Cross

I have a couple of different thoughts on mining, so I'll tackle them one by one. Firstly, I agree with the sentiment that the high amount of miner incapacitations is more down to a lack of training, lag or sheer stupidity, than any kind of bad calls or skill failures on the player's part. Once you've done your first shift as a miner without falling down a hole, it's unlikely that you'll be seriously threatened out in EVA ever again. Therefore, I definitely support the idea of space mobs, both hostile, neutral and tameable. I also like the idea of dungeons and treasures, though a design direction must be staked out whether these are for the miners, and yield unique equipment and mineral caches, or should be used to facilitate cooperation with Science by yielding artefacts and anomalies for study. The latter could distract miners from mining, and make them even more of a bottleneck. While we're addressing mining, I think it's also high time for a meta-break. The kinetic accelerator with the AoE upgrade is the be all and end all of mining. Ripleys are too slow to be valuable, Thermal drills are too slow, and diamond drills only handle single tiles. I think it's time for a rebalance, where miner's equipment is balanced between three factors: Mining effectiveness, lethality, and treasure destruction. To counterbalance the fact that tools like plasma cutters might be really good in combat, miner armor should be less durable against tasers and bullets, and offer no protection from flashes.

Station Directive No. 4 currently reads as follows. I will highlight the part that this suggestion is concerned with: To clarify the expectations and obligations of Research staff, what they can make, how and where they can use experimental technology or the works thereof. The supply department is designated to hold and distribute various supplies within the confines of their warehouse. All avenues of research available are permitted for experimentation by those deemed qualified by Nanotrasen in that specific field of Science. However, unless an emergency situation calls for application and authorization is granted, the works and derivatives of the Research staff are to remain within their respective labs and testing areas. The contents of the cargo warehouse from past shifts are not regarded as contraband if it remains in the warehouse or is in transit to a delivery location or method. What this directive, and specifically the underscored part means, taken literally, is that Research is to be completely cut off from the rest of the station, rendering it unable to improve equipment, furnish other departments with new tech, or even upgrade devices. Nobody takes it entirely literally, but that huge room for interpretation basically means that the Research Director for any given shift is who decides how helpful to the station, you can be as a scientist. Therefore, I suggest a do-over and clarification, either simply demanding that a proper requisition form is filled out with approval from appropriate heads of staff, or that Directive No. 4 only applies to weapons produced in Science, leaving things like welding tools, light replacers, and upgrade components out of it. Thoughts?