Puzzles of Borg
So I need help making puzzles with two solutions.
I will explain:
In Star Trek Online, they're adding a feature where you can create your own missions. I had an idea for one I wanted to make, and lately one of my favourite things in STO is missions with little puzzles in them - I like puzzles, they let me feel smart even when I'm not.
However I suck at making up puzzles, which sucks when I want to put a bunch into the mission. So what I need are relatively simple logic puzzles, especially ones which can have two "correct" answers, because I want the player to be able to deliberately pick an outcome based on how they solve the puzzle: one with a "good" outcome and one with a "bad" outcome.
An example would be a simple math puzzle. You have, say, a reactor that has 10 units of power, and four systems. You can split the power among the systems, and this is your job. You discover by gathering clues that one system MUST have 5 units, another MUST have 1, and the other two will accept any amount but will eventually overload and fail if given more than 2. So you can solve the puzzle "correctly" by splitting the power 5, 1, 2, 2 - or you can solve it correctly, but overload a system by splitting it 5,1,3,1. Both answers allow you to continue the mission but have outcomes down the road.
So I need puzzles like that.
The story goes like this: the Borg know that, at some point in the future, you personally are going to cause them a major setback (how they know this is a hook for a sequel mission). They want to stop you, but they also want to know what it is about you that makes you so dangerous. So they go to great effort to lure you to a remote location, and then kidnap you.
You are taken back to some titanic Borg facility deep in their space, where you get to briefly meet the Borg Queen. They want to assimilate you, but forceful assimilation always loses some details of the person, so (like with Picard) they want you to submit willingly. To this end, they implant a few minor cybernetics in your skull so they can hook you up to the Collective, and drop you into a colony of other kidnapped aliens who are in the same situation: the Borg want to know what makes them tick, and want to assimilate them completely.
The Borg in your head, communicating as Locutus of Borg (Impossible? Locutus' reply when challenged: "Limited three-dimensional thinking. We knew Locutus once. We will always know him.") tell you that, because of your leadership abilities, you are in charge of the colony now and taking care of your "collective" is your responsibility.
This is where the puzzles come in; you can either help the colony, making things better for the people there - but this means doing what the Borg want, and serving their ends and letting them creep into your head a little bit at a time. Or you can sabotage everything, making life hell for the colonists but also subverting the Borg's desires. You eventually escape, of course, but which path you choose changes the ending a bit.
I'm not sure how much of this is actually possible in the mission builder but it would be cool to try.
I will explain:
In Star Trek Online, they're adding a feature where you can create your own missions. I had an idea for one I wanted to make, and lately one of my favourite things in STO is missions with little puzzles in them - I like puzzles, they let me feel smart even when I'm not.
However I suck at making up puzzles, which sucks when I want to put a bunch into the mission. So what I need are relatively simple logic puzzles, especially ones which can have two "correct" answers, because I want the player to be able to deliberately pick an outcome based on how they solve the puzzle: one with a "good" outcome and one with a "bad" outcome.
An example would be a simple math puzzle. You have, say, a reactor that has 10 units of power, and four systems. You can split the power among the systems, and this is your job. You discover by gathering clues that one system MUST have 5 units, another MUST have 1, and the other two will accept any amount but will eventually overload and fail if given more than 2. So you can solve the puzzle "correctly" by splitting the power 5, 1, 2, 2 - or you can solve it correctly, but overload a system by splitting it 5,1,3,1. Both answers allow you to continue the mission but have outcomes down the road.
So I need puzzles like that.
The story goes like this: the Borg know that, at some point in the future, you personally are going to cause them a major setback (how they know this is a hook for a sequel mission). They want to stop you, but they also want to know what it is about you that makes you so dangerous. So they go to great effort to lure you to a remote location, and then kidnap you.
You are taken back to some titanic Borg facility deep in their space, where you get to briefly meet the Borg Queen. They want to assimilate you, but forceful assimilation always loses some details of the person, so (like with Picard) they want you to submit willingly. To this end, they implant a few minor cybernetics in your skull so they can hook you up to the Collective, and drop you into a colony of other kidnapped aliens who are in the same situation: the Borg want to know what makes them tick, and want to assimilate them completely.
The Borg in your head, communicating as Locutus of Borg (Impossible? Locutus' reply when challenged: "Limited three-dimensional thinking. We knew Locutus once. We will always know him.") tell you that, because of your leadership abilities, you are in charge of the colony now and taking care of your "collective" is your responsibility.
This is where the puzzles come in; you can either help the colony, making things better for the people there - but this means doing what the Borg want, and serving their ends and letting them creep into your head a little bit at a time. Or you can sabotage everything, making life hell for the colonists but also subverting the Borg's desires. You eventually escape, of course, but which path you choose changes the ending a bit.
I'm not sure how much of this is actually possible in the mission builder but it would be cool to try.