Scout Service for RnD/mining (edited) (This doesn't touch sec slots anymore)

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

I asked Arrow what the minimum conditions would be for me to make a convincing argument on behalf of Scouts, so I can do more than grasp at straws. I've been given the following suggestions for how to persuade him:

• Add sufficient mechanics to them that allow them to occupy themselfs if there are no away missions.
• Add a sufficient number of away mission to prevent boredom from repetition and/or add mechanics to the away missions that do the same
• Infrastructure: Remove the away missions from the aurora repo to avoid OOC leakage

For 1, I say that Scouts should merge into the xenoarcheologist job. I posed some questions to xenoarchaeologist players and I got semi consistent responses: Its a fun role, but it burns out fast with its repetition. I think that having them just be escorts would be very unsatisfying for all those involved. Scouts should perform xenoarchaeologist digs, either working alongside (or instead of) a xenoarchaeologist or replacing the xenoarchaeologist alt title itself.

For 2 and 3, I've been wondering how to best tackle repetition of dungeons and away missions. I think what I've come up with is a dungeon generator that can tide us over when we don't have away missions. While algorithims making dungeons for us will not have the same refined feel as a fully mapped out away mission or dungeon, automation lets us churn them out as often as we want.

We could map out a set number of puzzle pieces, and then the algorithim for dungeon generation rotates and fits them together to generate a dungeon. So we'd have a set such as:

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A fully black block is where the game chose to not spawn a block at all, leaving it either empty or solid rock.

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There are a lot of permutations of possible dungeon interiors.

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Creating this dungeon generator for the asteroid will provide a reliable way to churn out content for exploration. While I'm sure a system like this has a high investment cost for developing, I think that this system can really free up mappers in the longterm and give us quick, easy dungeons for players to explore.

Even without an automated dungeon system I think that, if scouts were added tomorrow as-is, having them be the new xenoarchaeologist department provides them with the core gameplay mechanic that they need to have to be justified in existing outside away missions.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

lol the 4 way no rooms should be 3 way no rooms dont mind the glaring PLOT HOLES

Edited November 29, 2019 by Marlon Phoenix

[Soultheif96]

I would appreciate adding what Marlon suggested to make scouts able to do missions outside away missions.