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+--- Thread: get rid of monkey crates (/showthread.php?tid=16442)
get rid of monkey crates - coolvape - 05-18-2021
monkey crates are entirely pointless in their current state.
they're locked to research and medical, but: medical and research already have valuchimps in any area that would need monkeys(test chamber and genetics) and vendor restocks can be bought from qm and are significantly more cost effective (3000 for multiple vending machine restocks, including valuchimps(14 monkeys at 214 per monkey!)! vs 2500 for... 4 monkeys at 625 per monkey and some translators) - this was even true before monkey crates were made their current price
there's essentially no scenario where it "makes sense" to buy monkey crates over the restock crate, and they come with loads of other issues - being alive, monkeys can die in the crates, spreading miasma, they're expensive so if someone spammed monkey crates... sure they're not gonna get as many monkeys as they used to but it'll kill the qm budget, and the only part they have that can't be easily obtained elsewhere is vocal translators, which could be turned into a separate crate or put into some accessible on station vending machines(or added to valuchimps, it would make sense)
monkey crates going away would cause issues for engineers, the "Feed massive amts of monkeys to the singularity" strat would be gone(unless this PR https://github.com/goonstation/goonstation/pull/4231 goes through... *fingers crossed* it would be great to be able to construct a valuchimp in engineering and keep it stocked up), but that was already nerfed by the cost increase to monkey crates - with current PTL rates vs how much power the singularity generates, dumping monkeys in the singularity is more for the fun of "number go up" than any real benefit to the station.
nobody else has any real use for monkey crates or ever orders them. it's just not really worth it for any reason other than "i want to unleash monkeys on the station", which is not a great reason to keep the crate around(and now it's not particularly cost effective, making it pointless to try unless qm is rollling in money already)
i don't think they should be removed if it's not possible to create valuchimps for engineering, as it would make higher level singularity power generation more difficult to obtain, but that could be resolved by installing a valuchimp in engineering on every map that has a singularity. kind of macabre, sure, but it would work.
RE: get rid of monkey crates - GORE - 05-19-2021
QM's harvesting monkeys to sell organs is ignored here.
RE: get rid of monkey crates - Mr. Green - 05-19-2021
Monkey crates are currently also the only renewable way to get a vocal translator.
I also think they have more uses in general. I always order one when making a genetics setup for example.
You also mentioned that "monkeys can die in the crates". This is actually helpful in some scenarios, including organ harvesting which was already mentioned.
Monkey crates are also the only way to still get monkeys even if the valuechimps get destroyed or stolen, unlike the restocks.
RE: get rid of monkey crates - coolvape - 05-19-2021
I did not realize that about QM organ harvesting.
I still think in the future they should be replaced with constructable valuchimps, and the vocal translators should just be sold in valuchimps - but until then if there's no stopgap it would hurt more than it would help. Thanks for the input!
RE: get rid of monkey crates - Mr. Green - 05-19-2021
Update: There might be another renewable way to get vocal translators soon, if this PR goes through:
https://github.com/goonstation/goonstation/pull/4796
RE: get rid of monkey crates - coolvape - 05-19-2021
I saw that right after I put in a PR to add vocal translators to valuchimps - hopefully one/both of those goes through so vocal translators become more renewable.