Restocking vending machines...

[Frank_Stein]

Have vending machines automatically restock themselves at the start of every pay period, either to full capacity or by a set amount

[cyberTripping]

idea: this but only when there's no non-braindead workers in that field. So like, a lack of doctors means medical vending machines will get stocked again. No chefs mean food machines restock, etc. But if there's doctors, med vendors are finite and docs have to do their job. That sorta deal.

[TrustScience]

Let us put Staff Assistants into vending machines, this way when circumstances change or if we REALLY think they are needed for something we can always vend one out.

[Technature]

That sounds horrible and a really fast way to annoy players for literally no reason.

Let's do it immediately.

[Vitatroll]

I'm not sure if that's a step up from monkeys or a step down. Side note, SANPCs are amazing. Pretty much everybody gets fooled by them the first time.

On the actual topic; eh. I'm not sure what that's meant to accomplish?

[Frank_Stein]

On the actual topic; eh. I'm not sure what that's meant to accomplish?

...It keeps the vending machines stocked

[poland spring]

yes also have all purchases roll over into the shipping budget when they restock (HoP can change this)

[Vitatroll]

On the actual topic; eh. I'm not sure what that's meant to accomplish?

...It keeps the vending machines stocked

No seriously, what brought on the suggestion? What machines need it? Right now they act as limiting factors for otherwise annoying-to-get items. If you want more you have to grind or ask QM.

I mean I'm all for making QM as redundant as possible, but I always get stankface'd for that suggestion.

[Frank_Stein]

On the actual topic; eh. I'm not sure what that's meant to accomplish?

...It keeps the vending machines stocked

No seriously, what brought on the suggestion? What machines need it? Right now they act as limiting factors for otherwise annoying-to-get items. If you want more you have to grind or ask QM.

I mean I'm all for making QM as redundant as possible, but I always get stankface'd for that suggestion.

What brought it on was first thinking about the usefulness of credits, then thinking about a larger thread idea about how to improve credits generally, and then thinking about how vending machines factor into that, and deciding to make a smaller thread first about something I noticed about vending machines in  general

Namely that they can be emptied, at which point you have a hard to get rid of object just sitting around.

My thoughts about them not refilling being a balance issue are it's
Not that balanced to begin with, seeing as you can scan them and build neigh infinite amounts of machines for infinite products

QM is also incredibly bloated, and not a reliable way to get things

This also solves the problem of their being a lot of useless objects littering the station, and it's got it's open balance built in because it's timer based

EDIT:
What wrote here before came off too aggressive. I probably should have explained this all better in the opening post, and I'm sorry for that

[LuigiThirty]

QM should need to reorder vending machine stuff. It shouldn't restock on its own. Through the magic of Discount Dan, QM should just have to order a restock on their computer and the machines will re-roll their stock after a few minutes.

[Frank_Stein]

QM should need to reorder vending machine stuff. It shouldn't restock on its own. Through the magic of Discount Dan, QM should just have to order a restock on their computer and the machines will re-roll their stock after a few minutes.

My thoughts about this are
-It gives QM an additional chore they might not do
-Makes people reliant on QM

I think QM functions better as a place for either specialty equipment you can't get elsewhere, or as a place to get common items in bulk amounts

[NateTheSquid]

QM should need to reorder vending machine stuff. It shouldn't restock on its own. Through the magic of Discount Dan, QM should just have to order a restock on their computer and the machines will re-roll their stock after a few minutes.

My thoughts about this are
-It gives QM an additional chore they might not do
-Makes people reliant on QM

I think QM functions better as a place for either specialty equipment you can't get elsewhere, or as a place to get common items in bulk amounts

it gives QM another thing to do while waiting for someone to request 400 guns

[Faceplant]

Why not just get the mechanic to scan the machine and make a new one?

[Superlagg]

Why not just get the mechanic to scan the machine and make a new one?

1> Requires a mechanic who isn't already up to building useless spambots.
2> Adds more vending machines to the hallways.
3> Requires a mechanic who can resist the temptation to build a maze out of cigarette vendors.
4> Doesn't refill the vending machine.

Hm. What about some sort of MULE-y bot thing that arrives in the merchant's shuttle and goes around restocking the machines?

[Frank_Stein]

A bot works too. I figured timing it to payday means the machines refill when your bank account does, giving you an opportunity to buy more stuff

But mostly I was trying to get a way for them to refill without needing a person to do anything special. Making it a bot gives them an opportunity to speed up the process by making or buying more of those bots