Goonhub
09-09-2023, 06:24 PM
The way I see it, theres basically two ways to make more roboticist content that dont boil down to "create more inconveniences for other players for roboticists to acknowledge":
1: Increase the mechanical depth of cyborgs. Give cyborgs a reason to come back to robotics throughout the round beyond "thats where the charger is". Maybe robotics can create progressively more useful tools for them to install as time goes on (gated by materials like mining or a tech tree like genetics, for example). While i feel that this would be healthy for roboticists and silicons overall, i dont feel like it would be that effective in giving robotics a defined role as a station crew member, since they would still be only really interacting with cyborgs and would only have brief periods of having something to do. For as long as robotics' only role is tending to cyborgs they will always have not much to do, since cyborg players reasonably do not want to sit around being tended to all shift. Which leads into the other option:
2: Design a novel system for robotics to be tasked with managing that can provide tangible benefits to to other crew members. This is what people are getting at when they refer to TG mechsuits and whatnot. While i dont think mechsuits would be a good fit for goon (people driving subs around indoors is annoying enough as-is), I do feel like there is room for novel robotics-related mechanics. I touched on my idea for solving this earlier, but I feel it would be a good fit for robotics to be able to create more useful machines and equipment as time goes on throughout the shift. Things that dont exist on the station and provide useful functionality to others to encourage interactions with roboticists. Ideas that immediately come to mind include:
* A centrifuge that can non-destructively separate chemicals over time
* Specialized gas filters that can extract certain gasses and not others
* Botanical misters / grow lamps with extra range
* Some novel cooking machine, like an air fryer
The specifics of what these machines are doesnt matter, as long as they are either entirely novel or an improved version of an existing machine. Aside from giving robotics a way to improve the lives of their fellow crew members, this would also serve as another way to add items to be accessible to the crew, which is currently mostly accomplished by either adding them to a cargo crate or fabricator crafting recipes. If the machines required some amount of tech tree research or advanced material costs this mechanic could also be used to limit the availability of more powerful items while still making them available to the crew.
The most effective way to implement this would be to combine both options: Through the system of unlocking novel or improved machines, roboticists can unlock both useful cyborg equipment (or other items that would be directly useful to robotics, such as unique gaurdbuddy modules if those were moved to robotics) which would be directly useful in their own job and useful station equipment which may be useful in their own job or in that of their fellow crew members. Robotics could be a department that crew members go out of their way to talk to in order to get their hands on something useful, like how people sometimes request that engineers mechscan and build a specific thing for them.
1: Increase the mechanical depth of cyborgs. Give cyborgs a reason to come back to robotics throughout the round beyond "thats where the charger is". Maybe robotics can create progressively more useful tools for them to install as time goes on (gated by materials like mining or a tech tree like genetics, for example). While i feel that this would be healthy for roboticists and silicons overall, i dont feel like it would be that effective in giving robotics a defined role as a station crew member, since they would still be only really interacting with cyborgs and would only have brief periods of having something to do. For as long as robotics' only role is tending to cyborgs they will always have not much to do, since cyborg players reasonably do not want to sit around being tended to all shift. Which leads into the other option:
2: Design a novel system for robotics to be tasked with managing that can provide tangible benefits to to other crew members. This is what people are getting at when they refer to TG mechsuits and whatnot. While i dont think mechsuits would be a good fit for goon (people driving subs around indoors is annoying enough as-is), I do feel like there is room for novel robotics-related mechanics. I touched on my idea for solving this earlier, but I feel it would be a good fit for robotics to be able to create more useful machines and equipment as time goes on throughout the shift. Things that dont exist on the station and provide useful functionality to others to encourage interactions with roboticists. Ideas that immediately come to mind include:
* A centrifuge that can non-destructively separate chemicals over time
* Specialized gas filters that can extract certain gasses and not others
* Botanical misters / grow lamps with extra range
* Some novel cooking machine, like an air fryer
The specifics of what these machines are doesnt matter, as long as they are either entirely novel or an improved version of an existing machine. Aside from giving robotics a way to improve the lives of their fellow crew members, this would also serve as another way to add items to be accessible to the crew, which is currently mostly accomplished by either adding them to a cargo crate or fabricator crafting recipes. If the machines required some amount of tech tree research or advanced material costs this mechanic could also be used to limit the availability of more powerful items while still making them available to the crew.
The most effective way to implement this would be to combine both options: Through the system of unlocking novel or improved machines, roboticists can unlock both useful cyborg equipment (or other items that would be directly useful to robotics, such as unique gaurdbuddy modules if those were moved to robotics) which would be directly useful in their own job and useful station equipment which may be useful in their own job or in that of their fellow crew members. Robotics could be a department that crew members go out of their way to talk to in order to get their hands on something useful, like how people sometimes request that engineers mechscan and build a specific thing for them.