Research Points for upgrading unique types of machines

[Pandarsenic]

To get the goddamn scientists out of their stupid fucking laboratory and encourage them to use the fucking Bluespace RPED for literally anything other than their own protolathes and exosuit fabricators instead of me having to do it as an engineer;

And to make Bluespace Matter Bins worth the cost of actually making them instead of using super matter bins or not bothering with upgrading matter bins at all, as I often see;

To give scientist traitors a plausible reason to enter other departments;

To encourage the rebuilding of damaged station areas when the machinery in them is lost;

And to give scientists on R&D duty something to do while waiting for points to come in instead of building one diamond chair and repeatedly picking it up and moving it to cheese scanning it 6 times;

Research Point costs for later techs should be higher, but the Research Points should accumulate faster based on the highest tier of part that has been put into each unique type of machine.

That means each individual protolathe; grinders, chem dispensers, chemmasters/condimasters; microwaves, deep fryers, griddles; the ORM; botany trays and biogenerators; cryo tubes and stasis beds; slime processors; thermomachines; rad collectors and emitters; etc.

The one most-upgraded example of that machine on the station contributes to the rate at which science accumulates research points. Because Science can't easily make the other protolathes to replace those other departments, this means that if they want to research effectively, they will have to actually walk across the hallway to Chemistry with a RPED for once in their fucking lives.

Whach'all think

[bobbahbrown]

the original intention for experisci (the most recent iteration penned by floyd, arcanemusic, and myself) was to move away from the ability to adjust research point income, turning that back into a static flow, and instead gating content behind doing physical actions (experiments), taking us away from cookie clicker rnd.

i think your idea is a good idea, but could be implemented in such a manner that machines should be upgraded to complete technodes, maybe with some thought given on how to avoid people just building said machines in the lab and upgrading them (to the benefit of noone), where appropriate.

thinking productively,
bobbah 'bee' brown

[Pandarsenic]

Hmmm. If the goal is to maintain the flow exactly where it is, perhaps something like what Nanites had, where you have a second "Field Tests" research pool that fills based on machines upgraded, much as Nanite Research progressed based on how many things had nanites (and you could apparently game this by stealing the mice from maintenance and giving them nanites, or something? Someone claimed to have done that once)

Rather than, for example, the most hated experiment I can name (getting a SINGLE GODDAMN GRAY SLIME SCAN from the xenobiologist)

You could perhaps be able to research basic biotech when you've upgraded a Medical Kiosk, a Chem Dispenser, ChemMaster maybe, and Reaction Chamber (I was thinking stasis bed, too, originally... but upgrading that does nothing)

Get core cyborg techs unlocked by upgrading the cyborg rechargers and ExoFabs

Get better engineering tech by further upgrading the SMES units, since those are independent of engine type

Etc.

Most of those can't be built in Science EXCEPT by raiding Tech Storage; interestingly, as I'm imagining it, this would substantially increase pressure for science to upgrade medbay at least partway early and get those techs unlocked... because if an antag can destroy the medical lathe, all copies of a machine, and all of its backup boards, it can become impossible to research medical tech unless you can, like, order spare boards from cargo or something.

What I'm saying is for the love of god get the damn scientists to help literally anyone else on the station, I'm so sick of a fully stocked science department making gold slime mobs or Adamantine Golem armies while I scream at them over the radio to unlock the Faster Wound Tending surgeries