kidnap objectives. Not sure what kind of tech they would need from the station, if any, or if they would just have objectives to be body snatchers and get away with x number of a specific race for their mysterious alien tests.

 

As an aside, I still feel Vox Raiders should be around, but perhaps as a round event instead of a gamemode. I wouldn't want to see them go, since they're established lore, but yeah.

 

TLDR: Vox Raiders are boring, replace with Abductor/Raider combo

 

[isaac]

hmmm round event how they would appear part way through a round like blob/reveant or a adminbus. Also while i will miss the vox and their wacky antics and opera's on trade/raids but it has gotten dull. +1 as long as vox traiders can still appear without admin intervention

[Keroman]

 

Well there was the thread Isaac started about treating Vox as side antags which, I imagine, is more or less the same thing as them being a random round event.

 

I'd definitely like to see more "antags" that aren't forced to fight with the crew for stuff. Traders who have goals to get lots of things are good because it takes longer and doesn't end the round immediately. I like the idea of them asking for body parts from various crewmembers because most of the time those body parts can be replaced with a cybernetic prosthetic.

 

Also, if the traders leave it shouldn't end the round. During my first Vox raider round I wanted to stick around after our trade was complete and let the rest of the round play it's course but every other raider wanted to get back to the skipjack immediately so I was outvoted. I thought it would have been funny for the Vox to be wandering around playing tourist, getting into bar fights, breaking into areas and claiming it was a misunderstanding, etc. The round really could have been interesting for more than just the command staff.

 

[johannhawk]

 

i think the crew would definetly want to barter for one of these...

 

or just have the visitors put a defense against the crew who want their dakka with infinite amounts of relatively squishy projectiles that can only be recharged "in the right hands" *inb4 district 9 style arm chopping in order for the crew to get the guns to work for them, only for the arm to decay in 20 mins or so* egh, too much coding.

Clown Cult.zip

[HereticChurch]

 

On the subject of the Wryn, I think they could be such a good and unique race to use in this roundtype. Giving them some kind of suit for pressure resistance and perhaps heat resistance would make sense, and giving them the ability to move through space like they have a jetpack would be fun. The fact that they won't need headsets to keep communicating with each other is really cool and unique too, and already coded, I believe.

 

Also Johann you're amazing. I was thinking exactly of something like the Collector SMG as a weapon. Self-charging ballistics. Perhaps charges very slowly unless held by Wryn/Whatever race we use for the Collectors, so as to keep it as a viable weapon for the station to trade for, but keep it effective for the Collectors themselves.

 

[alexpkeaton]

 

I really like everything put forward in the original post. I was a proponent in a past thread for Vox to become a side-antag because it's non-sensical that the round abruptly ends when the Vox leave. Since the Vox only tend to interact with a mere fraction of the crew, the rest of the crew get a sudden, often unexpected halt to their round. Not fun when you've invested that time in your job to suddenly get the scoreboard in your face.

 

I think that the Wryn idea is great and can be something that can stand alone or work fantastic with an adminbus. Wryn have a kidnap objective, but Comms Officer Jenkins would love to get his hands on some useless relic (or fantastic weapon) that he contacts the Wryn and orders station heads to hand over all male Vox on the station to meet the kidnap objective for the Wryn so that Jenkins can get his prize. So it would end up being a Wryn vs. Crew vs. CC round, not just the first two. Would add a unique spin on the gamemode if an active admin played CC.

 

[Kyet]

 

Yes. Please outright remove the gamemode and replace it with something else. This mode is only fun for the vox/command staff. To everyone else, it is just like a very short extended round, where nothing happens but the shift suddenly ends with no warning at an unknown and unpredictable point. They're fine as a short early-round event, but not as a gamemode.

As an event they may need some tweaks to account for the fact they might show up later in the round (thus, they arguably deserve better gear, they're underpowered now and would only get more so if they showed up halfway-through the round).

 

Personally I would love to see their mode replaced by TG's abductor mode, rather than another trade'n'raid gamemode.

 

Ultimately, trade'n'raid gamemodes are very hard to balance. People will try to figure out which approach is optional, and always go for that. If they have enough weapons/armor to raid, they almost certainly will, because it is faster, more fun, and entirely within their control (trade is heavily dependent on the RPing of the captain that round). If they don't have enough weapons/armor to raid, they're forced to trade - but that just collapses into the same un-fun situation the vox traders were in.

 

If we want to do a replacement gamemode that isn't TG abductor, it would be better to ditch the trade aspect and just do the raid aspect. Since I still hope we will add TG abductor at some future point, and TG abductor is focused on stealing crew, the Wryn Raider (or whatever you would call it) mode should probably be focused on something other than crew - like theft of objects.

 

Sometimes those objects could be unique items on the station (drive conflict, see if the cap will give up his laser gun...), sometimes they'll be special Wryn objects seeded on the station for the Wryn to collect (ie: an excuse for the Wryn to split up and explore the station, or to claim they need to go around interacting with the crew rather than just spending all shift in the heads' meeting room). Either way, it should be possible to make some more interesting objectives/gameplay with object acquisition objectives, while leaving the crew acquisition objectives to be the abductors' thing for when the TG abductor mode is ported.

 

[Plotron]

 

Wryn vs. Crew vs. CC round

Please no, do not involve CC in this. CC has no rules, no personality, it's too chaotic.

 

[alexpkeaton]

 

(Regarding CC intervention)

it's too chaotic

 

Well admins will adminbus regardless, and I'm afraid "chaos" is what they call "!!FUN!!"

 

But I get your point.

 

[Plotron]

I like the idea of a special antag race based on collectors. I have only played Mass Effect 1 so my knowledge is limited, but the premise sounds exciting.

[HereticChurch]

 

I really loved the concept of the Collectors. Prior to Mass Effect 2, where they became ghoulish body-snatchers who kidnapped entire colonies, they were a mysterious seldom-seen race that lived beyond a Mass Relay that nobody else has ever returned from, that only showed up to trade amazing technology for body parts and the occasional supremely-specific groups of people, like Asari with a specific eye colour, or Quarians with a specific skin pigmentation. They were never inherently hostile, so people were obviously apprehensive, and their strange requests I'd assume would be done by more shady means, as I assume the groups of people they looked for wouldn't agree to leave with the spooky bug aliens, which I think would be really cool for a gamemode here.

 

Say, the Collectors show up and request at least 3 Vulpkanin, and offer a couple advanced alien rifles with self-generating ballistic rounds. The situation could go many ways. The station could up and agree, and the Vulps could go willingly (not likely), the heads of the station may really want those weapons, so they order security to go and secure three Vulps and force them to go, or the station could refuse, and the Collectors would either up their offer, or prepare to go body-snatcher mode and nab up the Vulps on their own, and mow down the station protectors with their advanced items. And for every trade they properly do, they could be given more items to trade/use for more kidnapping, and they could operate on a score system rather than an objective system... I'm getting too deep into this.

 

[LiquidNightfury]

I highly recommend this, if only for the fact that the way vox behave with each other makes this gamemode incredibly frustrating. It would be interesting, as well, to see the creators of the swarmers or something similar - harvesting biological tissue and advanced technology.

[Plotron]

 

the heads of the station may really want those weapons, so they order security to go and secure three Vulps and force them to go

That's not in Space Law.

 

We can't do that, for rules are the limiting factor in our roleplay.

 

[Shadeykins]

 

the heads of the station may really want those weapons, so they order security to go and secure three Vulps and force them to go

That's not in Space Law.

 

We can't do that, for rules are the limiting factor in our roleplay.

 

There would probably be pressure from NT itself to accept the deal.

 

I mean, come on. It's NanoTrasen.

 

[Plotron]

 

I mean, come on. It's NanoTrasen.

I don't want fascism on this server. Security is meant to be the shining beacon of the law and righteousness, and when a superior comes and ruins it I lose faith in humanity.

 

We hold security here to a very high standard. We should not ruin that image. Prison Station is for that.

 

[alexpkeaton]

 

I mean, come on. It's NanoTrasen.

I don't want fascism on this server.

 

Are you sure we don't have something awfully close to fascism on this server already? And I don't mean the fun-killing admins. I mean Nanotrasen.

 

I'm not going to go all political philosopher here, but a case can well be made that the political system we are in IC is one or two degrees short of fascism. The understanding I have of the backstory is that Nanotrasen isn't just our employer but very much administers all aspects of the lives of employees and their families. The Syndicate organization is a little more extreme but is yet another "great power" in space.

 

It's still pretty darn right wing that a corporation with a profit motive coordinates all elements of society. And if you look at a lot of elements of fascism, many are there here. Extreme nationalism. Uniting against a common enemy. Highly dangerous tactics that endanger life and limb of the people to accomplish goals. Regulation and censorship. Forcible suppression of any any all opposition to the state (404, Death squads...).

 

I mean, the Syndicate is closer to fascism in their tactics.

 

Of course, Nanotrasen would want us to think that, right?

 

[Professor Cupcake]

 

I see something that is omnipresent in these ideas but nobody has actually mentioned yet: they're part of a hivemind.

 

To expand on this, perhaps make these antags really weak (like, weak to the point of being vulnerable to being punched to death real easy), but with the ability to respawn infinitely as long as some fairly well-defended core structure is intact. This would have a few effects: it would enforce stealth if their objectives are more hostile, enforce cooperation for less hostile objectives, and de-incentivise the station all-out attacking them.

 

Just a random thought.

 

[Plotron]

 

Are you sure we don't have something awfully close to fascism on this server already? And I don't mean the fun-killing admins. I mean Nanotrasen.

 

Having fascism somewhere in the lore/background doesn't mean acting like a fascist in-game.

Nobody (but CC, fucking adminbus loophole) is above Space Law. That's for a good reason - to prevent the slippery slope of internet shitlery.

 

[Shadeykins]

 

Are you sure we don't have something awfully close to fascism on this server already? And I don't mean the fun-killing admins. I mean Nanotrasen.

 

Having fascism somewhere in the lore/background doesn't mean acting like a fascist in-game.

Nobody (but CC, fucking adminbus loophole) is above Space Law. That's for a good reason - to prevent the slippery slope of internet shitlery.

 

Yes, and the idea here is that CC, Central Command, IE: NanoTrasen probably has a vested interest in that technology and would pressure the subordinates onboard the station to get it.

 

[johannhawk]

bump!

[Cupcakes_n_Hacksaws]

I don't see how they're a game mode anyway TBH. If they go the peaceful trade route (which they do 90% of the time) nearly the entire crew is uninvolved with these "antags". Why not make them a random event for ghosts, where they can actually trade some useful things (random assortment of items spawn on their ship/base every time, randomized) where their goal remains relatively the same: trade/work for the crew while minimizing expenses, or take it by force and scadaddle. Instead of ending the round when they return, have an ICly based Centcomm message detailing their success in their objectives i.e. in a full vox success "Intercepted communications reveal a recent Vox trader ship returned with valuable haul" while if the vox return empty handed, or even missing crew members, "Intercepted communications have revealed a vox trader ship crew has been found severely reprimanded for their disappointing failure." Or if a centcomm message is too much, display it across one of the news channels.

[KasparoVv]

 

As a player for whom Raider is the only antag preference set to ON, I don't want to have to spectate and be ready to spam 'okay' at a moment's notice if, in the off chance, a Raider event is called...

 

Disappointment would be quite the understatement

 

[Shadeykins]

 

As a player for whom Raider is the only antag preference set to ON, I don't want to have to spectate and be ready to spam 'okay' at a moment's notice if, in the off chance, a Raider event is called...

 

Disappointment would be quite the understatement

 

And that's the actual, honest to god issue with it.

 

They're not antags.

 

[alexpkeaton]

I think Voxxys becoming mid-round event might cause them to get creative/antag-ish if their timeline is cut short due to a shuttle call/other event. Suddenly they may have to switch from TRaider to Raider leading to double-crosses, blitzes, etc.

[scrubmcnoob]

 

Hnnnnnnnngg

Discord people hatched an idea.

Make Vox Raiders your average event instead of round type and replace it with...

Communist Somalian Glorious Soviet Commune Space Raider Pirates

A team that specializes in quantity rather than quality for crew members and equipment and then come aboard the station to loot as much shit as possible; maybe kidnap people for ransom?

 

Idea was totally thought of by our hard working and glorious admins regens, dumbdumb, dave, and tully. Praise them and their eternally long EPEEN that is left completely intact from this wonderful idea that I am humbly putting fourth in their place and totally did not think of this at all for the base idea.