Roundflow & Transportation

src/design-proposals/roundflow.md

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+# 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.