Goonhub
This is just an idea I got and won't let go, and I've been thinking of actually starting it's development once I finish a few things on-hand. I'm making this post to actually grasp what are the boundaries of what I should be doing and general feedback from the forums community.
Roboticicst is, for the most part, a weird role. It's always been about doing surgeries on humans and sometimes building cyborgs, and that's it. There aren't many human upgrades, besides the default cyberorgans, and people tried to fix that in the past! One time or another, you surely have seen someone talk about making or even developing augmentations for Robotics, like implants, but to be completely honest, it has always been lacking room to actually put it in. So this is my idea on how augmentations could be implemented in-game, and I will need some feedback on what are the boundaries so I can balance things between "nerfed beyond usefulness" and "OP to the point staffies flock at Robotics".
I've been tap-dancing around the actual idea for quite a while, from a GeneTek-like system to what seems to please most people: Robotics will have two modified versions of the objects usually present in an Operating Room: a special operating table and a special surgery computer. The surgery computer is where most of the magic happens, and the special operating table simply extracts the organs. The roboticist does their proceedings like normal, and when an organ finally comes out, the operating table will automatically put the organ inside the special surgery computer under some restrictions: the patient has to be alive, the patient has to be a player and the player cannot have removed that before in any body in any time in the round. I've thought of theses restrictions to avoid the player from grabbing monkeys/clones and farming organs with those bodies. Not only would that be exploiting this feature, but it could potentially start a decline in Robotics that would turn the roboticist role into a geneticist but with machinery, which is the complete opposite of what I'm trying to do. Once that organ is inside the surgery computer, the roboticist could either reclaim that organ for points or permanently eject it for whatever reason. Those organs, after being reclaimed, will sit in the machine for 2-5 minutes having it's tissue analyzed, and once finished, you'd get points that you could exchange for special augmentations in the market. I've been thinking of how this market could go, and I got a fun idea: it'd be like Cargo, the market would refresh after some time, and new organs would appear and some old organs would disappear, and all the prices would update accordingly. Think of Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, but slower. When exchanged, the roboticist would get a special manudrive linked to the computer, that would update with all the augmentations they have bought.
My main worries are two things: making it unbalanced and turning roboticist into a geneticist. My main goal with this idea is to add a way for augmentations to fit, while making roboticist a more engaging role, without making it centered around a single surgery computer. In fact, I had to tone down the idea a lot to not make the computer engaging, but the idea of getting those sweet augmentations engaging. Such is this that I had to add a long cooldown for organs and many restrictions, to show that the computer isn't the main part of Robotics. But I still need a few ideas, to get how far I could go with the proejct, so here's a few questions if you have read so far: (if so, thank you)
I'm still working on how this idea could be developed, but as far as I keep that outline I presented, I think it has a good chance of going well. Of course, I still need to figure out a few things, like getting damaged by having too many augmentations or how to make the roboticist special when doing/using augmentations, but I will surely find that out after thinking about it for some more. Like I said at the start of the post, I made this post to get a general idea of what everyone thinks, and to get some fair answers on theses questions.
Roboticicst is, for the most part, a weird role. It's always been about doing surgeries on humans and sometimes building cyborgs, and that's it. There aren't many human upgrades, besides the default cyberorgans, and people tried to fix that in the past! One time or another, you surely have seen someone talk about making or even developing augmentations for Robotics, like implants, but to be completely honest, it has always been lacking room to actually put it in. So this is my idea on how augmentations could be implemented in-game, and I will need some feedback on what are the boundaries so I can balance things between "nerfed beyond usefulness" and "OP to the point staffies flock at Robotics".
The Idea
I've been tap-dancing around the actual idea for quite a while, from a GeneTek-like system to what seems to please most people: Robotics will have two modified versions of the objects usually present in an Operating Room: a special operating table and a special surgery computer. The surgery computer is where most of the magic happens, and the special operating table simply extracts the organs. The roboticist does their proceedings like normal, and when an organ finally comes out, the operating table will automatically put the organ inside the special surgery computer under some restrictions: the patient has to be alive, the patient has to be a player and the player cannot have removed that before in any body in any time in the round. I've thought of theses restrictions to avoid the player from grabbing monkeys/clones and farming organs with those bodies. Not only would that be exploiting this feature, but it could potentially start a decline in Robotics that would turn the roboticist role into a geneticist but with machinery, which is the complete opposite of what I'm trying to do. Once that organ is inside the surgery computer, the roboticist could either reclaim that organ for points or permanently eject it for whatever reason. Those organs, after being reclaimed, will sit in the machine for 2-5 minutes having it's tissue analyzed, and once finished, you'd get points that you could exchange for special augmentations in the market. I've been thinking of how this market could go, and I got a fun idea: it'd be like Cargo, the market would refresh after some time, and new organs would appear and some old organs would disappear, and all the prices would update accordingly. Think of Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, but slower. When exchanged, the roboticist would get a special manudrive linked to the computer, that would update with all the augmentations they have bought.
My worries
My main worries are two things: making it unbalanced and turning roboticist into a geneticist. My main goal with this idea is to add a way for augmentations to fit, while making roboticist a more engaging role, without making it centered around a single surgery computer. In fact, I had to tone down the idea a lot to not make the computer engaging, but the idea of getting those sweet augmentations engaging. Such is this that I had to add a long cooldown for organs and many restrictions, to show that the computer isn't the main part of Robotics. But I still need a few ideas, to get how far I could go with the proejct, so here's a few questions if you have read so far: (if so, thank you)
- Would it be reasonable for surgeries to be automatic or semi-automatic? If so, give me an idea of how it could be done.
- Do you think this idea would still make roboticists spend the entire round staring at a computer screen? If so, please give me some ideas on how this problem could be mitigated.
- Do you think this idea could be used at all if only a few patients came to Robotics?
Last Remarks
I'm still working on how this idea could be developed, but as far as I keep that outline I presented, I think it has a good chance of going well. Of course, I still need to figure out a few things, like getting damaged by having too many augmentations or how to make the roboticist special when doing/using augmentations, but I will surely find that out after thinking about it for some more. Like I said at the start of the post, I made this post to get a general idea of what everyone thinks, and to get some fair answers on theses questions.
