Janitor tool rebalancing

[DatKoyote]

I am writing this forum post to get feedback on a PR I have planned. The goals of this PR is to rebalance the various tools janitor gets, most of which are made completely useless by the floor buffer upgrade.

Main goals of this PR are :

1. Make water have a reason to be used besides griefing, while lowering the frustration of being water slipped.

2. Make all janitor tools have a purpose, mainly by nerfing how fast the floor buffer janiride cleans

3. Make space cleaner the standard reagent used for Janitor mop cleaning, so that new players arent yelled at for cleaning with water when they dont know better

4. Make the janitor role actually useful in terms of mechanics, as right now having the hallways littered in blood has little gameplay significance unless slaughter demons are involved

 

Full list of changes planned : 

Quote

General changes :

- Replace the janitor space cleaner wall dispenser by a new space cleaner tank, which will be obvious to new players rather than hidden in the wall they will never spot. Remove the water tank. This should point new players towards using space cleaner for most cleaning situations. The sink. aswell as maintenance water tanks, are still there for janitors wishing to clean with water.
- Significantly reduce the amount of time spent stunned when you slip on water. This will make janitors using water less of an annoyance.
- Add a blue toolbox to janitor closet and make standard tools fit on the jani belt. This is just convenience for experienced players as tools are easy to find and can be fitted in your emergency box for storage, but for new players (which janitor is a good role for) this can help them learn basics of repairs and construction.
- Having a significant amount of blood nearby now risks causing infections when taking a large amount of brute or burn damage. This gives janitor a mechanical reason to clean the hallways bar the rare cult/slaughter demon blood spread. 

Item changes

Cleaning :

- Using water to mop floors with will now be faster than using space cleaner, in order for it to have an upside over space cleaner and not just be grief.
- Soap needs washing in a sink or in janitor cart if used a lot, otherwise it clean slower and slower. This will not need to be done frequently.
- Same for syndi soap but lasts even longer
- Advanced mop now refills with space cleaner instead of water.
- Space cleaner spray bottle now has the volume logic switched : 5u for 1 tile, 10u for 3 tiles. The 10u are split in 3/3/3 for each tile, to avoid duplicating combat chems used in a spray.
- Same for watertank backpack, its essentially a big clunky space cleaner spray bottle. Maybe improve its capacity a tad?
- Floor buffer upgrade : 
    The big one. The floor buffer is now toggeable.
    Default : Just ridin' along.
    
    Cleaning : When activated, the ride will consume reagents from its internal reagent reserve and apply them to the floor, significantly slowing itself down. Starts loaded with space cleaner.
    The floor buffer consumes less reagents in general than the mop, and can be refilled with any reagent that will then be applied to the floor. (oh god lube why)

    These changes means the buffer is still a reliable way to clean large amount of floors while leaving them dry (unless you arent using space cleaner), but making it more of an active and engaging process instead of just riding along while playing your gilded bike horn or whatever. This also makes it very scary in the hands of the clown or an evil janitor. However, the ride will be quite slow while in use, so you should be able with a crowbar or floor tiles to catch up to the clown and stop his shenanigans.

Other tools :

- Bear trap : Refactor to improve code, make them actually useful against bears and other simple animals
- Trashbags : Remove wearing them on the belt slot. Make the interface to store a trashbag on janicart/janiride less clunky to use.
- Janiborgs : Janiborgs I believe are fine as-is, as they require sacrificing cyborg tools that would be more generally useful to exist. They are also a big check against slaughter demons, which are going to receive a significant indirect buff from these changes.
 

 

Balance stuff to consider that isnt directly janitor related :

- Nerfing water slip stun time might affect antags. I rarely see antags use water to slip, though, usually they just lube or use a slippery item.

- Slaughter demon will be indirectly buffed, as overall janitors will be less effective at cleaning due to the janiride not being ridiculously fast at cleaning anymore. Janiborgs being untouched should hopefully mean this is fine.

- Trashbags can no longer be used by miners for massive belt storage. Use belts of holdings, nerds.

- Spray bottles will now use more reagents.

Edited September 25, 2019 by DatKoyote
updating changes

[Gaty]

I...dislike the water slip nerf, I don't believe is something that needs to be touched here, as water is an easily accessible slipping resource and, unlike lube, is actually balanced.

Giving people even more reasons to use lube instead is not something I am ok with.

Tho making advanced mops use space cleaner and filling the water tank in the janitorial closet with said Reagent would probably be a better option.

Being able to order more pimpins janirides would also be cool.

I am against the whole nerfing the floor buffer to force janitors to use the other inferior tools, why don't you try giving them a better function instead?

I would like to say, that janitors job is just simple, you clean.

There is nothing much to do there, you just clean and clean, and it should be one of rhe easiest job on the station.

Requiring more than 2 braincells to play the job aka adding more difficulty to fulfill the role is something I dislike.

Edited September 25, 2019 by Gaty

[DatKoyote]

Nerfing or removing the floor buffer is necessary for other janitor tools to have any purpose. Nothing beats instantly cleaning everything you walk with no slowdown or downside.

[Calecute]

2 hours ago, DatKoyote said:

- Add a blue toolbox to janitor closet and make standard tools fit on the jani belt. This is just convenience for experienced players as tools are easy to find and can be fitted in your emergency box for storage, but for new players (which janitor is a good role for) this can help them learn basics of repairs and construction.

I dont see any reason to give janitor a toolbox. 

I dont understand the trashbag change, why is using it in a belt a problem?

Other than that I like the changes, jani is pretty poor gameplaywise. 

If it's possible and easy i'd would also be nice to give a reason for jani to clean litter from the floor.