Chemistry Atom-Packs, Chem helper, and Automat

[Midaychi]

 

Tl;dr, supply for chem dispensers, a helpful combination chemistry hint machine and autochem maker that updates as people react chems around it, and an automat for handling dispensing of auto-reacted chemicals and money transfers if applicable.

 

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Firstly, something vaguely similar to what bay has at the moment. Instead of synthesizer power, each element in chemistry dispensers starts with a supply amount that you use up as you use it. Running out means you have to order a new supply pack from cargo, but running out (at least on bay) also means you just used about 700 units of a single element #dang.

It'd be neat if sending centcom materials from mining gave you discounts on supply packs for chem, but that's an aside thing. It'd be a way to encourage people to buy supply points or whatever, if an actual economy were ever implemented.

 

 

Secondly, A wall mounted device called the chem helper (or something) that watches the chemists or scientists or whatever. You can click on it to open an interface which lists a bunch of basic well-known chemicals and how to synthesize them. It also gives you vague hints as to if it's a dead end chemical, or if there are any elements or temperatures you could try reacting them with. As chemists react chemicals in the presence of this wall mounted device, it records them and their recipes, and updates its hints/suggestions. You can also enable to use them in the next idea, and set them for free or a price here.

 

Thirdly, A chemistry automat near the chem fridge. A person with medical access can use this machine to get an interface, which lists all the finished chemicals that chemistry has enabled to show up in it using the chem helper, as well as if they're free or have a price per unit defined. Said medical person can then place a beaker in the device, and buy these chemicals from the automat (for free or price, depending). If successfully free/purchased by someone with a medical id, the synthesis would suck resources from the chemistry dispensers and spend a few seconds reacting it all, then dispense it into the beaker like a coffee machine.

 

I suspect charging anyone without an actual functioning economy would just end up with the CMO busting in and firing the chemists at the moment, but I added that as a suggestion for the future I guess.

 

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Ideally, the situation would be:

 

Chemists roundstart with limited supply, have the chem helper to give recipes for basic chems and helpful vague hints for reacting more. They can choose to use or completely ignore the chem helper, and they can choose to either use the chem helper for chem distribution or just stuff things in the freezer. If a half-assed economy is ever implemented, chemists could also charge for some of the more complex chemicals and use that money to buy more supply packs from cargo. The chem helper is also there to help new people discover chemistry without having to look up the source code or just follow a recipe guide on a wiki.

 

[FalseIncarnate]

 

When bay introduced the limited supply chem dispensers, there was much chatter among the admin and coders.

 

General consensus was that we do NOT want to use their limited chem dispenser, as it makes a potentially life-saving job (chemists making very needed chems) reliant on a job that rarely does their job (mining).

 

[Midaychi]

 

 

Yeah. I was just adding some of that on incase there ever becomes a functional economy.

 

What do you think of the chem helper and dispenser though?

 

Basically it'd be a recipe reference and hintline that updates as you cause reactions near it, and chemicals you enable to be dispensed could automate the process of medbay getting chems. Somehow.

[FalseIncarnate]

 

While IC assistance with recipes would be helpful for new players, the wiki covers that same information in a clear manner already, causing it to be somewhat redundant and less convienent.

 

If it perhaps functioned as some sort of analyzer that could provide information on things like the reagent description, addiction and overdose thresholds, and perhaps a calculation of the expected effect of the amount inside, it could be arguably more useful for new and veteran chemists alike.

 

Having it watch for reactions also seems like a rather messy/snowflake functionality.

 

As for the automation one, that unfortunately doesn't encourage the chemist to do bare minimum for their job. Tying in economy-support would just further complicate ensuring patients get adequate care. Nothing would be worse than desperately needing a medicine, only to find the chemist is charging a king's ransom for it or that the funds are all gone before you arrived.

 

[Midaychi]

 

I guess you could write it into the chem master instead of having it a separate machine, and have it analyze new chemicals you put in it when you press the analyze button, and have it keep a log of recipes/give hints/tips.

 

AS for the machine, I'm not sure how to mediate it then. It could probably use power from the chem synths. There's the option of making it free, and just having it as a convenience for when the chemist has disappeared or is busy. It'd only work if the chemist or cmo analyzed chemicals and then enabled them in the thing though.