Research, currently, feels like a timegate tacked on a bunch of nonsensical and placeholder experiments, that rarely result in doing something that the player cares about, and encourages going to another department and filling it with tables and chairs. this will hopefully add some depth to the system, and encourage players to touch more areas of the game. # Goals to make research more engaging, first and foremost. what i'd ultimately like is for each node to get the player familiar with a different part of the game. for example - certain tasks would require department cooperation, like getting a mulebot to go to a certain destination node. # Non-Goals to remove *all* current researches in favor of new ones. under this, a few that are very standout in the system (ordnance related ones, scanning upgraded machines, generally anything that requires or encourages some kind of gameplay) to end up with researches that feel as placeholder-y as current nodes. most researches should be engaging side quests to go on, and encourage interacting with another player rather than an object. # The Rework low grade material scanning -> largely removed. one possible replacement for some of its nodes are building and scanning statues of other players. medium grade material scanning -> replaced by scanning apcs and air alarms in fairly accessible (and sometimes difficult to reach) places. (for advanced exosuits, this would instead be scanning a completed mech or modsuit.) high grade material scanning -> scan 3 reagents produced by lavaland geysers (maybe just scan the geysers themselves?) biological scanning -> replaced with scanning players that have recently eaten, or a souled creature with a wound. playtesting experiences -> kept as is, with a static orion trail somewhere reasonable, as most games are heavily RNG and not worth engaging with. wild biomatter -> seems okay as is. may be refined later on. unique biomatter -> maybe replaced with performing an autopsy on exp surgery. station hygiene inspection -> potentially use a rotating required scan. so one round it's blood, next it's garbage, etc. parts applications -> the list now rotates, with a little logic to ensure it doesn't roll a device that doesn't have capacitors under the capacitors node (for all various specific scans) slime survey -> removed. (a potential rework would be to scan mobs brought back to life by strange reagent or lazarus injectors.) hypernob, reactionless, BZ: unchanged new potential bonus nodes: fauna scanning - take photos/scan 3 fauna from lavaland or icebox. improved mulebot tracking: have a mulebot deliver a package to (random) node