Feat: Salvaging for Profit

[Hecter94]

Related Issue Links

#2101
A feature request for salvage and mining missions.

#6045
Another feature request for salvaging ships

#5590
Discusses solutions to the issue of capping/looting being mandatory

#6861
A different salvaging mechanic, specifically about bringing back player-owned ships

#614
Feature request for derelict ships

#6097
#6241
The issue/PR with the functionality that makes this idea possible

#1973
#1996
These are both an issue and a PR for the same concept. Introducing a salvaging mechanic by utilizing minables with ship sprites that drop outfits on death.

Desired Solution

Looking through other issues/PRs on proposals for introducing salvaging mechanics, there are a couple of different issues that keep coming up with the suggested implementations:

1. This is just "mining" with different visuals.
2. Making "damaged" versions of ships/outfits to support salvaging is a large maintenance burden for little gain.
3. It would be too easy to have derelicts spawn which the player can freely loot.

As such, my approach ensures that Salvaging is kept separate from mining by offering a bit of depth to the salvaging experience while also keeping the actual implementation as simplistic as possible to minimize the need for many new ship/outfit sprites or further maintenance burdens in the future.

Suggested Implementation

Summary:
Allow derelict ships to spawn randomly, which spawn with their standard loadout but are uncapturable, allowing players to loot their outfits for use/profit as long as they have the proper salvaging outfits equipped that would allow them to do so.

Derelict "Fleet"

Fleet weights were calculated to bring all the different salvageable ships to the same approximate income amount over a long enough time.
i.e.) A Bactrian might be worth 100x more than a Barb but is also 100x less likely to spawn.
The average income per derelict you find is about 10,000 credits; this can be tweaked up or down as needed.

fleet "Salvage"
	government Salvage
	personality derelict fleeing uninterested waiting pacifist mute
	variant 10
		"Argosy (Salvage)"
	variant 9
		"Arrow (Salvage)"
	variant 1
		"Bactrian (Salvage)"
	variant 100
		"Barb (Salvage)"
	variant 5
		"Bastion (Salvage)"
	variant 2
		"Behemoth (Salvage)"
	variant 30
		"Berserker (Salvage)"
	variant 8
		"Blackbird (Salvage)"
	variant 19	
		"Bounder (Salvage)"
	variant 2
		"Bulk Freighter (Salvage)"
	variant 20
		"Clipper (Salvage)"
	variant 3
		"Container Transport (Salvage)"
	variant 4
		"Corvette (Salvage)"
	variant 2
		"Falcon (Salvage)"
	variant 6
		"Firebird (Salvage)"
	variant 60
		"Flivver (Salvage)"
	variant 22
		"Freighter (Salvage)"
	variant 33	
		"Fury (Salvage)"
	variant 10
		"Hauler II (Salvage)"
	variant 7
		"Hauler III (Salvage)"
	variant 6
		"Hauler (Salvage)"
	variant 25
		"Hawk (Salvage)"
	variant 11
		"Headhunter (Salvage)"
	variant 45
		"Heavy Shuttle (Salvage)"
	variant 100
		"Lance (Salvage)"
	variant 2
		"Leviathan (Salvage)"
	variant 6
		"Manta (Salvage)"
	variant 8
		"Modified Argosy (Salvage)"
	variant 4
		"Mule (Salvage)"
	variant 3
		"Osprey (Salvage)"
	variant 14
		"Quicksilver (Salvage)"
	variant 9
		"Raven (Salvage)"
	variant 22
		"Scout (Salvage)"
	variant 60
		"Sparrow (Salvage)"
	variant 6
		"Splinter (Salvage)"
	variant 60
		"Star Barge (Salvage)"
	variant 5
		"Star Queen (Salvage)"
	variant 2
		"Vanguard (Salvage)"

"Dangerous" Salvaging Mission

mission "Salvage (Dangerous)."
	boarding
	repeat
	minor
	source
		government "Salvage"
		category "Utility" "Heavy Freighter" "Heavy Warship"
	destination "Earth"
	on offer
		conversation
			branch "success"
				or
					has "outfit (flagship installed): SR-300 Salvage Depot"
					and
						has "outfit (flagship installed): SR-200 Salvage Suite"
						random < 40
					and
						has "outfit (flagship installed): SR-150 Salvage Arm"
						random < 20
					random < 10
			`Without the proper salvaging tools, your attempt to board this derelict has failed, and the ship was destroyed.`
				flee
			label "success"
			`You successfully stabilize this derelict and can board.`
				defer

Example Salvaging Outfit

outfit "SR-150 Salvage Arm."
	category "Systems"
	cost 18000
	#placeholder image
	thumbnail "outfit/cargo expansion."
	"mass" 30
	"outfit space" -30
	"weapon capacity" -10
	"gun ports" -1
	"required crew" 1
	description "<placeholder>This large robotic arm is mounted directly on one of your ship's hardpoints, requiring a gun port to install. Once installed, it can clamp onto and securely hold derelicts so they can be salvaged with minimal risk."
	description "Requires a trained operator."

A proof of concept plugin showing that the mechanic can work as I've outlined it here:
Salvaging.zip

A couple of things to note:

1. Text is currently a placeholder
2. outfits spires are a placeholder
3. Fleet periods need balancing
4. Variant weights need additional balancing

Alternative Approaches

Alternatively, we could go in the direction outlined in #1973 and #1996 and introduce "Salvaging" as new minable types that use ship sprites and drop outfits when destroyed, which is outlined extensively in the linked issue and PR.
The two main issues I see with this approach are:

1. It doesn't differentiate itself enough from "mining." You are essentially just "mining" something that looks different and gives you more profit than a normal asteroid; you aren't salvaging, you're mining ships.
2. As we work on introducing new mechanics and new features linked to mining, such as mining fleets, mining lasers, mining ships, etc., being able to mine ships as well isn't going to make sense with the new mining mechanics, nor will it be balanced in-line with other minables.

Other than those two issues, this would also be a valid, acceptable approach.

Additional Context

There are a couple of things that would need to be done in order to PR this.

• Outfit/Mission Text needs to be expanded on and polished up
• The three salvaging outfits need sprites
• Fleet periods need to be adjusted so that derelicts are more likely to spawn when away from civilized space

Future considerations:

• Derelicts outside human space? An alternative method of getting alien outfits?
• Should derelicts be capturable?
• Should salvage be a rare, but profitable occurrence or a common but cheap occurrence?
• How easy should it be to salvage the largest derelicts? Right now I have it so a clipper can just barely equip the largest salvaging outfit.

[bene-dictator]

I don't think any derelict ship should be capturable. If their crews are gone, then the ship likely isn't inhabitable (the life-support or whatever is gone) or able to be piloted at all, but I'm not considering escape pods. I'd think that their batteries would have expended their power by then, and since shielding also protects from cosmic radiation, the crews would not survive long without it.

I think salvages should be below common and a good surprise when you find one without going out of your way to find them, but that there should be enough that there could be companies and individuals doing it. But, because most outfits are so easy to come by in capping, it's not a good idea to add an easier cap. It's already very easy to get to big human warships and good atomic engines just after the Free Worlds declares their independence with marauders. If these problems are solved, I would definitely like to see this in the game.

I wonder if there should be missions for recovering stranded ships (like the F.S. Shackleton), too.

[1010todd]

Derelicts outside of human space sounds cool, maybe it could require special/better salvaging equipment for it to make it not just easy alien tech.

Derelicts probably shouldn't be capturable, or at least not without something close to mobile shipyard to restore it to minimally working condition.

Salvaging maybe an uncommon and quite profitable. I think it could be an alternative to mining for freighters.

I think Clipper being able to barely salvage Heavy Warship is fine..? It's just a lucky day where you can get full cargo from one salvage instead of multiple salvage for the same.
Maybe add chance of losing a salvage equipment as risk I guess.

[mOctave]

This sounds like a really good idea. It would be nice if, however, you didn't keep getting Megaparsec ships in the Free Worlds, Southbound ships in the far north, etc. Derelicts should remain tied to the general region they are used in for the most part.