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# Research And Development

Research and Development, in the context of SS13, generally refers to the process of discovery or unlocking of designs one can manufacture or technologies one can utilize. Many existing iterations and systems of R&D in and outside of SS13 have numerous flaws which compromise the system in some major way, whether it be killing the feeling of "researching" new technologies or by making a system that can be completely cleared in under half an hour.

In Shiptest, R&D has evolved to be non-existant yet gating alot of content (mostly cruft). While it used to be the main progression loop of SS13 we have evolved away from the research station we orginally forked from. Our modern loop is focused on ruin diving and missions and science should reflect that

## Goals
- Rework R&D to require engaging in our existing loop like finding design disks from a ruin or gating some missions behind research equipment like a ruin analyzing mission requring a prebuilt machine that comes with research vessels.
- Provide more options for loot in ruins *Design disks with limited uses are the prime example*
- Provide a sink for some resources aquired during a rounds. Most ores like silver and gold are virtually garbage.
- Implement something that clearly aligns with Shiptest's thematic goals. *Exploring what's familiar yet hostile and unknown in search for treasure... rebuilding after disaster and such... in general this one just means give the feeling of scrapping together things for survival.*

## Non-Goals

- Limit the printing ability of ships along departmental divisions. *Restrictions along arbitrary lines will devalue progress made unless it's a more specific, clearly defined division (for example, circuit imprinter R&D, where only designs printable from the circuit imprinter are available)*
- Allow the printing of a wide variety of new things without great effort. *In the past we have had issues with ships that had R&D outmoding every other ship, including ones that were meant to be specialized in a specific field. We must have an R&D system that can allow for specialist ships to stay competitive.*

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Concept of R&D Nodes abandoned for the most part in favor of just having designs, transferred by disks. Stock of designs that come in the autolathe cut down to bare essentials -- stock parts, tools, basic and essential circuits, etc. Anything that would be considered essential for normal play and the bare minimum for doing certain things (ex. chemistry would need beakers, droppers, syringes).

While you will be able to use design disk like present, design disk can be held in a central server. This will replace the technode system Will have a limited amount of storage space on them, with more complex/powerful designs taking up more space.

Separation between owning data and having data licensed to you. License points exist and limit amount that can be printed off of any given disk. Licensed disks can be purchased and are cheaper.

Owned data can be researched or looted. Opportunities to purchase jailbroken data are rare and expensive. Owning data means infinite license points. Takes more storage space, due to uncompiled Data, just go with it.

## How Do Get Designs?

Short list of the primary ways to get designs.

**Outposts**: Sell a wide variety of licensed designs as part of their regular stock. Idealy used to prevent outpost bloat like having sets of circut boards or sets of tools.
**Scavenging**: Disks containing several designs can be found in ruins and appropriate loot pools. Free, but what you get is entirely random.