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On the current implementation of Urine
#1
Hey all. I'm here to (attempt) to start a serious discussion on Urine as a mechanic in SS13.

As I understand it, once upon a time it was not difficult to amass a lot of urine - simply drinking and using the *pee emote could produce a reasonable amount. However, this opened the floodgates to the "piss cube" gimmick, a phenomena that disgusted many and, apparently, lagged servers pretty badly due to the liquid simulation that had to happen, hence the current nerfs to urine production from crewmembers. Urine as a concept is arguably hold-over from the earliest days of SS13, back when there was still poo in the game, an era where all parts of the game were cruder and less refined.

Since I play Botanist almost exclusively, the thought of being able to make larger quantities of urine often crosses my mind, and that's for one reason; saltpetre production. Saltpetre is a fantastically useful nutrient, and by combining 1 part Urine with 1 part compost and 1 part potash (the latter two ingredients being trivial to get/make in Hydroponics), you can get it. Unfortunately, it's also used to make gunpowder, which is like 25% of the reason why people come to botany with requests. (50% of all requests are people asking for chainsaws, and 25% are asking for things we can actually grow.) I've tried making saltpetre via the urine route before, and while possible, it's also a tremendous pain in the ass, given how little urine spacepeople produce.

Here's the thing; while I personally would not mind having some sort of crop that could produce Urine in a limited fashion, others in the community have taken a pretty hardline "no" stance on the idea, with concerns for pee flooding being a prime concern. To me, flooding the station is quite the antag-y thing to do, regardless of what liquid it is, so the thought of doing it hasn't really crossed my mind, but it seems like piss-flood-PTSD has strongly affected many a spaceperson on these forums. Also, floods of urine don't actually do much when compared to floods of other far nastier chems that botany can already mass-produce, such as Capcacin, Cryostylane, Glowing slurry, Radium, Cyanide, and more. And aside from the occasional "lean wave," botany flooding the station is rather uncommon in my experience.

So! I'd like to ask what the community's opinion on Urine as a mechanic/chem is. Should it be removed? Reworked? Kept only in the most inoffensive way possible?

I do intend this to be a real discussion, I'm not trying to troll here - I think this is a feature that could be expanded upon or entirely removed without causing serious problems to greater game balance (besides changing a few chem recipes, like Triple Triple), so I'd like to discuss it.

My take is that, given that vomit is in the game, and you are far more likely to see massive yellow puddles of diluted vomit mixed with water or blood rather than a puddle of urine these days, I'm not really bothered at all. SS13 is a game about a horrible, crusty space station, which will invariably end up caked in gore and covered in death (unless you're on RP, and that's not guaranteed either). People are screaming as they burn to death, organs are flying everywhere, delimbed people are shambling to medbay bleeding from every pore...it's a veritable hellscape. In comparison to that, pee is, like, pretty meh to me. Gross, yes, but not nearly as gross as blood personally. In terms of botany, so long as urine production remained limited to one crop and urine couldn't be spliced into other plants, I'd be fine with having an alternative method for it to be made. And if pee as a feature goes away, I can freakin' buy saltpetre from cargo or ask the bartender for access to the chem dispenser - fighting to implement a crop that produces urine is not a hill I care to die on. I just think having a somewhat involved way for botany to amass more of the most quickly depleted chem in their GardenGear vendors would be nice.
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#2
Ooh boy... while yes you can Capcacin flood easier then urine. There is just one thing you didn't think of....

A lot of people will NOT chem flood places of any kind for antaggy reason.. but every one who wants to be a clown wants to Pee flood...
This is why it's been nerfed. Cause it was a grey line.

Why don't we remove it?
SIMPLE! There are still game play mechanics tied to it.
And it's still FUNNY when done creatively.

I do agree making own Saltpetre is really annoying and hard for botanists and such.
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#3
(01-31-2023, 01:37 PM)Kotlol Wrote: A lot of people will NOT chem flood places of any kind for antaggy reason.. but every one who wants to be a clown wants to Pee flood...

*Looks at my history of ashfloods, 1-2 bigger vomit- and a blood flood* yeeeah.... people generally don't do it... right...

On topic: To be honest, i don't mind having urine stay at the place it currently is. It not mass-produceable and honestly, that is the only concern i really see there. The disgusting part of it is something i like to play out if i get hit with it as a personal attack (like a clown with piss balloons). Although i personally don't use the chem.

In general, there is one event involving urine i recall being very problematic (that was a piss flood organized by a good chunk of people). And if it becomes that rarely an issue, i would say it is in a fine place. We don't need more urine in the game, but i don't think there is much reason to make it less as well.
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#4
cleaning up a flood takes seconds and its generally harmless and funny, people need to lighten up
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#5
(02-01-2023, 04:42 PM)MoonJesus Wrote: cleaning up a flood takes seconds and its generally harmless and funny, people need to lighten up
(02-01-2023, 06:27 AM)Lord_earthfire Wrote: *Looks at my history of ashfloods, 1-2  bigger vomit- and a blood flood* yeeeah.... people generally don't do it... right...

On these points, I'd like to compare the damage of flooding and the frequency of it (on places besides Oshan, mind you) to that of other obstructive player actions that are more common, such as TTV bombs. TTV's are upsettingly common on Classic, and they do tons of (often irreparable) damage that can be widely-felt due to the depressurization, loss of station personnel, and loss of equipment. Since very few of the machines in the station are disabled by minor flooding, flooding usually doesn't instantly gib people, and flooding has a rather limited range of effect, I'd agree that it's far and away less of a serious concern. (Obviously flooding is only limited if it's not coming from an ocean/infinite source tile.) The biggest concern about flooding, as I understand it, are effects on game performance due to water-spreading simulations, although I believe that some optimizations in how the game handles water spreading mechanics have been made. Don't quote me on that last part, though.

(I may also be particularly salty about TTV's, because I played 4 rounds in a row the other day where the station was mass-depressurized by TTV's sent by some jackass in telescience, and they were not terribly fun rounds.)

I still don't like flooding because it's unsightly and a hassle, and potentially dangerous if the liquid in question has ON TOUCH or skin-penetrating effects, but it is admittedly not very dangerous without those things. Still, if I see people actively flooding things - and there aren't any other more important things to deal with - I'd be inclined to call sec on it because it's a public nuisance. And piss flooding has the added effect of grossing people out, as Kotol pointed out, hence the incentive from certain groups (bored staff assistants, clowns, etc.) to try and do it over other types of flooding.
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#6
(02-01-2023, 04:42 PM)MoonJesus Wrote: cleaning up a flood takes seconds and its generally harmless and funny, people need to lighten up

Flooding isn't bad, heck I run a flooding gimmick as an antag or small flood as a clown as a joke. But those are water floods.
Heck I even did a holy water flood. (Captain approved since everyone felt purified XD, don't ask how I did that one)

Pee floods lower your hygiene level and while it won't get you sick... it is "annoying"
It also grosses out some players OOCly.

Some things get nerfed or changed not cause of "problems in gameplay"
But it annoys players and makes them skip rounds or leave.

Pee floods while gameplay wise don't do much.. it's just "annoying to see'
Infact lubing floors has that problem too.. if done too much in a row.. people are like: "Yea it's no longer fun.. gonna cryo"

I repeat some of my gimmicks too, mostly so they can be expirenced by new players or veterans can redo it, but... I avoid running them several times in a row, since it's just tiring. 

The game has a lot of different fun mechanics you can explore and do stuff with... but every round a pee flood or lube spam despite not doing much... just get tiring and boring. And thus sometimes these things get nerfed. Lubing hasn't been nerfed yet as some players show restraint in it or can't get the chems.

Also think of it like this... A bartender keeps giving bad drinks each shift. Now you will avoid the bar. It's that logic. While the drinks won't kill you, it disrupts your gameplay. And that's what pee floods are.. disruptive.
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#7
Reminder: you can make saltpetre with ammonia

Ammonia is Nitrogen + Hydrogen

Nitrogen is in Beans

Hydrogen is in Hydrogen Melons

Therefore you can make a plant that mass produces ammonia with a bit of work.
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#8
(02-02-2023, 06:47 PM)UrsulaMejor Wrote: Reminder: you can make saltpetre with ammonia

Ammonia is Nitrogen + Hydrogen

Nitrogen is in Beans

Hydrogen is in Hydrogen Melons

Therefore you can make a plant that mass produces ammonia with a bit of work.

This is true. Of note is that Golden Pea Pods also make ammonia as their main product, bypassing the need for a chem dispenser (for the hydrogen) entirely. (That said I'm not familiar with the recipe for Saltpetre using ammonia, I'm not a chemist.)

Additionally, Compost + Potash + Nitrogen (according to the Wiki) will give you saltpetre as well, albeit at a worse ratio of ingredients to product produced compared to Urine. Compost and potash are renewable in botany thanks to paper trees and the compost bins, so long as you have a welder. Huh. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

(But, don't think I don't see your clever deflection of the point at hand; since you are a senior member of this holy forum and have likely seen the ""best"" and worst of this mechanic, what are your thoughts on its current state?)
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#9
Are we having another 13 page thread about piss again?

Take these as my own thoughts rather than any kind of official statement: I think having it where in the silly spaceman game you can go wee and then make a bomb from it is good for a goof and fits this kind of creative crude improvisational science humor we have going well. But filling a room with piss? You're killing the joke. Now, you're the piss guy. Is that the person you want to be? Do you think your parents would be proud knowing they raised the piss guy? That's not the kind of future you want for yourself, you don't want to walk that path
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#10
yeah the piss cube was a funny bit for the first couple times, nerfing piss was handled (mostly) by adding a replacement recipe for the thing piss is most commonly used for

though there is one recipe that springs to mind that's negatively impacted by this nerf that perhaps might need less triplepiss
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