Cytogenetics - HackMD

# Background Cytology and Genetics have, historicaly, been very problematic for Space Station 13. Genetics has a history of easy-to-get overpowered tools like Hulk or Fire Breath while Cytology has been starved out of content and space in the game proper, being exceedingly rare for people to do it. Here are Cytology and Genetics' main problems: Cytology's Problems: * 1: Cytology is too time-consuming to do. In order to grow a harmless mob like a cat you need to find a sample, get the protein to grow it and get all the right reagents in order to do it. By the time you're finished the shuttle is already called. * 2: Cytology needs a lot of reagents to get going. You need both a lot of protein and a lot of exotic chemicals to make something cool. That means there basically needs to be a chemist and a botanist willing to help you out to perform Cytology, something not guaranteed to happen. * 3: Cytology has a severe lack of rewards. There are very little rewards for jumping through all the hoops to make a living being. Very few of the Cytology targets produce anything valuable and you need a sentience potion from Xenobio to make any of the combat ones useful. There's nothing worth the while here. * 4: Cytology has very little if any support in the maps currently in rotation. This harm even further the problems 1 and 2, making it exceedingly hard to even touch Cytology. A cytologist has to essentialy build their own lab from scratch. Genetics' Problems: * 1: Genetics is too isolated from the rest of the station; the Geneticist has little if any impact on the story of the round other than what mutations they distributed. * * 1.1: The act of obtaining mutations doesn't contribute to the story of the round; the Geneticist just types on its computer, isolated from all other players. * * 1.2: Once the mutations are out the Geneticist is out of a job to do; making more of an already discovered mutation is trivially easy. All the Geneticist has to do is put a pile of syringes on the floor and call it a day. * * Problems 1.1 and 1.2 together mean that the Geneticist as a player is irrelevant; the vast majorities of the stories involving genetics is about what the mutated person did rather than what the geneticist did to get the mutation or what the geneticist did after the mutation was out. Ideally stories about genetics should be evenly split among these 3 story types (what the geneticist did to get the mutation, what the mutated person did and what the geneticist did after discovering the mutation) but the current genetic mechanics lead no space for these other stories. * 2: Genetics is too easy. An experienced genetics player can obtain the hardest-to-get mutations very quickly, some even being able to discover all mutations in one shift. This means that no mutation is allowed to be powerful due to how easy they are to discover and mass produce. * 3: Genetics has ancient, nightmarish hellspawn code. Normally this kind of problem doesn't belong in a design doc but it's so bad that touching it is essentially a no-go. Thus any solution for Genetic's problems **must** circle around the old code rather than change it. This severely limits possible fixes for Genetics that isn't a complete overhaul. However, they are not all bad mechanics - they have many interesting and good things to them as well. Cytology's Virtues: * 1: Cytology promotes actively engaging in the round's story. * * 1.1: Cytology asks you to run around maintenance and other parts of the station to collect samples; this is great as it means the chance a cytologist involves themselves with another player's story increases significantly. * * 1.2: Cytology also asks you to ask other departments for help with reagents. This is great as it promotes inter-departmental cooperation and helps rope even more people into the round's story. * 2: Cytology has a relatively recent and sane code Genetics' Virues: * 1: Genetics has a lot of cool toys and rewards for doing it like fire breath, space proof-iness, etc. This makes it inherently worth doing by virtue of the power and coolness of its rewards, even if they've been nerfed with time. * 2: Genetics has a dedicated room in every station, meaning there is already room in every station for whatever changes it might need. You can already see where we're going with this. # Abstract By shifting all of Genetics' content into Cytology that solves the main bulk of their problems: * Cytology's gameplay of finding samples and reagents solves Genetic's problem of being too isolated (solving Genetics' Problem #1) * Cytology's many requirements to obtain and cultivate cells will allow for an apropriate difficulty and rarity to the more high-power mutations (solving Genetics' Problem #2) * Cytology's code is much better and more workable than Genetics' (solving Genetics' Problem #3) * Cytology will no longer be starved for content as it will gain the mutations as rewards (solving Cytology's Problem #3) * Cytology will inherit the room of Genetics (solving Cytology's Problem #4 and alleviating Problem #1 and #2) * Cytology will inherit the job slot of the Geneticist, instead having the Cytologist in its place. In addition, the specific implementation of how to get the mutations via Citology will help alleviate Cytology's problem #2 and Genetics' problem #1.2 as well. # Goals & Non-Goals Goals: * 1: Promote the Cytologist to go out of their department, interact with other players and meaningfully contribute to the round's narrative. * 2: Promote interdepartment cooperation; visits to other departments shouldn't be a foreign concept to a Cytologist. * 3: Promote exciting but rare variance to the rounds. The Cytologist distributing superpowers to the crew should happen from time to time however it shouldn't be an everyday occurance. * 4: Goal #1 and #2 should happen on all steps of the process - during the search to find the mutation, during the assembling of the mutation and during the distribution of the mutation. Non-Goals: * 1: Remove content from the game; most if not all content currently available in Genetics should be preserved, just with a different method of obtaining it. * 2: Incentize the Science department to hole up in their department. Cytologists should be out in the field interacting with other players. * 3: Have the Cytologist who partakes in Genetics' content to end their job at merely discovering the mutation. * 4: Have the Cytologist entirely dependant on one specific department to be able to function on a base level. # Cytogenetics: The Basics The Cytologist has its own room, in the Science department equipped with many of their basic necessities: Vats, microscopes, knifes, a grinder, etc. However, they don't spend much round there roundstart - the Cytologist will then scout out to the rest of the station to get samples. Upon going back to the cytology lab the Cytologist places the samples into the microscope. Then the Cytologist can toggle the microscope between Cell Mode and Gene Mode. The microscope in Cell Mode works as it does right now; in Gene Mode it displays information about the genes present in the sample. Genes work exactly the same as cells - they still have required, suppresive and supplementary reagents. The main difference between genes and cells is that genes need grinded plasma rather than protein as a required reagent and that genes produce mutations rather than living beings. After finding a petri dish with the mutation they want the Cytologist then obtains all the reagents needed to isolate the gene they want and stimulate its growth. (Standard cytology gameplay here; no changes) Finally, the gene fully grown we get a CYTO (**Cy**tology Mu**t**ation **O**rigin ). It's not a living mob like Cytology's usual output - rather, it's a small item, roughly looking like a potato with some doodads here and there. From there the Cytologist can use an empty Activator or Mutator on the CYTO to fill it up with the mutation. From there on the Activator and Mutator work as normal like they do in Genetics. The CYTO has a limited amount of mutation juice inside of it - how many activators or mutators you can get out of one depends on the mutation, of course. You can also refill CYTOs by exposing them to an appropriate gas mix, either on the ordnance mixing range or with the help of an atmos technician. # Details of Cytogenetics The Cytologist will replace the Geneticist. All the current equipment and sprites such as the Geneticist jumpsuit will merely be renamed to Cytologist rathar than resprited. Additionally, the Cytologist's radio will have both the Science and the Service radio. The Service personnel is of unique importance for the Cytologist: The Botanist, the Chef and the Janitor can be of massive help to the Cytologist. Furthermore, having a more direct way to access the HoP to discuss who should get what mutation also is greatly appreciated. Flavor-wise the Cytologist has access to the Service radio due to the distribution and serving of the mutations, alongside being able to create farm animals and livestock for the chef to butcher. Standard Equipment in the Cytology Lab: * At least 1 Cytology locker * An already installed growing vat * A microscope and a blender * A meatspike, monkey cubes, a butchering knife and soap or another way to clean the lab * A holding cell for their creations All of these equipment should be present roundstart on every map. Rare Equipment in the Cytology Lab: * A moisture trap, a source of mold and a neglected fern * A Chemmaster * A Hydroponics tray or two * A good pile of Tofu and Plasma Only 1 or 2 of these should be at the station roundstart. Having them ensues the Cytologist will always have a boon for their job but won't have everything handed to them in a silver platter. In addition this enables station individuality by having different stations have different rare equipment. --- In addition to the 4 already present cytology swabbables new swabbables will be introduced: * Spilled oil in the supply shuttle will be swabbable, with a small chance to spawn more oil every minute. There will be a max limit for how much oil can be at the shuttle at once so it doesn't get overrun 2 hours in. * Stamps will be swabbable - common approved/denied ones have a long and weak pool of cells but stamps of specific people such as the heads', the clown's, the mime's and the law stamp all have more curated and better cells. * Objects (not yet decided) on the common area of the prison will be swabbable. * The chef's gibber will be swabbable once per round for a completely random collection of cells. These sources of cells differ from the original 4. The original 4 sources of cells all came from maintenance, with the intent being of the Cytologist scouring mantenance for them. This new set of swabbables takes a different approach - rather than putting them on maintenance they're on departments. Roundstart none of them are accessible by a Cytologist; they'll either have to ask for access to a HoP or to the very members of the department. This set also lends itself to the storytelling of the round; many exciting stories can start by the Cytologist asking to swab the captain's stamp or by asking for a visit to prison for getting cells. This helps further cement the theme of interdepartment cooperation for the Cytologist while not locking them to any specific department for cells. --- In addition to swabbing random doodads around the station for mutations there is another way to get petri dishes with genes: Swabbing a human directly. By using the biopsy tool on a living creature you get a pure cell sample for growing other copies of it. However by using it on a spessman you don't get cell samples - rather, you gain gene samples. The genes gained via this method are all the dormant mutations already present in the spessman, checkable via a Genetic Sequence Scanner. This encourages searching the station in quest to find someone with enough mutations you want and not too many noisy unwanted mutations. However - obtaining genes from humanizing monkeys is no longer a possibility. You'll have to leave your room and interact with other people to get genes. --- This merging also sets a good precedent for further expansions of Cytology via the use of microscope modes. Let's say 2 years from now someone wants to add a plant feature on Cytology, where you can grow new plant species from Cytology. This system gives an easy solution for that: You add a third mode for the microscope called Plant Mode, that let's you see microleaves in the petri dish. Then, to actually grow a plant you need to pump a specific reagent (rather than protein or grinded plasma) to make it grow. Another upside in this sytem is how Cytologists of different branches can still help eachother out. A petri dish may have bad genes but it could have excellent cells - or the inverse, having excellent genes and bad cells. This means that an animal Cytologist can still benefit from the field research of a genetic Cytologist or any other branch added to Cytology in the future. --- Animal Cytology has nuisance cell lines - IE, cell lines that produce nothing valuable (rats, blob spores, cockroaches, etc). They are in the game in order to make Cytology more interesting, either by forcing the Cytologist to spend more work to suppress the unwanted cell lines or by spending more time swabbing to find the perfect cell line. Cytogenetics is in the perfect position to have their own nuisance lines - nuisance genes, in this case. Genetics has plenty of harmful or neutral mutations that fit this role perfectly - mutations such as Paranoia, Clumsiness and Deafness serve the role of unwanted results perfectly on top of being a much more interesting failstate than just spawning a bunch of rats or cockroaches. --- Cell cytology requires great amount of protein in order to work. This forces interdepartmental co-operation with Botany or the Chef but leaves the Cytologist crippled if they're not present or willing to cooperate. Because of that cytogenetics instead uses plasma as their main reagent. This means they still have inter-department cooperation (this time with Mining) while not completely locking the job down if Botany isn't willing to help. Ideally Cytology (or any job for that matter) should not be a complete island from other departments but also not lock up completely if they're being unhelpful. Using plasma here helps the Cytologists still have stuff to do if they don't have access to protein while not making the cytologist self-sufficiet. --- CYTOs have a limited amount of mutation juice in them - that means you only get a limited use out of every brewing by default. The intention of this involves many aspects. The main reason for it to prevent really powerful mutations like Hulk or Telekinesis to be spread willy-nilly to the greytide after being researched due to having only a few uses before running out, forcing the Cytologist to make calls on who gets it or not. Another reason for the mechanic is to make activators and mutators more distinct and useful. Putting a mutation into a mutator will spend a use out of the CYTO however using it to power up an activator won't. That means that for mutations that have very little charges like the aforementioned Hulk or Fire Breath you can get extra uses of it by finding people with the dormant genes and using the activator on it, further increasing the Cytologist's presence in the round and impacting the narrative of the story - now it's no longer either everyone or just the heads who get the powers. With the activators an average joe could be one of the few granted Telekinesis due to their good genetics, making for a much more compelling story than "Just the heads and sec get powers" or "Literally everyone gets powers". Finally, we reach the point of recharging CYTOs. Recharging CYTOs involves atmos. Engineering by and large are completely irrelevant to Cytology, having nothing they can help with. By making CYTOs rechargable by being in the right gas Engineers and Atmos Technicians can help out a Cytologist, giving more interdepartment support and involving other players into the story of the round while not forcing Cytologists to engage with Atmos stuff to do their job. The more powerful a mutation is the harder to recharge it is. Small beneficial mutations like Autonomy or Pig Latin can easily be charged by putting them in a tile filled with just one pure gas at room temperature while the stronger mutations may need a specific mix of gases at a specific temperature to recharge. The bad and meme mutations like Medieval, Clumsiness and Deaf are recharged by being in the air at room temperature, essentially charging themselves on their own for infinite uses. Examining a CYTO tells you what mutation it has and what are the conditions for it to recharge are. --- The appearence modification part of Genetics and splicing animal DNA into humans would, for the sake of simplicity and feasibility of this rework, be relegated to their own compurer and work mostly unchanged in order to keep the scope of this rework feasible while not losing content. Ideally in the future this terminal would be replaced by a system where the person to be modified stays in stasis inside a growing vat and modifications happen based on the reagents pumped into the vat however that is far beyond the scope of this rework.