Goals and timer

The run replaces the sponsor's fixed goals with five goal picks on a rising schedule (Sols 3, 6, 12, 20, 30). Each step draws from a pool of six candidate goals - two timed, four untimed - and offers three at random: one timed and two untimed. You pick one, and its reward is granted when you complete it. A timed goal must be finished by the end of a set Sol or it fails; an untimed goal has no deadline. Both difficulty and reward climb with the step, and the six goals in a step give six different kinds of reward.

The goal pool

Step	Objective	Kind	Reward	Value (M)
Goal 1 Sol 3 timed: by end of Sol 6	Create a Dome	Timed	4,000 research points	667
	Research 3 technologies	Timed	+200 Research per Sol	666
	Produce 50  in a single Sol	Untimed	a Supply Pod with 30	498
	Discover 8 Deposits (Metal, Rare Metal or Water)	Untimed	2 Stirling Generators	450
	Have 6 Sensor Towers	Untimed	$500 M	500
	Analyze 5 map Anomalies	Untimed	reveal the next 3 Physics techs	450
Goal 2 Sol 6 timed: by end of Sol 12	Land a Colonist on Mars	Timed	6,000 research points	1,000
	Analyze 5 map Anomalies	Timed	+300 Research per Sol	999
	Produce 50	Untimed	a Supply Pod with 60	768
	Produce 50	Untimed	1 Medium Dome	750
	Research 10 technologies	Untimed	$750 M	750
	Have a total of 30 buildings	Untimed	30 Engineer applicants	800
Goal 3 Sol 12 timed: by end of Sol 20	Research 2 Breakthrough technologies	Timed	8,000 research points	1,333
	Have 50 Colonists (Tourists count)	Timed	+400 Research per Sol	1,332
	Generate 1,000 Research per Sol	Untimed	a Supply Pod with 40	1,092
	Build a Machine Parts, Polymer and Electronics Factory	Untimed	2 Triboelectric Scrubbers	1,100
	Have a total of 50 buildings	Untimed	$1,000 M	1,000
	Have 5 Smart Homes	Untimed	a deep Rare Metal deposit (1,300)	975
Goal 4 Sol 20 timed: by end of Sol 30	Welcome 10 Tourists to Mars (cumulative)	Timed	10,000 research points	1,667
	Extract 50	Timed	+500 Research per Sol	1,665
	Have 20 Martianborn specialists	Untimed	a Supply Pod with 22 , 22  and 22	1,240
	Generate 2,000 Research per Sol	Untimed	1 MDS Laser and 1 Fusion Reactor	1,225
	Research 4 Breakthrough technologies	Untimed	$1,250 M	1,250
	Have 40 Colonists with all needs above 70	Untimed	a deep Rare Metal deposit (1,700)	1,275
Goal 5 Sol 30 timed: by end of Sol 42	Produce 100 advanced resources	Timed	12,000 research points	2,000
	Have a Dome with 100 Colonists	Timed	+600 Research per Sol	1,998
	Generate 4,000 Research per Sol	Untimed	a Supply Pod with 27 , 27  and 27	1,519
	Have 120 Colonists with all needs above 80	Untimed	1 Mega Trigon Dome	1,600
	Research 6 Breakthrough technologies	Untimed	$1,500 M	1,500
	Have 8 operational Domes	Untimed	a deep Rare Metal deposit (2,000)	1,500

Legend

• Step is the goal slot (1 to 5), the Sol its pick fires, and - for its two timed goals - the absolute Sol they are due by. The deadline is stated as an end-of-Sol, not "within N Sols".
• Kind. Each step's pool holds two Timed goals and four Untimed. The pick offers one timed and two untimed; you choose one. A timed goal must be finished before its deadline Sol ends or it fails; an untimed goal has no deadline.
• Reward is granted the moment the goal completes: Funding, a permanent research-rate bump, one-time research points, a supply pod carrying advanced resources, applicants, a tech reveal, a finished prefab building, or an underground deposit.
• Value (M) is that reward on the reward-value scale: money 1:1, +N Research per Sol ×3.33, raw research points ÷6, advanced resources in a pod 90% of order cost plus 12.5 for the pod, specialist applicants ~27 each, a deep Rare Metal deposit 0.75 M/unit (surface double that; Water deposits are never used as a reward), a revealed tech 150 each, prefab buildings half their resupply value (Medium Dome 750, Mega Trigon Dome 1,600). It is a cross-reward comparison number, not an in-game figure.

Reward bands

Rewards climb with the step. The untimed reward has a target value that rises up the run; a timed goal is harder and carries a deadline, so it pays 30% more than the untimed target at the same step. Every reward is held within ±10% of its target - a tight band, so the values track the target closely.

Round numbers inside the band. A reward is first placed within ±10% of its target, then rounded to the coarsest clean number that still stays inside the window - the nearest 1,000, else 100, else 50, else 5 (so 3,900 research points becomes 4,000, 45 Machine Parts becomes 50). Prefab buildings carry a fixed value, so each is placed on the one band its value already fits within ±10%; the Mega Dome (2,600) fits no band and is not used. (Same idea as the Pre-Founder events.)

The six reward slots

Every step's six goals carry one each of a fixed set of reward kinds, so a pick never offers two of the same kind, and each specific prefab building is a reward in only one goal across the whole run:

1. Research points - a flat one-time grant.
2. Research per Sol - a permanent research-rate bump. This and the research-points reward are the step's two timed goals; since the pick draws exactly one timed goal, the two research rewards can never be offered together.
3. Advanced resources - a supply pod carrying advanced resources (the high steps carry an even mix of Machine Parts, Electronics and Polymers).
4. A prefab building - worth half its resupply cost (prefabs). Where no single building's value fits the band, the slot grants two: 2 Stirling Generators, 2 Triboelectric Scrubbers, or an MDS Laser plus a Fusion Reactor.
5. Money - Funding.
6. A flex slot - specialist applicants, a tech reveal, or a Rare Metal deposit. Never a Water deposit: Water deposits are banned as a reward.

Realistic timed deadlines

A timed goal is only fair if its objective is reachable in the window, so the deadlines are set against the game's own timed goals as the yardstick. The base game treats constructing the first Dome by the end of Sol 5 and landing the first Colonist by Sol 15 as goal-worthy timed achievements, so this run keeps its early asks inside those bounds: the Dome is due by the end of Sol 6, and the first Colonist by the end of Sol 12. Each step's two timed goals share one window, widening up the run: due 3, 6, 8, 10, then 12 Sols after the pick.

The untimed objectives use the vanilla Mission Goals as the realism reference, and each sits close to its vanilla twin. Most are a vanilla target unchanged - Analyze 5 Anomalies, Produce 50 Concrete in a single Sol, Discover 8 Deposits, Have 6 Sensor Towers (Goal 1); Research 10 technologies, Produce 50 Polymers, Produce 50 Food (Goal 2); Build one of each factory, 5 Smart Homes (Goal 3); 40 Colonists with all needs above 70 (Goal 4); 8 operational Domes, 120 Colonists with all needs above 80 (Goal 5). A few keep the vanilla objective but a lower count to fit the compressed Sol 3 - 30 schedule: the total-buildings ask (30 at Goal 2 and 50 at Goal 3, vs vanilla's 200) and the research-rate asks (1,000 up to 4,000 per Sol vs vanilla's 10,000), because these goals fall far earlier than the vanilla goals they echo.

How the pool is built

• Six per step, offer three. Each step defines six candidate goals; the pick shows three - one timed and two untimed, drawn at random - and you choose one. The rest, and any step you never reach, never appear, so the sequence differs every run.
• Two timed, four untimed. Two thirds of every step's pool is untimed. The one timed goal offered is always a real decision against two deadline-free ones.
• Objectives are real game goals. Nearly every objective is a stock Mission-Goal type the game already tracks to completion (dome built, colonists on Mars, buildings, research rate, deposits, breakthroughs, operational domes, and so on), so completion and payout use the game's own goal machinery.
• Welcome 10 Tourists is cumulative. The one custom objective. The stock tourist goal counts colonists with the Tourist trait present at one moment; tourists come and leave, so this Goal 4 objective instead counts each Tourist who lands, cumulatively - it completes once 10 distinct tourists have arrived by rocket over the run, no matter how many are on Mars at once. Cumulative is easier to reach than a concurrent headcount, so 10 within the 10-Sol window is a fair ask.

Timed goals and failure

A timed goal carries a deadline Sol, shown as by the end of Sol X. Finish the objective before that Sol ends and the reward is granted; let it pass and the goal fails - no reward, and the slot shows as missed the end of Sol X. An untimed goal simply waits until the objective is met, then pays out. Whether a failed timed goal carries any further penalty is still open (see below).

The timer chain

The chain is the Sol 1 survey reward (one research field, its next two technologies), then the five goals above, then a Mystery on Sol 50 drawn from three offered. The Sol 1 survey and the Sol 50 Mystery each show a clickable countdown notification that explains the pick that is coming. The five goal picks show no notification: each simply fires its choice popup when its Sol arrives, and its countdown is read on the Mission Profile page instead (next section).

The choice popup lists each offered goal with its kind, deadline and reward. Because the popup carries no countdown of its own and the player may not have the current Sol in mind, a timed goal states its deadline both ways - the absolute by the end of Sol X and the relative (in N sols and M hours). When a goal later completes, the mod pops its own Goal Completed! card naming the chosen goal's reward. The vanilla per-sponsor goal tracking that would otherwise pop a card with the sponsor's own reward is switched off, so this is the only goal-completion card.

The goals page

The sponsor's Mission Profile page lists the five goal slots. A slot not yet picked reads Decision on Sol X (in Y sols and Z hours) - the parenthetical a countdown to that pick, recomputed every time the page is opened, so it is current on each open. It counts in whole Sols and clock hours (singular and plural handled, a zero part dropped) and is floored at in 1 hour: the pick fires at that hour, so the countdown never reads "in 0 hours". Once picked the slot shows the chosen goal, its reward, whether it is done or failed, and - for a timed goal - its deadline Sol (by the end of Sol X, or missed the end of Sol X once failed).

Still to decide

• Failure penalty - whether missing a timed goal's deadline costs anything beyond losing the reward.
• Sponsor link - whether the sponsor biases the draw, or the pool is fully sponsor-independent (as designed here).
• After Sol 50 - whether the chain ends at the Mystery or continues.
• The objective targets and reward amounts above are a first pass and remain a tuning knob.

Baseline

In vanilla, each of the thirteen sponsors has five fixed Mission Goals, each with a set completion reward; the full table is the vanilla Mission Goals page. This redesign replaces that fixed per-sponsor structure with the single timer chain and shared pool above.

Sources

Survive the Storm mod code; objective types and reward classes verified in external/SurvivingMars.