[Feature] MechComp Blueprint Saver (separate from ABC-U!!)

[Crystalwarrior]

Alright, so, when building my various mechanical contraptions I ran into one major problem with them if I wanted to make something big: I had to completely replace and rewire all the components every single round. This quickly got tedious overwhelming and took massive amounts of time, hours wasted just wiring shit the same way you wired them 20 rounds before. And then the shuttle is called without you even having a chance to test it out.
So, I think there should be a "component saver" of sorts that would work current-round and would be able to save data inbetween rounds as well.
I'm debating whether or not it's a good idea to save the positions of components themselves, but one variant of the object could be that:

1. Save component settings, toggles, values, etc.
   
2. Allow the user to place components one-by-one with the "component loader" tool on the tiles he clicks. For this to be viable, there should be a fast and easy way to name components outside of hand-labeller... or just save the hand-labelled name and put a hand labeller in mechlab.
   
3. After the mechanic has placed all the components, it would wire all remembered connections and print out a log of all the things it connected so the mechanic has a concise data dump to compare with!
   

This would save hours of work for mechanics that design major contraptions between rounds, and would allow them to debug, fix, tweak, etc. their designs much faster, allowing for a lot more creative mechanics designs other than station teleporters!

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Addendum: perhaps alongside this we should allow an easy way to see all component-connections that also takes pixel offsets into account? The current way to see component wires/interactions is very barebones.

[Cyfarfod]

So my basic problem with mechcomp shit is that if it's not an antag doing it, you're drawing attention away from the people that are SUPPOSED to have a chance to be the star of the show that round, so I don't really like the idea of making it easier to build them. If it'd tedious doing the same thing over and over, the better solution might be to not do it over and over.

[Crystalwarrior]

I suppose it's not so much tedious rebuilding the mechanics as it's very hard to follow what is and isn't connected. Perhaps my trouble is more with the actual process of wiring and how "invisible" it is? Heck half the time you can't even access the send-signal by normal examining or modifying.

[Mordent]

Massive no to this from me, not only from a technical "it would be a pain to make" standpoint but also from a "it's literally what mechanics are for" standpoint.

The time it takes to wire things up is part of the balancing act involved in the ridiculous power of mechanics. This is up there with "make welding fuel available in chem dispensers" in terms of ideas that would make playing it fun for a few rounds but suddenly become horrendously boring as you can basically achieve a full round's worth of stuff in a few minutes.

Seriously. What would you do once you've gone and placed "Deathtrap 3" or "Some Gimmick 17" or "Yet Another Way To Die 4" or whatever templates you end up getting made? I'm serious here. You make your template, refine it over a few rounds, then what? This is how jobs die.

[Crystalwarrior]

Actually this is an extremely valid point and I already regret making this thread. Shit.
Mechanic is still fun to play despite all the issues just because of the sheer potential for fun things you can do, remaking same shit over and over just to get it working would turn it from a fun gimmick into an overused idea and make people groan on the sight of it (see: prisoner's dilemma).
I haven't seen threads of this being suggested before and I'm relatively a new player so I had little perspective on the issue.

However I still believe that mechcomp needs more love from the standpoint of wiring and quality-of-life things.

[Mordent]

I need to make clear that I'm definitely not discouraging people posting ideas. That's the whole point of this forum!

What I would be very interested in is (as a separate thread) quality of life things that would make playing it more enjoyable without significantly affecting gameplay.

[Crystalwarrior]

Yeah to be honest that was my original plan, heh. Should I modify this thread or just make another thread entirely?