Make the Experimentor have an in-depth purpose.
- Arcanemusic
- Code Maintainer
- Joined: Tue May 03, 2016 6:17 am
- Byond Username: ArcaneMusic
Make the Experimentor have an in-depth purpose.
Background: I've played ss13 since fucking forever. In the recent ssethtide, I took it upon myself to try and teach as many new kids, toddlers behind the wheel of inevitability, how to play the game in the weeks following that shitstorm. When I saw new scientists, though, I realized that whenever my tour of the departments lead me to the experimentor, I dodged as many questions as possible, because for the most part, the experimentor doesn't work. For those of you who don't know, the experimentor had it's original purpose locked in to the original pre-kevinz techwebs science setup. You would take strange objects, discover their true nature, and these unlocked strange objects didn't function like toys but often had high or rare tech levels associated with them, making them a fast way to skipping tech levels and getting to coveted points like level 7 power manipulation or illegal technology. In the modern day, however, the experimentor does 2 things.
1: Allows you to still reveal the nature of strange objects, giving you artifacts that can kick your ass or let you tide slightly harder.
2: Through a MASSIVE AMOUNT of luck, you can locate objects that consistantly mutate with the irradiate function, making randow non-weapon artifacts that can make your rounds much more interesting.
Spoiler Alert: Both of these functions have very little interaction with the round, and unlike real science departments, don't really have the depth to fill a full shift worth of time. That's where this SHIT IDEA comes in.
[center]The All New Experimentor[/center]
First, lets take what I and other people LIKE behind the design of the machine as it was and as it is. Then I'll throw an idea out there as to how to improve the machine to support this idea.
1. It allowed for you to randomize your RnD Experience at times, often when the RnD Meta was very strict each shift (Shout my boy Duke Out).
Easiest solution on this list, the experimentor should allow for some way to gain RnD pointsby hunting for objects that can potentially be 'improved'. The flavor I could see is that the machine, in the experiments it runs, can find methods of testing an object for flaws or defects, and by finding it's weaknesses, Nanotransen is able to improve the designs of the items themselves. Now, this wouldn't yield a real, inround benefit, but more of a flavorful way of saying you're doing busywork.
The E.X.P.E.R.I.Mentor causes the Wrench to yield at a hidden weak point, locating a Critical but otherwise insignificant flaw!
Data uploaded to Centcomm Databanks, rewarded with 1000 Research Points.
2. Even if it was just flavor, it allowed for you to run actual EXPERIMENTS each shift, not just routine activities like xenobio or toxins (Once you know how to make a Maxcap, anyway.)
Currently, each round the Experimentor yields a list of critical items that will potentially mutate when irradiated, and these items are practically IMPOSSIBLE to identify in round as a result of the fact that there are no indicators that the object will mutate until it's in the machine. This means that right now, the fastest way to locate objects that mutate in the experimentor is to just rapidfire take cheap items that can be mass produced and wait until one reliably mutates. But what if I said that we could knock out TWO BIRDS with ONE STONE and make a currently USELESS item USEFUL with this same idea? Expand the science goggles scanning mode in order to identify reactive items in the experimentor with a glow similar to the current hivemind pink flow when active, allowing you to locate items to experiment on.
You toggle the Science Goggle's Scanning Mode.
That's a Salt Shaker .
Object contains exceptional experimental value!
3. You would VERY RARELY get interesting items from mundane ones, acting as a sort of gambling.
To balance the ease of finding things to experiment on and gain more RnD Points, items will fall into Low Priority, Medium Priority, and High Priority experimental items. Each higher class has a higher chance of activating the experimentor's old dangerous murder traps like spewing radiation or draining your SOUL ESSENCE, but at the same time have a chance to mutate into higher quality items if using radiation, or locating more valuable flaws in the item gaining more RnD Points, OR, having a chance of unlocking unsearchable nodes, allowing for far more variety within what items RnD will have access to.
1: Allows you to still reveal the nature of strange objects, giving you artifacts that can kick your ass or let you tide slightly harder.
2: Through a MASSIVE AMOUNT of luck, you can locate objects that consistantly mutate with the irradiate function, making randow non-weapon artifacts that can make your rounds much more interesting.
Spoiler Alert: Both of these functions have very little interaction with the round, and unlike real science departments, don't really have the depth to fill a full shift worth of time. That's where this SHIT IDEA comes in.
[center]The All New Experimentor[/center]
First, lets take what I and other people LIKE behind the design of the machine as it was and as it is. Then I'll throw an idea out there as to how to improve the machine to support this idea.
1. It allowed for you to randomize your RnD Experience at times, often when the RnD Meta was very strict each shift (Shout my boy Duke Out).
Easiest solution on this list, the experimentor should allow for some way to gain RnD pointsby hunting for objects that can potentially be 'improved'. The flavor I could see is that the machine, in the experiments it runs, can find methods of testing an object for flaws or defects, and by finding it's weaknesses, Nanotransen is able to improve the designs of the items themselves. Now, this wouldn't yield a real, inround benefit, but more of a flavorful way of saying you're doing busywork.
The E.X.P.E.R.I.Mentor causes the Wrench to yield at a hidden weak point, locating a Critical but otherwise insignificant flaw!
Data uploaded to Centcomm Databanks, rewarded with 1000 Research Points.
2. Even if it was just flavor, it allowed for you to run actual EXPERIMENTS each shift, not just routine activities like xenobio or toxins (Once you know how to make a Maxcap, anyway.)
Currently, each round the Experimentor yields a list of critical items that will potentially mutate when irradiated, and these items are practically IMPOSSIBLE to identify in round as a result of the fact that there are no indicators that the object will mutate until it's in the machine. This means that right now, the fastest way to locate objects that mutate in the experimentor is to just rapidfire take cheap items that can be mass produced and wait until one reliably mutates. But what if I said that we could knock out TWO BIRDS with ONE STONE and make a currently USELESS item USEFUL with this same idea? Expand the science goggles scanning mode in order to identify reactive items in the experimentor with a glow similar to the current hivemind pink flow when active, allowing you to locate items to experiment on.
You toggle the Science Goggle's Scanning Mode.
That's a Salt Shaker .
Object contains exceptional experimental value!
3. You would VERY RARELY get interesting items from mundane ones, acting as a sort of gambling.
To balance the ease of finding things to experiment on and gain more RnD Points, items will fall into Low Priority, Medium Priority, and High Priority experimental items. Each higher class has a higher chance of activating the experimentor's old dangerous murder traps like spewing radiation or draining your SOUL ESSENCE, but at the same time have a chance to mutate into higher quality items if using radiation, or locating more valuable flaws in the item gaining more RnD Points, OR, having a chance of unlocking unsearchable nodes, allowing for far more variety within what items RnD will have access to.
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- Code Maintainer
- Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2016 6:09 pm
- Byond Username: Time-Green
Re: Make the Experimentor have an in-depth purpose.
https://github.com/tgstation/tgstation/pull/38038 this is what the experimentor needs. I will never truly recover from this not getting merged
- Nabski
- Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2016 5:42 pm
- Byond Username: Nabski
- Github Username: Nabski89
- Location: TN
Re: Make the Experimentor have an in-depth purpose.
That PR was so bad, and the while where it was test merged was aweful. No-one used it for the generating extra points, it was just duplicating traitor gear.Time-Green wrote:https://github.com/tgstation/tgstation/pull/38038 this is what the experimentor needs. I will never truly recover from this not getting merged
- MisterPerson
- Board Moderator
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2014 4:26 pm
- Byond Username: MisterPerson
Re: Make the Experimentor have an in-depth purpose.
Historically speaking, making science into a scavenger hunt has never worked, so please be very careful not to do that.
I code for the code project and moderate the code sections of the forums.
Feedback is dumb and it doesn't matter
Feedback is dumb and it doesn't matter
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- Joined: Mon Mar 20, 2017 8:11 pm
- Byond Username: Adamkad1
Re: Make the Experimentor have an in-depth purpose.
people who do R&D dont have much else to do though
- Shadowflame909
- Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2017 10:18 pm
- Byond Username: Shadowflame909
- Location: Think about something witty and pretend I put it here
Re: Make the Experimentor have an in-depth purpose.
Boredom = Grief.
RnD is getting phased out as a job.
The only thing to really do as a scientist is Xenobiology, or suffer till 1 hour when someone finally researches what is essentially virology 2.0, Nanites.
Science really needs more to do!
RnD is getting phased out as a job.
The only thing to really do as a scientist is Xenobiology, or suffer till 1 hour when someone finally researches what is essentially virology 2.0, Nanites.
Science really needs more to do!
► Show Spoiler
- Kel-the-Oblivious
- Joined: Mon Nov 23, 2015 7:32 pm
- Byond Username: Kel the Oblivious
Re: Make the Experimentor have an in-depth purpose.
Scavenger hunting RnD was more entertaining than "Stare at screen as points rack up, and pray someone doesn't research useless shit while you are still working on High-Eff parts"
I agree with scientist being reduced to xenobiology for something to do all round. Everything else can be learned by rotes, and be done in the first 10 minutes. Give miners relics to dig up and give to RnD for extra research. Xenoarcheology is fairly common on other servers, and it would give RnD something else to do. Giving the Experimentor a proper purpose that, dare I say, relies on cross department interaction.
I agree with scientist being reduced to xenobiology for something to do all round. Everything else can be learned by rotes, and be done in the first 10 minutes. Give miners relics to dig up and give to RnD for extra research. Xenoarcheology is fairly common on other servers, and it would give RnD something else to do. Giving the Experimentor a proper purpose that, dare I say, relies on cross department interaction.
The master splicer, the bitch queen of mining, and some crazy ligger peddling you medicinal marijuana.
Super Aggro Crag wrote:Kel is a genuine Cool Oldfag
- Stickymayhem
- Joined: Mon Apr 28, 2014 6:13 pm
- Byond Username: Stickymayhem
Re: Make the Experimentor have an in-depth purpose.
This was my replacement idea https://tgstation13.org/phpBB/viewtopic ... us#p373137
Boris wrote:Sticky is a jackass who has worms where his brain should be, but he also gets exactly what SS13 should be
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