Goonhub
01-13-2024, 06:59 AM
(This post was last modified: 01-13-2024, 07:05 AM by mintyphresh.)
Thanks for your input! You're right -- Departments expanding and changing over time would be a cool way to make rounds more dynamic and could add new "things to do" to gameplay.
However, I don't think doing things like making the chef dispenser or botanical mister orderable from Cargo would accomplish that. The chef dispenser being orderable from Cargo falls under the same low-value interdepartmental interaction that asking Botany for these chems would be-- the only difference is that instead of weighing the cost to Botany's time and space against the potential benefit, you're weighing the cost to Engineering's time and budget. Sure, you don't know how Cargo's doing, maybe they can afford your order, maybe they can't... But it's no big deal either way, because of what I mentioned in the original post about mechanical incentives. As it is, the chef dispenser is not that mechanically impactful-- that's why it's in QoL and not something like balance. Chems in catering almost always affect... Like, the color of the food, or the flavor, which is a SINGLE WORD in the chatlog. Is that really worth draining thousands from the cargo budget? Heck no.
One really good example of departments finding it worth it to expand themselves post-roundstart is Botany! Botany doesn't start with hacked vendors, or fungus for their plants, so they venture out to gather materials to accomplish these things *because it's worth it!* Endurance has a huge effect on plant performance (and is required for certain mutations) and hacking the vendor probably like doubles the number of seeds available. And it's not some painstaking process to get the materials to do these, either, you just walk through maints for a bit.
Botany's expansion is worthwhile and fun because it's an intended part of its gameplay loop. Making major changes to how they get fungus would be a balance change, not a QoL change, because growing fungus in trays takes ages, which delays how quickly you can get mutations like Lifeweed out to Medbay.
To sum it up, "If it's not fun, why bother?" Players won't bother to expand the capabilities of their department if it isn't worth it to do so.
> If it takes them this long, they simply didn't want to do it
Wish they would just be upfront about it instead of dragging their feet...
However, I don't think doing things like making the chef dispenser or botanical mister orderable from Cargo would accomplish that. The chef dispenser being orderable from Cargo falls under the same low-value interdepartmental interaction that asking Botany for these chems would be-- the only difference is that instead of weighing the cost to Botany's time and space against the potential benefit, you're weighing the cost to Engineering's time and budget. Sure, you don't know how Cargo's doing, maybe they can afford your order, maybe they can't... But it's no big deal either way, because of what I mentioned in the original post about mechanical incentives. As it is, the chef dispenser is not that mechanically impactful-- that's why it's in QoL and not something like balance. Chems in catering almost always affect... Like, the color of the food, or the flavor, which is a SINGLE WORD in the chatlog. Is that really worth draining thousands from the cargo budget? Heck no.
One really good example of departments finding it worth it to expand themselves post-roundstart is Botany! Botany doesn't start with hacked vendors, or fungus for their plants, so they venture out to gather materials to accomplish these things *because it's worth it!* Endurance has a huge effect on plant performance (and is required for certain mutations) and hacking the vendor probably like doubles the number of seeds available. And it's not some painstaking process to get the materials to do these, either, you just walk through maints for a bit.
Botany's expansion is worthwhile and fun because it's an intended part of its gameplay loop. Making major changes to how they get fungus would be a balance change, not a QoL change, because growing fungus in trays takes ages, which delays how quickly you can get mutations like Lifeweed out to Medbay.
To sum it up, "If it's not fun, why bother?" Players won't bother to expand the capabilities of their department if it isn't worth it to do so.
> If it takes them this long, they simply didn't want to do it
Wish they would just be upfront about it instead of dragging their feet...