Archeological Digsite

[NerdyVampire]

Alright. You guys know the standard digsites you see in any movie about archeologists? Well, imagine if we had that on the Aurora. A 5x5/6x6/etc. area in which xenoarcheologists (or their lab assistant minions) can slowly and methodically recover standard artifacts from the ground itself (without worrying about digging into another Z-level.

Mechanically I imagine that they use beacons or something to mark the area.

1. The xenoarcheologist uses a tool to 'map' out a rectangle, sort of like a beacon or tape, then uses a tool.
2. The area becomes partially platformed, requiring some effort to climb into or a hoist to get things out (may require reworking the hoist?)
3. Every time a pickaxe or similar tool is used on the ground inside this area, there is an action timer. At the end of this, 1 of 4 things spawn;
   1. 75% chance: useless rock
   2. 15% chance: strange rock
   3.  9% chance: a small artifact
   4. 1% chance: a bona fide anomaly
4. The site can be used a number of times before it is depleted. It takes long enough that a xenoarch should be motivated to delegate the simple work to assistants, lab assistants or other ones.

This digsite would allow xenoarchs to set up a roleplay-focused 'base camp' on a site and focus more on quantity over quality (if they prefer). They can still seek out anomalies the normal way, but if they prefer not to move around so much or more easily involve others, this is a viable alternative.

Is this possible programmatically? Does it make sense lorewise? Would people even like this?

I am not a coder myself, let me know 😆

[KingOfThePing]

Proposed the exact same thing to kyres in 2021 or so. It's possible and still a good idea, it would need a decent amount of sprites / overlays. Code wise it is doable. 

[NerdyVampire]

13 minutes ago, KingOfThePing said:

Proposed the exact same thing to kyres in 2021 or so. It's possible and still a good idea, it would need a decent amount of sprites / overlays. Code wise it is doable. 

Sounds awesome. I hope some coder/spriter will pick it up in the future then