Hydroponics Feedback

[Anticheese]

I just had my attempts at creating super-weed thwarted by a bug. A slurrypod plant spawned in my hydroponics container a few seconds after I harvested. It burst instantly, and was still called a hydroponics container instead of slurrypod.

I planted without realising this, and my weed died

[Archenteron]

Here's a freebie for you for example - cannabis will always become rainbow weed whenever potency is 420 or higher. Seriously, how did none of you figure that one out?

When breeding for the strongest possible white weed ever, I got to 110 potency. Smoking it + internals let me spacewalk for the duration of the joint. 420 potency is... out there.

[Dauntasa]

The problem here doesn't seem to be that the new system of reaching certain values is, by itself, all that bad. The problem seems to be that the person who set the values did so without thinking about what values are actually reasonable for people to get.

[APARTHEID]

Alright, here it is! The write-up!

Blow up the gene manipulation machine. That's right! Get rid of it! This is Hydroponics, not Botanical Genetics! In its stead, since we now have hydroponic trays proper, let not the trick of plant mutation lie in gene manipulation, but instead with watering/feeding plants with the crap found around the station.

As it is right now, the only plant (that I know of that is proven) that takes another source of liquid is living crystal, which takes welding fuel respectively. Why not extend this concept to other plants and allow botanists to seize the station for different chemicals and additives in order to force plant mutations?

Let's take exploding tomatoes as an example. If a hypothetical botanist wanted to try and get a mutation out of their average crop, they would have to use flammable and explosive compounds in order to force it, whether it be thermite, napalm, welding fuel or otherwise. On the flip-side, however, feeding a plant such dangerous chemicals would have an adverse effect on the plant, causing it to yield no crops or to simply wither and die.

However! There is a solution! Given that you're trying to get a plant to take in a dangerous food source, there should be a non-GMU means of increasing plant endurance. Napalm as fertilizer? Balance it out with a fertilizer that guards against root rot.

(I'll contribute more, but Hydroponics should depend more on the stuff FED to the plant rather than clicking away at two menu screens. It'd give the botanists a reason to bum-rush the vending machines and another to yell at Chemistry for their stock.)

[epicdwarf]

Alright, here it is! The write-up!

Blow up the gene manipulation machine. That's right! Get rid of it! This is Hydroponics, not Botanical Genetics! In its stead, since we now have hydroponic trays proper, let not the trick of plant mutation lie in gene manipulation, but instead with watering/feeding plants with the crap found around the station.

As it is right now, the only plant (that I know of that is proven) that takes another source of liquid is living crystal, which takes welding fuel respectively. Why not extend this concept to other plants and allow botanists to seize the station for different chemicals and additives in order to force plant mutations?

Let's take exploding tomatoes as an example. If a hypothetical botanist wanted to try and get a mutation out of their average crop, they would have to use flammable and explosive compounds in order to force it, whether it be thermite, napalm, welding fuel or otherwise. On the flip-side, however, feeding a plant such dangerous chemicals would have an adverse effect on the plant, causing it to yield no crops or to simply wither and die.

However! There is a solution! Given that you're trying to get a plant to take in a dangerous food source, there should be a non-GMU means of increasing plant endurance. Napalm as fertilizer? Balance it out with a fertilizer that guards against root rot.

(I'll contribute more, but Hydroponics should depend more on the stuff FED to the plant rather than clicking away at two menu screens. It'd give the botanists a reason to bum-rush the vending machines and another to yell at Chemistry for their stock.)

This is such a good idea!

[Anticheese]

Let plant genetics cover what something yields when its juiced or eaten. I want to crossbreed or splice cannabis with tomatoes to create T(HC)omatoes.

Also, there needs to be a way to create a bulk liquid container that can be hooked up to the plant extractor, and used as a still with another component.

[Val]

Alright, here it is! The write-up!

Blow up the gene manipulation machine. That's right! Get rid of it! This is Hydroponics, not Botanical Genetics! In its stead, since we now have hydroponic trays proper, let not the trick of plant mutation lie in gene manipulation, but instead with watering/feeding plants with the crap found around the station.

So what I'm getting is that research and hobochem is suddenly going to be extremely important to creating new species? Plant genetics are a very interesting thing indeed, but they're simply stupid the way they're implemented and way too troublesome to be worthwhile via the gene manipulator

I guess this is an acceptable substitution, but being to manipulate specific parts of a plant's genetics will be missed. In response, I propose that new fertilizers are going to be needed, other than just compost or growth boosters. Proper hydroponics trays is definitely what we need, as opposed to the current pots.

/tg/ has the right idea with this. They have different kinds of plant nutrients that affect things from the plant. One fertilizer is plain and only gives the plant nutrition. Another one increases its yield by a crazy amount and yet another one makes mutations more likely at the cost of the plant's health.

Guess that we can take a page out of their book and make a way to alter specific parts of a plant's genes via chemicals, if not outright mutations, each with a different cost to them.

A nutrition system would be ideal in this circumstance. You could compost things into nutrient solution as opposed to just plain 'compost' that comes in the bags, and use that to fulfill a plant's nutrient needs. It'd give more to do than simply running around with a watering can, as it will add having to run around with other chemicals as well.

Nuts2U Vendor (should be placed next to the seed vendor)
Contains 5 bottles of each of the following, each significantly affects the plant's genetics in their own ways:

• Ammonia: Increases a plant's growth rate, at the cost of water needs.
  
• Diethylamine: Increases a plant's lifespan, at the cost of needing more nutrient.
  
• BoostaNut: Increases the yield of a plant at harvest, at the cost of its lifespan.
  
• Mutrient: Increases the chances of a spontaneous species mutation, at the cost of its grow time.
  
• HyGrow: Increases a plant's endurance trait, at the cost of its harvest yield.
  
• Gro-bust: Increases a plant's potency, at the cost of its endurance trait.
  
• Atrazine: Kills plants and poisons people. A hack item.
  
• Unstable Mutagen: Randomly mutates a plant's genetics - also works on people. A hack item.

Chem should be able to make most of these from a base recipe. Maybe having the mostly useless/unused "plant nutrients" recipe as a base from which to make more of any of these would be ideal. This would also make each nutrient solution useful as a nutrient solution itself, just with the added bonus of an additional trait modifier.

Plant Nutrients + Plasma = Hygrow? Plant Nutrients + Milk + Sugar = Gro-Bust? Something like that.

[david2222121]

Personally, I am a fan of returning to the old way of getting seeds, namely radiating random genes.

However, I do support various mutations being rarer than others. You want exploding tomatos? Good luck with your 1% chance. You want Psylobicilin? Sure, let's make that 15%. This lets the botanist have more control over his plants without blindly flailing about trying to get the various mutations.

Also re: Omega Slurry Pods, I recall seeing one in the bar a few weeks back, though I'm not sure if that was from a mutated plant or an admin spawn

[Sundance]

Alright, here it is! The write-up!

Blow up the gene manipulation machine. That's right! Get rid of it! This is Hydroponics, not Botanical Genetics! In its stead, since we now have hydroponic trays proper, let not the trick of plant mutation lie in gene manipulation, but instead with watering/feeding plants with the crap found around the station.

I am in total support for this
Let plant genetics by a physical process of constantly interacting with the plants to get new stuff, rather than a metaphysical process of clicking away at a dull pop-up screen.
Introduce chemical genetics like Val said, gene-splicing through forced cross pollination to produce wacky spin-offs, over generations of plants.
I want when an assistant asks me "Wow how did you make that funky rainbow weed?", I push up my nerdy botanist glasses and say "Well, this 4th generation Arcus Iris Cannabis was produced through the forced pollination of Cannabis and Psychobilin under a solution of stable mutagen", and at that point I get pushed over and farted on, but fuck it was worth it.
Doesn't that sound sound so much more satisfying than manipulating things randomly?

[ISaidNo]

Minor update - I just tweaked the mutations backend so that the first mutation type for plants is back to the old way (8%), and ones after that are bounded. Bounded mutations now also only use Endurance and Potency, narrowing shit down quite a lot!
It's not much but it's a start, okay? =I

[enforcer9]

I honestly like the idea of being able to fuse different plant types together to form entirely new plants. You could even have 2 different forms of this.

1. Grafting: You use a chainsaw to cut off the branch/whatever of a plant, use fertilizer/some new chemical (whichever works) on the limb, and attach it to a different plant! after doing this, the grafted plant will produce both types of produce whenever it's harvested, possibly with the grafted limb producing significantly less amounts. For example, you have an apple tree and a banana tree, but you're out of plant pots! well, you can simply cut off an apple branch and glue it onto the banana branch (everyone likes bananas more) and cut down the pure apple tree!.
Of course, what will actually happen is people grafting psilocybin and rainbow weed together, but whatever floats your boat.

2. Seed Fusion: Using the botany computer thing, you can actually fuse 2 seeds together to:
A. Form an entirely new plant
B. 50/50 produce grafting equivalent.
The one that is activated would probably be based on which the admins have coded in already. For example, admins may have coded in some sort of ungodly sugarcane/slurrypod hybrid (sugarpods) that violently explode when thrown and give anyone caught inside the sugary 'splosion a sugar high. But maybe they didn't code in a chili/apple hybrid yet, so it will simply make a "chipple" plant that gives 50% apples and 50% chilis, at least until they make it into something special.
I would imagine that any plants fused this way would be horribly unhealthy to start, but could become healthy after several generations of good treatment and care by the botanists, and could possibly be helpful to the station in some way (fusing healing drug plants?)

Anyway, I honestly think this is a nice idea, and if nothing else is food for thought.

[Anticheese]

I just want to be able to splice cannabis into other crops and have them still do their own thing, but produce THC instead.

[johnsonblack]

I really don't like how you have to run around holding only one seed in each hand.

A fill-able seed planter would be nice. It would only hold one type of seed at a time, and up to a reasonable limit of seeds.

Plus, if you have to plug it into the seed dispenser, this would eliminate the problem of having to click on the tiny seeds.

[Val]

I am in total support for this

I think one of the bigger issues with the way hydro worked with mutations was the fact that it was completely unfun with just popping seeds away into the machine and clicking on a pop up and hoping for the best. The chemically-induced genetic mutation system seems to be a fair way to reduce that tedium, at the very least. Also, plant generations should have such malleable or consistent genetics in them as well.

Minor update

Nice.

Anyway, I honestly think this is a nice idea, and if nothing else is food for thought.

The grafting idea sounds kind of silly, although I suppose you could make frankenplants with some shady new drug or tool you can use for it. Watermelon vines with lemons growing out of it? Ha!

I definitely prefer the idea of splicing seeds together to make hybrids, with a 50/50 chance of that being either a "dual harvest" where you get both individual plants in a harvest or a hybrid plant that has properties of both plants.

I assume the hardest part of implementing this idea would be spriting the hybrids themselves. Perhaps only certain hybrids can truly actualize while everything else will only result in a dual harvest? Of course, splicing isn't so simple, so there must be a degree of complexity: Fail and success rates.

For example: there should be a high chance that the seeds just don't get along and kill themselves both/the other seed. So you get the chance of not getting both/anything, or getting either both in one or both as one. Something like this so you don't always automatically get mutants.

Half the fun is actually trying to get it, but the way it is now, it's not fun at all.

I really don't like how you have to run around holding only one seed in each hand.

Shit, why didn't I think of this? This is an amazing idea. Fuck trying to pick up seeds and fuck just being able to carry one at a time. I like your idea. I think I'm going to expand on it, even. A super-seeder tool.

Super-Seed 3000 (Yes it's a recolored hand labeler, deal with it.)

What it does:
You pick it up and hold it in one hand. When active, it picks up all seeds that are on a tile and places them into its seed sack or something.

How it works:
When you click on a hydroponics pot, an pop-up titled "select a seed to plant!" shows up and gives you a list of all the seeds that are in the seeder and you choose from that list which one you want to plant.

Game mechanics:
You select the seed you want and then just like that, the seeder plants the seed into the pot and you're off to do it again. You can carry multiple seeds and seed types in the seeder, up to 50 at any one time.

Other things:
If you decide you don't want whatever seeds you have in it, click on the seeder in your active hand and it'll dump them all out on the tile you're standing on. Either that or you get another screen that allows you to discard them individually.

Note:
You can get seeds from (most) plants directly by clicking on a plant with the super-seeder equipped. This seed is then added into the seeder's sack or something. Shares the in-hand sprite with the hand-labeler and spawns in its place within hydro.

Fun with e-mags:
With an e-mag, you can unlock the seeder's true maiming potential and use it to suck the life-juices out of your fellow man. Turns it into a fairly robust tool, but not much better than a fire-extinguisher or similar. Or you can plant seeds into people, who will take toxin damage or something.

[Dauntasa]

Or you can plant seeds into people, who will take toxin damage or something.

Syndicate Super-Seeder
When first used on a person, nothing happens. Over the course of the next ten minutes they begin getting a stomach ache. Then they gib, leaving behind a watermelon.