Give engineers a crummy way to plug up hull breaches.

[phart]

One of my biggest gripes with this game is the fact that engineers basically never fix shit up. I know it is very boring and could potentially make rounds last forever if they did. But when meteors strike the station the shuttle is almost always called due to things going to absolute shit and the lag atmospherics causes in the process, there are other similar scenarios too, like when the station's been bombed to a crisp in twenty places and everything is absolutely fucked to the point where you can't go down the hall as a new arrival without nearly dying from decompression in the process.

My solution to such occasions is giving the Engineers' a supply of spray-based version of the metal-foam grenades, sort of like a repairs fire-extinguisher I guess. Not only would this be a really shitty and easily ruined solution to leaking air, I could see it being weaponized too. Spray yourself a shield from a crazy chainsaw wielding madman so you can gain a few seconds of running ahead, or trap people in a box and throw a grenade at it that they can't likely escape from. Mainly though I just like the idea of a space-station being held together by metal-glue and desperately hoping that it doesn't crack or tear. I asked about the idea in IRC and apparently foam may just clog up fire extinguishers at the moment, which is kinda really crappy in my opinion.

[Fragmaster Lee]

Just have metal foam create a metal foam floor tile in addition to a wall when on a space tile.

[Frank_Stein]

Chalk guns that could be loaded with different things would be great. Metal foams for engineering, cheese for the chef...

[Archenteron]

Just have metal foam create a metal foam floor tile in addition to a wall when on a space tile.

It does though?

[Armchair]

But when meteors strike the station the shuttle is almost always called due to things going to absolute shit and the lag atmospherics causes in the process, there are other similar scenarios too, like when the station's been bombed to a crisp in twenty places and everything is absolutely fucked to the point where you can't go down the hall as a new arrival without nearly dying from decompression in the process.

Last time I checked, those are all extremely good reasons to call the shuttle. I would go so far as to say that if the shuttle isn't called in such a scenario, I would start wondering if the AI and heads of staff are still alive.

Suffocating to death after stepping off of the emergency shuttle is annoying though. If only more players had access to a ready set of internals. Perhaps we could put the internals kit within a box and put that box within a backpack....



I'm all for engineering getting more toys though. I do think it is odd that you gripe about engineering slacking off when that division consistently does more work for the station than most jobs combined.

[Karakoran]

I bet more people would bother to help if there was more readily accessible metal too. Not necessarily Engineers, just metal for regular Staff Assistants.

[UrsulaMejor]

metal foam creates shitty tiles over space when you break them.

1) Have a chance for metal foam grenades to start in emergency toolboxes (that way there could be a good chance of having one one the arrival's shuttle in case it's bombed outside)

2) Have 2 or three available in the warehouse

3) Make the metal sheets in the warehouse into 20 sheet stacks instead of 1 sheet stacks

4) Have a couple deactivated floorbots in maintenance shafts

[Fragmaster Lee]

metal foam creates shitty tiles over space when you break them.

1) Have a chance for metal foam grenades to start in emergency toolboxes (that way there could be a good chance of having one one the arrival's shuttle in case it's bombed outside)

2) Have 2 or three available in the warehouse

3) Make the metal sheets in the warehouse into 20 sheet stacks instead of 1 sheet stacks

4) Have a couple deactivated floorbots in maintenance shafts

The thread has been won, ladies and gentlemen. I don't see anything topping Ursula, really.

[Paineframe]

Even when someone DOES repair the damage, people ignore it anyway, call the shuttle, and never come back to use the repaired department. It's just easier to call the shuttle than it is to wait a few minutes for the engineers (or even borgs) to fix anything properly. I rarely bother to fix anything bigger than a small hull breach anymore, because no one cares, so why bother? I can't count the number of big repair jobs where, while I and others busily rebuilt half a department or relaid a section of hall, someone else decided a better way to cope with the damage was just to call the shuttle. Making metal foam grenades more readily available would certainly help (might as well just add them to the QM list; emergency crates could use something to make them worth ordering), but in the end I've found that repairing is something to be done purely for personal satisfaction, for the sheer zen of building, because no one else is ever going to notice or care.

[Anticheese]

metal foam creates shitty tiles over space when you break them.

1) Have a chance for metal foam grenades to start in emergency toolboxes (that way there could be a good chance of having one one the arrival's shuttle in case it's bombed outside)

2) Have 2 or three available in the warehouse

3) Make the metal sheets in the warehouse into 20 sheet stacks instead of 1 sheet stacks

4) Have a couple deactivated floorbots in maintenance shafts

Good Ideas

[Sundance]

Hitting metal foam floor with a floor tile should make normal floor.
Y/N?

[UrsulaMejor]

Hitting metal foam floor with a floor tile should make normal floor.
Y/N?

Y

[Noah Buttes]

metal foam creates shitty tiles over space when you break them.

1) Have a chance for metal foam grenades to start in emergency toolboxes (that way there could be a good chance of having one one the arrival's shuttle in case it's bombed outside)

2) Have 2 or three available in the warehouse

3) Make the metal sheets in the warehouse into 20 sheet stacks instead of 1 sheet stacks

4) Have a couple deactivated floorbots in maintenance shafts

Good ideas all around!

[mozi]

making some repairs one handed would be cool, cause when I'm engineering and patching stuff up I have to carry a backpack full of metal and glass and it's a pain shuffling around with it. Can't wear it on my back cause that's where my O2 tank is, and can't wear O2 on my belt cause that's where my toolbelt is.

specifically I'm thinking

• using a floor tile on a broken floor tile should fix it without having to pry the old one loose
  
• using a lightbulb on a fixture should replace the bulb without having to pull the old bulb out

[Fragmaster Lee]

• using a floor tile on a broken floor tile should fix it without having to pry the old one loose
  
• using a lightbulb on a fixture should replace the bulb without having to pull the old bulb out

Those sound like rather good changes.