[Hydrophonics] Revive people by growing Replicants

[Fonduede]

Similar to pod people or body snatchers or whatnot, it'd be nice to have a use for all those worthless synth arms/legs/brains that pop out when pursuing the evasive synthbutt.

I whipped up a few sprites of what the replicator could look like.



On the left, you have the monitor and mass reservoir, and on the right, the expanded hydro tray with the support rod that holds up the soon-to-be-dangling replicator pod.

Loading up the replicator with a replicator pod would change its sprite, like so.



At this point, the replicator needs two things: DNA, and vegetable biomass. Biomass can be loaded with produce in a similar manner to the compost tank, or botanists can load synth limbs/organs directly into the pod on the right side.

Additionally, DNA must be added to the pod to start the growing process. This can be done by loading in any body part or injecting blood into the pod.

Once all the prep work is done, the replicant will start growing in the pod.



The pod needs watering and care from a botanist just like any other plant, and when the replicant is ready, the botanist can harvest them by hand to release the player.

I'd assume they'd probably be a plant person once they pop on out, though it would be interesting if they retained any human parts that were used to replicate them, IE if they were grown from a leg, they would still have a human leg.

Thoughts?

EDIT: I made some Replicant sprites and bloodbag fruit sprites, as well.

[Zafhset]

That is some nifty sprite work.

[Fonduede]

That is some nifty sprite work.

Thanks! I didn't know that I am apparently pretty good at it until I gave it a shot yesterday.

[Frank_Stein]

Downsides to being a plant person?

I was thinking maybe fire weakness? Or maybe pod people belong to some kinda hive mind and have laws they have to follow in regards to acting more collectivist

[Ed Venture]

Holy shit those are some cool sprites. I like this idea by the way.

[Fonduede]

Downsides to being a plant person?

I was thinking maybe fire weakness? Or maybe pod people belong to some kinda hive mind and have laws they have to follow in regards to acting more collectivist

There's a lot of different ideas for positives and negatives for being a plant person! Gradual self healing in light, producing oxygen instead of consuming it, producing fruits based on what kind of biomass they were fed, weakness to fire, not being able to eat regular food, using the plant modifiers for chemicals (drink some potash + compost and get a nice buzz, get splashed with Atrazine and suffer a horrible, painful death), etc, etc.

[misto]

plant ppl would probably be considered nonhuman by borgs as well

idea: could these plant people should be subject to chemical infusions the way regular produce seem to be now?

idea: could these plant people be subject to growing rules similar to regular crops, ie neglect results in a poor-quality plant body with less health and less stamina, feeding it lots of compost and lots of good chemicals boosts these qualities

idea: feeding it mutagenic plant forumula increases chances of it awakening with both disabilities and superpowers

idea: feeding it synthflesh lets people pop out with their regular flesh color rather than green color

idea: growing one without donor dna results in one of those weird staff assistant-type npcs that get spawned in occasionally for jokes, but green and gurgling instead of greysuited

should they be viable food for vampires and changelings? would this risk enabling them to literally farm up points in botany?

[The Grim Sleeper]

I recall seeing sprites for green synth-limbs, some even sprouting flowers around the forum, but I can't find them!
The topic also had lots of good synth-people ideas.

Anyway, love the sprites, but they seem big compared to the current cloner sprites. Will they fit (I don't know enough about spriting to know if their resolution matters)?

[Fonduede]

Well, it's my first attempt at making sprites, but they fit within a 2x2 tile area, with leeway on both left and right so it doesn't butt up against stuff. I figured if we have some big, oddly shaped items in other departments (the cryo tube, the arc smelter), then why not a big one in hydro?

I can bring it down to 2 wide by 1 tall if need be, or even two separate 1x1 sprites.

[babayetu83]

fucking incredible and would love to see this ingame

[Nnystyxx]

PLEASE GOD YES this sounds awesome
more playing god/plant-god for the botanists; those sprites HAVE to be used, they cannot go to waste

[atomic1fire]

plant ppl would probably be considered nonhuman by borgs as well

idea: could these plant people should be subject to chemical infusions the way regular produce seem to be now?

idea: could these plant people be subject to growing rules similar to regular crops, ie neglect results in a poor-quality plant body with less health and less stamina, feeding it lots of compost and lots of good chemicals boosts these qualities

idea: feeding it mutagenic plant forumula increases chances of it awakening with both disabilities and superpowers

idea: feeding it synthflesh lets people pop out with their regular flesh color rather than green color

idea: growing one without donor dna results in one of those weird staff assistant-type npcs that get spawned in occasionally for jokes, but green and gurgling instead of greysuited

should they be viable food for vampires and changelings? would this risk enabling them to literally farm up points in botany?

I feel like plant people should have tiny amounts of human blood, but the botanists should be able to splice the seeds with garlic to ward off vampire farms. 

Also as a potential balance to rude plant people, perhaps they can occasionally get mites that need pest spray.

[Noah Buttes]

I love the sprites.

It looks like you creatively repurposed some pre-existing sprites to use as a base.

Did you use part of the PTL for the matter resevoir? It's a nice but subtle touch.

[Fonduede]

I love the sprites.

It looks like you creatively repurposed some pre-existing sprites to use as a base.

Did you use part of the PTL for the matter resevoir? It's a nice but subtle touch.

About half right, I did use some existing sprites to try to match the SS13 look! The biggest unchanged parts are the screen and tray, which are the Reagent Extractor and the original Hydro tray. I then brought in a sleeper, clone pod, and a water tank for reference on color and shading. The tank, screen graphics, support rod, replicator hood, replicator pod and about 30% of the hydro tray were all made from scratch using that reference. I also heavily modified the shadowy figure on the inside of the clone pod to get the one that is floating inside the replicant pod.

[Calebc789]

I like this idea, especially with how you went to the effort of making custom sprites for it.