A More Reasonable Nanopaste, in exchange

[Carver]

A simple balance suggestion in the wake of a few recent discussions; Remove all self-healing capabilities of Nanopaste. This would leave it solely a surgical 'tool' used by surgeons and machinists for fixing damaged internal mechanical/synthetic organs/parts within organic crew and IPCs respectively. This would return any external synthetic damage to requiring slow repairs via actual tools.

For the 'in exchange' part, return the ability for IPCs to self-heal via actual tools - at a slower action speed than being repaired by another so as to make it unfeasible in an active combat situation. Let antagonists disregard this speed penalty by some measure (Have an uplink purchase called 'IPC Self-Maintenance Kit' with a manual that removes the penalty and a box w/ a couple of cable coils and an industrial welding tool).

[White Void]

Honestly, as a IPC main for more than a year i support this idea, role would of course matter for it, like a janitor IPC probably wound't know how to do some repairs on themselves, a sec IPC might be able to at max weld stuff that wound't require actually opening itself like external dents, and so forth for other jobs

+1

[Fluffy]

This is a reasonable, as well as more soulful, suggestion

+1 for me

[Captain Gecko]

Sounds interesting... Not that I really play much IPCs

Unrelated to IPCs, but remember to touch on what requires Nanopaste and that's not an IPC in a game. Thinking of the Spectronometry machines in Xenoarcheology, letting us repair them with tools too, then.

[Carver]

58 minutes ago, Captain Gecko said:

Sounds interesting... Not that I really play much IPCs

Unrelated to IPCs, but remember to touch on what requires Nanopaste and that's not an IPC in a game. Thinking of the Spectronometry machines in Xenoarcheology, letting us repair them with tools too, then.

This suggestion is more or less just for removing the ability to externally repair IPCs and prosthetics with it (including external damage repaired via maintenance hatch). Any other function (internal component/mechanical organ repairs and xenoarch stuff being the only things I can immediately think of) is something that I would hope is left intact.

I don't really have any opinion on whether the xenoarch stuff should additionally be reparable via tools, as I doubt nanopaste would be any rarer for a new lack of value as an absurd healing tool.

[Sycmos]

I can't say that I agree with this when considering current OOC restrictions regarding repairs, either by the synthetic themselves or another character, as it disproportionately affects synthetics when Machinists are absent. Synthetics being permitted to self repair also introduces several questions as to what backgrounds allow for self repair, lore questions regarding a synthetics ability to self-maintain which could easily be used to justify repairing other synthetics without needing to be a Machinist, and concerns of tool access which may not be available given a character's role or population of a round. Given that Machinists are not the most commonly-filled occupation it puts synthetics at severe disadvantage to be repaired when they are often expected to endure physical harm in lieu of organics, even for trivial random event spawns like greimorians and drones which already severely inconvenience lower population rounds.

Instead I feel that adding a considerable delay to applying nanopaste may be more applicable, as it will counteract the use of it in combat and emphasize caution.

[La Villa Strangiato]

Adding a delay is probably better for applying nanopaste here; playing as a synthetic in a violent round without a machinist can be a serious pain in the ass, and I would really rather the roleplay of IPC players not be hindered by damage that takes a long time to repair or is impossible to repair in round due to a lack of machinists.

[Carver]

2 hours ago, Sycmos said:

I can't say that I agree with this when considering current OOC restrictions regarding repairs, either by the synthetic themselves or another character, as it disproportionately affects synthetics when Machinists are absent. Synthetics being permitted to self repair also introduces several questions as to what backgrounds allow for self repair, lore questions regarding a synthetics ability to self-maintain which could easily be used to justify repairing other synthetics without needing to be a Machinist, and concerns of tool access which may not be available given a character's role or population of a round. Given that Machinists are not the most commonly-filled occupation it puts synthetics at severe disadvantage to be repaired when they are often expected to endure physical harm in lieu of organics, even for trivial random event spawns like greimorians and drones which already severely inconvenience lower population rounds.

Instead I feel that adding a considerable delay to applying nanopaste may be more applicable, as it will counteract the use of it in combat and emphasize caution.

My issue even with a delay is that nanopaste is an instant heal application - it doesn't take time to reduce the damage, it's a flat -15/-15 with no diminishing returns on something that claims to have 10 uses (though the # on the sprite changes very inconsistently and sometimes doesn't change at all). Further, it can be used by all IPCs regardless of personal ability - most people require visiting a medical doctor in order to receive treatment beyond just stopping bleeding with a bandage and preventing infection with ointment.

For lack of machinists I truly wouldn't care if engineers were permitted to do external repairs in their absence - but a multi-use self-heal that is highly effective and requires 0 character skill/knowledge should not be something anyone but antags have access to. If an antagonist highly damages an IPC, they should require someone else to repair them or be stuck with inefficient self-repair using tools - as most others in crew find themselves dependent on medical staff and don't just pop pills in combat.

Edited March 25, 2023 by Carver