changed 10 months ago
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Advanced Xenobiology and Slime Ranching for dummies

Intro

This doc is about a partial rework of xenobiology that intends on making xenobiology more diverse and harder, just as Oranges asked.

Why do we want this?

  • Currently xenobio gameplay is very repetative and simple, you just recycle old monkeys, fetch new ones in and if you want you can also sort the slimes. This coderdoc aims to solve this problem by forcing players to set up different enviroments for their slimes and treating each type separately
  • Due to how easy xenobiology is, it's not very hard to acquire insanely powerful gear (like adamantine armor, shield and a red stabilized extract which is broken and removes their slowdown) not so far into the round(Around 20 minutes is enough to get the best armor in the game availible to crew)
  • Big citrus man said that we need this

What do we want to achieve?

  • Expand the xenobiology gameplay, make it less repetative and add progression to it
  • Make powerful loot harder to get

What do we want to avoid?

  • Making the xenobio so hard that it is unenjoyable
  • Forcing xenobiologists to constantly run around the station fetching things. Departament interaction is nice, but too much of it would become a hassle, especially for xenobiologists who have to wait for the airlock to cycle on some maps
  • Creating more powergaming content

Features

Xenoflora pods

  • Xenoflora pods are large(2x2) botany trays with a glass dome. Only special seeds can be planted in these and vise versa(You can't plant xenoflora seeds in normal trays). They have atmos and plumbing inlets and outlets. Xenobiology has them roundstart but can build more if required node is researched.
  • Xenoflora seeds can be acquired from xenobiology vendors(see later), bounties(see later) and misc. means like mail. I am not quite sure if they should have traits due to balance reasons, mainly to prevent botany from making special chemicals that they produce without the help of xenobiology.
  • Xenoflora plants require special atmosphere and chemicals in order to grow, while some of them also produce unique chemicals and gases.
  • Xenoflora produce and chemicals are the main source of food for most herbivore slimes, while gases they make can be used to create suitable enviroments for the most exotic of slimes

Xenobiology Equipment Vendor and Slime Core Market

  • Similarly to mining equipment vendors, xenobiology equipment vendors can be used to buy different items using special points. You can buy different equipment and machinery(more on that later), xenoflora seeds and basic supplies like grey slime cores and monkey cubes from it.
  • You can get xenobiology points by selling slime cores at the slime core market. However, it's not all that simple: after you sell a core it's price will go down, while other cores' prices will slightly go up. This way players will be forced to breed all different kinds of slimes to sell their cores because after a while of selling one type of cores their price will be extremely low.

Bounty System

  • Since crossbreeds were massively breaking xenobio progression, now they're removed. Instead, a bounty system is implemented. Bounties are generated automatically and up to 3 at a time can exist. Each bounty requires the player to send required slime cores and in reward they will get an item or xenobiology points. Players can reject bounties as well in case they're unable to complete them at the moment or just don't want the reward.
  • There are two ways to send a xenobio bounty: Player can pack it using a special machine and give it to cargo for them to send it off or they can use their own bounty telepad. However, the second method requires the telepad to be fueled which will mean that the player will have to make the fuel, so they have a choice between either "Easy but risky" (Cargo) or "Hard but reliable" (Bounty telepad)
  • Each bounty is linked to a client, with each client having a specialisation(for example weapons, armor, healing, xenobio progression and etc). After completing a client's bounty you raise your reputation with them, allowing better bounties to be generated, while rejecting bounties will slightly lower it.

Station Bounties

  • To incentivise xenobiologists to share their loot with crew, a Station Bounty system also is implemented. Basically crew would be able to place orders similarly to how cargo works and pick them up afterwards for a handful of credits that would be converted into xenobiology points.
  • This way xenobio will both have more crew interaction and won't always hoard everything they get, turning into death machines.

Slime Breeding and Pen Managers

  • Each color of slimes now requires unique food and enviromental conditions. These can range from CO2 in the air to special plating in their pens. Same goes for food, common slimes will want something that you can get pretty easily, like meat, vegetables or junk food, while rare ones will want xenoflora or exotic animals served to them.
  • To keep all those fancy parameters in check each pen is now equipped with a Pen Manager(You can get more in the vendor). These are wall mounted devices that can be used to manage(huh) the devices inside the pen as well as checking on enviromental conditions and slime vitals.
  • Since pen managers are located outside the actual pens, each one of them is linked to a pen marker that defines the pen.
  • Some slimes will also require specific machinery installed in their pens, for example yellow slimes need an active discharger or else they will become unhappy and eventually start take damage. Components for these can be bought at the xenobiology vendors and may or may not require research. However, some mahcinery or atmosphere will make the pen dangerous for other kinds of slimes, forcing you to separate different colors.
  • Since not all slimes are herbivores, players also might have to breed, buy or genetically engineer some animals or maybe make something even more exotic! However, it's very important to leave players a choice so they can still work in case other departaments refuse to cooperate or are just dead.

Xenobiology Equipment

  • In order to make the job a bit more dangerous and interesting, xenobio consoles have been replaced with slime monitoring consoles which show you vitals and needs of slimes in all the different pens. Now to move the slimes you will have to use a backpack vacuum gun which can suck the slimes in and spew them out in their cells(Hope we don't get sued).
  • To prevent use against crew these vacuum guns will refuse to spit out slimes anywhere except xenobiology. However, traitor scientists can buy a tampered version of this device painted in eerie colors that has an expanded tank and can be used anywhere.
  • These can be upgraded with disks from xenobio vendor to expand their capacity and automatically pacify and put slimes in it in stasis.
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