things in mechcomp

[RelentlessGarbage]

With auto harvesting it's probably easier to crash the server than abuse it.

True. BYOND is brought to its knees very easily as is, hardly like we need to automate the process. (Although, have you seen how many seeds Botanists leave on the ground in an average round? I'm surprised that botany doesn't cause more problems with lag as they are now.)

[Zamujasa]

crashing the server is abuse, my friend

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the seeds thing is another thing i'd like to do something about, but i'm not sure what. there are way too many and compost isn't useful at all, plus you can overfill the compost tank easily.

[RelentlessGarbage]

the seeds thing is another thing i'd like to do something about, but i'm not sure what. there are way too many and compost isn't useful at all, plus you can overfill the compost tank easily.

At this juncture, Compost acts like a free - albeit extremely weak - health boosting agent. For a while, I thought it dried out the hydroponic tray faster when it was present, but that doesn't seem to be the case based on the code I've read. It doesn't hurt to add it, but it is very easily outclassed by certain tray nutrient combinations. It doesn't get used often, either because people can't be bothered to add it or because they don't know about tray nutrient effects besides mutagen. If there were more benefits to having plants be at extremely high health, or some compost-specific perks, then people might consider using it more.


The only other use for compost in bulk is the production of Saltpetre with the Potash + Nitrogen + Compost route, but the bottleneck associated with Potash really prevents saltpetre from being made quickly, hence making it rare that you actually see it get produced this way. In general, compost just isn't used enough to prevent the compost bins from filling completely when there are enough botanists around. This isn't helped by people often stashing valuable seeds on the ground, in case a splice goes wrong or a plant gets a mutation you don't want, so you occasionally have moments where someone mulches a seed to reduce clutter and another botanist goes "what the hell, I needed that," leading to many seeds staying unmulched.


Anyways, complaining about botany aside, any developments on MechComp conveyor belts so far?

[Zamujasa]

Mechcomp conveyors belts aren't a planned thing for me.

Specifically:

- We have ordinary conveyor belts that have a lot of code around them and I do not want to duplicate it.
- Constructible conveyors are something I would like to see added, but are a bit beyond my time and ability at the moment. (Most of the mechcomp things I've been doing are relatively minor.)
- There are some unused things like the "conveyor diverter" that could be mechcomp-enabled, similarly to how mechcomp can (?) currently toggle belt switches.
- Graviton accelerators and teleporters currently fulfill the "mechcomp moves stuff" niche, even if not really in the ideal way.



I noticed compost being mostly useless a few weeks ago when was looking at botany/plant stats. High health already does boost plant harvests, but it would be nice for it to have some alternate effect, because right now it's largely useless.

[glowbold]

i like that the new components change sprites to the on-ground wrenched version when inside the component cabinet. It makes it clearer to me to see what's set up and what isn't. Any chance those could be changed for the existing components to match?

[Zamujasa]

that might actually be a bug on my part, oops. the beahvior largely mirrors other components

there are some that do not have "wrenched to floor" sprites at all, like the sound synth, etc. that maybe could use them? hmm.

[TDHooligan]

if not the ones i posted in page 1, i wouldnt mind even some cut-down chemistry related mechcomp. or even just a mechanical hand that can hit an object with an item remotely. you could make goofy stuff like an automated surgery desk.

[Lord_earthfire]

if not the ones i posted in page 1, i wouldnt mind even some cut-down chemistry related mechcomp. or even just a mechanical hand that can hit an object with an item remotely. you could make goofy stuff like an automated surgery desk.

I think making chem dispenser give out a signal with them chems ID when used (with a cooldown, of course) would be something. Everytime you use the chem dispenser you activate the tesla coil behind it, nerd.

Or turn the chem dispenser into a piano. That sounds fun.

[glowbold]

Could the TEG's raw power output ( and presumably the nuclear engine) be consistent in format - either always scientific notation, or just numbers?