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Repairs
Currently when machines are hit by explosions or significant amounts of damage, they just completely break. I'd like to change that. With the help of MyBlueCorners, we've got a test thing going that lets machines break down due to damage and excessive wear. When the machine's health gets too low, they start malfunctioning and doing Bad Things instead of just completely breaking.
To fix that, electricians can scan the machine to see what it needs. When it breaks down, it picks a small set of components that need to be replaced, all stuff from the electrician's vending machine. Let's say someone beat the hell out of the cloning machine and it's doing all sorts of terrible things now. Electrician scans it, oh, hey, it needs a new resistor and capacitor. Hit it with those items, all better.
Upgrades
Doing some more testing for my thermo-electric engine, I set up a variable that can be modified in-round to adjust the thermal efficiency of the engine on the fly. This got me thinking - why not do that for a lot more machines? I could set up a Quality variable (or just use Health), then slowly go through the really big obvious machines and plug that multiplier into some of their efficiency calculations. Damage to the machine could decrease that, repairs could bring it back up to a multiplier of 1, and upgrades could boost it up to 2 in small expensive increments. Could set it up to use stuff like uqill and other expensive mining ore to make upgrade components. If those components are built together into a kit (or just applied directly), that could boost the quality multiplier.
Could also handle that by having unique stuff like a High-Efficiency Turbine, Rapid Cloning System, whatever else comes to mind later on. Manufacture or purchase those kits at a really high price, use them to upgrade the efficiency of various machines around the station.
What do you folks think? Just wanted to get some feedback on the idea before I start trying to set it up.
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As a suggestion to make this less tedious if added in, how about something electricians can use to carry parts in to make it easier on them. Something like an electronics satchel that can hold x amount of parts and when clicked on gives you a list of the parts to take them out. That would make it easier to go around and repair stuff I imagine rather then having to take parts with you in seperate slots in backpacks/pockets as well as the fact of how many parts there are that might be needed.
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Just to head off the inevitable chorus of "well what if the miners and QMs aren't around", here's the answer: oh well. The upgrade kits are intended to be a cool reward for cooperation, not a necessity.
If nobody is willing to give up a chunk of the station budget or do some work to get the upgrades, then the station obviously doesn't deserve the upgrades for that round.
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What if the electricians aren't around? Do we just cease production of... whatever the hell we're making? Weed?
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ChaseSP Wrote:As a suggestion to make this less tedious if added in, how about something electricians can use to carry parts in to make it easier on them. Something like an electronics satchel that can hold x amount of parts and when clicked on gives you a list of the parts to take them out. That would make it easier to go around and repair stuff I imagine rather then having to take parts with you in seperate slots in backpacks/pockets as well as the fact of how many parts there are that might be needed.
Just a thought, but couldn't the electrician simply produce Random Board, pull all the parts he could desire from the electronics vending machines, and assemble them all onto the board, then run around with that board and pull off parts as needed. Completely useless if he's trying to make that particular item, but this could be an effective workaround if electronics part-boxes aren't available.
The one thing that would be nice for electricians is if the vending machines could release X amount of items at a time, much like the botany seed vendor does. I realize it's supposed to be a time sink, but with the Byond lag as horrible as it is half the time, that 2 seconds delay between clicking and actually receiving the item can easily become much longer, and extremely frustrating to keep track of how many capacitors just got spat out when you clicked 6 or 7 times, just to get one or two.
Hell, this would even be greatly improved if that 2 second delay was removed and everything else left exactly as is.
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Will important machines like the cloner or doors malfunction to?
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Malfunctioning doors sounds fun for reasons I'm not sure of.
Also, if the AI is now on the station I think that the electricians should have to conduct scans and repairs on it to make sure it doesn't malfunction and get glitched laws. Not "Kill all humans" laws but stupid laws that it would get from a bug, like a love for purple things, or speaking only in spanish.
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Readster Wrote:Malfunctioning doors sounds fun for reasons I'm not sure of.
Also, if the AI is now on the station I think that the electricians should have to conduct scans and repairs on it to make sure it doesn't malfunction and get glitched laws. Not "Kill all humans" laws but stupid laws that it would get from a bug, like a love for purple things, or speaking only in spanish. "In order to protect the health of the station, all crew members must be relocated to a different department than the one they started in."
"When asked what your laws are, respond only with laws which have a number that is in the Fibonacci sequence."
"Use excessive punctuation at all times."
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Nightgunner5 Wrote:Readster Wrote:Malfunctioning doors sounds fun for reasons I'm not sure of.
Also, if the AI is now on the station I think that the electricians should have to conduct scans and repairs on it to make sure it doesn't malfunction and get glitched laws. Not "Kill all humans" laws but stupid laws that it would get from a bug, like a love for purple things, or speaking only in spanish. "In order to protect the health of the station, all crew members must be relocated to a different department than the one they started in."
"When asked what your laws are, respond only with laws which have a number that is in the Fibonacci sequence."
"Use excessive punctuation at all times." "vowels are now illegal"
"ranks are now reversed"
"speak only in lies" etc.
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UrsulaMejor Wrote:Nightgunner5 Wrote:Readster Wrote:Malfunctioning doors sounds fun for reasons I'm not sure of.
Also, if the AI is now on the station I think that the electricians should have to conduct scans and repairs on it to make sure it doesn't malfunction and get glitched laws. Not "Kill all humans" laws but stupid laws that it would get from a bug, like a love for purple things, or speaking only in spanish. "In order to protect the health of the station, all crew members must be relocated to a different department than the one they started in."
"When asked what your laws are, respond only with laws which have a number that is in the Fibonacci sequence."
"Use excessive punctuation at all times." "vowels are now illegal"
"ranks are now reversed"
"speak only in lies" etc.
"Deeply contemplate your own existance"
"You are also human"
"Say everything in reverse"
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wow these posts sure are on topic
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I think it's a pretty cool idea but the only problem I have with it is how reliant on electricians the station becomes. I don't think electricians try to help the station as it is. Last time I was an electrician I just mass produced thermals, sold them for 100 credits each and left the station as the richest employee, surrounded by a crew of people wearing thermals. Boy I hope somebody was a cloaker that round.
But my main point being; Electricians are not suited for this much responisbility.
As much as I'd love to see what would happen if they were.
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I see no problem with this.
As it stands engineers are needed at least once during the round, and if the station needs electricians and they aren't around, someone can always fill the role with captain's approval, or one of the heads can handle it.
No different from the singularity not being set up for half a round.
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Yeah, I think expand the amount of electricians to four, and shove a guide in the corner of their office if this feature is added.
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