This PR completely rebuilds the Contract Killer antagonist, largely divorcing it from its roots as an Obsessed reskin and making it its own thing.
Contract Killers no longer have randomized "preparation" objectives - they will not be asked to take photos of the target, steal their heirlooms, or murder a random "co-worker" (which was rarely actually someone in the same department). Instead, they always have three objectives - two of these are preset, and one is randomized.
Objective 1 is always "Gather Intel" - you must spend 5 cumulative minutes within 7 tiles of the target and within line of sight, at any point during the round. This objective is unchanged from the old version of contract killer (and from Obsessed by extension). Once completed, you not only get a mood boost for 10 minutes, but you also unlock the ability to buy a "gear kit" to help with the assassination (see below).
Objective 2 is the assassination itself. It simply directs you to kill the target.
Objective 3 is a randomized "fluff" objective, picked from a wide variety of different choices. These all give you guidance for what to do with the body, and in some cases with the kill itself. As is standard with Orbstation objectives, this objective can be ignored if the player has a better idea - it simply provides an idea to work with. These objectives are weighted, so that some will appear more often than others.
Fluff objectivesCommon Objectives:
- Leave the body in a specified location.
- Leave the body where a specific, random crew member will find it.
- Take a photo of the body and upload it anonymously to a newscaster. (This objective grants an "anonymous" ID to help avoid self-incrimination). Uncommon Objectives:
- Make it look like an accident.
- Hide the cause of death so that it can't be discerned from an autopsy. (This one doesn't care if there's actually a coroner around, but does specify that you shouldn't simply destroy the body). Rare Objectives:
- Frame a specific, random crew member for the murder.
- Leave the head in a specified location. (You can do what you want with the body).
Once the murder is completed to the player's satisfaction, they are intended to go back to being a member of the crew rather than continue doing evil things. This is the main difference between a "minor antagonist" and a full one.
Gear Kits
Once objective 1 (Gather Intel) is completed, the Contract Killer will get a new action button that allows them to summon a kit of specialized assassination gear to help them kill their target. Each Contract Killer is offered a choice of three kits, chosen randomly from all of those available, and can pick only one of these. The kit is delivered in a secure briefcase, teleported directly into their hand. As a joke, this briefcase has very high throwing damage, but is also thrown very slowly. There are 12 kits, each of different levels of rarity.
Available KitsCommon Kits:
- Hitman Kit: A silenced Makarov, a spare magazine, a suit, a tie, and three silver coins.
- A Random Assortment of Knives and Other Sharp Objects: Fifteen knives of varying quality. Always has two really good knives.
- Disguise Kit: A full set of chameleon gear, extra no-slip chameleon shoes, and an agent ID.
- Poisoner's Kit: A Syndicate dart gun, two random bottles of poison, a bottle of pentetic acid, and a box of six piercing syringes.
- Hacker's Toolkit: An emag, a doorjack, a camera bug, a Syndicate toolbox, and advanced insulated gloves. Uncommon Kits:
- Power Fist Starter Kit: A power fist, three oxygen tanks, and a power drill for adjustments.
- Briefcase of Holding: The briefcase itself has the capacity of a bag of holding, for holding many things.
- Prop Hunter's Kit: A chameleon projector, and a rush gland autosurgeon for making getaways if caught.
- Cheesy Assassin's Kit: A ratfolk stomach autosurgeon, a cheese injector implant, and several wheels of cheese.
- Briefcase Full of Loose Viscera: A large pile of mining monster pieces for crafting armor and weapons. Rare Kits:
- KILLING KIT FOR STRONG ASSASSINS: One randomly-chosen abductor/Zetan weapon.
- Smuggled Wizard Federation Good: Two randomly-chosen wizard items, and a random wizard hat.
Why It's Good For The Game
The first version of Contract Killer had a lot of problems. The randomized objectives served little purpose except to make you implicate yourself (the "take photo" one was particularly bad), and it asked you to assassinate anyone, possibly including the Captain, with no special gear. It also sometimes asked you to kill a second, unrelated person, for dubious reasons. This was all pretty bad, and has been corrected with this redesign.
The only good unique objective was "Gather Intel", so it has been made a guaranteed part. Asking you to spend 5 minutes around your target before the kill encourages RP and even some foreshadowing, and the fact that it is incentivized with an actual reward means most players will want to do this.
Gear kits are the biggest change. They allow a contract killer to actually have different ways to approach their target, with certain styles encouraged by different kits. The large number of kits means things will not get stale fast, especially with rare and powerful kits occasionally appearing. The ability to choose from three also means the player has control over their round without being able to just take the "best" possible thing every time. They will inject interesting variety into the round, while also giving contract killers a chance against even the head of security.
Finally, the randomized fluff objective will further encourage interesting and varied play and RP, while also not being mandatory.
The redesign has also made it relatively easy to add new gear kits and fluff objectives, if anyone feels like adding on at any point.
Changelog
:cl:
add: Added randomized "gear kits" for contract killers to make their kills with
add: Added many more randomized fluff objectives for contract killers
del: Removed most Obsessed-derived objectives from contract killer
/:cl:
About The Pull Request
This PR completely rebuilds the Contract Killer antagonist, largely divorcing it from its roots as an Obsessed reskin and making it its own thing.
Contract Killers no longer have randomized "preparation" objectives - they will not be asked to take photos of the target, steal their heirlooms, or murder a random "co-worker" (which was rarely actually someone in the same department). Instead, they always have three objectives - two of these are preset, and one is randomized.
Objective 1 is always "Gather Intel" - you must spend 5 cumulative minutes within 7 tiles of the target and within line of sight, at any point during the round. This objective is unchanged from the old version of contract killer (and from Obsessed by extension). Once completed, you not only get a mood boost for 10 minutes, but you also unlock the ability to buy a "gear kit" to help with the assassination (see below).
Objective 2 is the assassination itself. It simply directs you to kill the target.
Objective 3 is a randomized "fluff" objective, picked from a wide variety of different choices. These all give you guidance for what to do with the body, and in some cases with the kill itself. As is standard with Orbstation objectives, this objective can be ignored if the player has a better idea - it simply provides an idea to work with. These objectives are weighted, so that some will appear more often than others.
Fluff objectives
Common Objectives:- Leave the body in a specified location.
- Leave the body where a specific, random crew member will find it.
- Take a photo of the body and upload it anonymously to a newscaster. (This objective grants an "anonymous" ID to help avoid self-incrimination).
Uncommon Objectives:
- Make it look like an accident.
- Hide the cause of death so that it can't be discerned from an autopsy. (This one doesn't care if there's actually a coroner around, but does specify that you shouldn't simply destroy the body).
Rare Objectives:
- Frame a specific, random crew member for the murder.
- Leave the head in a specified location. (You can do what you want with the body).
Once the murder is completed to the player's satisfaction, they are intended to go back to being a member of the crew rather than continue doing evil things. This is the main difference between a "minor antagonist" and a full one.
Gear Kits
Once objective 1 (Gather Intel) is completed, the Contract Killer will get a new action button that allows them to summon a kit of specialized assassination gear to help them kill their target. Each Contract Killer is offered a choice of three kits, chosen randomly from all of those available, and can pick only one of these. The kit is delivered in a secure briefcase, teleported directly into their hand. As a joke, this briefcase has very high throwing damage, but is also thrown very slowly. There are 12 kits, each of different levels of rarity.
Available Kits
Common Kits:- Hitman Kit: A silenced Makarov, a spare magazine, a suit, a tie, and three silver coins.
- A Random Assortment of Knives and Other Sharp Objects: Fifteen knives of varying quality. Always has two really good knives.
- Disguise Kit: A full set of chameleon gear, extra no-slip chameleon shoes, and an agent ID.
- Poisoner's Kit: A Syndicate dart gun, two random bottles of poison, a bottle of pentetic acid, and a box of six piercing syringes.
- Hacker's Toolkit: An emag, a doorjack, a camera bug, a Syndicate toolbox, and advanced insulated gloves.
Uncommon Kits:
- Power Fist Starter Kit: A power fist, three oxygen tanks, and a power drill for adjustments.
- Briefcase of Holding: The briefcase itself has the capacity of a bag of holding, for holding many things.
- Prop Hunter's Kit: A chameleon projector, and a rush gland autosurgeon for making getaways if caught.
- Cheesy Assassin's Kit: A ratfolk stomach autosurgeon, a cheese injector implant, and several wheels of cheese.
- Briefcase Full of Loose Viscera: A large pile of mining monster pieces for crafting armor and weapons.
Rare Kits:
- KILLING KIT FOR STRONG ASSASSINS: One randomly-chosen abductor/Zetan weapon.
- Smuggled Wizard Federation Good: Two randomly-chosen wizard items, and a random wizard hat.
Why It's Good For The Game
The first version of Contract Killer had a lot of problems. The randomized objectives served little purpose except to make you implicate yourself (the "take photo" one was particularly bad), and it asked you to assassinate anyone, possibly including the Captain, with no special gear. It also sometimes asked you to kill a second, unrelated person, for dubious reasons. This was all pretty bad, and has been corrected with this redesign.
The only good unique objective was "Gather Intel", so it has been made a guaranteed part. Asking you to spend 5 minutes around your target before the kill encourages RP and even some foreshadowing, and the fact that it is incentivized with an actual reward means most players will want to do this.
Gear kits are the biggest change. They allow a contract killer to actually have different ways to approach their target, with certain styles encouraged by different kits. The large number of kits means things will not get stale fast, especially with rare and powerful kits occasionally appearing. The ability to choose from three also means the player has control over their round without being able to just take the "best" possible thing every time. They will inject interesting variety into the round, while also giving contract killers a chance against even the head of security.
Finally, the randomized fluff objective will further encourage interesting and varied play and RP, while also not being mandatory.
The redesign has also made it relatively easy to add new gear kits and fluff objectives, if anyone feels like adding on at any point.
Changelog
:cl: add: Added randomized "gear kits" for contract killers to make their kills with add: Added many more randomized fluff objectives for contract killers del: Removed most Obsessed-derived objectives from contract killer /:cl: