bluespace capsules

[Witherael]

when i play miner, i like saving my points up for a bunch of bluespace capsules and making a village, but there are two things that make this difficult
the first is placing, i think it would be a good change to have the circles you see when a shuttle is landing outline the area the capsule will take up. its less noticeable with the basic capsule, but makes it a pain with the larger ones
the second is variety, theres only three capsules, and two are functionally identical. i thought about it for a bit, and considered what i would want to buy as an singular building that can be deployed anywhere, given the space is large enough. my ideas are as follows:
a kitchen
a garden
a theatre
a medical room
a room with a whiteship console
a boxing ring
a casino/arcade
a xenobiology lab
a barracks
a jail cell
a robotics
though not something thats too much of a bother for me, id like to be able to have access set to the person who activated the pod, its weird when you spawn a luxury pod and some dude just walks in and loots you

[TheFinalPotato]

asked for feedback via discord. feedback:

outlines: good, based, should be done.
would use a single colored square scaled up to match the bounds by transforming it, maybe have it animate slightly?

extra pods: don't really like this I think.
survival pods exist so miners can survive storms if shit goes and they aren't near the station.
the use of them as extra buildings that can be furnished is a neat sandbox thing, but not something that fits the vibe of the tool.
it also leads into "porta jobs" which I think is even worse. having everything furnished sort of defeats the fun of sandbox stuff like this, it's taking something you find cool to do and removing the steps required to do it, just getting the outcome. I think that sucks, and I don't think you really want it.

what I would believe is there isn't enough variety in shapes/volume. they way to improve this niche is to find a niche that miners would want like, in vibe if that makes sense, like a storage room or a cheaper but crappy (and incidentially larger) shelter.
something you can put in that retains the creativity and vibe, but provides extra things to expand on/build with

[JusticeGoat]

I say skip the job ones that have department equipment and maybe have other variants like the arena, chapel, a reading room, a gambling den, ect.

[Witherael]

asked for feedback via discord. feedback:

outlines: good, based, should be done.
would use a single colored square scaled up to match the bounds by transforming it, maybe have it animate slightly?

extra pods: don't really like this I think.
survival pods exist so miners can survive storms if shit goes and they aren't near the station.
the use of them as extra buildings that can be furnished is a neat sandbox thing, but not something that fits the vibe of the tool.
it also leads into "porta jobs" which I think is even worse. having everything furnished sort of defeats the fun of sandbox stuff like this, it's taking something you find cool to do and removing the steps required to do it, just getting the outcome. I think that sucks, and I don't think you really want it.

what I would believe is there isn't enough variety in shapes/volume. they way to improve this niche is to find a niche that miners would want like, in vibe if that makes sense, like a storage room or a cheaper but crappy (and incidentially larger) shelter.
something you can put in that retains the creativity and vibe, but provides extra things to expand on/build with

theres already a bar capsule, so the precedent is there, i never really expected xenobio and robotics to make it past the throwing ideas and seeing what sticks phase, but i know im definitely not alone in enjoying the comfy feeling the bar and luxury capsule give. i think the perfect square shape every pod has is a large contributor to it, but thats just my own anecdote. if i had to choose just three of the examples to add to the game, i would want the kitchen, the garden, and the casino, but only really because they seem easiest to sell people on, since theyd have limited functional use, which is exactly why i think the other ones would be HARD to push. i definitely do really want the bluespace xenobiologies and other objectively broken stuff, but i was spitting the ideas out before even considering how it could be balanced, like huge ass mining point requirements or some kind of syndicate bluespace pod that costs TC. if i were to balance any of the 'porta jobs', it would probably be as easy in my mind as not making them nearly as polished as they typically are, northstar maints xenobio comes to mind. if i were to come up with mining specific niches, i can see every miner wanting a mining equipment vendor pod, but im not really sure what else. i really like how the bar capsule expands on the bluespace capsule and kinda just want to see more of it, because after a certain point, everyone has seen your porta bar and no one cares to come visit it. i imagine the porta kitchen to kind of mirror the porta bar, the employee doors linking with one another and whatnot. the bar capsule is everything you could possibly want in a bar for 6500 mining points, so i dont see why you couldnt have an even crazier price for like, a casino or medical capsule. i play on the RP server, so i guess thats the kind of angle im coming from, i think itd be fucking awesome to have mini robotics lab in the middle of hell, where you could like, make minebots and drones instead of borgs and ais, since i highly doubt normal ass robotics would simply never pass. get back to me when youve read this, im curious about your thoughts.

[c4g]

i would really like to see the kitchen added if only because you find so much god damn meat out there, and it feels like (in my experience) you almost never have the bag space to bring much of it back with you to cook at base, and all you've got back there is a microwave anyway.

[Ryusenshu]

I say skip the job ones that have department equipment and maybe have other variants like the arena, chapel, a reading room, a gambling den, ect.

Agree with that one

I personally would like to see a budget version that only happens on the "cheap pod" station trait and replaces the normal one in the mining lockers
... which is a "emergency toilet" in the smallest possible airtight room

[JusticeGoat]

hah an emergency public restroom pod would be great

[Jacquerel]

https://github.com/tgstation/tgstation/pull/76457

There you go.

[Witherael]

https://github.com/tgstation/tgstation/pull/76457

There you go.

wow, i didnt think someone would actually pick this up! do you also like the other pod ideas or did you just want to make the funny toilet pod?

[Jacquerel]

I was only interested in the gag one unfortunately, I sort of agree with the idea that being able to spawn too many kinds of prefurnished prefab rooms is ultimately stifling to creativity rather than helpful.
More shapes and sizes which don't come with furniture might be neat but I'd also be worried about clogging the vendor with a bunch of quasi-identical items.
A common refrain: We should make Construction faster instead.

[Constellado]

I would love to have it possible to renovate your own pod and then be able to send it back to handheld form. A portable custom bunker!
(Is that already a thing?)

A common refrain: We should make Construction faster instead.

In my experience it is material usage that holds back engineering when doing projects.