Cogmap 2: *** UPDATE TO BYOND 509 ASAP ***

[Cogwerks]

As far as I understand it, the actual number of pipes doesn't matter as much as the number of pipelines. One pipeline has the same gas contents from end to end, even if it runs across the entire map. Valves and pumps and stuff like that break pipelines apart into more pipelines, so it's best to use as few subdividing components as possible. Ye Olde Coders could probably answer this better though.

[Silvercloud29]

My question is how did QP get a variant of the new map? Or is that just a mockup he made himself?

[QP Evergrande]

I made it myself, using screenshots and a photo editor... and a lot of patience.

[Ikkonoishi]

I like the idea of putting a ton of those little air pumps that suck the atmosphere out of the room in that row of re-pressurization ports, and then building an addition to vent the hot loop into that room. I worry thought that it would be a little too easy for the amount of havoc it would cause, and get run into the ground.

I mean just a little hot air spread around the station would critically burn everyone who didn't have internals and a firesuit.

[Cogwerks]

The map already has sector-specific placeholders for those. Each of the little substations with an SMES cell and catwalk access will eventually have some canister ports and vent lines too. Instead of one centralized atmos that can ruin everything way too easily, you'd need to fuck with the substations instead. Not a huge amount of extra effort, but I feel like substations will make it a bit tougher and give the crew more time to safeguard the other substations when one gets obviously sabotaged.

[Erev]

My only worry might be the AI core as it seems more vulnerable in this setup. you only need to RCD 3 walls to get into a position that will let you grab freeform and upload.

This about sums up what happens currently.

Almost. But there is also the requirement of having a space suit and the fact that there is an alarm system on the outside that lets you know if anyone is trying to breach through the walls that way.

[Cogwerks]

The perimeter alarm system will encapsulate the AI area and the armory, I just haven't settled on the overall shape of that area yet.

[Lavastage]

I saw the new map update and I have two things to say about it:
1: Wow that is really nice, god work cogs!
2: what is going to happen to the particle generator? I may be missing some basic knowledge or something but it looks like it has been replaced by the thermo-doohickey.

[QP Evergrande]

I have a new proposal, and way too much time on my hands. Well, at least this is more restrained than my previous few efforts. Anyway, most of the new feature stuff I'm about to ask for can be ignored. I know it's just me asking for things beyond my station, so to speak. These designs will work perfectly well without that stuff.



So, I took a look at the cargo bay on the new station, and I realized something that should have occurred to me much sooner. The inventory bars take up the bottom two lines of your view. Being on the south side of the station, that makes it a lot harder to look out and see if crates have gotten backed up, either coming in or going out, which is very important to be able to do if you want to run things efficiently. That's why I reduced the width of that buy/sell belt room from five to three. That way, you'll just be able to see the outside of the buy belt from within the cargo bay if you close your top inventory bar.

Of course, at least on that end it wouldn't be needed if it were possible to have those IR detectors I added, wired to the blast doors to force them to always be open if there's a crate sitting on the belt.

Inside the cargo bay, I've opted for an arrangement that has less open space than the current Cogmap 2 arrangement, but still has plenty of room to store crates where they won't be in the way. The manufacturers in the middle are arranged like that so you can unload the recycler into any of them. You may say that communal mode makes that unnecessary, but there are occasions where you want to leave it off so you can sell lots of recycled ore quickly. That's a pretty minor concern, though. It's a little cramped in the front, but that's to encourage the use of the front belts. Those are less secure than the front belts on the current map, but with the button to seal them right there by the ordering console, it should be secure enough. It's also the only belt with a lever to control its direction, since it's the only belt where you'd have a reason to reverse it.

Also added to the cargo bay are a general alert computer, an auto-loom and fabricator which should reasonably have a fairly broad selection of item types, and a pipe dispenser next to those, because why not? There's also a second, different barcode computer, the one with green buttons. That's so the barcodes that contain banking information can be separated from the ones that control belt destinations or selling to merchants. I believe I've expounded before on how it can be inconvenient. Once any ID has been scanned, it will always be added, so if you want to sell to a merchant without embezzling half the profits, you can't. These green barcode computers should be spread throughout the station, to make it easier for everyone (mostly botanists and perhaps miners) to profit off of selling their wares. The computer simply stores and displays a list of scanned cards, from which you can select one to print. Should be simple enough to do, just split the code out from the current barcode computers. Another ease-of-life measure would be to have "Sell" barcodes that send the crate straight out without needing to trouble the QMs. Of course, they can still grab the crates off the belt if they want to.

And then there's the disposal site off to the right. It's a lot smaller than the current one, and controlled by a different department (QMs instead of janitors) which should make it both more and less effective as a murder tool. I figure, it's best for the QMs to take care of scrapping and recycling, since they have a use for scrap. There's a recycling unit right there, so you can grab the scrap off the line and add it right in. The computer is to allow programming the belts and routers. Right now, you can't build new ones, but if you could, a central control location could be useful. Otherwise, they'd have to be programmed by mechanics, and that opens up too much opportunity for them to screw with the whole system. It could work in a pretty simple way. Just give it some space GPS coordinates, and have it detect all the belts or routers there (since there can be more than one belt on a tile). Then for belts you give it a value. 0 for off, 1 for up/right, 2 for down/left. Routers would be a bit more complicated, but not too much so. And that opens up the possibility of custom routing paths, that send crates around the station indefinitely.

Now for the second part.



This is the opposite side of that corridor, directly across from the cargo bay. Basically, I turned the janitor's room on its side and moved it over to the side to make room for the warehouse (which I didn't bother filling with all the junk it has in the current station, but pretend it's all there). Basically, this is all meant to be a big production and market district that dominates the entire east half of the southern annex. You've got the cargo bay and hangar on one side of the corridor, and on the other is mechanics, a couple kiosks for people to set up shop, the warehouse (which now has its own cargo route) and the smelter.

I didn't do the four-router thing I did on the other here, since a crate that needs to go the other way can switch belts in the disposals section side. That way it gets shot across the corridor twice! (Or I guess people could just be not-lazy and put it on the right belt manually, if they really wanted to)

That red exclamation mark should be a false wall. Inside that little area is a corpse (or sometimes a zombie, similar to how the head surgeon sometimes spawns as a cardboard box). Along with it (symbolically represented by an evidence box) should be a randomly spawned collection of "stuff." Half-empty drink bottles with various reagents in them, maybe a working ID card, maybe low-level traitor items, or any other random thing you might find in the game. Basically, a running joke that raises the question of how the guy died each round.

This is somewhat unrelated, but I think a shuttle to the diner should also be added somewhere in this area. Maybe opposite that customs office just north of the escape arm? Since, as I understand it, merchant shuttles are now going to dock at the diner station, I figure the market district wouldn't be complete without such a shuttle.

And I think the miners could also use a cargo dock of their own. You could probably attach it to the south end of their lair, maybe with a secondary dock further out at the mineral magnet gantry, since the belts would pass by there anyway. The secondary one wouldn't need its own barcode route, but just having a couple barcode computers and a place you can grab or put on crates would be enough. I'm sure the miners would appreciate being able to freely profit off their labors without having to risk the QMs stealing from them. Also, if I'm ever trying to be a big-money traitor and they aren't helping me facilitate that, I want to be able to send them a delightful gift with a 2-minute timer. It works both ways. Sending it to a dock is less obvious than to a cargo telepad.

Adding a mining dock would also give further reason to make it so the botany/catering dock receives crates from around the west side of the station instead of through the middle, which would probably take a lot longer. Then you'd remove a good chunk of the northern belt route, leaving only enough for a public cargo dock on the south side of the corridor outside the chapel.

[Noah Buttes]

snip

Dang man, those are all really good ideas.

It actually seems like you put a lot of thought and effort into those!

[Paineframe]

I don't really get the flow of those belts in disposals, but I'm not sure how much of an improvement it is over the current setup. It looks like it'd still require constant babysitting to make any use of scrap, since leaving the door open means your scrap will eventually be carried off to who-knows-where by the belts and leaving it closed drops your scrap yields to basically nothing because of the way the crusher generates scrap (one pile of items will always be turned into one piece of scrap, regardless of how many items were in that pile). Getting the recycled scrap from the scrap recycler over to the main one also looks like a pain, since you'll have to step carefully and quickly in order to get the crate of bars through there without it being carried off by that square of belts and pushers.

[QP Evergrande]

Just like in the current station, any unbarcoded object will eventually find its way to the cargo bay, including scrap. It goes up on the outer belt loop receiving line, then gets shifted over to the line by the cargo bay wall, and from there to the buy line and into the cargo bay. There's a recycler there too.

You may be right about carrying the recycled ore back to the cargo bay being a bit of a pain. Putting it on the belts would take time for delivery. There's an easy way to fix that, though. Just use an ore satchel to pick up what the recycler produces. You could make one with the mining fabricator, or just have one by default in the cargo bay. And/or, replace that stool and computer with three chutes that you can use to send ore to the cargo bay, and wherever else.

As for the one pile of stuff -> one piece of scrap, that can be changed.

[atomic1fire]

This might be a bit too ARR PEE for goon tastes, but is the lawyer ever gonna get an office.

Barber has the barber shop, and while there's that little area with the chairs in it that's basically a public viewer area for courtroom things, the lawyer doesn't have a cool office.

[mozi]

Lawyer should have a carpeted corner w/ desk in the security office

[Cogwerks]

I could try integrating the Information Room more with security, detective and coutroom stuff. Still not really happy with the courtroom layout yet.

QP: Thanks for all the quartermaster suggestions and feedbacks, some solid stuff in there. I'll keep that post up while doing more work on QM.