Goonhub
05-22-2024, 01:45 PM
When i see people talking about what they think chemistry's main source of trouble currently is, one thing that sometimes is brought up is it's being "directionless" in the sense that you don't really have an end goal. I don't really think that's it, since there are more departments which are mainly directionless in similar ways than chemistry, but see much less discussion of the same sort, the biggest example being botany. Both botany and chemistry have thrived by allowing players a lab-like space to mix and match different things into whatever they can, and pushed players towards gimmicks and experimenting with the systems, and that makes for an excelent "directionless" experience.
For me, at least, the issue is not that chem is directionless, more so that the time investment and effort to reward curve is so shifted that a lot of the unique chemicals and interactions between them just don't feel worth it even for experienced players, much less for newer ones. Currently players have the stacked disincentive of having to commit a good chunk of a round's time to even explore the systems, as well as being punished by underwhelming or wasted results that require even more time commitments to recuperate than most chems just don't seem worthy to anyone that hasn't already been testing with them.
The rounds are an hour and a half long, if things don't go south beforehand, and nowadays a newer scientist is going to have a though time finding it worth it to spend a good chunk of that time making a chem they might not even be able to, and may just get 100 units of, that after a few minutes of testing, will be gone(ADDENDUM). That can be really demotivating to old, and expecially new scientists that are most likely going to be slower and risk messing up in ways that just wipe chunks of progress.
ADDENDUM - (one of the things that botany alleviates, by ontop of being much more lenient on creation times, being able to secure the production of any chemical instead of just realizing it once, which allows botanists to spend much more time actually interacting with the station at large, and actually makes any ridiculous plants they want to parade around feel worth it and interesting)
I'm not here just to mope and bawl about a department i like a lot(and still put a lot of effort into having fun with) and wholeheartedly believe is still a lot of fun from time to time, so here is my question to anyone that might want to give an answer: What can help making chem exploration and commitment to gimmicks feel more rewarding, less punishing, and overall just more "worth it"?
For me, at least, the issue is not that chem is directionless, more so that the time investment and effort to reward curve is so shifted that a lot of the unique chemicals and interactions between them just don't feel worth it even for experienced players, much less for newer ones. Currently players have the stacked disincentive of having to commit a good chunk of a round's time to even explore the systems, as well as being punished by underwhelming or wasted results that require even more time commitments to recuperate than most chems just don't seem worthy to anyone that hasn't already been testing with them.
The rounds are an hour and a half long, if things don't go south beforehand, and nowadays a newer scientist is going to have a though time finding it worth it to spend a good chunk of that time making a chem they might not even be able to, and may just get 100 units of, that after a few minutes of testing, will be gone(ADDENDUM). That can be really demotivating to old, and expecially new scientists that are most likely going to be slower and risk messing up in ways that just wipe chunks of progress.
ADDENDUM - (one of the things that botany alleviates, by ontop of being much more lenient on creation times, being able to secure the production of any chemical instead of just realizing it once, which allows botanists to spend much more time actually interacting with the station at large, and actually makes any ridiculous plants they want to parade around feel worth it and interesting)
I'm not here just to mope and bawl about a department i like a lot(and still put a lot of effort into having fun with) and wholeheartedly believe is still a lot of fun from time to time, so here is my question to anyone that might want to give an answer: What can help making chem exploration and commitment to gimmicks feel more rewarding, less punishing, and overall just more "worth it"?