Topic: Hauling Jobs from Agents for Agents
It's been long since the last discussion of player side mission system. With PBS/Terraforming and the old question of Soloplay for newbies in times of low playerbase it is becoming more and more of a question how long to wait for those assignments.
Implementing such a system would be a lot of work outs that add to the already big enough workload of our DevTeam, I know.
Nonetheless I somehow like to have a first step to those agentbased assignments in addition to the upcoming Gamma-Islands. First step of that could be those boring hauling jobs - a job for both new players and veterans.
Here my idea how it could work. Please post a comment what you think about it, where problems might appear or what you like to change.
Assignment Windows upgrade:
> adding a tab/button to create a mission on terrain and in stationMission creating:
> opens up a window, where u can drag the items that shall be delivered into it to convert them into a dataconsole/material box;
units would be the same as the items dragged into, maybe an additional option to divide its units into smaller parts;
delivery location can be chosen over a dropdown listing terminals and outposts, later eventually player build stations - minimum of NIC to pay depends on distance;
evtly. enable setting of the terminal/outpost where to accept the mission, if no special choice available in the mainterminal of that isle;
setting the mission timer: set the time the mission will be available (will be overriden if count of material boxes reaches 0);
Lvl settings: maybe per personal standing to contractor, the choices all(lvl0?) - neutral(lvl1?) - friendly+ (lvl5?) < no influence on minimal NIC-Count;
NIC-Costs: NIC-Costs can be set at the calculated minimum or freely above;
the minimal NIC-Cost u have to pay will be defined by the distance of delivery and of its total units;
NIC will be payed out per box, if theres more than one the defined NIC-reward will be divided into number of boxes;
pay-system for contractor would be similiar to market systems buy orders;material box:
> items can be taken out of cargo, private storage and fieldcontainers, at creating the box the items will vanish out of those and be formed into one or several even-units boxes (stacking);
Opening the boxes: unpackaging can only be done after mission runs out by the contractor and noone else (maybe like lootcontainer system where an unknown to all password is required for alien-access)
in case of being in terminal those boxes shall be reserved=unusable for the contractor until mission-timer runs out - if the mission ends with boxes being left he/she will be able to unpack them into its original state (like unpackaging a robot);
in case of being on terrain, I would suggest that the boxes are dropped into a separate missioncontainer (for each mission), the accepting agent can take out as many boxes as he/she can carry;
missioncontainer:
> if all boxes were delivered, container will vanish;
if there are still boxes left in it after mission timer runs out, it will have a timer like the fieldcontainer (a few mins, reset with activation) to enable the contractor to save its content but also to hinder container staying behind for too longdelivery: accepting mission grants you to enter the location and to deliver them - that does not mean u gain automatically access to the facilities or other station options there too!;
Pay out: each agent will be payed out by the number of boxes they delivered;
delivered boxes will automatically be put into the private storage of the contractor;assignment window for applicants: in the assignment the number of remaining boxes and the original sum will be shown so that more than one agent is able to accept the mission if theres a lot to haul;
contractorname is, of course, that of the agent creating the mission;
Type = Transport - what else?;remaining points
what happens if agent carrying the boxes dies during the mission or aborts it? will the package drop with certainty or be transfered back to the missionbox?;
other rewards like items possible?;
...
... hmm got even more detailed than I initially thought