Unregistered landing pads and missions related to it.

[bszlrd]

Following up last night's brainstorming on IRC about having small landing pads in cities which could serve as starting point and destination for courier/taxi missions.
@laarmen, @impaktor :)

Brief: some courier/taxi missions ask you to a specific small landing pad in the city, or even another city somewhere to actually discuss/accept the mission. Similarly these landing pads could serve as destinations for such missions too.
From narrative POV it could be some kind of shady mission, or something involving sensitive information or package, or just a posh passenger. This could mean riskiness too, but that shouldn't be necessary in my opinion.
An example of such (half complete) landing pad, on top of a building, which is based on the current vlastan building set:


Function outline: (as I imagine it, will update with the discussion)

1. A buildings with pad generated with the city (and some will be generated for sure, so there will be one available, so it could be destination for a mission too, somewhere else). I guess it should be set up similarly as a ground station, but with a specific tag in the json, from the standpoint of content creation.
2. The mission script knows about these buildings, and can generate a mission to one of these pads.
   1. Each pad has a generated ID code, something similar to airport codes here on Earth. Could include a reference to the city, E-Lo-32 for a london pad (Planet-City-number).
   2. Pad size is limited, so it isn't available for larger ships. Courier crafts preferred
   3. Only visible when the player has something to do there. (Either destination or mission starting point)
3. Player accepts the mission
   1. Pad ID shows up, targetable.
   2. Autopilot landing doesn't work for it. (Justifications: mainly so the player has something to do, and it has a bit of difficulty, fictionwise: secrecy, not even a space landing pad, so it isn't hooked to the space traffic control network to name a few examples)
   3. There's a short deadline for the player to reach it (a couple of hours tops, even less for more lucrative ones).
4. Player lands on the pad.
   1. Popup with mission details. Similar to the comms windows on the BBS. If the player wants to refuse, the guy could try talking him into it, beg or threaten, depending on the flavor. Threat could mean simple reputation decrease or an assassin on his tail maybe.
5. Player accepts. Takeoff works the same as a regular station. Player goes to destination, fulfills the mission. Everybody is happy. Failure has the same consequences as regular missions.
6. Pad as destination somewhere else.
   1. The city generator always generates at least a couple of these for each city, to make sure there's one available. Could be problematic if the player has a lot of missions with this kind of destination.
   2. You could also pick up a mission from the BBS with a destination like this.
   3. There could be destinations like this outside the cities, generated in the wild. The player could only have coordinates for it and has to find it on his own. (smugglers base, expedition, etc.). Potential problem: if it's there once, it should be there always, if the player ever returns. But it could be saved with the player, and could also be reused for later missions (would assume having it among the bases after first delivery). Other downside: a skyscraper would look odd on the middle of nowhere, so custom asset would be needed.
7. Alternative possibility: BBS ad: "Grain sought at [City, Pad]". Player accepts, buys or obtains cargo, delivers, gets cash. (It's kinda similar to what Elite Dangerous has, but with a destination afar). Would be more interesting if there were price differences among bases in a given system.
8. Alternative possibility: Used part ad on the BBS, available on Pad-## Or cheaper repair prices.
9. Alternative possibility: Assassination targets are landed on one of these instead of the regular spaceport.
10. Alternative possibility: some could be persistent after first delivery, with a limited mission BBS for more lucrative missions. Like if it was a military base or smugglers hideout, or just a courier firm looking for outsourcing. Fuels club local HQ.

Inventory (non-coder guess on some parts, will update)

1. Plugging it in the city generator.
2. Making it show up as a nav target.
3. Connecting with lua for missions.
4. Missions which are using it. + Flavor writing.
5. Assets: City landing pad, Outdoors landing pad.

[DraQ]

There could be destinations like this outside the cities, generated in the wild. The player could only have coordinates for it and has to find it on his own. (smugglers base, expedition, etc.). Potential problem: if it's there once, it should be there always, if the player ever returns.

Not necessarily. It may well be a makeshift landing site.
In those cases just make the pad look like something that can be disassembled and packed up or something that's actually mounted on top of a large tracked vehicle.
Maybe even go without the pad itself, just rough landing in the indicated area.

On an airless worlds you can have some inflatable habs set up around as temporary port buildings, otherwise a bunch of vehicles, plus stuff like some makeshift landing lights and antennas.

In case of permanent, not makeshift pads, like those on top of the buildings, maybe we should refer to them as "private" rather than "unregistered", because it's not like a thing like this is going to escape the notice of authorities and corps/wealthy individuals are probably going to make extensive use of non-public ports.

Other than private pads for mission specific stuff, we could have:

• Makeshift public pads in sparsely populated systems and systems without permanent settlements as trading posts (miners and prospectors offering ore and buying supplies).
• Dockable ships in space, both mission specific and as makeshift trading stations.
• Networks of smaller ports and settlements (maybe have cities as terrain type?) in inhabited systems.
• System view and nav menu supporting hierarchical, nested stuff to not drown the player in information about all the minor sites and objects.
• Black market or faction-specific sites requiring some contacts to use and either relying on having established sufficient (and consistent) positive reputation with faction in question or possibly offering good equipment and ships (in addition to illegal wares) cheap, but with possibility of some hooks attached - for example the ship may be a hot potato, either stolen from someone influential or previously used in some sort of hostile action, a trader hailing you may actually turn out to be a pirate loot transport with escorts, etc.
• Hostile encounters in close vicinity of planetary surfaces, preferably launching from actual site on planet or in orbit or at least spawning in orbit on the opposite side of the planet then deorbiting to intercept - we really need those, deep space combat tends to be boring because there is nothing but combatants out there.
• Dynamic, modular mission structure - for example starting mission to get someone to a specific port in a system, then being diverted to a ship in orbit or specific private site. May involve choices and option to work against original mission giver.
• Not entirely related, but surface turrets and launchers.

[FluffyFreak]

I like the idea.
Nothing more to add right now, brain is a bit tired ;)

[laarmen]

The main thing I am wondering is if the layout of our cities is seeded, or is random ? If it uses a known (and saved) seed, we'd "just" need to add those as a special kind of building, and register them somewhere where Lua could find them.