feat(content): Mission to confiscate unlicensed Bactrians

[alexrovw]

Content (Missions)

This PR is an alternative to #9699. No need to merge both.

Summary

This PR seeks to balance untimely acquisition of the Bactrian by introducing a mission where Deep Security confiscates your Bactrian while paying you a finder's fee. Please see the rationale in #9699 and Hecter's top comment for details regarding the grounds for this change.

Players can acquire a Bactrian by stealing it from a pirate or merchant before completing the licensure mission string. Upon landing on a Republic planet, player is approached by DeepSec, who demand that they return the stolen Bactrian. Players can avoid this entirely by sticking to FW + Syndicate planets, or by operating on the fringes with their Bactrian, as per normal pirate behavior.

The player has 30 days to return the Bactrian to Valhalla (which has a shipyard) in exchange for 7 million credits – enough to purchase a Mule or any other Lionheart ship if they lack any other ship. Player can refuse, at which point they will earn a 1 million credit fine but still earn their 7 million credit finder's fee. This places the Mule out of range for a broke player, but still gives them options.

Failure to comply results in DeepSec reputation tanking to -1000. In a future expansion, the player will still piss off DeepSec, but will be given a chance to return the Bactrian late (>30 days) for no reward. Continued refusal will tank Republic reputation, making the entire Republic hostile.

Polite compliance with the first mission will result in the player being given a hint regarding how to begin the city-ship license mission chain.

Screenshots

TBD

Testing Done

Untested! To be tested before merge.

Save File

This save file can be used to test these changes:
TBD

Performance Impact

N/A

[Hurleveur]

I see your point with this being a good thing lore wise, but gameplay wise I don't know if its such a good idea
The bactrian is not that good of a ship anyway, and the mission to get it is honestly too long and too hard to find, so I think it should first be improved before doing this - that, or they could thank you for getting this pirate bactrian back that was stolen to them and let you keep it at an expense or smth?

[demolish238]

I like the consequences of this, but it could perhaps be used to skip one or two missions to get the licence itself since you helped the deep, like if you do this it counts for doing all the mystery retrieval missions so you don't need to earn their trust that way.
Give an alternative start to the whole, stolen republic ships mission where you get approached not because of doing the drop offs, but for being someone who interacted with the most infamous deep criminals thus brought in as additional muscle, not reprimanded like normal?

[Hecter94]

it could perhaps be used to skip one or two missions to get the licence itself since you helped the deep

The Deep is going after a notorious pirate that they know has stolen a Bactrian.
Suddenly someone shows up that's proven beyond a doubt that they're capable of taking on a pirate Bactrian and winning.
This individual also wants a license for said ship, which the Deep can provide.

Seems like reasonable grounds for a trade.

[ziproot]

If this cuts most of the city ship license quest if you capture a Bactrian, I support it because it makes the quest easier.
EDIT: Clarity

[alexrovw]

Draftified for a couple reasons:

1. There are some unresolved errors in my syntax that I haven't gotten to yet
2. I'll be adding a bridge mission to push the player into Project Hawking if they are caught with a Bactrian. This skips the cube missions and the convoys, but still introduces the main characters for the rest of the campaign.

[OcelotWalrus]

Makes sense to me. Clean code.

[Saugia]

In the grand scheme of things, the only case we ever "punish the player" for possession of a ship is with the Quarg, which is quite a different example than a human faction such as the Deep (or similarly the Navy, for example). (Also consider, the Quarg don't take an Arfecta from you despite it being their nemesis's ship, at the very most being a warning conversation.)

While it may make sense from a mechanical perspective (regarding licensing), lore-wise, the Deep wouldn't be as strict as say the Navy would be about retrieving or punishing stolen ships from Pirates, and in terms of gameplay, comparing the Navy to the Quarg in this manner is a bit of a step. Even at that rate, I wouldn't imagine we added missions for the Navy to repossess their ships from the player either, so these types of missions probably aren't something we'd like to do except in extreme cases.

[alexrovw]

the only case we ever "punish the player" for possession of a ship is with the Quarg

I can't imagine that this would be desirable for all future work. For instance, why would the Heliarchs allow you to fly around in an obviously stolen ship?

Also consider, the Quarg don't take an Arfecta from you despite it being their nemesis's ship

The Arfecta isn't their ship. It would be up to the Pug to punish you for stealing it. Sure enough, you're not welcome on Pug worlds after you take it.

lore-wise, the Deep wouldn't be as strict as say the Navy would be about retrieving or punishing stolen ships from Pirates

Lt. Paris: We try to keep Bactrians out of unworthy hands, so whenever a pirate gets one we make sure we destroy it immediately.

Bactrian description: the Bactrian is normally only for sale to citizens who have been vetted by the local government of the Deep

Human News: "While it seems pointless to have the Bactrian locked behind a license, don't forget that it's one of the oldest designs in human space. It was the Navy Carrier of its time - and it's still comparable to one."

comparing the Navy to the Quarg in this manner is a bit of a step

Who's comparing the Navy to the Quarg? You're not getting a death sentence. You're not even getting a fine (unless you fight Deep Security). You're getting compensated at above the normal resale value in exchange for a pirate ship you captured. Failing the current version of the mission wouldn't even affect Republic reputation – just DeepSec.

I wouldn't imagine we added missions for the Navy to repossess their ships from the player either

Seems kind of outlandish to me that the Navy would just let you keep flying their Carriers and Cruisers without a license because you captured them during the war... but I can't address everything in one PR. That was an idea for a future PR.

[Saugia]

Generally we aren't looking to add confiscation missions for locked ships, etc.., as an overall interaction for all the different examples.

Conversations, perhaps, but not examples that strictly punish the player by taking items away, in this case.

[alexrovw]

We get constant complaints about how long/complicated the Bactrian mini-campaign is and how paltry the reward is, thanks in part to how simple it is to capture a Bactrian without needing to do the mission string.

I had hoped that this would both increase the relative value of the reward and also serve as a shortcut into the campaign. But I can see I'm wasting my time.

[demolish238]

It would add life to the universe if factions actually interacted with the player for things the player has done more often outside of missions.
Capturing a ship can be a big deal to the player, and having one of the factions actually acknowledge you have one of their ships and try to interact with you in a way that makes sense from how we see them act in lore, can be a really cool interaction that helps the player engage more.
I LOVE the Quarg interaction with the Artefecta, because it makes sense for the Quarg to act as they do (non interventionist) and lets the player have some feedback that what they did was genuinely impressive, and the Quargs response to their tech is also great in a punishing way that makes sense.
For a player who only has access to human space, getting a baccy before the missions are done IS a big deal, alongside getting a republic carrier, so having missions that show the world is reacting to your actions can help a lot.
My two cents.

[Saugia]

We've discussed and have made the decision amongst the developers, so that's our stance on the matter. Conversation is one thing, but the matter of this PR we've decided isn't something we're interested in adding (confiscation of ships).

No reason to continue this debate on a closed Pull Request (we avoid continuing conversations on them).

[Zitchas]

@alexrovw I would recommend making this into a plug-in. It adds valuable depth to the game, the lore, and the story; not to mention the possibility of significantly improving the entry into the Bactrian campaign. I could see a lot of people enjoying having this.

It might need a bit of adjustment to go the plug-in route (or be a "drop-in and replace data files" plug-in), but either way it'd be great to have.

As for the lore: Aside from the above mentioned points, the Bactrian campaign is all about taking out someone with a stolen bactrian (among other things). Seems logical that at least the Deep themselves might be inclined to at least ask the player to turn in a stolen one, at the risk of losing rep with the Deep.