Rebalance Robotic Modules + tools

[misto]

i do hope that borgs receive a magtractor even if it cant do grabs. it is very strange that the last-ditch slave-drones receive such a good tool but regular borgs dont

[Noah Buttes]

PROGRESS NEWS:

Work on borg-material implementation is still moving forward. I am working on making a bi-material system for custom robotic parts. One material will serve as conductive artificial muscles, nerves, and other soft tissues. The second material will form the metallic exoskeleton of the arm.

Basically, the idea is to have the two different materials affect different attributes of the part. The muscular material will have a strong impact on movement speed and power efficiency, but only a small effect on durability. In contrast, the exoskeleton will primarily affect durability and will only have relatively minor direct influence on movement speed and power efficiency. Additionally, the exoskeleton material will determine the physical appearance of the limb. However, both materials will have a strong impact upon the part's weight.

The goal is to prevent any one set of materials or alloys from being the absolute best while still rewarding people for going out of their way to get rare or obscure materials.

I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism regarding this system.

[ferriswheel1]

PROGRESS NEWS:

Work on borg-material implementation is still moving forward. I am working on making a bi-material system for custom robotic parts. One material will serve as conductive artificial muscles, nerves, and other soft tissues. The second material will form the metallic exoskeleton of the arm.

Basically, the idea is to have the two different materials affect different attributes of the part. The muscular material will have a strong impact on movement speed and power efficiency, but only a small effect on durability. In contrast, the exoskeleton will primarily affect durability and will only have relatively minor direct influence on movement speed and power efficiency. Additionally, the exoskeleton material will determine the physical appearance of the limb. However, both materials will have a strong impact upon the part's weight.

The goal is to prevent any one set of materials or alloys from being the absolute best while still rewarding people for going out of their way to get rare or obscure materials.

I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism regarding this system.

Sounds pretty darn cool, I like systems where there's no absolute best combo. Hopefully it means that the uquil-armoured murderous monster borg is easy to run away from.

[Nnystyxx]

I like this! It sounds good and neat, and could make cyborgs more of a deliberate creation to benefit the station in a current catastrophe rather than "robotics doing the only thing it's good at". It'd reward a knowledgeable and/or explorative roboticist.

[Noah Buttes]

I just realized that I'll have to change how the sheet metal reinforcement process for cyborg parts works in order to make it compatible with custom material borg parts.

Quick question: should part reinforcement continue to function as it does now where you click the part while holding some sheet metal to upgrade it? Or should I migrate part reinforcement over to the crafting bench and make it so it uses raw materials rather than sheets?

[BBEG]

I just realized that I'll have to change how the sheet metal reinforcement process for cyborg parts works in order to make it compatible with custom material borg parts.

Quick question: should part reinforcement continue to function as it does now where you click the part while holding some sheet metal to upgrade it? Or should I migrate part reinforcement over to the crafting bench and make it so it uses raw materials rather than sheets?

i'd go with the latter rather than the former as the way it is now is just ever so slightly annoying

[Noah Buttes]

Before anyone offers more feedback, let me provide the pros and cons of the traditional method. The pros and cons of the new method can be inferred from the inverse of these:

Traditional (sheets)

---

Pros:

• Fewer resources used
  
• Quicker (I mean, probably)
  
• Appeals to people who don't like change
  

Cons:

• Much harder to code a good consistent system for this due to the reinforcements on reinforced metal sheets
  
• Less intuitive
  

[ferriswheel1]

Reinforcing sheets is such a pain for very little payoff, since it means the borg is a good deal slower. If it means less coding work I'm all for getting rid of it. I've never used workbenches, but they could probably benefit from actually having a regularly useful function.

[Mordent]

I'd fully support removing the "reinforcing" idea entirely. It shouldn't be necessary with the new system, as I understand it.

You could optionally keep the "light" variants, as they can't be reinforced anyway. They'd just have different base/multipliers/however-you've-done-it for their movement speed and durability.

[Noah Buttes]

I'd fully support removing the "reinforcing" idea entirely. It shouldn't be necessary with the new system, as I understand it.

You could optionally keep the "light" variants, as they can't be reinforced anyway. They'd just have different base/multipliers/however-you've-done-it for their movement speed and durability.

Reinforced robot parts look hecka cool, so there's no way I'm outright scrapping them.

Reinforcing sheets is such a pain for very little payoff, since it means the borg is a good deal slower. If it means less coding work I'm all for getting rid of it. I've never used workbenches, but they could probably benefit from actually having a regularly useful function.

The borg will still be slower since you're only added additional exoskeleton layers without adding any muscle. How much slower will depend upon the materials though.

[Frank_Stein]

I think a crafting table makes more sense, but in regards to keeping the upgraded heads while scrapping reinforcing over material choice, just make the other both heads different design styles

[Nnystyxx]

I think a crafting table makes more sense, but in regards to keeping the upgraded heads while scrapping reinforcing over material choice, just make the other both heads different design styles

Yea to that and nixing the "reinforcing" bit

[ferriswheel1]

If we do keep reinforcing, I'd like to see legs being able to be reinforced at some point. Currently there's literally no advantage having legs over treads, being able to be reinforced could actually set them apart.

[Noah Buttes]

If we do keep reinforcing, I'd like to see legs being able to be reinforced at some point. Currently there's literally no advantage having legs over treads, being able to be reinforced could actually set them apart.

That's part of the reason I'm doing this.

Speaking of which, does anyone have some reinforced leg sprites?

[Noah Buttes]

Idea: what if I made it so that the sprite for a cyborg part varied depending upon its max health?

That way, you could get the reinforcement aesthetic effects without any actual reinforcement.