diff --git a/src/design-proposals/roundflow.md b/src/design-proposals/roundflow.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..95842cd2 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/design-proposals/roundflow.md @@ -0,0 +1,102 @@ +# Roundflow & Transportation + +| Designers | Implemented | GitHub Links | +|-------|-----|-----| +| Teasq | :x: | TBD | + +## Overview + +The purpose of this document is to redesign 3 facets of Funky's current roundflow: +1. arrivals/joining a round late +2. the build-up to the end of the round - specifically how we could reshape service's roleplay/gameplay and expectations + towards the end of the round +3. and the end of round itself. + +## Background + +1. Currently, late joining via the arrivals shuttle is a very underwhelming experience that adds very + little to a round and creates a colossal logic gap: if the station is a far-off, isolated research outpost, + why can arrivals easily transport people to the station on a regularly scheduled basis> + (oftentimes transporting nobody)? This eliminates the sense of isolation being on this far-off station is + meant to evoke, and isn't logically consistent with how difficult it is to call for off-station reinforcements. +2. There is oftentimes no build-up to the end of the round without direct antagonist interference, the round merely + progresses silently until the 1h50m mark, at which point the shuttle announcement is made and people prepare + to leave the station behind and climb aboard an evac shuttle that detaches them from the consequences of the + events of a round. +3. Lastly, the primary focus of this document, is the evac shuttle and the interactions surrounding it. + Beyond being detached from the actual events of the station, its arrival is very sudden and its + departure is swift (3 minutes). While this does achieve a concrete ending to a round, it does so in away that is + unengaging and unfulfilling. You are forced to drop everything you are doing and make way to evacuation, leaving + everything you and others have achieved behind. + +## Features to be added + +There are several changes required to alleviate or solve the issues mentioned above, which I will compile in a list for +convenience: + +### Mapping +1. Arrivals &Departures. This will replace arrivals and evac as separate entities, and instead unify them into a new + area named Arrivals & Departures, which would ideally be a large airport-like area, with various docking ports to + accommodate shuttles or emergency evacuation in case it needs to be called. +2. The arrivals shuttle. The arrivals shuttle would no longer exist, instead being replaced by various cryosleep areas + around the station: in arrivals & departures and dorms (and potentially more that I cannot think up currently). + This is logically consistent with what the station is: + an isolated outpost wherein the workers are contracted to work aboard for set periods of time - an easy example + being oil rig work, or the Nostromo from Alien. + That is, after all, why long-term accommodations like a high-capacity power grind, a + hydroponics area, a service area AND staff and dorms exist. These stations are, by design, made to be lived + in for extended periods of time. + +### Roundflow & Player Interaction +1. The round-end announcement. This would replace the evac shuttle's "10 minute until departure" announcement. + The primary purpose of it would be to indicate the final act of the round, encouraging everyone to finish their + work and prepare to wind down. The shift would at this point effectively be over, and people would be on break. + This is when the final service event, detailed below, would happen. After 10 minutes, a final announcement would be + made alongside the round-end screen, effectively ending the round after 3 or so minutes. +2. Service events. (outlined here: https://github.com/funky-station/docs/pull/96) An event would ideally be designed to + line up at the end of a round, to create a round-end "happy hour" or pizza party and creating a more + diegetic build-up to the end of the round. This encourages people to wind down at the end of a round, and + builds up a sense of community while simultaneously reinforcing service's role as the bread and circus role. This + also provides people with an opportunity to hand out medals of exemplary service (See the often forgotten medal case + in the captain's office). + +### Gameplay +1. Cryopods. Upon exiting a cryopod, a player will be injected with the same contents as medi-pens and space-pens, + to help kickstart the worker's systems and protect them from potentially harmful workplace environments around + the cryopod area. An animation will be played to show a cryopod coming from the floor, ejecting the player + and disappearing again. This explains how the station can somehow accommodate such a large workforce. + +### Spriting +1. Cryopods. Cryopods will be resprited to accommodate the cryopod changes. + +## Game Design Rationale + +### Seriously Silly +These changes allow a greater chance of meaningful roleplay interactions near the end of the round, by effectively +killing the mad dash to evac that every round currently suffers from and replacing it with a banquet/pizza part/celebration. +This provides a wonderful chance for players to wind down and roleplay, get a last chance to sow chaos, give out +medals and awards, or to simply roleplay out the consequences of what has transpired during the round. + +### Maintaining Authenticity +This deepens the feeling of isolation the station is meant to evoke. There are no regularly scheduled shuttles going +to or from the station, and workers do not arrive to the station as they already live there in cryosleep. +The only time emergency evacuation is called is when there is an actual emergency present or the station's situation +has become genuinely untenable and must be abandoned. + +### Dynamic Environment +The round ending in a less railroady fashion and the inclusion of round-end service events +inherently promotes more dynamic ends to rounds. +It keeps players invested up until the round end screen by keeping the focus where it +should always have been: ***the station***. The round ending no longer forcibly decouples players from the station, +but instead maintains focus on the most dynamic stage of the game and forces everyone to live with the consequences of +what has transpired during the round. + +## Administrative & Server Rule Impact +1. Cryosleep areas may need to be ruled similarly to arrivals and evac, where intentional destruction is discouraged. +2. EORG would potentially no longer be a consideration on the evac shuttle itself, as it no longer exists and instead + would only be a concern during the round-end timer (when the round end screen has popped up). + +## Technical Considerations +1. Cryopods may need a refactor to accommodate the animation of exiting and entering a cryopod. +2. Requires the implementation of service events. +3. Requires the removal of the end-of-round evac shuttle. \ No newline at end of file