Short Ghost Traders
A design idea document by Markus
Background
I’ve been mapping a lot lately and just had another epiphany. We want mid-rounds and we want more of them, but Security want less of them because 90% of mid-rounds are combat focused. What if instead of having mid-rounds focus on combat, they focus on services that can be provided by the station?
Goal
Create mild or non-antag mid-round ghost roles to provide some minor conflicts with opposing interests in a believable setting.
Subgoals
Incorporate four different types of traders with varying conditions. The less they have, the more antagonistic and unreasonable they may be.
- Grand trader, will pay the full amount required with plenty to spare without causing any trouble.
- Proficient trader, will pay the full amount and even help if needed without causing any trouble.
- Materialistic trader, will not pay the full amount but can substitute with resources and or services and even help if needed without causing any trouble.
- Poor trader, will not have enough to pay and will most likely cause trouble.
Spawn Conditions
At least five crew members and one head of staff (including AI and QM)
Objective
Each of the traders will have different starting conditions and may or may not have access to different resources may it be money, materials, guns, or nothing. For all of them, murdering Head of Staff or Security Officers is out of the question, but putting one maybe two civilians into a critical condition if it is to achieve their goal is okay if they can not solve it in a simpler fashion.
They will have four objectives to get things from the station. Plasma for their shuttle, one hidden extra objective and two themed objectives. The hidden extra objective may be anything from two pairs of insuls or the Captains skirt to a research disk or a slime extract. Meanwhile the two themed objectives will ask something of a department similar to a Cargo bounty. It may be medibots along with two large beakers of something or similarly. Being non-antagonists, they will not be expected to try to rob, kill or steal to achieve their objectives, but should try to ask around. If the Captain says ‘no’ to giving away their skirt, ask the HoP to get them an extra or steal it for them for a good sum of money.
Once they’ve achieved their objective, they will travel away from the station and return to becoming a ghost.
Station
Command will receive an automatic message which will include three of the four objectives including what they should charge for those objectives. If the trader can not use cash they need to think of other ideas unless the station is willing to offer it for free. However, giving it for free or close to free could incite a CC visit if an admin is online and the trader talks of how “the losers at SS13 didn’t charge me for the plasma, ha suckers!”.
Protentional Problems
I fear that a trader may simply not leave the station and perhaps even integrate themselves to the station becoming part of the crew. While this isn’t the goal of the trader, it may become a gameplay issue or even an admin issue. Perhaps this can be fixed by instakilling them if they enter CC by the end of the round and providing a score depending on the time and left over resources on their shuttle.
Feedback
I’d love to hear what everyone thinks of this idea. Is it good? Is it bad? Would you like to see anything changed? What do you think this could contribute to a round? Would you like to play as these very neutral non-antagonistic ghost characters?
I would also love to get ship designs for the different traders to be used for this, the more variety the better. It could be something drawn in MS Paint or a fully made ship made in StrongDMM (or FastDMM2) or somewhere in between the two.
I’d especially love to get ship designs, ideas and critique from @Cursed_killer, @Huk, @IsaacN, and @XeonMations.