The Roboticist's Dilemma

[KikiMofo]

My problem is always people thinking they have a choice in what happens to them after death. Once you die that's the end of your game. If someone clones you or borgs you or hell just straight up eats you is not something you get a say in the matter because you had your chance already. Next round try not to die. If you get borged you should be happy someone bothered to bring you back into the round you got removed from. /rant

[Cherman0]

The way I see it, theres basically two ways to make more roboticist content that dont boil down to "create more inconveniences for other players for roboticists to acknowledge":

1: Increase the mechanical depth of cyborgs. Give cyborgs a reason to come back to robotics throughout the round beyond "thats where the charger is". Maybe robotics can create progressively more useful tools for them to install as time goes on (gated by materials like mining or a tech tree like genetics, for example). While i feel that this would be healthy for roboticists and silicons overall, i dont feel like it would be that effective in giving robotics a defined role as a station crew member, since they would still be only really interacting with cyborgs and would only have brief periods of having something to do. For as long as robotics' only role is tending to cyborgs they will always have not much to do, since cyborg players reasonably do not want to sit around being tended to all shift. Which leads into the other option:

2: Design a novel system for robotics to be tasked with managing that can provide tangible benefits to to other crew members. This is what people are getting at when they refer to TG mechsuits and whatnot. While i dont think mechsuits would be a good fit for goon (people driving subs around indoors is annoying enough as-is), I do feel like there is room for novel robotics-related mechanics. I touched on my idea for solving this earlier, but I feel it would be a good fit for robotics to be able to create more useful machines and equipment as time goes on throughout the shift. Things that dont exist on the station and provide useful functionality to others to encourage interactions with roboticists. Ideas that immediately come to mind include:

* A centrifuge that can non-destructively separate chemicals over time
* Specialized gas filters that can extract certain gasses and not others
* Botanical misters / grow lamps with extra range
* Some novel cooking machine, like an air fryer

The specifics of what these machines are doesnt matter, as long as they are either entirely novel or an improved version of an existing machine. Aside from giving robotics a way to improve the lives of their fellow crew members, this would also serve as another way to add items to be accessible to the crew, which is currently mostly accomplished by either adding them to a cargo crate or fabricator crafting recipes. If the machines required some amount of tech tree research or advanced material costs this mechanic could also be used to limit the availability of more powerful items while still making them available to the crew.

The most effective way to implement this would be to combine both options: Through the system of unlocking novel or improved machines, roboticists can unlock both useful cyborg equipment (or other items that would be directly useful to robotics, such as unique gaurdbuddy modules if those were moved to robotics) which would be directly useful in their own job and useful station equipment which may be useful in their own job or in that of their fellow crew members. Robotics could be a department that crew members go out of their way to talk to in order to get their hands on something useful, like how people sometimes request that engineers mechscan and build a specific thing for them.

[Dhaidburt]

I feel like we're getting a little off topic here, lets keep things focused on what roboticists can do without needing someone to die

2: Design a novel system for robotics to be tasked with managing that can provide tangible benefits to to other crew members... I touched on my idea for solving this earlier, but I feel it would be a good fit for robotics to be able to create more useful machines and equipment as time goes on throughout the shift. Things that dont exist on the station and provide useful functionality to others to encourage interactions with roboticists. Ideas that immediately come to mind include:

* A centrifuge that can non-destructively separate chemicals over time
* Specialized gas filters that can extract certain gasses and not others
* Botanical misters / grow lamps with extra range
* Some novel cooking machine, like an air fryer

If the machines required some amount of tech tree research or advanced material costs this mechanic could also be used to limit the availability of more powerful items while still making them available to the crew.

I feel like this is a pretty good way to take things, take a page out of genetics but keep the research costs or research times high enough so that you have time to tinker or modify any cyborgs or handle patients. Something to plan out during the boring times, and something to have in the background during hectic times. 

And to tie things into robotics always being in medbay, i feel like some of the earliest unlocks should assist them first and foremost. Stuff like floor health scanner upgrades, maybe a unique medibot that just defibs, maybe reduced time on addiction removal in the sleepers or a device that damages someone with an addiction but does remove it (obvs has a charge up bar like force feeding)

[Frank_Stein]

Simple fix: make it so organ damage cannot be repaired, or the max HP gets lowered the more it's damaged.

You WILL need a new one eventually

Maybe extend this to limbs as well. Have them spoil if left unattached for too long

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Frankly I think we should move guardbuddy stuff under robotics. Then we could work on some way for silicons to better interface with buddies (giving them commands etc.) and expand on how modular buddies can be?

Yee. Mechanics has a good deal of contraptions they can build with components that can provide aid to the station or specific jobs.

Robotics being able to do something similar with purpose built buddies or bots would be a good direction.

Give a buddie a tray and now it's a waiter for the bar. Give them an ore scoop and they can collect and transport stuff for mining and engineers, etc

[Glamurio]

Cherman makes a very good point, I think it is vital to understand that we won't be "fixing" roboticists by taking agency and freedom away from cyborgs. In my mind, roboticists should be the equivalent of a Medical Doctor but to a cyborg, namely that if a cyborg is damaged or in need of something, they come to a Roboticist to get assistance. Roboticists should not be "cyborg babysitters", in my mind it's already bad enough that the module process isn't doable by cyborgs and needs a human component. I find that once a roboticist has created a cyborg, that cyborg should have full autonomy over what and how they choose to play.

That being out of the way, that does not mean that there shouldn't be a reason for cyborgs to want to return and get assistance from roboticists. I think that damage should continue to be fixable in docking stations, but perhaps that process should be slowed down significantly, but a roboticist can do it faster by comparison. Additionally, allowing roboticists to start working on cooler tools for cyborgs as the round progresses could also be a way to give them something to do, but this shouldn't be relied on.

I think that Roboticists should be tinkerers. They should sit in their lab, working on machines and creating cybernetic enhancements for people to use throughout the shift. Much like scientists work on chemicals, roboticists should work on machinery. That means new tools and gadgets, stuff that makes the round more convenient. A lot of cool suggestions have already been made, but I'll gladly add more to the list:

• A mechanical backpack that gives you two extra arms (I'm already working on this)
  
• Headgear or glasses that allow you to remotely interface with devices akin to cyborgs
  
• Omnitools could be a constructable device by roboticists
  
• Magnetic gloves that allow you to pick up or interact with physical objects from greater range (maybe 1 extra tile)
  
• Camera glasses that allow you to view security cams, or track people akin to the AI
  
• Backpacks or belts with increased storage capabilities
  
• Cybernetic chips that enhance your abilities, but limit them to, say, 3 per person.
  • Oxygen generator chip, basically getting rid of oxygen tanks.
    
  • Resistance chips, granting you increased resistance, but only for one attribute (heat, cold, brute, electricity, etc.)
    
  • Combat chips that increase your damage or attack speed
    
  • Concentration chips, something that increases all global action bars
    
  • Defibrillation chip, something that stabilizes and gives you a second wind before dying
    

Besides just creating new, useful items, Robuddies should also be under Robotics control, as has been said before. But not only that, we should add more tiny robot companions in general. Remove the printed versions, but make it so that the materials required to craft them make sense and are easily obtainable by roboticists.

Additionally, now with Mechanics gone, Roboticists could gain Mechlab access and there should be more of a tie-in with robots. Like, creating patrol routes, making them do specific tasks, or generally triggering things after hooking it up to components.