Goonhub
08-22-2021, 11:18 AM
Some thoughts not directly related to whether or not chemgroups should be removed of delayed or what-have-you:
- I think chemgroups existing as a crucial part of the chemistry system is sorta indicative that mixing chemicals is very uninvolved and bare bones. Once you've set yourself on making a particular chemical there's practically no decision making at all from then on, it's just efficient button clicking. I think it's a system to skip over boring gameplay for the most part.
- While chemgroups existing gives an option for making chems that's perhaps less strenuous for people who find rapid repeated clicking discomforting, it's not 'full accessibility', especially if they were slower than regular mixing like your post proposes. Accessibility would be not having rapid repeated clicking being the best way to use the system in the first place, as there will always be situations where it's faster to click really fast over inputting a code.
Both of these points lead me to believe that chemgroups are a *band-aid*, to chemistry, and if chemistry were designed in a way that required more active decision making while creating chems, chemgroups would have basically no reason to exist at all. Regardless of whatever changes to chemgroups if any are appropriate right now, the 'best' solution long-term IMO is to make chemistry into a system where chemgroups don't make any sense to have. I'm not sure any other systems have an equivalent to 'Click a button to do the job without doing the job', every one I can think of is perfectly fun without it, and chemistry ideally would be in a spot where it would be too.
- I think chemgroups existing as a crucial part of the chemistry system is sorta indicative that mixing chemicals is very uninvolved and bare bones. Once you've set yourself on making a particular chemical there's practically no decision making at all from then on, it's just efficient button clicking. I think it's a system to skip over boring gameplay for the most part.
- While chemgroups existing gives an option for making chems that's perhaps less strenuous for people who find rapid repeated clicking discomforting, it's not 'full accessibility', especially if they were slower than regular mixing like your post proposes. Accessibility would be not having rapid repeated clicking being the best way to use the system in the first place, as there will always be situations where it's faster to click really fast over inputting a code.
Both of these points lead me to believe that chemgroups are a *band-aid*, to chemistry, and if chemistry were designed in a way that required more active decision making while creating chems, chemgroups would have basically no reason to exist at all. Regardless of whatever changes to chemgroups if any are appropriate right now, the 'best' solution long-term IMO is to make chemistry into a system where chemgroups don't make any sense to have. I'm not sure any other systems have an equivalent to 'Click a button to do the job without doing the job', every one I can think of is perfectly fun without it, and chemistry ideally would be in a spot where it would be too.