ProperPants Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 Currently, research can be "maxed out" before it is actually maxed out. By that I mean that, the $1000 from NT or whatever given for maxing out research is given while other techs can still be leveled. For example, Biotech is considered maxed at 5, but putting a Diona nymph in the destructive analyzer allows for Biotech to reach 6. I know the situation is the same for other techs, though I'm not sure which ones (I believe Engineering tech is "maxed" one level below the actual max). To the best of my knowledge, these extra levels of non-illegal tech don't give anything extra in the protolathe, so my proposition is that these top research levels actually become useful. An easy example would be that after researching a Diona nymph to get Biotech 6, the medibeam should become available at protolathes (I recall seeing a PR on the Github saying that the medibeam gun is in the protolathe, but I have never seen it even with Biotech 6). Different max techs could lead to different and new items, which could be decided by admins or the community if anyone even likes this idea to begin with. These items could easily be put in lockboxes and be meant for other departments, so science wouldn't be becoming more powerful; rather, they would be helping the station more. Maybe this idea won't be popular, but it stems from the fact that research can be furthered beyond the "max" level. At the very least, make it so that the $1000 from NT or Centcomm or whoever it is gets sent when research is actually maxed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TullyBBurnalot Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 The stuff that "max" research provides already breaks the game beyond the point of hilarity. The Kitchen can literally swim in food from half a dozen ingredients, one miner can create tons upon tons of materials and Medbay becomes a "poosh buton, git healz" department. Not to mention the sheer amount of other stuff you can make, from advanced machinery to bloody Decloners. I'm not saying it can't be done, just saying that it'll be hard to top what we already have! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProperPants Posted January 28, 2016 Author Share Posted January 28, 2016 I was gonna reference this somewhere in my suggestion, but I made it piece by piece between today and forgot where I was gonna put it. Here it is now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TullyBBurnalot Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 My main concern, for once in my life, is balance. Anything that's objectively "better" than what we have now would probably break the game beyond reason. Alternatively, you could have it so that "real" max tech allowed you to produce these "exotic materials" for a high cost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cupcakes_n_Hacksaws Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 Someone once suggested a new type of resource that's extremely rare, where increasing protolathe material efficiency won't affect it, and each top-tier protolathe item will require one/some. Any way to implement something like that? Just another new resource that might require hunting down hostile wildlife, exploring gateway/z-levels, etc.? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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