This PR makes Lone Operative into a heavy midround rather than a random event. The event is fully disabled, and the nuclear disk being secured no longer does anything to affect the chances of Lone Ops (the event can still be spawned by admins, but the midround is likely preferable).
The weight of Lone Operative is slightly less than that of Wizard Journeyman (4 vs. 5), requires 50 threat to spawn at 12-17 population (decreasing by 10 with each subsequent multiple of 6), and costs just 5 threat from the budget. It also cannot appear until 45 minutes into the round, though I'm not convinced this is necessary since it's already heavy.
Incidentally, being a heavy midround means a lone op can now show up when a traitor summons an unfavorable situation. That could be exciting!
Why It's Good For The Game
Lone Operative is an antagonist with something of a fundamental design issue - it's designed to only show up when the nuclear disk has been abandoned, but if that's the case, there tend to be few obstacles between the operative and bathing the station in nuclear hellfire. By definition, a Lone Operative will never have to chase the disk down - it's probably on the desk in the empty captain's office! Making it a midround that doesn't care about where the disk is right now could lead to more diverse and interesting situations.
Additionally, this feels necessary with our changes to acting captain. With upstream code, the assumption is that there's always someone with the gold ID and thus someone who should hopefully be securing the disk - and Lone Operative is a punishment for not doing that. Here, we often don't have someone get the gold ID until it's actually needed for something. Recently, this has caused an uptick in the spawn rate of Lone Ops, more than one would probably want. Now, the rate will be flat regardless of whether the disk is secure.
Ideally, in the near future, I'll add a chance of certain midround antags having their presence announced in extremely vague terms after a delay - to scare the crew into maybe trying to secure precious items and stay on their toes. That can come later, though.
If this PR turns out to be a bad solution, or the numbers are all wrong, we can obviously change it up or revert it outright later.
Changelog
:cl:
balance: Lone Operatives are a heavy midround rather than an event.
/:cl:
About The Pull Request
This PR makes Lone Operative into a heavy midround rather than a random event. The event is fully disabled, and the nuclear disk being secured no longer does anything to affect the chances of Lone Ops (the event can still be spawned by admins, but the midround is likely preferable).
The weight of Lone Operative is slightly less than that of Wizard Journeyman (4 vs. 5), requires 50 threat to spawn at 12-17 population (decreasing by 10 with each subsequent multiple of 6), and costs just 5 threat from the budget. It also cannot appear until 45 minutes into the round, though I'm not convinced this is necessary since it's already heavy.
Incidentally, being a heavy midround means a lone op can now show up when a traitor summons an unfavorable situation. That could be exciting!
Why It's Good For The Game
Lone Operative is an antagonist with something of a fundamental design issue - it's designed to only show up when the nuclear disk has been abandoned, but if that's the case, there tend to be few obstacles between the operative and bathing the station in nuclear hellfire. By definition, a Lone Operative will never have to chase the disk down - it's probably on the desk in the empty captain's office! Making it a midround that doesn't care about where the disk is right now could lead to more diverse and interesting situations.
Additionally, this feels necessary with our changes to acting captain. With upstream code, the assumption is that there's always someone with the gold ID and thus someone who should hopefully be securing the disk - and Lone Operative is a punishment for not doing that. Here, we often don't have someone get the gold ID until it's actually needed for something. Recently, this has caused an uptick in the spawn rate of Lone Ops, more than one would probably want. Now, the rate will be flat regardless of whether the disk is secure.
Ideally, in the near future, I'll add a chance of certain midround antags having their presence announced in extremely vague terms after a delay - to scare the crew into maybe trying to secure precious items and stay on their toes. That can come later, though.
If this PR turns out to be a bad solution, or the numbers are all wrong, we can obviously change it up or revert it outright later.
Changelog
:cl: balance: Lone Operatives are a heavy midround rather than an event. /:cl: