Space 1

Klovnstation design document

Current status

Space is an impressive bit of unexplored, immersive territory. More space gameplay would open up another avenue for people to have fun, roleplay and work on new projects and whatnot.

Klovnstation increases the amount of objects in space but does nothing to actually flesh out space gameplay. This should change, especially as space has immense antag potential in its current iteration.

Rationale of improvement

Adding a proper gameplay loop to space as a side path will definitely improve and solidify its position in the broader spectrum of player choice. Right now space is also heavily antag skewed - it allows atmosians for example to get very far away and create maxcaps unimpeded, then return to the station to destroy it.

Requested changes

Border Space should have a soft border through ever increasing radiation damage. This will, outside of a couple hardcore edge cases, limit grids in deep space to deliberate player action and mostly specialised, radiation resistant shuttles.

Making this radiation zone start say 200 meters away from the station will also create a situation where the vast majority of antagonist activity in space is concentrated around the station in a way where security can investigate and detect these antagonists.

Space storms Long term stay in space should require proper preparation. There should be periodic storms (obviously not constant enough to severely hinder salvagers) in space starting say 300-400 meters away from the station that require either very specialised and expensive equipment or an actual walled outpost/shuttle to survive.

The walls required to survive this should be visible on mass scanners. Some randomly generated wrecks can feature them. The storms should have multiple warning signs like sound or visual cues – we can for example make them be solar flares.

These storms should target and damage complex machines like freezers or lathes, requiring proper preparation for a genuine outpost.

This will make far away impossible to spot maxcap excursions difficult. Antagonists could receive special equipment that allows them to survive these storms and plan in space unimpeded, but if that were to happen security would need it also.

Space plants Keeping in line with tile botany, space plants should be a somewhat common issue for the station crew. Some could be beneficial, but most should require intervention lest they cause damage.

My ideas for a plant roster would be:

• Electrical plants

Either draining or providing electricity – mostly draining. Grow on and follow external wire.

• Corrosive plants

Eventually spread onto walls and eat through them with acid. Should have a sound cue when that begins happening.

• Man-eater plants

Spawn clusters of hostile mobs that can eventually break through windows when they see a person and cause havoc.

• Invasive plants

Can get in through open plastic flaps or break down airlocks. (sound cues) They could also be able to get into disposals and cause further havoc.

Space probes We can reuse some FPV drone code and link the drones up to a mass scanner to create space probes. Security should have a way to inspect space without a tedious and long space walk.

These probes should be easy to jam via specialised jammers, which should be relatively reasonably obtainable even for self antagonists. These jammers should also work on FPV drones, although at a lesser range.

This would discourage low effort attempts at spacefaring and hiding in space and, given basic preparation, could be shut down. The jammers themselves should be detectable, either on mass scanners or via a device. A small, portable jammer for antagonists could be the exception to this.

Projected results of this change

Space is more populated by crew, at least near the station where engineers or botanists have to check up on plants.

Hardcore and difficult to counter strategies in space have been neutered to a reasonable level.

While there wasn’t much done to incentivise going to space beyond space plants the area itself is incredibly potent and just waiting for more gameplay as klovn’s playerbase gets better and stronger.

Other changes down the line will also incentivise going to space, and this will preemptively curtail uncounterable and overpowered space strategies.