Departments that are too cramped

Departments that are too cramped - Printable Version

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Departments that are too cramped - Lord_earthfire - 10-12-2025

Many jobs require a load of items and require them to be layed out to be organized. The problem is they very often simply lack the physical space to place a few tables or to accomodate a clean workplace.

Examples include the bar (bottles), kitchens (produce) and chemistry (beakers & other glassware)

Beyond that, many departments can need expansion in room items, but don't have the space to fit them. Examples are medbay (cloning racks and additional pods), engineering (affects mostly some TEG- layouts) and botany/ranching.

To top it all off, most expansion of the departments could go into maintenance, but you have fucking R-walls making that impossible in a timely maner.

This means for specific things, expansion would require building new rooms into space, which noone does because it takes far too long.

So, i would say we need more room on station. Maybe use thus thread as a discussion about specific exampkes of rooms that just need to be bigger.

RE: Departments that are too cramped - GARGATHUGANOKSREVENG - 10-12-2025

I think departments in maps should always be designed by someone with experience in them so we don't get hellish abomination toxins layouts that self destruct when you try to purge hot gases like in clarion.

I think most departments can be organized in compact, small spaces but my guess is map makers are more focused on making something that looks good, rather than something that feels good to play.

I could go on about my opinions on poorly organized department rooms in specific maps but I don't think it's on-topic enough, but your discussion topic sounds interesting so what specific examples of cramped department rooms can you bring up? I can't think of any off the top of my head that are too small, just ones that are poorly put together

RE: Departments that are too cramped - Lord_earthfire - 10-12-2025

Kondaru chemistry is one that comes to mind:

[Image: JqobUDo.png]

It kinda has the problem that, if one or more coworker is there, you are bound to shove someone away or run against a barrel. If someone builds a single table, you can't move properly at all.

the 2-tile room in the middle should seriously be considered to be a 3-tile wide floor.

On the other hand we have donut 2 hydroponics:

[Image: oLIYzD7.png]

I marked the 5x6 area that is most used for plants. Now the problem: Most hydroponic setups, if you move the trays, take up an area of roughly 5x5. This means, with walkways around that, you need a 7x7 area there. And even smaller setups have a hard time due to the indestructable speaker hidden right in the bush. Nadir hydroponics for some reason has even bigger space.

Speaking of nadir:

[Image: 56LbHzH.png]

The chemistry department has the same problem as Kondaru. Still, it's likely an issue of the chemistry rework requiring more space overall, but it gets annoying.

The bar has only space for two dense objects (outlined in green lines) until something can't be reached anymore.

RE: Departments that are too cramped - Skotcher - 10-13-2025

For some of these mapping complaints, it's good to remember that efficiency isn't always the goal. A non-ideal layout can be used to encourage or discourage certain behaviours/styles of play. Personally, I prefer keeping setups that make expanding into maintenance a bit of a hassle. Maintenance ought to be a bit of a safe haven for criminals and crew acting with light dubious intent. Making it easy/expected to expand into maintenance should be actively discouraged, imo.

That said, I do agree that certain rooms could probably do with some updating - Kondaru chemistry is a good example. The most annoying thing is being pushed around when trying to use certain equipment because there just isn't enough space. It's not fun or advantageous for anyone to just be pushed around while in the department. I'll take a look at updating some of these rooms when I've got some free time.

That said, I am always looking for some rooms people feel unhappy with to see if they could use mapping changes.

RE: Departments that are too cramped - GARGATHUGANOKSREVENG - 10-15-2025

(10-13-2025, 09:51 AM)Skotcher Wrote: For some of these mapping complaints, it's good to remember that efficiency isn't always the goal.

I don't think it's too troublesome to ask for game design that doesn't force you to grind your wrist bones to dust repeating the same monotonous actions for 30 minutes. Walking back and forth between the machines in chemistry in badly designed maps is one case where that does become a problem.

Games should be fun to play, they shouldn't be chores. I don't see what could possibly go wrong if you design maps to be efficient. There's already some maps with efficient, well designed department rooms in them. The world didn't end because of that.

RE: Departments that are too cramped - Lord_earthfire - 10-15-2025

(10-13-2025, 09:51 AM)Skotcher Wrote: For some of these mapping complaints, it's good to remember that efficiency isn't always the goal.

While i agree, i mostly want space to customize the department i play in. I could do with much less supplies or machines, for as long as i got the space to get what i need for a certain gimmick or playstyle.

RE: Departments that are too cramped - Kotlol - 10-16-2025

This might be hard but... I know a lot of departments that are cramped.. but the inverse is also true.
Sometimes the chapel is too big.. Donut 2's chapel comes to mind. WAAAY TOO BIG! Hasn an unnessarcy extra space that divides the booth and office, but then the ejector chamber is surprisingly cramped.

In my opinion, each department would be good with an extra room that is ment to be customized to fit needs.
Science especially will benefit from this as Chemist and Artifact researchers are always bumping into eachother.

I also think some stations might want to change how big certain areas are and how much people man these.
I know plenty of ranchers and chaplains who have way too much space.

RE: Departments that are too cramped - GARGATHUGANOKSREVENG - 10-16-2025

(10-16-2025, 04:04 AM)Kotlol Wrote: In my opinion, each department would be good with an extra room that is ment to be customized to fit needs.
Science especially will benefit from this as Chemist and Artifact researchers are always bumping into eachother.

As in, an extra empty room, like those under-construction ones? Or when you say "meant to be customized to fit needs" are you asking for an extra room for either chemistry or artlab, randomized each round, or just some general storage room that contains bits from each sector of a department? I don't understand what you're saying you want them to implement