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+--- Thread: [MERGED PR] Cloning rack (/showthread.php?tid=24410)
[MERGED PR] Cloning rack - github_bot - 07-25-2025
PULL REQUEST DETAILS
About the PR
Removes pre-scan storage from the cloning console, all clone scans are now stored on physical floppy disks.
The cloner can now only make a scan onto a disk or clone someone from an inserted disk. Scanning onto a disk automatically labels the disk with the person's name, this name can be changed with a labeler.
To manage the disks, there is now a disk rack in every clone bay. Disk racks will only display the name the disk is currently labelled with, which can be changed with a hand labeller.
Cloner implants now send constant "heartbeat" packets while they're implanted in a living person. Those packets are then picked up by listening cloning racks, and if a cloning rack hasn't received a heartbeat signal in the last 10 seconds it will begin flashing a warning light next to the corresponding disk.
TL;DR: red means dead!
TODO:
- [x] Mapping changes (include disk box and labeler)
- [x] Display when disk already has a clone record on the console
- [x] Mechscanning of disk racks
- [x] Disk fabrication (apparently medical already do this)
- [x] Disk wiping (apparently you can already do this on terminals, maaaybe best to have an easier way but shrug)
- [x] Make warning lights depend on cloning implants
- [x] Deluxe cloning kit
- [x] Handle rack being out of power
- [x] Pen labelling for disks?
- [ ] Old school floppy drive seeking sounds?
- [x] Emag effect for rack?
- [ ] Let genetics mess with clone records? Activate genes, change appearance etc? Maybe future PR.
- [x] The manual, how did I forgor this
Sound effect taken from https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/c64-remove-and-insert-floppy-disk-2-takes-each-234602/ under the standard pixabay license (compatible)
Why's this needed?
- Limits pre-scans to 8 slots that can be actively monitored by default (more if engineering build you additional racks)
- Makes cloning a little more involved of a process, actually having to manage and keep track of physical items
- CRIME - disks can be stolen, lost, or re-labelled
Testing
Modified Atlas cloning layout:
<img width="538" height="494" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/192615e4-37c7-457f-b4fc-32a1189413a5" />
<img width="942" height="681" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/d9f14336-412e-493d-9a95-a7f7a99b304a" />
Cloning rack with disks in and little flashing light:
<img width="84" height="96" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/fbc03554-ba44-46d1-a12f-e23c8f769bfa" />
Changelog
Code:
changelog
(u)LeahTheTech + Glowbold
(*)The cloning console now stores all its records on floppy disks, two racks of which can be found in cloning.
(+)Disk racks can be placed side-by-side by clicking on them with a frame.
(+)Cloner implants send a heartbeat signal back to the cloning rack, if the implant is removed or the person dies the rack will display a flashing red light next to their disk.
(+)Floppy disks can be labelled with a pen as well as hand labellers.PULL REQUEST DETAILS
RE: [PR] Cloning rack - Vulwin_Gilran - 07-25-2025
I like it, means more thought needs to be put into scanning people as you can't (atleast without a really high investment of time and mats) get a scan ready for every single person on station. I also really like the "heartbeat" signals thing, as hopefully that means you could even do something devious like replicating one, and setting some stuff up to automate it meaning the machine doesnt recognize someone is dead.
Overall I think its a good change.
RE: [PR] Cloning rack - Lord_earthfire - 07-25-2025
Thats really nice. Some additional work around cloning is nice and i always enjoyed making cloning record discs.
RE: [PR] Cloning rack - Torchwick - 07-26-2025
Excited for this one! Voiced my support and future suggestion in discord as well. If this goes well I would love to see a robotics equivalent, like I said before. Being able to scan disks onto SICC cores would add just a little bit more for robotics (and open the way for crime). But as far as this PR itself goes, I’m excited to see how it does.
RE: [PR] Cloning rack - freedo5 - 07-26-2025
Interesting, seems like a nice change. This means that if you steal someone's identity you will have to think about the implant too if they got clone scanned
RE: [PR] Cloning rack - FRAN_DAMNED - 07-26-2025
medmain here. while i like the new interactivity and new range of shenanigans you can have with this. i feel like this will roadblock gameplay for folks. the limited amount of discs you start with at round start is a issue. before people come in to get a scan then leave me to do doctoring.i dont want to be tied down to a cloner juggling limited discs and turning away folks who want them and will then later die, understand they wont respawn and leave the game. having folks respawn easy peasy is a lil op but it maintains the servers pop and doesnt make me want to pull my hair out when a mass mortality even occurs and i gotta shamble around for more discs, whoses discs in a already overwhelmed state.
RE: [PR] Cloning rack - Lord_earthfire - 07-26-2025
(07-26-2025, 10:53 AM)FRAN_DAMNED Wrote: .i dont want to be tied down to a cloner juggling limited discs and turning away folks who want them and will then later die, understand they wont respawn and leave the game.
Well, you may not want that to happen. But people dying should reduce the amount of players on the game. And there is always the possibility of shoving them to robotics to turn them into borgs.
RE: [PR] Cloning rack - Mikeistaken - 07-26-2025
(07-26-2025, 10:53 AM)FRAN_DAMNED Wrote: medmain here. while i like the new interactivity and new range of shenanigans you can have with this. i feel like this will roadblock gameplay for folks. the limited amount of discs you start with at round start is a issue. before people come in to get a scan then leave me to do doctoring.i dont want to be tied down to a cloner juggling limited discs and turning away folks who want them and will then later die, understand they wont respawn and leave the game. having folks respawn easy peasy is a lil op but it maintains the servers pop and doesnt make me want to pull my hair out when a mass mortality even occurs and i gotta shamble around for more discs, whoses discs in a already overwhelmed state.
the disks arnt limited though. as long as mining is doing their job you can get near infinate amount from the med printer
RE: [PR] Cloning rack - FRAN_DAMNED - 07-26-2025
(07-26-2025, 11:45 AM)Lord_earthfire Wrote:(07-26-2025, 10:53 AM)FRAN_DAMNED Wrote: .i dont want to be tied down to a cloner juggling limited discs and turning away folks who want them and will then later die, understand they wont respawn and leave the game.
Well, you may not want that to happen. But people dying should reduce the amount of players on the game. And there is always the possibility of shoving them to robotics to turn them into borgs.
mmo's you usually want to retain your players online or they just sorta bleed off to do other things. youd be surprised at how many people rot, just forget to get a scan completely or book it after hopping out of the cloner or immediately kill themselves after getting borged, so after a mega killadeath event will always reduce players even with best efforts. id rather not have to put a new thing juggle in the mix of this. i want to move around and leave the medbay hole and see the sunlight every once awhile in a shift. going thru all the discs is gonna weld my fat butt to the cloner screen more with more angrier ghosts frothing themselves into a rage when im potentially fumbling something. its just my two cents stops me from doing doctor stuff and med rp and pulls me into thilling world of Menus & Inventory Management except theres other players on the line. would rather see more quality of life tweaks imo. the recent one involving middle mouse ontop of locker piles is a godsend.
RE: [PR] Cloning rack - freedo5 - 07-26-2025
personally i would make the disk rack larger, since they occupy one tile building one means that you run into space issues
another thing i like is that disk are actually worth a bunch to salvagers so cloning actually becomes a valuable target
RE: [PR] Cloning rack - Vandry - 07-26-2025
Figured as someone that spends way too much time playing medical I'd chime in with my thoughts after some rounds of playing with the new changes!
To start with I do love the whole idea of the system. It opens up a lot of fun, silly and even evil things to do with cloning and the disks. The feel and sounds of it are also extremely satisfying to use and once it's all set up it works mostly fine! Below though are a few issues/concerns I have and some suggestions that hopefully can ease some of the friction these changes have caused.
First issue.. the setup! This is my biggest gripe with the new system. If a large influx of people come for their morning scans, which happens fairly often on medium to high pop, it can be a bit painful of an experience. With only the initial provided disks it can quickly become a back and forth game of printing disks and scavenging materials for more. Considering a lot of doctors print out a thing or two from the fabricator at the start of shifts, it's going to end up out of materials all the faster. Some quality of life adjustments could definitely help with this.
Second issue.. the racks! They're definitely restrictive in number of disks per space (I assume by design) and because they take up a full tile the cloning area becomes even more crowded with additional racks. This is even more annoying on stations where the cloning room is already small (almost all of them) and as someone who's aesthetically oriented it just gives off a really cluttered feeling. The blinking red light when actually opening the racks to check a disk is also a bit faint, but that's a very minor complaint for my poor eyes.
I'm also unsure if crew with 'no minds' having their disk flashing while in the rack is intended, but this layers on another bit of management that doesn't feel needed if it is.
I definitely think some changes to things would ease a lot of these issues without dulling the intent of the new system! Some potential suggestions below.
- Allowing you to print out an entire box of disks from the fabricator, for ease of carrying and not having to print them one at a time.
- Possibly a source of disks that's nearby the cloner other than the starting box. Something like the HoP's ID wall dispenser?
- Making the racks double wide or being able to stack two on the same tile for space saving.
- Being able to swap out the disk in the computer by clicking another disk onto the computer, like with chem dispensers and beakers.
About all I can think of right now, but will post again if anything else pops into my head!
RE: [PR] Cloning rack - Nerkson - 07-26-2025
I'm not a huge fan of this. I am finding it difficult to put into words what I'm feeling about this but I'll try.
It's clear to me at the minimum that medical is seen as a problematic department. In the three years I've been playing on Goon, I believe Medical is the department I've seen nerfed, changed, tweaked, and modified the most. Strange Reagent being made less effective, the nerfing of puritan cloning to make it extremely difficult, cloning defects being added to punish repeated cloning, surgery changes, healing chemicals being made more specific and less overall effective, discussions about nerfing or removing menders, etc. There are a lot more changes I could mention here that I haven't for the sake of brevity. Medical is a pivotal department in how a game round flows and they clearly hold a lot of power in that regard. I'm frankly surprised someone actually passed the dialysis machine because it makes medical kind of easier.
I do not understand how cloning has survived as long as it has then. It's clear to me that whatever vision is had for medical, being able to revive the dead is not liked or wanted at all, but there isn't a desire to just rip off that bandaid and cut the entire concept out. Hell RP even has 10 minute respawns because they want people to die and -stay dead-.
So now we have another medical system that is very well put together but ultimately another medical change without actually adding depth or complexity. It's juggling disks, you can very easily just steal all the disks and destroy them or eat them. You'll have to health monitor implant everyone to ensure that you know when they die and pray to god you see the message in chat when it does happen.
Despite my above grumbling, I'm not opposed to this PR existing - by all accounts it is a well put together system and works with only minor bugs that I expect from any new idea. I just want to know what the future is for medical because clearly the past ten changes to cloning alone weren't enough - though I wouldn't mind removing some of the cloning nerfs from the past if it becomes harder to do.
RE: [PR] Cloning rack - Vulwin_Gilran - 07-26-2025
I think Nerkson does raise a good point. As I've said before I do like the change but I have heard a lot of thoughts from others and it makes me wonder if this will actually solve anything. As if you have the materials which is very easy assuming cargo has done some reqs so you can buy steel and wires, you can just have a box of disks which effectively still lets you prescan tons of people but just makes it more tedious.
Some other unrelated points would be to make the rack bigger, I think eight slots is a bit too few to start off with especially considering highpop. I feel like doubling the number would be good.
but regardless thats why its being testmerged too i guess, to see if it actually cultivates the experience thats intended.
RE: [PR] Cloning rack - Snoid - 07-26-2025
i like this change, i love being able to actually grab disks and run, but holy fuck actually managing the disks is a pain. can we just put empty disks in the rack and whenever someone gets scanned it just auto writes to one of them? or for there to actually be some kind of system that prevents us from just printing a fuckton of disks and scanning everyone and leaving all the disks on the floor just in case we recieve news they die. love the cloning nerfs (even if it isnt much), but its a tad too tedious for my preferences as is
also in some positions, lights can block the bottom disks in a rack. probably some other stuff too.
![[Image: xKKv5nj.png]](https://i.imgur.com/xKKv5nj.png)
theres a disk in this rack. cant see it. (donut 2)
RE: [PR] Cloning rack - Lord_earthfire - 07-26-2025
(07-26-2025, 06:20 PM)Nerkson Wrote: It's juggling disks, you can very easily just steal all the disks and destroy them or eat them. You'll have to health monitor implant everyone to ensure that you know when they die and pray to god you see the message in chat when it does happen.
A misconception: the cloner implants someone on clone dcan, you don't have to implant them yourself.
Besides, cloning discs add a lot of possibilities. People just haven't used them until now (they can be duplicated/handled via ThinkDos/dwaine). And more options to sabotage medbay are always appreciated.