Ideas for missions and interaction

[Tichy]

I copy here a topic I wrote on spacesimcentral. I think that here it would be less dispersive, however, if it's too speculative and it's better to leave it on the other forum, feel free to delete this post. I don't take offense ;)
To avoid too much clutter, I won't copy the rest of the discussion. It's here: http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/topic/36 ... teraction/ Maybe it's worth reading, because we (me and fluffyfreak) discussed a litte about some details. However, if you are interested, I could copy it anyway. Just ask. :)

Scenario 1
I just arrived at Acephi when I recieve a distress call. The ship computer tells me that it started at 10AU from here. Quite far... And quite some time ago. It's a pirate attack.

I don't think that I can arrive in time, however I'll go there anyway. Just to see.
F2, F6. The computer has marked the origin of the call on my system orbit view. I select it, set the autopilot and turn the stardreamer to maximum.

When I'm at 2AU from destination, there's an alarm on my scanner. Three ships nearby. I spot them and scan. Two police Kanaras and a Wave. Fighting. One of the police ships transmits by radio "Police enforcement in progress. Stay at a safety distance." I don't have a bounty hunter licence and I don't work for the government of this faction, so it's better to go away.
I set the stardreamer again to the max and finish my trip towards the target. As I imagined, there's nothing more around.

Scenario 2
I just arrived at Acephi when I recieve a distress call. The ship computer tells me that it started at 10AU from here. Quite far... And quite some time ago. It's a rookie that's out of fuel...

Let's go there. I mark the target and set the autopilot. Stardreamer to the max. During the trip, I keep recieving the same distress call, nearer. When I'm almost there, the ship computer is able to track the origin: it's a ship travelling at -2000m/s relative to me at 1AU. He has taken an elliptical orbit around the main star of the system. I set the new target for the autopilot.

When I'm there and our relative speed is zero, I see that old Natrix. I start comunications. I did not even have time to greet, that this starts to tell me that he's out of fuel and that he was stuck there for days. He asks me if I can help. :crazy:
I can choose some default questions and answers that will be translated in his dialect. Or I could start speaking freerly, but I don't know if he will understand what I say. I go for the standard phrases.
Scenario 2.1
"Do you have a fuel scoop?"
"Yes"
"Since I don't have much fuel, you sould jettison some cargo to reduce your mass. Then I'll put out some fuel for you to scoop."
"Ok."
He drops his cargo. I scoop his cargo and fly away... Bye bye noob! I can hear his curses just before entering hyperspace. Now I know that if some others has ansewerd his call, there's a chance that I will be identified and marked as an offender in this and the near systems. I could have killed him, and that would have delayed or prevented my indetifications, but there would be a little chance that the autorities could identify me, and in that case I wouldn't be a simple offender, but a pirate, fugitive, and with a bounty on my head.
Scenario 2.2
I don't cheat on him and drop some fuel near his scoop port. He thanks me and pays me.
Scenario 2.3
"Do you have a fuel scoop?"
"No"
"I can give you a passage to a near space station where you could pay for someone to haul your ship."
"Thanks"
He pays me an advance. I bring him to the nearest station and the he pays me the rest.
Scenario 2.4
"Do you have a fuel scoop?"
"No"
"I don't have space for a passenger. Sorry. I can go to a near station and inform the staff to send someone to help you."
"Thanks"
I go the the nearest station, call the police and tell them about the emergency call. I'm paid a little tribute for the trouble.

Scenario 3
I just arrived in this system that's under an authoritarian government. I set the autopilot to a gound station on the third planet. When I arrive near the planet, my autopilot turns off and I recieve a message from a military ship "Every foreign ship has to go to the customs of the space station Benito's Platform to be searched and to obtain a permission to land on the planet." If I try to get closer to the planet, they begin to shoot. So I go to Benito's Station... When I'm near I undestand that I'll have to wait for long. There are about a dozen ships waiting outside the station. I contact the station to ask for the permission to dock. They grant me the permission and queue me up in thirteenth place.
When is my turn I dock. I'm fined for some "illegal" stuff in my cargo... It was a box of Principia Discordia books. :prankster: I contact the local police and ask for the permission to land. I pay and obtain that permission. They say that I have to land at Francisco's Bay, that I'm forced to use autopilot and that I'm not allowed to land in every other place, or disegnage the autopilot.
Scenario 3b
I'm a citizen of Very Liberal and Curious Faction and I've alredy done some work for them as a free contractor. Browsing through the contractor's private bullettin board I find a spy mission to that planet in "Very Autoritharian System with a passion for the names of ancient dictators". I should manually land in a specific place of the third planet. They give me a fake ID that will make me look like a government cargo on their scanners. :ninja: When I ask If it will be dangerous, they tell me that there's a chance that the fake ID could be discovered, so it's better for me to be quick or I'll have to fight with the local police or, worse, militias.
Scenario 3c
I can't land on a planet because it's simply on qurantine.
Scenario 3d
I can land only on a specific place of the planet, and only with autopilot, because the planet is a natural reserve.

Scenario 4
I'm in a zone of the galaxy with many unexplored systems. I select a system that looks like Sol and head to a planet in the habitable zone. I set a high orbit to watch it from far. It has a nice atmosphere and it looks like a planet that can have a complex ecosystem. I stand there for some hours to let the computer collect data. When done he tells me that the star system information chart has been updated. F2 - F7. As I supposed, it's a planet with an oxygen atmosphere and highly complex ecosystem. When I'll return to a known inhabitated system, I could choose to upload all my data about the unexplored system I visited and be rewarded. I'll be careful to give these data to the Very Liberal and Curious Faction and not the Very Authoritarian (and expansionist) Faction. :)
Scenario 4b
A arrive in an unexplored planet that looks suitable for life, in an unexplored system, when the scanner signals me a ship nearby! :O They transmits me a message "Go away! This is our propery!". Who are they? Looters? Conquerors?
Scenario 4c
The ship transmits in an unknown language. First contact!!!!11! :biggrin:
(In some system near unexplored zones, there could be a scientific outpost that would study some aspect of those yet uknown systems and planets. Biologists. Archaeologists. Exobiologists. Geologists. Sociologists. And they could have some mission for you, or they could tell you to go away to not interfere with the locals, or with their studies.)

Scenario 5
I'm at the Gentleman's looser, the local pub of Gibson Station. It's in places like this, that you can find the best shady deals. Nice place if you are a bounty hunter, a pirate that's escaped from some other faction's police, a refugee seraching for work or a smuggler. Bullettin boards are for pussies! There's some coversations going on. A guy is telling that in gliese 815, there's an asteriod with an emporium that sells some interesting underhand stuff. He knows the coordinates and for a small price, he could sell them.
I tell him that I'm interested. I pay him.
Back to my ship, lauch and hyperspace to gliese 815. Set the autopilot to that asteroid.
Scenario 5.1
There's a station with that emporium full of illegal stuff and nice prices. :drag:
Scenario 5.2
When I'm there three ships appears on my scanner. A transmission "Here's another one". They attack me. Looks like I've been sent directly to a pirate cove.
Scenario 5.4
When I'm there there is a police ship waiting for the dupe. :devil:

Hacking missions

Just like scout missions, but with more risks. You have to sabotage/steal data from bulk ships/big ships/spaceports's computers.
Maybe you could need a special equipment, or just use the Radar Mapper like in scout missions. You have to go near your target, start the hacking process and wait. If you are far there's more lag, so the process will take more time. You could hire a hacker into you crew to speed up the process. There's a chance to be caught. In that case, you'll have to fight, or your ship could be counter-hacked (some equipment will be damaged).
More difficult mission are with moving targets (ships). You have to approach them and keep some distance while the process is working.

Considerations
General idea is that I think that's better to have many various kind of missions and situations (some typical of a kind of faction/government, others to other kinds, other to unexplored space, others to borderlines) that could be combined, instead of big scripts with long complex missions (or alongside them). This would bring many combinations and great variety. I could accept a transport mission, only to discover that landing to that planet requires a permission, or is forbidden, and then I have to find a way to complete the mission (buy the premission, or elude the authorities, or maybe search for an announcement that would give me that fake ID, so that I whould do the two missions at the same time). Or accept a scientific mission to explore an unknown system, only to find a pirate cove there, that depredates the local resources, or a secret military outpost of some expansionistic faction, or some ancient artifact, or aliens... or the boring desert unhospital plantes you expected ;)
For example, Scenario 5, doesn't "start" with an announcement that sets all things. That asteroid was alredy there, prior to the announcement. When I go to the pub I could find people that know the coordinates of the asteroid and then, they could tell me that it's an emporium full of illegal stuff, or I could browse through the bounty hunters bbs finding a mission that requires to go to that same asteroid and take down the pirate cove. The asteroid is there. What changes is what people and missions tells about it. Some could tell you the truth, some others could lie and bring you to a trap. I can gather different informations about the same place and then understand that the guy at the pub lied.
Lots of simple things that combines toghether. If it's done well, the players will have many different stories to tell. :) Most of the time, is the mind of the subject that builds the coherence starting from apparently incoherent things. For a player, a spectator, a reader, there's also the suspension of disbelief. So, I think that we should not worry too much about how things are combined.

[Tichy]

Another idea, from here http://pioneerspacesim.net/forum/viewto ... p=298#p294

Space motorsports
Speed or agility races in space with ad-hoc ships. Think about a race with very agile ships inside our newtonian enviroinment. There could be tracks delimited with rings in which you must pass (like I've seen somewhere else... can't remembere where) or slaloms... and to make it even more interesting, some track will pass near uninhabitated planets, gas giants or stars, so the pilot must consider the gravity and use it at it's advantage (slingshot!).
I think it could be a very nice and fun challenge.

There could be "missions" or a championship, a career.
It will even be a good flying practice.

[bszlrd]

Maybe some kind of off-road race around a system, or even spanning over multiple systems. You need to make use of the environment and such in it, and there might be limitations, like you can only refuel by scooping, and need to pass checkpoints. A bit like Paris-Dakar or Budapest-Bamako rally. There could be oportunities to delay or even sabotage other participants if you are that kind of person. Or you want to take revenge on a that kind of opponent :D

Ring slalom was in I-war 2's training mission for example, and in G-Police too (which is not a space game per se.) They are quite frustrating to me sometimes. :D

And I kinda liked that short story about a solar sailing race I mentioned on the other thread too. It's quite decelerated for sure, but it might be interesting.

And you might even be able to place bets on races, and you could even machinate the outcome somhow if you are into that. But you might need to flee from certain angry guys if you get caught, or even if you didn't cheated, but they think you did.

[Tichy]

I like it and I think that the rally race idea, maybe, could even be used to do build an in-game fllying tutorial or academy. You find the announcement of the course in the BBS, follow the lessons and do the exams. If you pass, you will be considered a qualified pilot and you could ask for more money from your customers, or you can access to new kinds of missions available only to certified pilots.

[bashirmeah]

good jobs and great post thaaaaaaaaaaaanks

[Ray]

I would love to see some space-detective story - something mysterious that should be solved :)