Goonhub
03-01-2023, 10:31 AM
I've been lucky enough not to have to experience any of the more serious defects when I've been cloned, but I'd say that if there was a means through gameplay where the cloner would have a greatly reduced chance of producing defects in a clone (perhaps preventing any defects on the first clone), I'd have no problems with cloning defects. As it stands, if you get a bad roll in cloning and get a defect, there's nothing that could have been done to prevent that (besides not dying, which can be particularly hard to avoid in Goon 1). If the existing cloner upgrades were able to reduce this, or a new upgrade that specialized in improved cloning outcomes was added, then there'd be more nuance to the current system.
There are, of course, other ways of reviving people, such as with Strange Reagent or borging - although many would argue that borging doesn't count as a revival due to the restrictions that come with it - but given that the cloner is the single most critical piece of medical equipment due to its ability to revive people, preventing it from severely punishing its users seems like a good idea. More defects following successive instances of cloning is good, but I'd advise that the first one should be limited to minor, simple-to-resolve defects. In my experience, by the time you're getting cloned, the station is already mid-crisis and the doctors have next to no bandwidth to treat you, so clones should be able to resolve their defects without requiring something involved like surgery.
Also, to clarify: can the negative genetic traits that the cloner gives you be cured through genetics? Not saying that forcing genetics to deal with you after a bad clone is a great solution, but if that was a viable option then we might opt to lean into ways of streamlining that process so that dealing with the cloning defects is not so bad.
There are, of course, other ways of reviving people, such as with Strange Reagent or borging - although many would argue that borging doesn't count as a revival due to the restrictions that come with it - but given that the cloner is the single most critical piece of medical equipment due to its ability to revive people, preventing it from severely punishing its users seems like a good idea. More defects following successive instances of cloning is good, but I'd advise that the first one should be limited to minor, simple-to-resolve defects. In my experience, by the time you're getting cloned, the station is already mid-crisis and the doctors have next to no bandwidth to treat you, so clones should be able to resolve their defects without requiring something involved like surgery.
Also, to clarify: can the negative genetic traits that the cloner gives you be cured through genetics? Not saying that forcing genetics to deal with you after a bad clone is a great solution, but if that was a viable option then we might opt to lean into ways of streamlining that process so that dealing with the cloning defects is not so bad.