Goonhub
09-25-2014, 07:07 PM
I've been playing botanist a lot recently, it's one of my favourite jobs. I've been trying to think of some things that could be expanded/improved upon.
Benign mutations
Pumpkin - some kind of glowing mutation. Contains phosphorus. Mostly so botanists can make smoke powder without leaving hydroponics.
Cotton - grows fibrilith ore. More useful for infusions and smelter science.
Lemon
- acidic, contains sulfuric acid
- electrically charged - stick some wires to it to get a makeshift power cell, where the charge depends on potency.
Synthmeat - infuse with nanites to make plants that grow cyborg limbs and cyberhearts. Give one to the roboticist to keep him happy.
Banana - grows banana peels directly. A great time-saver.
Eggplant - grows amusing duck eggs.
Onion - extremely potent. When bitten or cut everyone around you *cries.
More dangerous mutations
Ideally I'd like to see some of these implemented as something a regular botanist could obtain, but maybe some ought to be traitor only.
Grass - crystal grass. Looks like regular grass, maybe gives an odd message when examined, acts like crystal grass shards when stepped on.
Radweed
- electromagnetic radweed, gives off EMP pulses every once in a while.
- potent radweed, can be harvested for polonium.
Carrot/sugarcane - something that makes a passable melee weapon, maybe a sugarcane rapier or something.
Ore plant - infuse with black powder/raise potency high enough for a chance at erebite ore. Maybe this could already be a thing though, I haven't experimented much with it.
Lasher - glowing. Acts like a portable flasher, will flash anyone walking nearby and then lash at them aggressively. This one's more for the pun, really.
Apple - poisonous apples that put you in a coma. Contain sodium thiopental/pancuronium.
Vomiting plant - raise the potency to obscenely high levels, and you get a projectile-vomiting plant - a plant that shoots the ling acid spit at anyone nearby every once in a while.
Some general quality of life improvements
-Hydroponics could start with a second bee egg, so that there are two bees to cover both sides.
-Compost tanks could have a much bigger capacity, an average botanist will have it filled up within ten minutes or so.
-Click-dragging seeds to crates shouldn't bring the crops underneath with them. It would make it easier to separate the two.
-A way to drain trays of liquid without also uprooting the plant inside. Perfect for when you've got a good strain going and the other botanist tosses in weedkiller/an extra watering can's worth of water just for kicks.
-An anti-tox kit in addition to the medkit. A lot of things the botanist can grow are poisonous, and it'd be nice to have something on hand to treat adventurous botanists/staff assistants who eat anything off the ground.
-Hydroponics borgs - one of the saddest borg types, not even very good at their only job. One thing I'd suggest is for the portable seed fabricator to have a number of open slots to copy and save any type of seed. This way, a helpful botanist can hack the seed fabricator to give the borg the fun seeds to play with, and the borg can help out by copying rare seeds, such as omnizine/lifeweed strains. Another would be to have it come with a nutrient dispenser, so it can modify seeds in the plantmaster.
-Have hydroponics trays fit in crates. I've always found it odd that the only time hydroponics trays fit in crates is when you order it from QM, and once you open that up, you've got four trays that you have to manually lug around. How are they compressing these things over at Centcom?
-Maybe have a public/broken down food processor nearby. One thing I've found is that not many botanists know what plant processes into what food. If they knew what plants could be turned into interesting food, they might be more willing to help the chef out. Or usurp his role.
Additional ideas
-Coconuts. Process into coconut milk, do a decent chunk of brute damage when thrown, cut into half and run around making horse noises
-Coffee and cocoa beans, to process into coffee/chocolate. May be useful if the bartender needs them but someone's blown up all the vending machines.
-Trees. Cut 'em down and harvest them for wooden planks. Barricade up botany, or make wooden furniture out of them and go around replacing all those soulless chairs.
-Flowers. Maybe they could act like grass, or maybe they could be set in low-maintenance pots. Regardless, something colourful to pretty up/annoy the station, and it gets the botanists moving about and interacting with people.
-Dye processor - stick herbs and plants in it to get a paint can of the same colour. Also gives the botanists a fun toy to play with that has them moving around the station.
-Monkeyplants - because why should the geneticists be the only one to get that horrific abomination of nature?
-Some way to combine all those synth-parts into an organic monstrosity. Or just a regular Life NPC. Either way.
I might add on to this later if I can think of anything.
Benign mutations
Pumpkin - some kind of glowing mutation. Contains phosphorus. Mostly so botanists can make smoke powder without leaving hydroponics.
Cotton - grows fibrilith ore. More useful for infusions and smelter science.
Lemon
- acidic, contains sulfuric acid
- electrically charged - stick some wires to it to get a makeshift power cell, where the charge depends on potency.
Synthmeat - infuse with nanites to make plants that grow cyborg limbs and cyberhearts. Give one to the roboticist to keep him happy.
Banana - grows banana peels directly. A great time-saver.
Eggplant - grows amusing duck eggs.
Onion - extremely potent. When bitten or cut everyone around you *cries.
More dangerous mutations
Ideally I'd like to see some of these implemented as something a regular botanist could obtain, but maybe some ought to be traitor only.
Grass - crystal grass. Looks like regular grass, maybe gives an odd message when examined, acts like crystal grass shards when stepped on.
Radweed
- electromagnetic radweed, gives off EMP pulses every once in a while.
- potent radweed, can be harvested for polonium.
Carrot/sugarcane - something that makes a passable melee weapon, maybe a sugarcane rapier or something.
Ore plant - infuse with black powder/raise potency high enough for a chance at erebite ore. Maybe this could already be a thing though, I haven't experimented much with it.
Lasher - glowing. Acts like a portable flasher, will flash anyone walking nearby and then lash at them aggressively. This one's more for the pun, really.
Apple - poisonous apples that put you in a coma. Contain sodium thiopental/pancuronium.
Vomiting plant - raise the potency to obscenely high levels, and you get a projectile-vomiting plant - a plant that shoots the ling acid spit at anyone nearby every once in a while.
Some general quality of life improvements
-Hydroponics could start with a second bee egg, so that there are two bees to cover both sides.
-Compost tanks could have a much bigger capacity, an average botanist will have it filled up within ten minutes or so.
-Click-dragging seeds to crates shouldn't bring the crops underneath with them. It would make it easier to separate the two.
-A way to drain trays of liquid without also uprooting the plant inside. Perfect for when you've got a good strain going and the other botanist tosses in weedkiller/an extra watering can's worth of water just for kicks.
-An anti-tox kit in addition to the medkit. A lot of things the botanist can grow are poisonous, and it'd be nice to have something on hand to treat adventurous botanists/staff assistants who eat anything off the ground.
-Hydroponics borgs - one of the saddest borg types, not even very good at their only job. One thing I'd suggest is for the portable seed fabricator to have a number of open slots to copy and save any type of seed. This way, a helpful botanist can hack the seed fabricator to give the borg the fun seeds to play with, and the borg can help out by copying rare seeds, such as omnizine/lifeweed strains. Another would be to have it come with a nutrient dispenser, so it can modify seeds in the plantmaster.
-Have hydroponics trays fit in crates. I've always found it odd that the only time hydroponics trays fit in crates is when you order it from QM, and once you open that up, you've got four trays that you have to manually lug around. How are they compressing these things over at Centcom?
-Maybe have a public/broken down food processor nearby. One thing I've found is that not many botanists know what plant processes into what food. If they knew what plants could be turned into interesting food, they might be more willing to help the chef out. Or usurp his role.
Additional ideas
-Coconuts. Process into coconut milk, do a decent chunk of brute damage when thrown, cut into half and run around making horse noises
-Coffee and cocoa beans, to process into coffee/chocolate. May be useful if the bartender needs them but someone's blown up all the vending machines.
-Trees. Cut 'em down and harvest them for wooden planks. Barricade up botany, or make wooden furniture out of them and go around replacing all those soulless chairs.
-Flowers. Maybe they could act like grass, or maybe they could be set in low-maintenance pots. Regardless, something colourful to pretty up/annoy the station, and it gets the botanists moving about and interacting with people.
-Dye processor - stick herbs and plants in it to get a paint can of the same colour. Also gives the botanists a fun toy to play with that has them moving around the station.
-Monkeyplants - because why should the geneticists be the only one to get that horrific abomination of nature?
-Some way to combine all those synth-parts into an organic monstrosity. Or just a regular Life NPC. Either way.
I might add on to this later if I can think of anything.
