Circuit Copy Pasta

[Syncron]

Integrated Circuits Copy Paste Option

 

Bay Station code has this function. To explain it; It lets you copy paste a pre-designed circuit using a third function tool printed from the printer, with all of its modules, and ideally, with its wiring. This allows more complicated circuits to be designed, which for people like me, make it a lot more fun to do.

 

I also advise, a circuit or method for the maker that allows you to 'lock' the device so it cannot be copied without the creators permission, since some circuits can be deadly, and should never see the light of day outside of researching it.

-----

I will admit now, I know if a circuit nerd gets their hands on it, they can make quite a few circuits one might consider to be 'shitter'. But don't let one bad apple ruin it for everybody else. Circuits are one of the most interesting parts of science to me, and I believe others may also agree. As it currently stands, circuits are unused, and for the most part, entirely useless outside of using 3 circuits for R&D purposes. The reason for this, is that aside from very basic circuits (Flash light, Translator, and a smoke bomb which was removed in a recent PR to troubleshoot smoke issues), other circuits take too long to manually build, and wire. I do not joke when I say a complicated circuit can take over an hour to set up and wire, and sometimes even the entire round to get it set up. This is partially due to complexity, but mostly because of the UI for circuits, with any kind of lag, and the troubleshooting to make sure the circuit is properly set up.

 

I'm suggesting we add the copy paste mechanic, so you can print out your pre-designed circuits. Just adding this function would have me being a science main again. You can ask @DahBunny; I've spent literal months designing circuits in the past. From getting an idea, to a rough proof of concept design, all the way to trial and error running designs until it was properly functional, and suitable for use. Everything from war crime circuits for antag runs, to emergency medical equipment, to even 'simple' communication networks that save the data. A ton of fun activities for the whole science department.

 

I ask for a chance here, Because those who find circuits enjoyable likely don't bother with science now, since the thing they enjoy most is not available. I'm no coder, but maybe one enjoys science and would like to assist here.

 

-----

Now, I know this has been likely been pushed before, but I genuinely bring this up, as after speaking to multiple circuit players on Aurora, this is the main reason they don't bother playing science any more. This could bring more science members, since you can only do so much with R&D - Seeing as Xenobotany just dies to slimes 90% of the time, and xenofauna requires specific materials to get the plant gun that lets you mutate things easier. I'm not saying there isn't things to do, but a LOT of science players enjoy actually doing R&D with circuits. But as it stands, it is not possible to do, because of the time investment for each singular circuit designed.

Edited May 21, 2023 by Syncron
Added info

[White Void]

I personally have worked in many advanced circuits in the past, but took a long break due to being frustated that everytime i was getting close to finally perfecting it, the round ends and i need to manually endure the torture of setting them up from the ground up again and again and again.

Being able to copy and paste the circuits would allow for greater and more impressive ones.

In bay for example that has that feature i've seen a RD that often makes a server like circuit and placed it on the bridge, it was kinda like a talking magic 8-ball it could send messages, it could do a lot of things even comunicate with away ships that had a coresponding radio circuit, but that wound't be possible if they had to manually do it from the scratch every time, that was a circuit that took a long while to be perfected

[NerdyVampire]

I could be interested in trying it out. Perhaps it could be tied into a buildable machine though, which takes a certain time to make the circuit based on how complicated it is, so a chemical factory machine doesn't take 5 seconds to make?

[Syncron]

34 minutes ago, NerdyVampire said:

I could be interested in trying it out. Perhaps it could be tied into a buildable machine though, which takes a certain time to make the circuit based on how complicated it is, so a chemical factory machine doesn't take 5 seconds to make?

If it works in a similar fashion to the one I'm used it, it would take a minute or two. But you don't want to overly complicate it. Circuits are already a dying artform. Also, you would be limited to how many materials your machine can store. If the printable circuit takes more than the material stored, it would be unprintable. So it has a built on limiter as is.

Edited June 10, 2023 by Syncron

[kermit]

As a long-time circuitry nerd, I'm actually not fond of this idea tbh. I think something like this should come second to reviewing circuitry as-is right now. A lot of components, such as reagent pumps, just don't work and some components crash or severely lag the server, such as smoke generators which had to be removed recently. There's also just not that much going for circuitry right now; medical components are still tuned to PointMed, for example.

Regarding the time element, while it's frustrating, working around a time limit is as important as the wiring itself in my opinion. Complex stuff can be slimmed down, and if you make it enough, a lot of the wiring eventually becomes muscle memory and you can crack them out a lot quicker – in my experience, at least.

Main takeaway is the first point though. Should circuitry be looked into, all the flaws ironed out, updated for our current medical system, and some more applications possible, then I'd be happier to see this. I will non-commitally say that I may take a look into some of the components I know to be borked, and see if I can sort them out, but I've yet to reverse engineer circuitry code.

[Syncron]

1 hour ago, kermit said:

As a long-time circuitry nerd, I'm actually not fond of this idea tbh. I think something like this should come second to reviewing circuitry as-is right now. A lot of components, such as reagent pumps, just don't work and some components crash or severely lag the server, such as smoke generators which had to be removed recently. There's also just not that much going for circuitry right now; medical components are still tuned to PointMed, for example.

Regarding the time element, while it's frustrating, working around a time limit is as important as the wiring itself in my opinion. Complex stuff can be slimmed down, and if you make it enough, a lot of the wiring eventually becomes muscle memory and you can crack them out a lot quicker – in my experience, at least.

Main takeaway is the first point though. Should circuitry be looked into, all the flaws ironed out, updated for our current medical system, and some more applications possible, then I'd be happier to see this. I will non-commitally say that I may take a look into some of the components I know to be borked, and see if I can sort them out, but I've yet to reverse engineer circuitry code.

As we discussed in game, I actually had the reagent pump working. But the copy paste would let me tinker more, and get a list of broken things to get fixed. Copy paste would help me compile a list as well, since I use it when designing, so I'd be able to figure out more broken circuits. (But, every circuit main has their own method for bugtesting)