Undertow Games Forum

I have no idea what the long term goals of the project are. While I accept that my idea may exceed project ambitions, I would like to propose a way to save a lot of head aches for some situations.

The general idea is to have a massive sub-surface base that acts as the hub that everyone at round start spawns on. This base would be the start of every round on that server and would act as an endpoint for all the different paths that would leave into the abyss. The reason for this idea lies in the role of the traitor, the traitor is a problem when confronting a small ship that needs every single person knowing what to do and how to do it. This means that even with stipulations that traitors must survive to accomplish goals and the EXTREMELY volatile nature of the deep sea, any sort of sabotage that is not just straight up killing another crew member could very well doom the whole ship. I imagine that this would become stale VERY quickly since it would come down to ship design rather than player interaction that would provide the whole challenge for both the crew and traitor. The station on the other hand would be by its very nature of being HUGE be able to sustain damage and continue its function more or less the same as it did prior to the attack. While some areas might be subject to lengthy repair times that might cripple certain areas of the hub it would not mean the complete end of the round as it might in a ship. This gives some wiggle room for players trying to accomplish goals outside or around the hub, since the round wouldn't immediately derail the second someone crossed a wire and turned off some important component. In conclusion of the traitor and station interaction, I believe that this system would also give servers a way to express themselves much how each SS13 server has its certain brand of station to interact with Barotrauma would have the same concept.

Now looking back to the first line of this post I have no idea what the vision of the future this game has so my ideas might be way out of scale for actual intent but it seems to me worthwhile to at least give breath to these ideas regardless. With the hub in mind there are certain aspects of the game that would have to be addressed, such as either having multiple ships moving around the abyss at the same time and what kind of server issues that may cause. The core idea of having the hub is to have smaller vessels leave the hub and do whatever missions are set forth at the beginning of the round. I have no clue if this idea is even a remote possibility but assuming it is the hub might just be the way to give the traitor role and over the over arching objectives matter more to the players. The hub would be a place to regroup and rearm, stock up on new crew members, and allow for players to come back and have a home to go back to rather than just a vague objective. This would have to include some sort of creature comforts actual rooms inside the hub for people and traitors to store things. Somewhere to receive missions at more than likely posted on some sort of bulletin board in the captains lounge with pay outs of some sort. Other such things could be included to give the station some life as a home away from home and somewhere to relax away from the horrors of the abyss.

If interested in this kind of thinking I have more to say on the topic but ill leave it here for now. I have no idea how close you would want to emulate SS13 and this is more aligned with SS13 than maybe you'd intend. Hopefully this has been at least an interesting read.

Firstly, a few notes on your suggestion.

- I like the idea of traitors having to survive. Currently, it's way too easy to just overheat the reactor or steal a harpoon gun and claim it as a traitor victory. I play mostly with my friends on this and we've come to the mutual agreement that you only win if you are undetected, but it would be nice to have that option ingame as well.

- It sounds like the idea is that the majority of the work is done onboard this 'hub sub' and only a few people in other smaller subs. While I wouldn't mind a separate gamemode that has a large, unmoving submarine to take care off I think the idea takes away from the concept that you're in a moving vehicle that can quickly break down if not looked after.

The idea of the hub is to have a few of the crew stay behind with specific jobs that require time to complete each shift. So it would more function as the way to upgrade certain things about the subs themselves or other such things. This would work into some kind of currency system that would spur this research on that you would need the subs to go out and return successfully and make the hub money. That would be the way the system would work in sort of a general sense. It would keep the hub moving and give a very real goal for the subs to make it back and give some stakes, so that you could refit and get the new upgrades that your last expedition accomplished.

I don't mind the idea per se, but I don't know exactly how it would be done. Would it be a single hub that everyone docks to? Would a hub be a central point of a server, who's player caps are closer to 80 now than 8, that needs taken care of? If so, how long would rounds last? Would it be permanent? Would the state of the station transfer from your last session?

One thing I do think can be implemented is some kind of upgrade system. Every time you complete a mission, you gain money. With that money, you can buy items, upgrades for your ship, perhaps new ships, etc.

EDIT: Take a look at the game APB: Reloaded. It's not a perfect game by any standards but it has a 'hub system' of sorts. Several different servers all offer identical hub maps, where players can buy and sell stuff etc. I'm not sure if this could have people working jobs in this seperate map but it's a realistic start.

The hub would be where everyone spawns at round start. So it would act as a central area everyone is slightly invested in and the whole economy system would be there to help out. Right now it would be pretty difficult with the limited player per server setting right now. There would have to be some kind of system that the round would either end with some sort of research being complete or some kind of evacuation due to traitor having complete their objectives. Station itself would restart every round end but the world around it would RNG around and give different objectives.

Now while all the being said this is quite a long term idea so far. Which right now who knows how much of this is ever going to be possible. My ideas spawn off of the mention of having some inspiration with SS13 and with the traitor system there needs to be somewhere that can take some serious abuse without making the round last for 5 min every single time.

What if you started out with the Piranha and had to buy better subs :^)

That would be a way to do it have a server list of subs available and have them be shit. Makes the research a really important aspect so you could get some of the bigger better ships. On that note maybe have different hull strengths as in their materials can only go to so deep before they just give way and kill everyone. That would give a good way to have mission priorities, ie risk reward system.

I think you have the start of a new gamemode here, A multiplayer "campaign" if you would like to phrase it like that. Instead of having a single submarine where you can only do 1 mission at a time, There would be a sorta Admiral aboard the hub station, delegating missions to individual captains who will then delegate to their crew, Every life does matter, But if a crew fails their mission they respawn on the hub after a delay (say 1-2 hours-ish) If a captain and crew survives the mission and manages to complete their mission they put their loot into a storehouse. For example if you recover a fire artifact, The captain would put it into a fireproofed airtight room for later selling by another crew, Bringing it to either a different hub/ a surface station. These campaigns could last anywhere from a few hours to weeks, Stored on either locally or (maybe) on a cloud. Maybe even have it playing 24/7. This seems like it wouldn't work, BUT if it did it would be awesome.

We are about to get those escape pods/shuttles to the game, basically traitors or non-traitors can escape and get things done. It is not fun that the traitor just runs to the reactor room, blows it up and claims the victory. MAKE him escape, or the round plot keeps repeating itself over and over again.