Goonhub
07-13-2024, 10:01 AM
Personally I would like genes to be more inconsistently dispersed on a round-to-round basis. I think the problem with powerful genes is just that they show up too often, mainly caused by the fact that once people get a hang of the job it's pretty easy to be consistent about it. I'd also like to see the geneticist have more reason to interact with the crew.
This is more thinking out loud than it is well thought through, but my idea to rejig genetics would be to make genes less available so that they can potentially be more powerful. As well as doing so in a way that encourages geneticists to interact with crew more than monkeys. I'd try the following:
1. An activated or stored gene is rendered 'spent' after it has either been sent to the booth or made into an injector. It cannot be sent to the booth or made into an injector once it's spent. It can still be added to an occupant and otherwise functions as usual. Genes purchased from the booth will also be 'spent'.
As it stands, once you find a gene you have functionally infinite copies of that gene. I don't think this is necessarily a good thing, because it makes finding subsequent copies of that gene pointless, and ensures that once a gene is found it is no longer rare, making them far more consistently available round-to-round. I think limiting how much the genes can be handed out this way would make the good genes rarer on a per-player basis while not making them unobtainable.
I don't think injectors would need to grant spent genes. Technically it would allow duplicating genes infinitely, but not only does it need to be chained to do so, there's a cooldown and a material cost. That's a good amount of time and work for a process that's probably slower than looking for extra copies elsewhere.
2. Introduce a DNA "Extractor"; an item similar to an activator in its creation and use, instead of activating a gene in the potential pool it would pull out a copy of the gene from someone's potential pool. If placed back in the computer, the gene gets added to mutation storage.
This is basically just making it so there's a jankier functionality of the mobile gene booth available consistently. Alongside activators, it's intended to encourage the geneticist to leave their room and look for specific crew members, without the unfortunate expectation that even if you find who you're looking for they might be too busy to want to follow you back to the gene booth just to give you the gene you want.
The player's gene from which a copy was made should probably also be considered 'spent' to avoid this being a duplicator.
3. If an NPC mob is created or scrambled it only gets maybe half or two thirds the mutations in its potential pool compared to a player controlled mob. If a player controlled mob is created or scrambled, it gets the usual amount.
Monkeys are too efficient for how uninteractive they are to sift through constantly. I geneticists should be encouraged to check through records and interact with crew more than look at monkeys all shift.
The other option I see is to make player gene pools higher quality than monkeys, but that seems like more work for the same outcome.
Hypothetically these changes would turn every genepool into more of a lootbox than it already is, since every subsequent copy of a gene you find would still be useful in adding extra availability to the booth. Player pools would be more efficient to engage with than monkeys and therefore it would hopefully encourage geneticists to seek out crewmembers more often.
The 'good' genes would be more of a crapshoot to obtain during a round because a single master-copy isn't all you need to fill up the gene booth. Also, two geneticists working on the same gene wouldn't wind up feeling as redundant.
However, this would be making genetics even more complicated.
This is more thinking out loud than it is well thought through, but my idea to rejig genetics would be to make genes less available so that they can potentially be more powerful. As well as doing so in a way that encourages geneticists to interact with crew more than monkeys. I'd try the following:
1. An activated or stored gene is rendered 'spent' after it has either been sent to the booth or made into an injector. It cannot be sent to the booth or made into an injector once it's spent. It can still be added to an occupant and otherwise functions as usual. Genes purchased from the booth will also be 'spent'.
As it stands, once you find a gene you have functionally infinite copies of that gene. I don't think this is necessarily a good thing, because it makes finding subsequent copies of that gene pointless, and ensures that once a gene is found it is no longer rare, making them far more consistently available round-to-round. I think limiting how much the genes can be handed out this way would make the good genes rarer on a per-player basis while not making them unobtainable.
I don't think injectors would need to grant spent genes. Technically it would allow duplicating genes infinitely, but not only does it need to be chained to do so, there's a cooldown and a material cost. That's a good amount of time and work for a process that's probably slower than looking for extra copies elsewhere.
2. Introduce a DNA "Extractor"; an item similar to an activator in its creation and use, instead of activating a gene in the potential pool it would pull out a copy of the gene from someone's potential pool. If placed back in the computer, the gene gets added to mutation storage.
This is basically just making it so there's a jankier functionality of the mobile gene booth available consistently. Alongside activators, it's intended to encourage the geneticist to leave their room and look for specific crew members, without the unfortunate expectation that even if you find who you're looking for they might be too busy to want to follow you back to the gene booth just to give you the gene you want.
The player's gene from which a copy was made should probably also be considered 'spent' to avoid this being a duplicator.
3. If an NPC mob is created or scrambled it only gets maybe half or two thirds the mutations in its potential pool compared to a player controlled mob. If a player controlled mob is created or scrambled, it gets the usual amount.
Monkeys are too efficient for how uninteractive they are to sift through constantly. I geneticists should be encouraged to check through records and interact with crew more than look at monkeys all shift.
The other option I see is to make player gene pools higher quality than monkeys, but that seems like more work for the same outcome.
Hypothetically these changes would turn every genepool into more of a lootbox than it already is, since every subsequent copy of a gene you find would still be useful in adding extra availability to the booth. Player pools would be more efficient to engage with than monkeys and therefore it would hopefully encourage geneticists to seek out crewmembers more often.
The 'good' genes would be more of a crapshoot to obtain during a round because a single master-copy isn't all you need to fill up the gene booth. Also, two geneticists working on the same gene wouldn't wind up feeling as redundant.
However, this would be making genetics even more complicated.