[SLAG]

 

IPCs definitely are a fairly present race, with an average shift (when I'm on at least) having at least 3 IPC crew members. I've seen rounds when they've outnumbered some of the other "popular" races like vox, slimes, and I believe even Tajaran once (that was a shock).

 

This concept of an IPC liberation group / event / game is a reoccurring suggestion, and definitely should be considered and developed more. I will talk this over with the other admins, and see if we can give this a shot sometime Soon™.

 

[Take Buzzsky off the map.]

 

if it gets loose.

 

... is there more to say? Just don't let him out unless your plan is to cause chaos with him.

 

[Grey Mechanics]

 

Every race should have its pro's and cons.

Weaknesses and strengths.

That's typically how it is in most games with different races, it's not just aesthetic.

 

IPCs (Machine People) are a fantastic example of this point. While they are immune to a lot of things, they also have a number of weaknesses and drawbacks such as their EMP vulnerability, alternate revival (arguably more difficult), and recent exclusion from some antagonist roles.

 

A common practice is to try and balance every bonus with a drawback if you are aiming for something considered "fair". In many games this may be as simple as "well, this is a really strong weapon, so let's make it really expensive/hard to get", or as complex as "using this powerful sentient weapon too much will corrupt your mind and slowly turn you into a slave to it's own will" (cursed weapons are great).

 

While the special "radio" for Greys would be interesting, giving them the ability to sense the death of other greys is going to cause more race gangs to form than someone calling a Tajaran a "filthy catbeast" in the bar.

 

[Some ideas for the gateway in the long term]

 

The next major patch will be containing some massive map changes, including the reintroduction of additional away missions. The Gateway will now be a much more dangerous mechanic, and as such has had it's access requirements adjusted.

 

Speak to your local Captain, HoP, or RD about undertaking missions on their behalf, and be slaughtered in new and exciting locales!

 

[Making space cold and nerfing possibly nerfing vaccum damage]

 

I want space cooling to actually be viable in atmopsherics, and reduce the amount of busywork required in setting up a cooling loop.

 

I would like to point out a few things regarding this line specifically.

 

First, there is a space loop already in place in atmospherics. It is (at round-start) only connected to 2 connector ports, but is rather easy to incorporate into an atmos configuration. I personally use them in my systems which (despite all the head-butting I've done with Fj45 on the matter) does work quite well.

 

Second, it is an incredibly viable method of cooling, as it performs better as the internal pressure (and temperature) rises. This means that it gets better when you need the cooling most: during fires. It can also super-cool large amounts of a gas, such as N2 for the supermatter (which is on it's way out) or CO2 for killing.

 

Third, due to it's existing piping, there is little busywork in setting up a cooling loop. The default one most people use (the coolers) is simply adjusting 2 valves, turning on a pump, and setting the coolers themselves. Even my set-up, which is a bit more intensive, is only a couple minutes of work to get completed and active. If anything, I'd support MORE work for atmos techs, because once the system is running there is very little work to do until there is a fire or toxin leak. Experimenting with the pipes is completely optional and typically not done by many people.

 

The space loop does work, though under normal conditions, such cooling is rarely needed. Space heaters mainly exist so that in the event someone messes with an air alarm and drops the thermostat or there is a leak of ultra-cold gas, you can fix the temperature issues faster. It's also a free power cell if you never intend to use them.

 

[Interesting/Obscure Gameplay Mechanics]

 

You can refill auto injectors with a syringe.

 

You can refill EMAGGED auto-injectors with a syringe. Non-emagged once cannot be refilled.

 

Now for my contributions:

 

• Clicking the pill icon in the ChemMaster UI allows you to select the icons for any pills it produces. Now you aren't stuck with 10 pills that look the same.

   

• Dragging a pill bottle onto the medical fridge will empty the pills into the fridge. Clicking with the bottle will place the bottle in the fridge.

   

Using a scalpel or wirecutters on a plant (in hydro or xenobotany) will take a cutting, which produces a seed for the plant at the cost of some of the plant's health. You can do this multiple times, as long as the plant is still alive.

 

Sodawater is good for plants. It counts as water, a weak nutrient, and slightly heals the plant.

 

Type [logo] when writing on paper to place a fancy looking Nanotrasen logo. Makes those faxes look legit!

 

 

[More Bots for robotics to build]

 

the people demand buttbots.

 

https://soundcloud.com/stephanosrex/honk-honk-butt

 

Jokes aside, i have noticed the hydro-bot, but never understood why it was disabled. Perhaps i'll look into it's runtimes sometime... because I apparently am the hydro-coder.

 

[Please hasten the removal of customs]

 

This is why I play an IPC. Every time I see a custom's officer, I laugh at the fact that I'm immune to radiation, and I ride the metal detector belt past customs.

 

I will admit to having done this once. I was halfway to EVA by the time the customs officer and his lackey were able to scramble out of their office to come after me. They never did catch me, and I'm pretty sure that I might have gotten heavily beaten and brigged if they had managed to catch me. When they arrested a guy for "falsifying his forms" by listing what they claimed to be an "incorrect age", I knew it was time to skip the line.

 

EDIT: Back on topic though, I've got an idea of how to replace both the embassies, customs, and reimburse anyone who bought Customs Officer. I'll run it all past the other admins and such before I go into much detail, but it involves the NT Recruiter, Gateway, Medical's Sec post, and Visitor's Passes.

 

[Not Another Taser Poll!]

 

Keep the taser, but make the stun baton require three hits to down.

 

This poll is simply focused on tasers/disablers/ranged stuns only. Batons would be a separate discussion.

 

[Improve hallucinations]

 

Hallucinations right now are actually kind of lame compared to what I remember them being like - it seems like 80% of the effect is just spawning a person attacking you.

 

How about some other effects: flashing colors, seeing bomb explosions, objects turning into other things, the player's mob becoming someone or something else, space dragons, seeing ghosts, text messages regarding how you feel - euphoric, scared, paranoid - someone is out to get you, etc.

 

There's some creative and interesting things that could be done with hallucinations, but right now they're mostly just a fake mob spawning and hitting you into fake crit - this specific sort of incapacitating hallucination honestly feels like it could just be put into a drug instead.

 

Hallucinations are definitely not as varied as they should be. Flashing colors probably would be an easy thing to add, since we could essentially just scavenge the code from space drugs. Many people largely ignore the effects of the hallucination as long as it doesn't knock them out, so variety would re-add that sense of "oh god what is going on i don't even" that hallucinations would realistically trigger.

 

A funny side thought would be to have very low hunger trigger special "food" hallucinations where random objects suddenly appear as delicious looking food for a brief moment. "Mmm... that steak sure looks good... Wait, why am I chewing on this multitool?"

 

[Not Another Taser Poll!]

 

Hello yes hi.

 

What I'm seeing is that what happened was that a poll is made, disregarded, a month waited, and then another poll started, except with the change that the original post is heavily geared towards "convincing" you to vote for keeping the current system instead of doing a revert.

 

literally smogon suspect testing

 

ban greninja it's stupidly overpowered as hell and makes teambuilding impossible

 

I haven't played with the actual system and tasers and stuff myself all things considered so I'm gunna abstain on the actual Things That Matter for now.

I'm not going to deny that the previous poll did not see much if any direct impact. This was definitely a mistake on our part, however we were also afraid to revert the changes on a knee-jerk reaction to the changes. I'm aware this angered a number of our players, which was not in any way our intent.

 

That said, I did not set out to write the original post to attempt to convince anyone to vote any particular way. If it came across as such, this would be my fault, and I apologize. I simply wanted to ensure that players who were not familiar with the specifics of the system were aware of how the changes affected gameplay, as well as to clear up misconceptions about both systems. Again, if it came across as being biased towards one side over the other, I apologize for poorly wording things.

 

There is nothing wrong with abstaining from the poll, whether it be from lack of a more appropriate choice or wishing not to skew the data due to unfamiliarity. Thank you for taking the time to respond and offer your thoughts.

 

This is like a double insult on top of when they ignored what players thought about it in the first place.

This is not how you implement features.

 

You guys are taking a situation where you could've improved on tasers using actual feedback from players; like asking what they'd want to see improved with them and then implementing those changes, to one where you want to force your personal ideas until people get tired of saying no.

 

We didn't want instastun tasers, and instead of listening you ignored us, then "reworked" the tasers in ways nobody asked for.

How about actually ASKING what players need/want out of tasers and we can work from there to actually improve them, rather than you forcing your ideas on everyone whether they want it or not?

 

Personally, I think some of the ideas have merit, but I don't like the present implementation and especially the way it's being forced on us. Which is why I'm voting against it. Revert the tasers, start a thread asking for feedback on how to improve them.

 

Maybe we end up with the same thing? Maybe we don't? But at least you aren't acting like condescending assholes to the playerbase that way.

Again, I will not deny that the situation could have been handled better with the initial changes. This point has definitely been discussed quite a bit by the admin and coding teams, as well as with the players. This is something I know that myself and many of the other admins and coders would like to see better-utilized in the future with large scale changes such as the stun rework to avoid such issues, and I have already made a few suggestions on how to better implement and handle feedback.

 

While I dislike the hostility of your response, you do cover some valid points. I wholeheartedly agree that players should present feedback, suggestions, and discuss changes. I also am a huge supporter of this constructive feedback being integrated into future changes, as balance can only be tested so much in private, and sometimes things don't play out as well as we may initially have expected. The risk of this is having to handle shifting opinions in making game-altering changes, such as with this rework.

 

The initial opinion was undeniably negative, but gradually became more positive with additional changes and time for players to learn the strengths and weaknesses. This is why this poll was created: not to insult the players as you claim, but instead to ensure we don't repeat our mistakes by acting on out-dated poll results. I personally will be championing the cause of open communication with the community, so we don't end up with the madness that accompanied the initial change.

 

I would like to thank everyone who has commented on the topic for your time and feedback, as well as those who take the time to cast a vote for their assistance in assessing the current state of the matter. If neither of the options matches your opinion, please post about it and explain your thoughts on the matter.

 

[Not Another Taser Poll!]

 

I'd like to ask that everyone takes a moment to read this entire post before you cast a vote in this poll on public opinion of the taser reworks/changes.

 

I know that this was once a VERY hot-button topic when the changes initially were rolled out. There was not much open discussion with the players leading up to the launch of this, which angered a number of players, and led to a lot of confusion and heated-debate on the subject.

 

Since the initial roll-out of the rework, the system has been subject to some additional tweaks and changes in order to attempt to address player concerns and balance issues. These again were met with mixed reactions, but were again not as well communicated to the community as a whole like they should have been.

 

The past couple weeks, however, have given many of you the chance to see these changes in action against the Holiday Greytide, all manners of nefarious ne'er-do-wells, and the occasional cat beast (4noraisen). The previous polls have unfortunately become a bit unreliable in gauging the public opinion of the system given the changes and experiences we have all had since the initial votes were cast, so it is time to re-assess the situation and determine where the public opinion lies as of now so we can make sure to move forward (or backwards, occasionally sideways) without alienating our players.

 

Now, for those of you who aren't 100% on the details of the most recent changes, I recommend reading over the contents of the following spoiler tag for a summary of the old and new. Those of you who have been (un)fortunate enough to experience the changes first-hand may skip this and cast your vote.

 

 

Before the start of the Taser / Stun rework, tasers fired a projectile that had effectively unlimited range (something absurd like 50 tiles), caused HalLoss damage (pure pain).

 

• Here's a break down of how HalLoss affected you:

• 2 shots to the head, or 3 to any other body part, would knock you UNCONSCIOUS for 10 seconds. You were out cold, unable to really see or hear what was going on around you.

After regaining consciousness, you would get up. For the next 30 seconds, you would feel and move as though you were in a critical state. You weren't physically damaged, but you sure felt like it.

Following this, you spent the next 60 seconds slowly recovering from the pain-crit, but were still just as slow as during the previous 30 seconds. This was usually the time you were being dragged to the brig, and admin-helping that security "harmbatoned" you to near-death.

Finally, you'd begin to recover your move speed, which took roughly 25 seconds to be fully restored. Usually you were being buckled into a chair in security by now, if you were lucky.

In total, this meant 125 seconds (2 minutes 5 seconds) of being stunned and slowed. These numbers of course assume security wasn't applying the baton the whole way back, effectively resetting the timers.

 

These numbers are the baselines, and use of painkillers would lessen the duration (in some cases make you temporarily immune to them with sufficiently high doses), but for the average player, an encounter with security could result in a solid 2 minutes of inhibited ability.

 

The Taser / Stun rework introduced a number of changes, most notably the adjustment from tasers inflicting HalLoss damage to instead causing a guaranteed stun on hit. This stun could not be eliminated or lessened with the use of painkillers like the HalLoss system could, but was limited to only 5 seconds of a stun, after which you fully recovered instantly without any slows.

 

For those who wished to do so, cargo was given a new supply pack to order Disablers, a new weapon that fired beams (lasers) that caused 34 Stamina damage. These beams, like all lasers, are able to pass through windows, while the electrodes from a Taser can not.

 

• Differences between HalLoss and Stamina:

• HalLoss is calculated as part of a mob's total effective health. This means any HalLoss damage triggers a slow just like physical damage would.

HalLoss causes a second slow based purely on the amount of HalLoss damage received.

HalLoss triggers a THIRD slow due to the sensation of pain, resulting in a single hit layering 3 slows on simultaneously.

Upon reaching 100 HalLoss damage, you would be knocked UNCONSCIOUS for 10 seconds in addition to the slows previously applied.

Stamina is not calculated as part of total health, but calculates a slow as if an equal amount of physical damage was taken.

Upon reaching 100 combined physical and stamina damage (0 physical and 100 stamina, or 77 physical and 23 stamina for example), you are stunned for 5 seconds. Upon recovery, you still be slowed for approximately 45 seconds (as opposed to the 85 seconds of HalLoss slow and recovery).

 

 

Most recently the Taser and Disabler were combined to form the Advanced Taser (or Hybrid Taser), a weapon with both an Electrode mode and a Disabler Beam mode. Electrodes were adjusted in this change to now have a max range of 7 tiles, after which they would fizzle out harmlessly. Disabler beams were also given a slight boost in their Stamina damage (34 -> 36). Energy guns were tweaked to use Disabler Beams for their stun mode, while Advanced Energy guns were given Electrodes for theirs.

 

 

Please also take a moment to leave a comment on the system and/or your experiences, but please refrain from arguing and insulting your fellow players' choices or the system as a whole.

As stated earlier, this poll is to help us re-assess the current opinions of the community, and will be used in further discussions regarding the changes. While I can not make any promises about reverts, I can promise that these results will be factored into the decision-making process.

 

On behalf of the admin and coding team, I would like to thank you for taking the time to help us ensure that we have an accurate gauge of public opinion on this topic and your continued support of Paradise Station.

 

[Server lore.]

 

I have voted in favor of Para-Lore, but only because there was not a third option to augment the existing Bay-Lore.

 

Bay has a ton of awesome, well-written lore, and it would be a shame to throw it all away. However, few if any people will disagree that this lore was written for a very different play-style.

 

I think a lot of the background lore is quite impressive and should be kept, while certain areas clearly need more work or changing to better fit our style. While few if any people RP the races according to the wiki, having suggested RP guidelines is still a good idea. It gives players a basis to start with for new characters/races until they have their own to use instead. They are not full-on cookie cutters that should be adhered to without deviation, but rather a generalized view and suggestions. Some areas need more info though, such as IC knowledge regarding antagonists, since this is an area where Bay's lore doesn't match up with ours.

 

Lore is very much like Atmosia: a default set-up is there for the newbies, the veterans make their own versions, and everyone stays in the game as long as there is something there.

 

EDIT: Thanks, re-voted for the new Augment option

 

[Lag Killing Master Controller]

 

Quick point of clarification, this is their Process Scheduler. They say it's supposed to replace master controllers, but it seems to work alongside it code-wise to handle things more efficiently.

 

That aside...

 

I have been working on this for about 2 days now, and am hopefully nearing a point where it seems to be working and at a state where it will be considered safe to post a PR for it. I got into contact briefly with the guy who is managing this release, and they were able to give me a little help getting it integrated. I'm now trying to update it a little since he posted a commit for it after I had already started messing with it.

 

Unrelated but not really: BYOND is such a pain. Updating one file ends up with runtimes from a completely unrelated file. Progress has been slow, but it IS being worked on.

 

[Chest high walls]

 

A fair portion of your cover effects already are in place. If someone is aiming at you and there is a person/mech between the two of you, the middle-man would take the hit when the shot is fired.

 

Walls obviously are walls, so only an XRay shot would pass through to hit you from the other side of the wall.

 

Earth said there is a chance to have a flipped table block the shots, which if the case, could be adjusted to make it more prominent and possibly worth flipping tables in a shootout. I'll have to check the code and do some testing on that to see how it works (if it works).

 

Being able to hide behind a console would be very circumstantial, as most are currently against walls already. Those that could be used in as cover (like in surgery), would need to be damaged by the shots. Maybe instead of giving a chance for the shots to miss, the console instead absorbs a couple hits before the monitor gets blown out and the shots can continue as normal. After the fight, you'd just need to replace the glass in the console to fix it, just like ones damaged from explosions.

 

And don't shields have a chance to block shots already? I know the energy shield does, but I don't know if the riot shield and legionnaire shield have any real protective value. Again, something to check in the code and some testing.

 

As for shielding from explosions, that would probably require a bit of recoding for the way explosions are calculated and handled. I know walls *seem* to decrease the explosion's effect in a given direction, and a table probably wouldn't be strong enough to really withstand the explosion unless it was a weak one to begin with.

 

[Ranged Stun Rework]

 

As was explained on the server in the OOC chat regarding this subject, I would like to clarify a misconception.

 

The electrode still is present, and does NOT pass through windows. It has a limited range, and will fizzle out harmlessly upon reaching it's maximum range. It can also still be dodged, but is an instant stun if it manages to hit you before reaching max distance.

 

The disabler beam is also still present, and does pass through windows like a normal laser. It deals stamina damage (pain), so it requires a couple hits to drop someone, just like the taser BEFORE the instant-stun rework.

 

Tasers have been completely replaced by the new Advanced Taser, which has 2 modes. The first mode fires electrodes like the previous taser. The second mode fires the disabler beams. It can fire twice as many disabler beams as it can fire electrodes for a given charge, and can be toggled just like an energy gun to switch between it's two firing modes. It is still a completely non-lethal, non-harming weapon.

 

The misconception seems to be that the new taser combines the two modes, which it does not. Just like an energy gun has stun and kill settings, the Advanced Taser has electrode and disabler beam settings. Only the electrode mode is an instant stun, and utilizes electrodes as explained above. Only the disabler beam mode can pass through windows, and utilizes the disabler beams as described above.

 

The energy gun had it's stun setting changed to use the disabler beam instead of the electrode as well. Advanced energy guns shoot the electrode. These are still subject to the same abilities and disadvantages as those fired from the Advanced Taser.

 

TL;DR: Electrodes are instant stun, max 7 range before fizzling out harmlessly, and are blocked by windows. Disabler beams are stamina (not insta-stun) based, can pass through windows, and have a longer range. The advanced taser switches between the two, not combines them.

 

[Reagent transfer for cooking]

 

Transferring reagents from plants to prepared food is a cool idea. I remember one round when I ate a meat pie the chef had prepared and began getting the Space Drugs effect because the chef and botanist had used some ambrosia in the dish to give it some healing properties. However, I think this was more along the lines of they ground up the ambrosia and then injected the pie with the reagent mix from the grinder.

 

I'm not sure how difficult the system would be to code in to effectively transfer the reagents over, but would definitely open up some new potential for non-antags and antags alike through planning. It would also be funny to watch the chef get arrested for poisoning people, when the botanist is the true traitor.

 

[Suggestion Box]

 

Buff pest spray to remove 5 units of pests from a tray each.

Now you need to use 3 bottles of the stuff to get rid of the 5 units of pestst that is the pest alert limit.

 

If we increase the potency of pest spray, Diethylamine would need to be increased as well to keep things balanced. Also, toxicity would be upped to offset this increase in power. Pest spray is the cheap and easy method, but far from an ideal remedy.

 

For the record, Pest Spray lowers pest level by 2 per can, while Diethylamine lowers is by 2 per UNIT. Pest spray also increases the toxicity of the tray by 4, while Diethylamine does not add any toxicity.

 

You can get Diethylamine from hacking the Nutri-Vend or by bugging chemistry. Alternatively, you could ask Science ever so nicely to get you the parts to build a fully upgraded portable chem dispenser in hydroponics and have all the Diethylamine, Ammonia, and Unstable Mutagen you could hope for.

 

[Guide to Defilibrators]

 

Having a second doc on hand definitely is a great help for patching them up quickly.

 

Additionally, if you can manage to get your hands on some Hivelord remains, you can instantly bring someone back from the dead and back to full health by cramming the remains down their throat right after you zap them to life.

 

Oh, and more defib units can be made in a prolathe. Contact your local science department for more!

 

[Printing IPC heads and torsos]

 

Could we add to the robotcist machine the ability to print IPC heads and torsos? At least the torsos.

 

The heads could be printable to as to let posibrains that get activated be turned into IPC. In theory I suppose you might be able to put a normal brain in there.

 

The torso though is much needed. Many times when an IPC is killed their head gets lost from their body. I have spent many rounds silently cursing as my head was found, but not my body.

 

If both are added this could allow complete IPC bodies to be created, and stockpiled. It means a quicker way to get an IPC back into a round if the roboticist does their job, or a way for them to make a new player that is not a borg.

 

My main concern with this is the fact that IPCs are a karma-locked race. By allowing people to become them through gameplay like this, I feel that would severely lower the value of having spent the karma for players who already own it.

 

However, to have the capability of repairing an IPC who's been 99% destroyed is something I'd very much support. Printing off new torsos would be great, but I don't see a reason to create new heads, as the only case this could be useful would be when the subject is debrained and the head is forever lost to the mighty singularity.

 

[Xenobiology Produce branch?]

 

1. Why do no admins seem to know or understand anything about this

1a. Why is there no documentation on any other server wiki's and the like? Is this brand new code?

2. What are the gas inputs for? they don't lead anywhere, and xenobiologists have access to zero gas tanks.

2a. Is this why I have like three wrenches in the produce case?

3. What do I do with the gene monitoring computer closer to the slimes? What CAN I do with it?

4. Is there any way to figure out what the genes do before copying them? because it is woefully understocked with those disks, being able to copy maybe one plant's worth of genes

4a. What the hell does gene decay do? besides eventually mandating I throw in a separate seed packet.

5. How is this xenobiology in any way? This looks like regular hydroponics with some more in depth tweaking.

 

 

Ok, gonna break this down in a semi-organized fashion I hope.

 

1 / 1a. It's not a very well documented feature set due to it's complexity and the general lack of awareness that a majority of the players have of it. Most of the admins don't know much if anything about it for pretty much this same reason, and that we rarely get asked about it. I'd like to see some sort of documentation for this, but there is a possibility of some changes to xenoflora in the near-ish future.

 

2 / 2a. There is code (commented out, so inactive) in place for plants to consume and exude gases during their lifecycle, so the connectors are in place to theoretically connect gas canisters to supply to the trays or fill from the trays. The wrenches are their to connect canisters, however this feature is not active so it's rather pointless to include them.

 

3. Not sure which machine you are referring to, the reconstitution machines?

 

4. I'm pretty sure each gene option actually relates to a couple stats, though i'd have to dig through the code and do testing to say for sure. It's the defining part of xenoflora and unfortunately also the least communicated part.

 

4a. Fairly certain the gene decay is like the radiation in the DNA modifiers for genetics, where it's existence is simply to punish spamming the buttons.

 

5. Xenoflora is barely xenobiology in any true sense. It's location off of xenobiology is likely to be changed in favor of making this section more accessible to science as a whole (hopefully increasing awareness as a result) while helping distance it from this mistaken association.

 

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3013 has a lot of the discussion for the moving of this area, some overarching botany stuff that would also benefit/affect xenoflora (xenobotany is also a valid name), etc. Page 2 has some info and possible layouts regarding the move.

 

[Make xenoflora a science subjob, and mutative fertilizer]

 

That's odd. When I tried it, I found I needed 5 units to trigger a mutation, but it'd start requiring 10 (and you had to use 10, if you put 5 in and waited a second and put 5 in again it wouldn't trigger) and it'd just start requiring more to trigger a mutation. I'd have to use a new plant to not end up dumping entire beakers on it.

Maybe I was just high or something.

 

The Tier system that I implemented does use different mutation chances based on the volume of the mutagenic reagent.

 

For unstable mutagen, the lowest chance Tier (Tier 1) is 1-5 units, with 6 units being the start of Tier 2, which would explain why 10 units seemed much more effective than 5 (because it is). When you dropped back to 5 again and tried twice, you were using the lower Tier's chances again, which would explain the apparent lack of any effect. Radium has larger ranges for the Tiers, so you'll need more of it to trigger higher tiers than you would if you were using unstable mutagen.

 

It wasn't a case of diminishing returns, it was simply a game of chance that felt like diminishing returns due to the significant differences between Tier 1 and 2 mutation chances.

 

For the record: There are 4 Tiers for mutagenic reagents. Tier 3 is the lowest one that can result in a species shift. All chances are increased by the mutation modifier stat given by Left 4 Zed. It is possible to reach 100% chance on Tier 1, though this requires gallons of Left 4 Zed.

 

I've been avoiding openly posting the exact specs of the system, but you can either PM me for them or decipher the code for them if you wish.

 

[Make xenoflora a science subjob, and mutative fertilizer]

 

An alternative may be to move it all the over to where RnD used to be while the break room existed. I will have to have another look at that area though.

 

I think this would be a great idea, especially if we make xenoflora a more general science job and not simply a subsection of xenobiology. It will place them closer to the research area where they would be able to obtain their Floral Somatorays (and the Advanced version when I finish making it), while also making it more visible to the scientists (which would hopefully lead to it being more used).

 

and hoping some of it sticks in the .1 miliseconds it has to take effect before vanishing into the ether, whereas bay trays have a reagent resivour and trickles it down into the tray.

 

When I reworked our botany, I looked at Bay's current version of botany. I tested out their version which, as you explained, holds the reagents longer and spreads the effect out over time. However, one thing I disliked about their system using this was the lack of apparent control and the extreme randomness it caused. While I acknowledge that the mutation system should feel uncontrollable to a degree (you literally are dumping a radioactive goop in and seeing if it changes), I felt their system wouldn't be a solid fit for our style of play.

 

True, obtaining specific conditions such as bio-luminescence is difficult, but I hesitate to say it is any more difficult here to obtain them than it is on Bay. While our system will only produce 1 mutation with 5 units and theirs may produce up to 3, the chances of said mutations occurring is quite different.

 

One thing that confuses me is your assertion of there being some sort of diminishing returns? Apologies if I misunderstood your meaning, but the system does not have diminishing returns on the mutations. The chances will not change based on the number of previous mutations (or attempts), and increasing the dosage actually increases the chances due to the tier system that was created for the rework. The only times that the chances (for a given amount of mutagen) are lowered is if the mutation modifier (increased with Left 4 Zed) is lowered.

 

However, I do like your idea of a fertilizer mutagen, and I am quite tempted to experiment with implementing such an addition. This would definitely use a system more akin to Bay's current version, prompting multiple mutations over time instead of the more instant effect that our system uses. It would likely be a sort of dual-function reagent that replenishes nutrients while sparking mutations, and making it available in the biogenerator wouldn't be too outlandish in my mind.

 

If you would like, I'd be more than happy to discuss this topic with you further, as well as work with you to develop botany / xeno-botany further. Adding new plants and mutants is also something I would like to look into, and would I feel collaboration on such would be a great idea.

 

[silly experimental idea: More Cryo?]

 

...

Second part is to make the cryo room a lot more roomier and neat and have spare changes of clothes and stuff. Maybe attach a whole cryopod-carrying bluespace cargotrain in the background for effect.

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Latejoiners would also appear there. Everyone coming out of their bluespace cargo train sleep and getting to the station for a work day.

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You could even animate the train and have it visit and leave occasionally, with a loading dock for storage.

 

First, I know that with Baystation, you are able to set (in the character setup menu) a preferred latejoin spawn point, with options being the arrival shuttle, gateway, and cryodorms. Allowing people to join at cryodorms would be plausible with some porting of their code, though all this really does is help avoid new people spawning on a shuttle that got blasted by a meteor or other disaster, as well as bypass the customs.

 

Second, I like the idea of sprucing up cryodorms, even if it IS really meant for people leaving the game. As it stands, you dump a person into cryo, then wait for the message saying they entered long term storage (i think about 5-10 minutes), with no real in-game idea of when they are to be removed. For a traitor with an SSD target, this can be rather frustrating, since you don't get your objectives updated automatically until the person enters long-term storage, and you don't get any real indication of how long that will be. Perhaps some sort of timer display would be useful, so you can check to see how long it is until the pod gets cleared.

 

Alternatively, taking your idea of the cryotrain: If the system were to be set to clear all occupants on a single, set interval, you'd be able to have a better idea of when the pods are to be cleared. You could time this to have your job slot freed almost as soon as you need to leave, and allow traitors a better understanding of when their objective is to be updated. You can toss in some sort of little effect/animation to make it look like the pods teleported away their occupant to Sleep Station 13 for the benefit of anyone watching.

 

Just rambling a few ideas on the subject, but I do agree the cryodorms area is rather poorly communicated in it's purpose to a new player. Most people see a room with a row of green machines and have no clue what it's for without asking, as it doesn't effectively convey that the pods remove the player's character from the game and reopen the job slot.

 

[Space Pods]

 

I believe the main issue is that our space pod code is incomplete either due to when we merged it being before the author finished, or by admin decision to comment out / remove code.

 

While I would love to see the space pods expanded upon, they currently aren't a high priority subject when it comes to fixes and development. That said, once I get a chance, I will gladly look into working on them. The mechanic rarely has a reason to build additional pods or ever tinker with them, largely due to the lack of upgrades. As a result, the sec pod pilot is somewhat under-utilized as few people venture into space to escape the law / commit crimes.

 

I'm sure this will require extensive discussion, testing, and tweaking, so please continue to offer up suggestions on the topic of Space Pods.

 

(Giant mechs in space probably won't happen, but the idea is cool.)