[Aftershock] UICA Shuttle Bases

[QuillInkwell]

Summary

Mods "[Aftershock] Add UICA Shuttlebases to the Exo-Planet"

Purpose of change

Completes the desired UICA Outpost mapgen conversion. Though I ended up only loosely using the Military Helipad as a reference. Increase the variety of structures that can be found on the Exoplanet. Increase the amount of traders the player can trade with on the Exoplanet.

Describe the solution

Add a new location the UICA Shuttle Base to the Exo-Planet. Completing the desired Military Helipad conversion.

Starting with the first floor:
We have a concrete wall around the entire installation. There is a small little gate office manned by a Foot Solider.
The road in leads to the garage which can store up to 2 Lynx Explorers. Its extremely likely it will spawn with at least 1 but up to 2 can spawn in the garage.
If you follow the path from the Gate house you'll pass the habitat and arrive at the Shuttle landing pads. There are two small shuttlepads though they might be more fit for Aerocraft. Directly adjacent to the Shuttlepads is the Hanger.
Both the Garage and hanger contain workshops for maintaining the vehicles assisted by machinery. I am imaging in bad weather the UICA would tow the shuttles into the hanger and close up both the hanger and garage to protect the vehicles and otherwise try to keep the cost of maintenance low.

I put two capacitors between the landing pads in case a shuttle needs to come in for a quick re-charge to supplement whatever onboard reactor it may have.

For the Habitat I tried to make it look like there were two distinct prefab modules that had been connected via a glass tube.

The North Module has the warehouse, reactor room, drone storage and drone repair workshop. Both doors to the reactor are electronically sealed.

The South Module holds the Airlock, commanding officer's office, life support room, and another smaller office.

The second floor of the south module holds the armory, mess hall, and communications room. The door to the armory is electronically sealed and a man stands inside on guard.

The second floor of the north module holds the barracks and bathrooms.

Though you aren't really meant to steal from this location, nearly everything spawns the items you would expect. The Drone workshop has tools and parts. Alongside the hangar and garage that spawn items from the new vehicle repair group (stub). The crates currently spawn civilian goods but once I get time to add the military variants I will go back in and change that. The armory spawns UICA gear. (Though I probably missed a whole bunch in the item group stubs.) And the breakroom stores food.

So technically if you hated the UICA and really wanted to fight that many NPCS and Irradiants I guess you could steal a lot of good loot?

New NPCS:
UICA Foot Solider:

Pretty much a port of the UICA Naval Police to ground combatants. They wear Tip of the Spear Helmets and IPAV armor. They carry a G&W SR-P77 SMG and a Marsec. 4 Pistol. They keep two spare mags for the SMG in an ammo satchel and all come with ablative combat cloaks.

UICA Engineer:
The Engineer has nearly the same kit as the foot soldier but they wear HERC rigs and carry plasma torches. They also have much better skill in mechanics, fabrication, and electronics. They also have slightly different talk topics. They exist mainly as a stub for someone to add more content once it's available.

UICA Officer:

The officer spawns with the same kit as the foot soldier. They have slightly different talk topics. But they exist mostly as a stub for someone else to come along and flesh out when the content is available. In the future they could possibly become a mission offering NPC or some such.

UICA Quartermaster:

The Quartermaster has the same kit as a UICA foot soldier. What sets them apart is that they can be traded with. When talking to them ask about buying supplies. They will direct you to go elsewhere for supplies, but you can attempt to persuade them with a bribe. If they accept the bribe you will open a trade window starting with the bribe amount as debt. If you fail to pay the bribe you will need to convince them to trade with again. If you do pay the bribe and complete the trade they will remember. And continue trading with you in the future.

They use the new UICA military item groups and mostly sell the same stuff that spawns in their military lockers. So you can get a smattering of UICA guns, ammo, armor, and some medical supplies. The Quartermaster has less money on hand than the shops of Port Augustmoon. But more than someone of their station should probably have, implying they sell off gear to other Salvors as well.

They buy pretty much anything right now. (Because I don't know how to change any of that, or if I should.) But the UICA is supposed to be pretty corrupt out this far. So I imagine they have ways and motivation to sell off anything weird you bring them.

Newish Monster:
The UICA Irradiant:
It's an Irradiant but UICA branded and doesn't want to murder everyone in the shuttle base.

New Vehicles:
Lynx Explorer:

The Lynx explorer is an Atomic Powered military vehicle. It's something like an all terrain buggy with an enclosed canopy and a turret mount. It's got a mounted Accipiter Hawk-00 Machine gun. It uses a large storage battery powered by a mini-reactor to run it's enhanced electric motor. It can get pretty fast despite being heavily armored. It also has a recharging station in the trunk.

New Terrains:
Heated Metal Floor:
Copy of Metal floor but it emits the geovent emission. Same as the Heated Strong Concrete.

Describe alternatives you've considered

I was initially going to make the bribe only $500 but then I remembered that was like, the price of one grenade. So I bumped it up to 3k. Might still be too low. But the Quartermaster also profits off selling you gear and buying lucrative loot you sell them to trade off. So I don't want it to be too high. Just high enough to justify the risk they take in doing business with you.

I considered putting a battering ram on the Lynx Explorer but for now opted against it.

I considered spawning loot inside the Lynx but I am saving that for whenever you might be able to find them in other locations. I will likely add them to Map Extras. But I want that to be something like a "Icy Wastes Expansion" PR.

I could always add more items to the UICA groups but I don't personally know which items go in and which stay out. I could have used the Augustmoon trader groups for the quartermaster but I didn't feel that was appropriate here.

There could be a non-illegal way to trade with the quartermaster, one where he requires you to also have an armament license for most of the gear. Something like if you have enough trust from the UICA or are working closely with them you just get automatic access to their traders. Currently left that out since there is no way I know of to increase your UICA trust.

I could have added more topics and dialog to the NPCs but that's for someone better at writing than me!

There could defiantly be some UICA specific robots milling around the base but those don't currently exist so we went Wraitheon.

I would put a giant frick off laser turret on top of the gate house but there isn't currently one for the UICA and I ran out of steam. If someone makes one though I will put it in.

Testing

Loaded world with the structure. Spawned the Structure. Verified items spawning in correct locations in sufficient(ish) amounts. NPCs are spawned in their posts. Monsters spawn where expected. Monsters do not violently rip and tear the player or NPCS. NPCS do not pick fight with monsters. Vehicles spawning where expected in amounts expected.

Quartermaster behaves as expected. Quartermaster must be re-convinced if you do not pay bribe. Quartermaster won't let you bribe them for another 24 hours if you fail to convince them. Quartermaster remembers when you paid the bribe and won't ask for it again.

Drove the Lynx around, seems to behave fine. Expecting good performance from vehicle.

Additional context

Tiled Map Pre-Export

[github-actions]

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• &You find the Quartermaster lazily reclined against a stack of intermodal crates. <npc_name> barely acknowledges your presence, their eyes never leaving their PDA as they address you. Need something salvor?

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[John-Candlebury]

I would put a giant frick off laser turret on top of the gate house but there isn't currently one for the UICA and I ran out of steam. If someone makes one though I will put it in.

Do you prefer a laser machinegun or a laser tank cannon?