Goonhub
03-18-2024, 08:59 AM
I've had some more time to think about these changes, and IMO, the main thing i've come to conclude from them is:
- Yes, making chems is a part of the fun, but it's combining them in interesting ways, and showing them off in funny bits and actually using them as a way to INTERACT with people that is the biggest part of chemistry.
- The change in time requirements to actually make fun and interesting drugs or assorted chems you can use to RP/just mess around with is severely limited by how much the work load for the average scientist went up, and to very reduced returns.
- Complex and interesting recipes are NOT the problem here, as previously stated, they are part of the fun, but a chemist that spends the whole round in the chem lab is a chemist that is not interacting with the station at all.
(If examples are needed, compare sulfonal to ether, making one requires minutes of staring at a barrel for oil, then more so for acetone, and finally just adding the final components, another is ether, is much more dangerous to produce, and requires attention, but if done properly can be produced much faster. One requires attention and can go off explosively if messed up, and the other just requires a whole lot of time not really doing anything.)
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THERE IS A LOT OF GOOD: I'm not saying the rework is bad, far from it, i think it opens up a lot of potential interesting interactions, but i do think it at least in part, misunderstands the draw of chem to a lot of players. Lab time should be fun, but it shouldn't be the majority of a player's round. Looking at a lot of new interactions, like sulfuric acid or the new cyanide off-gassing, it has definitely achieved a lot in making the chemlab more dynamic in this goonstation styled, chaotic, fast-ish paced way.
DYNAMIC VS TIME CONSUMING: There is a lot of room for things to go sideways in the lab(explosions, fires, smoke leaks, whatever crazy things we can come up with), and that's good, it makes for an interesting experience, and that feels like the most promissing path to creating a fun and engaging lab game loop without consuming most of a player's round.
INTERACTIVITY: Having to be careful not to mix TOO much of that one chem in the mix else it's gonna melt your face is fun, waiting for 20 minutes for the precursor to finish cooking really isn't. Actually being able to go out in the hallway and set up your little chemist tent to sell turbo-caffeine-meth is great fun and actually engaging to everyone else, a 15 person round feeling like 8 pop because the scientists are all holed up trying to make pent that's probably not gonna be used really isn't.
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I hope this hasn't been TOO negative overall. I really like the core of the rework, thank you for coming to my TedTalk.
- Yes, making chems is a part of the fun, but it's combining them in interesting ways, and showing them off in funny bits and actually using them as a way to INTERACT with people that is the biggest part of chemistry.
- The change in time requirements to actually make fun and interesting drugs or assorted chems you can use to RP/just mess around with is severely limited by how much the work load for the average scientist went up, and to very reduced returns.
- Complex and interesting recipes are NOT the problem here, as previously stated, they are part of the fun, but a chemist that spends the whole round in the chem lab is a chemist that is not interacting with the station at all.
(If examples are needed, compare sulfonal to ether, making one requires minutes of staring at a barrel for oil, then more so for acetone, and finally just adding the final components, another is ether, is much more dangerous to produce, and requires attention, but if done properly can be produced much faster. One requires attention and can go off explosively if messed up, and the other just requires a whole lot of time not really doing anything.)
------
THERE IS A LOT OF GOOD: I'm not saying the rework is bad, far from it, i think it opens up a lot of potential interesting interactions, but i do think it at least in part, misunderstands the draw of chem to a lot of players. Lab time should be fun, but it shouldn't be the majority of a player's round. Looking at a lot of new interactions, like sulfuric acid or the new cyanide off-gassing, it has definitely achieved a lot in making the chemlab more dynamic in this goonstation styled, chaotic, fast-ish paced way.
DYNAMIC VS TIME CONSUMING: There is a lot of room for things to go sideways in the lab(explosions, fires, smoke leaks, whatever crazy things we can come up with), and that's good, it makes for an interesting experience, and that feels like the most promissing path to creating a fun and engaging lab game loop without consuming most of a player's round.
INTERACTIVITY: Having to be careful not to mix TOO much of that one chem in the mix else it's gonna melt your face is fun, waiting for 20 minutes for the precursor to finish cooking really isn't. Actually being able to go out in the hallway and set up your little chemist tent to sell turbo-caffeine-meth is great fun and actually engaging to everyone else, a 15 person round feeling like 8 pop because the scientists are all holed up trying to make pent that's probably not gonna be used really isn't.
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I hope this hasn't been TOO negative overall. I really like the core of the rework, thank you for coming to my TedTalk.