Mission Idea - "Galactic Exploration Aid"

[Skydive]

Just had an idea for another mission type "Galactic Exploration Aid". I envision it as a "mother of all missions" type, sort of like a multi-stage mix of Package delivery and Taxi missions (with some deployable cargo if possible) with the biggest reward at the end.

So the stages of the mission would be the following:

1. "Recon" - find a suitable planet and collect samples (1 way trip (the script will pick an uninhabited planet x LY away in the same way it picks target planet for any other mission type only uninhabited in this case, onLanded activate next stage)
2. "Deliver collected samples" back to the client (1 way trip, onDocked next stage)
3. "Deliver exploration team" (1 way Taxi (passengers+cargo(basic exploration kit: some food, medicine and equipment)), onLanded next stage)
4. "Deliver Supplies" (Cargo, the exploration team will ask for extra supplies (x tons of food, medicine and equipment), it is up to the player where to buy them as long as they are delivered to the team's camp), onDocked next stage
5. "Deliver Data" (Exploration team will ask to deliver data that they had gather to their company HQ, 1 way small package delivery to the station where mission initially started, MissionEnd1, Reward1).

Alternatively we could even crank it up a notch with a bit of space colonization simulation with further stages:

6. "Deliver colonists" (Big Taxi and Cargo task that will require from a player to have a big ship to be able to deliver all the items required, on Docked MissionEnd2, Reward2 or MissionEnd3 and Reward3)

This is just a skeleton concept which shouldn't be to hard to code, each stage being just a slight variation of the mission types already in game, they could even be split into smaller stand alone missions that could be offered to players with less XP.

Ideally I'd like to see some dynamic features with evolving infrastructure and some deployable equipment. Something like this:
a) After landing on a planet a Beacon (static 3D model required) is place on the ground to mark future landing site (player should be able to select it as a target next time same way as cities are targeted);
b) After delivering Exploration team to the Beacon (stage 3) a Planetary Exploration Vehicle (3dDmodel required, static or even dynamic, based on a ship with very weak engines and no hyperdrive) is deployed (replacing Beacon model with PEV model if static 3D model or spawning a PEV next to the beacon if modelled as a ship);
c) When returning with supplies for the Exploration team (stage 4) player could find PEV (or beacon if PEV was modelled like a ship, with PEV landed or flying nearby) replaced by a basic exploration camp (something like a very basic space station that can already be docked with, with minimum features for example only re-fueling and repairs). Some 3D model will be required for that (A couple of inflatable Living modules, Power unit, Antena, Hangar, some fuel storage tank, basic landing pad).
d) After delivering Colonist (stage 6) basic exploration cam could turn into fully featured "Semi-Permanent" space station.


A little bit on the "Semi-Permanent Space station" idea. If you notice I have marked several Mission Ends with ends 1 and 2 ending as any other mission does, i.e mission ends player gets regular reward (money+xp). While Mission End 3 I imagine as if Player was invited to participate in Galaxy Exploration Program and offered "colony shares" as a reward. Which would mean that the player will receive such and such amount of money (shares from the profit made by colony) every several months/years while in return Player will have to support the colony, i.e. every once in a while the game would generate a "Supply" type of mission where a player would have to deliver a certain amount of goods to the colony, and if Player decided to ignore it once the colony would "shrink" reducing player's pay, if ignored for the second time - the colony would die and get's cleared from database. That way we could prevent a Player from creating an infinite number of colonies which could be too much stress for game performance.

[impaktor]

1. I'm working on bringing the Scout mission back which might be quite similar to your #1 idea, although no soil samples will be required for that one. Just letting you know so we don't do "double work".

I have been thinking about having exploration with soil samples from planets and atmospheric samples from gas giants and stars. Please feel free to write such a module. I guess for now we could use mining lasers, and fuel scoop, or special atmospheric sample scoop. (And adding new Equipment in a mission script (or core of the game) is easy.)

A general problem, (that you address in the later part of your post), is the need for some beacon or "thing" that lets you land at a certain coordinate of a planet. This would require some core functionality to be added, and perhaps something that would be useful for other future mission types as well, like good old "photography mission" and "bombing mission" of Frontier. We just need to think through what needs to be added, and how it should work (fluffyfreak/jpab/robn/lwho/laarmen: thoughts?).

Something to consider is that planet terrain, currently, doesn't exist when a mission is created in the other system the player is in, thus no coordinates can be given (since they might end up in an ocean), so not until when you enter the mission system can the beacon be spawned somewhere on land. If I'm wrong here, I trust fluffyfrek will correct me

I like the overall ideas, although it is opening up the field for "evolving universe", which I don't know the possibilities nor limitations of.

By the way, this sounds like something lwho would be interested in, check out his posts on this forum. And you would probably be very interested in one of his latest addition: #3201

Note that he added the exploration to the C++ core of the game, and only a minimal example lua file was added (data/modules/System/Explore.lua), so here is a gold mine for you to play with, since no one has actually done anything on the Lua side with this. It's just sitting there waiting for someone to write a lua mission for.

[Skydive]

1. I'm working on bringing the Scout mission back which might be quite similar to your #1 idea, although no soil samples will be required for that one. Just letting you know so we don't do "double work".

It is not exactly double work, as I am not doing anything at the moment, and it may be light years before I'll be able to, I have just started learning lua and at this stage looking at other people's code I can only "see the forest" once I start looking at "individual trees" I get lost in the syntaxes .

Also my idea is slightly different as it involves combining all mission types into one multi-stage mission where once player completed the first part of a mission instead of getting a reward player is sent back to the initial space station, once player completes second stage he is sent back to the "explored" system and so on...with 1 big reward at the end.

Lack of specific coordinates on the surface shouldn't be a problem on the first pas as a player is sent not a specific space station, but to a planet (or even system) therefore player is free to land anywhere he likes , the condition for completing this stage would be pretty simple: current system = mission target system and landed -> done, text message "Destination reached. Gathering samples... Complete... Please deliver samples to the client" -> next stage.

Creating a beacon also should be pretty straight forward if it is inherited from ship class:

something like:

-- spawn a beacon 1km from the player
local ship = Ship.SpawnNear("exploration_beacon_craft", Game.player, 1, 0)

Same principal for creating a Planetary exploration vehicle once Player returns with the Exploration team

-- spawn an exploration vehicle 1km from the player
local ship = Ship.SpawnNear("exploration_vehicle_craft", Game.player, 1, 0)

Something along those lines

I suspect it will be harder to make beacon and PEV stay there once the player exits the system or saving mission progress once player exits the game

[nozmajner]

A quick sketch from asset pov:

Simple expedition buildings and some quickly build-able elevated landing pads. Some antennae and stuff too.

I sketched a bulk ship a couple of days ago, and I was thinking about if it should be able to land on a planet, and it might be a good reason for this as a temporary housing until houses are built.

[Skydive]

Hi Nozmajner,

Nice concept drawing for an expedition camp.

Although not sure about the Exploration Vehicle, personally I'd imagine it to be something more simple, kind of an OPLI style cross-mix between a skycrane and a repair bot, with all kind of sensors that the explorers would use to live in at first stage, and maybe use it for flying around exploring the planet every once in a while.

Something like this:



That kind of a rocket-thingy would be more suitable for something like dropping supplies from an orbit

[impaktor]

@Skydive, also check out:
Universe generation and persistence of in-game modification