Solars should start in a randomized state of disrepair.

[Aeri]

Solars, generally speaking they're too fucking easy.

Spawn in as engineer, nab a hardsuit, hop outside, connect a cable, press a button, boop!
You now have, generally, enough power for the entire station, supermatter? Who needs it? Why Chernobyl the fucking station when I can place two bits of wire? Cool, why do I even sign up as an engineer.

What I'd propose is that there's a chance of stuff such as the cable being present/not, missing/damaged solar panels (With adequate supply of replacement panels to refurbish the array).
Heck maybe a good chunk of the time they spawn ready to go same as always, but you have to be ready/know how to rebuild them just in case.
God forbid setting up the solar arrays takes any real time or effort.

The technology is there, I saw it in the derelict space station ghost role. New solar panels can be built, they almost never ARE, but they can be.

The only big problemo I see is people being dipshits not doing their jobs, but what else is new, discuss?

[bobbahbrown]

charlie station was always fun to do because you had to set up the array

[zxaber]

I think randomly broken solar panels would be a good choice for sure. Engineering storage does have a box of extra solar panels, if I'm not mistaken.

[skoglol]

Fairly trivial to make a mapping helper with a chance of broken solars, though it would be per solar and not per array. Reason being we dont have array templates, and they all vary.

[zxaber]

We could make a child of solars called /obj/machinery/power/solar/roundstart, with an extra line in initialization to roll for break chance, and use Find/Replace on the station maps. It would do the same thing (chance to break per solar), but not require a bunch of map tool placement.

[cacogen]

charlie station was always fun to do because you had to set up the array

you still do and it was intolerable before it was changed, now it's just annoying

[Qbopper]

We could make a child of solars called /obj/machinery/power/solar/roundstart, with an extra line in initialization to roll for break chance, and use Find/Replace on the station maps. It would do the same thing (chance to break per solar), but not require a bunch of map tool placement.

I can't speak for the code side but this would likely be a trillion times nicer for mappers

[Cobby]

you could fairly easily add a var to this subtype that determined what array group it is in (say 1 being NW or something) then have the probability be shifted dynamically per broken panel within the array.

volatile code warning

Code: Select all

#define NW_ARRAY 1

/obj/machinery/blahblahblah/roundstart
    var/array = NW_ARRAY

/obj/machinery/blahblahblah/roundstart/Initialize
    . = ..()
    var/static/list/broken_dishes_counter = list()
    var/amibroke = FALSE

    if(broken_dishes_counter[array])
        amibroke = prob(90-(broken_dishes_counter[array]*10)) //more broken dishes in array = less chance of this guy breaking
    else
        amibroke = prob(90)

    if(!amibroke)
        return // we don't need to do anything else
    //break the panel here

    if(array in arraycount)
        arraycount[array]++
    else
        arraycount += list(array = 1)

    
    

[Aeri]

*Snip

That's neat, would be a nice touch if they're rotated in random chaotic directions, making the button-press more satisfying when they all align with each other.

[XivilaiAnaxes]

"Why Chernobyl the station?"

Because it's fun? Nobody sets up solars not because it's hard but because it's a waste of time irl. "I want to go play ss13 to go into an area with 0 hostile 0 conflict 0 narrative 0 anything because I want to roleplay a good citizen".

As a narrative device the SM is objectively magnitudes better.

[OFQ]

What if you had to clean solars from the space dust once in a while to keep peak performance and they can be upgradable with better parts

[Aeri]

"Why Chernobyl the station?"

Because it's fun? Nobody sets up solars not because it's hard but because it's a waste of time irl. "I want to go play ss13 to go into an area with 0 hostile 0 conflict 0 narrative 0 anything because I want to roleplay a good citizen".

As a narrative device the SM is objectively magnitudes better.

I think you kinda missed the point, I literally just used that as an example to showcase why the solars are too easy as it stands, did you read the post or is your reading comprehension just a bit behind?

[XivilaiAnaxes]

I think you kinda missed the point, I literally just used that as an example to showcase why the solars are too easy as it stands, did you read the post or is your reading comprehension just a bit behind?

You're the one missing the point.

Making solars a twisted mess that you have to put together doesn't fix the problem that they just aren't remotely engaging.

If anything you're making it worse by adding nothing but tedium as an access barrier to something nobody wants to do in the first place.

People enjoy the SM because it's dangerous, because there's a lot of underlying mechanics (like all the potential gas fuckery), because it spits lightning/anomalies/fire/singuloth when you do it wrong (or just right). There's an engaging narrative in sinking yourself into the SM. There is literally nothing engaging about solars. Making it a tedious construction project doesnt give it a narrative worth telling.

Tedium isn't depth. Tedium isn't good game design.

[nullbear]

+chance for solar panel to start dirty, needing to be cleaned (janitor love) or produce at 50% efficiency.

[cacogen]

add: janitorial hardsuit, janitor now has to clean space or server runs at 50% efficiency
tweak: chance for space tiles to start dirty