So we’ve had a few of these rounds on MRP lately and whilst they’re pretty fun, similarly to Clock Cult it can suffer from people being inexperienced at the gamemode and not knowing how to play it effectively.
So here’s what you should do:
0 - 10 minutes: Getting the Fuck to Lavaland
First off, you have about 10 minutes tops to get everything you need and get the fuck off the station before it gets too hazardous to risk staying there any longer.
AI
Start setting doors to emergency access. Cargo first, then doors to every department, and to high-security areas including the Vault, Bridge, EVA, Gateway, Teleporter room etc.
Set the Teleporter to Lavaland and encourage people to use that rather than the Mining Shuttle (way faster). And scream to be moved by your borgo if you haven’t already.
Command
Use your department door remote to set all the doors to emergency access to lessen the burden onn the AI. Bring your whole locker to the Teleporter, and of special importance making sure the spare departmental protolathe board gets to Lavaland safely.
Captain/HOP/RD, one of you make sure to get the AI if their borg hasn’t already.
HOP, open as many slots as possible for Station Engineers as possible, and a second priority on Atmospheric Technicians.
CE/RD, deconstruct the consoles in the Bridge and get all of them for rebuilding a Bridge on Lavaland. Also delegate your staff to deconstruct the existing Protolathes in each department and bring their parts and boards.
Mining
Remember to bring the Landing Designator for aux base and plop that somewhere, maybe 20 tiles infront of the mining station.
Civilian / Supply / Security
Grab a backpack or duffel bag in one hand, and drag a locker or crate, and fill both with anything and everything in your immediate vicinity that might be useful. Throw all of it through the teleporter, and go back for more stuff. Even if you think it’s useless, it can be recycled into more materials in an Autolathe or Recycler.
Of additional note is the rooms with free materials: Aux Base Construction, EVA, Gateway, Engineering, Atmospherics, Robotics, RnD Front Desk, etc.
Bring all the oxygen canisters you see as well. Eventually Atmos Techs should be creating an array of scrubbers to obtain gases from Lavaland, but it can help in the beginning when areas are getting expanded but Atmosia is still it’s fledgling stage. You need to be using oxygen tanks whilst outside on Lavaland, so ask an Atmos Tech to give you a new one whenever yours runs low.
Engineering / Science
Do the same as Civilian / Supply / Security, except also deconstruct all the machines around you and in other departments and bring along all those parts. You can just unwrench the ORM and Chem Dispensers rather than deconstruct them however. Don’t forget to bring air pumps and scrubbers also.
Have someone build out the Aux Base and launch it when the miners have put down the landing designator. It’s a great forward base with power, roofing, atmos and turrets.
Also make sure the Protolathes from each department are deconstructed and their parts brought too.
10 - 100 minutes: Renovations
Okay you’ve arrived with your trashheap of junk. Now what?
Everyone
Be aware that Engineering and Science have got lots to do so you may have to set up the machines you need yourself. You can print basic parts at any Autolathe, and get materials from the Ore Silo or Ore Redemption Machine if the Protolathes aren’t set up yet. You can later on getting better parts from the Engineering or Science Protolathes.
Command
Delegate to your team, lead and keep up morale. Whilst you will often be the most competent in your department at the skillsets involved, the one thing you can do that your staff can’t is leadership. It’s more important to give people clear goals and instructions than to do it all yourself silently and not interacting with your staff or other members of Command.
Make sure Engineering sets up telecomms quickly as this is also key in making sure you can do this job effectively. Use your megaphone in the meantime to ensure you’re heard. You’ll also need a new Bridge eventually, but this comes at a lower priority than them expanding all the department spaces first.
Engineering
You’ve got your work cut out for you. Don’t worry about power for now, miners can bring enough plasma for PACMANs to power the station for a good while. Instead, focus on the following things:
This is the totality of Engineering/Atmospherics right now. Use it as the base for a lobby and make a big room above it to act as the new Engineering Lobby with the necessary machines nearby.
ALWAYS use ATMOSfans when creating new rooms so you don’t lose the air. Steps are: ATMOSfan infront of a wall, deconstruct the wall, build an enclosed room, fill the room with air, then remove the ATMOSfan.
Next, expand this hallway so it’s at least 3 tiles wide, ideally 5 or more. It’s the main thoroughfare, and inefficiency here costs the entire crew and could lead to lives lost if someone is on fire or a contact virus spreads.
After that, telecomms. I’m pretty shit at it personally so all I can say is: get it done.
Whilst telecomms is being worked on by two or more people, start expanding the station. Hack the Autolathes to print RCDs, and create flooring over lava. WEAR MAGBOOTS. You will get sucked into lava and likely die if you don’t because by flooring a new area it creates a depressurised zone which sucks you forward.
Expand every room to make it into an adequately large department space. I believe you need the CE’s Station Blueprints or an engiborg’s ones in order to properly designate an area as a new room.
Expand the entrance area so it’s at least 3 tiles wide and there are ATMOSfans to regulate the atmos. Barricades can be made infront of the entrance using sandbags. And don’t forget to create a new Bridge eventually as well.
Much later on you can focus on an independent power supply. Ask Centcom for a SM shard delivery or the parts for a Singularity or Tesla are doable, or whatever takes your fancy.
Atmos Techs
Print a ton of yellow Extended-Capacity Emergency Oxygen Tanks, fill them at oxygen canisters and leave them in a pile for crew members to grab. Leave the canisters themselves out of the way, because trusting the average crew member to fill their own tank will result in them accidentally leaving it open and emptying the whole can.
After that create mini supply rooms for the various types of gases which you create scrubber farms for to harvest from Lavaland atmos. When you’re done much later with this, consider building a TEG or Turbine room for power.
Science
Focus on setting up machines. The Ore Silo, Ore Redemption Machine, RnD Console and RnD Servers are of highest importance. After that ensure the departmental Protolathes all get set up, next the Bridge consoles, and finally after that assist the crew members of other departments with getting their machines set up.
This storage room is the frequent choice for where Science gets set up, but be careful if you’re impatient for Engineering assistance and want to start expanding alone. You must use an ATMOSfan when knocking down any walls or you’ll start quickly draining the readily available air supply.
Roboticists
Don’t forget to make posibrains because there’s lots of ways to get permakilled on Lavaland. Make lots of Cyborg shells as well as loads of simple bots to assist with the maintenance of the station.
Security
There’s still going to be shitters and arguments turning nasty, keep the peace whilst everyone gets frustrated stepping on each others toes in a tiny space. Tensions will get less as things get less cramped and hectic.
Get a GPS (under Bluespace Designs at several Protolathes) so you can each keep track of where Megafauna, miners and any notable locations are at all times. You may have to step up to fight Ash Walkers, fauna, xenos or even megafauna on Lavaland if shit hits the fan.
If you do have to fight any of these, use Proto-Kinetic Accelerators ideally dual-wielded (use harm intent). Beg a miner to spend their mining points to get you one, make a trade with Centcom or do some mining yourself so you can buy one at the mining vendor.
Laser weapons are only decent against Ash Walkers and xenos, and ballistics are a waste of money and mats. Let miners lead you, because they’re far more experienced at fighting these sorts of threats than you are.
Have some staff based in the Gulag area and some based in the forward Aux Base (which if done correctly should be a bit infront of the Mining Station), but rotate every once in a while after some patrols. This way you can properly manage any internal as well as external conflicts.
Engineering is going to be way too busy doing other stuff so you might have to hassle Science or set up security consoles yourself. Also consider creating lots of flashlights to put around Lavaland and proximity alarms. Not your usual line of work but it will help enormously with early threat detection.
Medbay
This room is near the front of the base should first be built out with cloning, sleepers and healing bots for rendering quick aid.
After that, you’ll want to set up Chemistry, Surgery and Virology as well. Have someone deconstruct the Furnace and conveyor belt so you have more room, as it’s totally redundant tech which has no use anymore.
Ignore the existing medical room on mining station, it’s too small for anything and by splitting staff between two areas it’s more likely to result in cloning not remaining staffed at times.
Oh and any bodies you have without souls - give them to the cook and do not leave them outside the base. They can be used by Ash Walkers’ to create even more Ash Walkers at their necropolis, so by leaving bodies out to get taken you’ll just be fuelling their invasion.
Cargo
Negotiate with Centcom to set up a new area where you can make orders and deliver bounties. I hope you brought that bounty list also, because you can still fill it.
Also if you’re willing to fight dangerous critters, you can farm tendrils for money. DON’T ATTACK THE TENDRIL ITSELF. It’s an infinitely spawn point for critters, each of which drop stuff when killed which can be sold directly or crafted and sold. Be that decked out cargo tech in bone armour. If you kill the tendril though, that money tree will disappear permanently. Attack them carefully.
Mining
You’re going to have to be a bit more communal than normal for the station to survive. Don’t destroy tendrils because the resources that can be infinitely generated from them massively benefit every department (especially Cargo).
Get plenty of plasma to power the PACMAN generators. Spend points to buy PKAs for Security and spread lots of survival pods around Lavaland which the crew can use as rest stops. Other than that it’s mostly business as usual.
Service
Since your work tend to be the most seen as “non-essential” you’ll likely need to hassle a Scientist or build any machines you need for work. Other than that, do what you do best and try to make living on Lavaland comfortable and enjoyable for the crew.
Of note for the Cook - (highly dangerous) goliaths can be killed for meat, so ask for miners or cargo to bring you some if possible. More likely is you’ll need to order food crates, start rearing livestock and making requests of Botany in order to keep everyone fed.
100 minutes onward: Endgame?
If you’ve survived this long without succumbing to the hazards of Lavaland congratulations! Now it’s time to take on the big boys: the Megafauna.
They’re all marked on the GPS and usually 3-8 spawn. The Hierophant and Legion always spawn once each, Bubblegum and Blood-Drunk Miner may spawn but only once, and multiple Ash Drakes and Collosuses can spawn (or none at all).
Creating a Bluespace Artillery I believe can be used to kill them if you don’t want to zerg rush them. I can’t even imagine how it’d go with multiple people attacking at once, but seeing as I’ve already killed them all solo (except I haven’t tried Legion yet) it should be pretty doable to have the crew wipe out megafauna together.
If you manage to kill them all, congratulations! You can safely call yourselves the chaddest crew of colonisers to have ever existed. In reality you’ll probably die from somebody accidentally luring a megafauna to the base or you’ll be sacrificed to the Ash Walkers’ necropolis but it’s nice to have a dream right?
