Improvements to Oshan and Geothermal

[Scaltra]

Hello! I am looking for feedback and ideas about Oshan and how geothermal power works. What are the pain points for so many people on the map and how could we maybe make those better!



Currently, I feel a genuine concern for people and why so many people are not a fan of Oshan, to begin with, is its method of power generation. Unlike most maps, it is all but certain to impact the rest of the crew aside from engineering. It has multiple hotspots wandering around the station at any given time, becoming a problem either when one or more of those hotspots meet up or when mining has mined up one or more of those station-bound/ located hotspots to the point they are strong enough to cause serious damage to the station on their own let alone overlapping. 

Then recapturing them or moving them off the station also becomes a bit of a problem because of walls and access restrictions. I feel like mining is also at odds with what engineering would prefer mining to do when it comes to Oshan as well. Oftentimes overpowering hotspots when it isn't wanted or removing sources of further empowerment when it is.

I think as a baseline a more deliberate way of mining to aid with hotspots would be a good start in preventing the station from going into chaos and getting obliterated randomly by a fully mined-out hotspot on the station the miner is completely unaware of what they have unleashed. Maybe a mechanic to mine the floor of the hotspot area in the trench or a new special tile that would be hot and could be walked over that follows the hotspot that could be mined up to do the same as the old mechanic? Not really sure what the new method would be but something to just make it more deliberate. I think it is fine that miners can cause that chaos but many aren't trying to and it just...happens while they do their own thing. 

Another thing that would be really nice is either hotspots not having a route through the station by default or if a hotspot is on the station it gives an automated alert to its location potentially. I don't think that is required but it would be a nice QoL without putting too much of a damper on traitors sending a hotspot stack into the station to cause trouble. 

Lastly, a QoL that would be really nice for geothermal would be dousing rods ignoring any pinned hotspots when giving a readout and multiple hotspots are in the area. or ignoring two and always pointing to the nearest one. They become mostly useless if two are within its scan radius or require you to run around and find the edge of one and then walk it in. 

Would love to hear your thoughts and ways we could improve the feel of the map both from an engineering perspective and also from a general player perspective as well.