[1 Dismissal] Phoron - Make it more important

[Zundy]

I love you and i miss you.

Now that's out of the way, three things:

1) Can we please make Phoron canonically expensive and therefore not to be wasted in game.

2) Can we make NT have a monopoly of Phoron, making it a driving force behind the lore and our setting.

3) Add more phoron centric research options as the station is supposed to be from mining, processing and researching phoron primarily, not a gun factory or a hospital from a sitcom. Perhaps different states of Phoron, isotopes, materials, weapons (if we must) etc.

As it stands, phoron seems to be as expensive as the round demands (read: as cheap as fucking gasoline as a rule of thumb these days) cheapening it as a plot device. Everyone seems to have their own magical reserves of the stuff, cheapening it as a plot device and finally, no one bloody researches the stuff in game, removing it's plot impact and worth as a device. It's gotten to the point where command staff will whimsically vent all the plasma reserves on station to prevent "bomb making".

Thoughts?

[TrickingTrapster]

Point 1 is already a thing. I'm not completely sure on point 2 but I think that is already the case. So it's really about point 3. I'd be up for more researching, but phoron already has 3 different forms in solid, gaseous and liquid. Not sure how much more states you want to add. I'm not sure about the current mining yields but it used to be more phoron than anything. Of course people are going to devalue phoron if miners bring it in by the hundreds of sheets. And part of why it's never researched is that research never starts with any phoron to do research on, and by the time they get some they've already done so much research it's usually meaningless. The problem with this suggestion however is that we'd need to make more items, more sprites for those items, and then lock all those items away behind research which people will still not due to to the lack of phoron supplied to research. That's what I think anyway.

[Faris]

All three points are essentially this. Phoron are expensive and a sought out material that can be used in Science for the plethora of research applications present, medical for use of synthesizing medication, cargo for the acquisition of points and engineering in the form of their devices and the fact phoron is a central and vital thing in its gaseous form for the start up and stabilization of the Engine.

And per the wiki and articles, it's already very easy to understand Nanotrasen has the largest monopoly of Phoron with it trying to creep it self to other deposits, with the most recent case with it expanding their ties with Elyra and limiting their export thus creating more demand of Phoron and hiking the prices.

I already touched on this point but there are already plenty of research opportunities for this as its used for toxins research, it's also a vital component for RnD with a few items spawning from it that are based around Phoron. There's also other experiments which aren't entirely based on the mainstream scientific mechanics. Though I wouldn't be opposed to having more things added but I don't see any actual suggestions other than points that you'd like to be addressed.

[Zundy]

Well if that is the case, I notice it isn't reflected very well in game. Perhaps some form of directive is required to hammer home that the station is a research station based around researching phoron, and that phoron is fucking expensive so don't vent it into space for jokes.

[Coalf]

 

Point 1:

"But it's already expensive!"

Phoron is expensive when we're not using it.

Have you seen how people behave to phoron? And not even normal players, HEADS, the people we pick out as "above-average" don't give a flying bacon stuffed pizza roll about phoron.

Why would Sol blockade their only source of super fuel, a few combat synths? Really?

How would a species of man-ants LITERALLY EAT the most valuable resource in universe and somehow exist no problemo in gorillion-head hives?

How do pirates exists? Shouldn't there be barely any pirates? Where do they get phoron?

How can Sol keep such a giant fleet? And if you use the ((((reserves))) argument, do realise that reserves are just that, reserves, they're used as the last option, if you're running on reserves you're running on burrowed time, Sol wouldn't dare speak publicly against NanoTrasen out of fear they'd get cut-off from their engine juice.

Skrell are excluded because they apperantly have their own phoron source, which brings me to

Point 2 :

"They are already have a monopoly!"

If they do how come everyone else acts to NT like they're the fucking Coca Cola company.

They provide probably the most valuable resource in-universe yet we act to them like they're EA.

We should behave like they're Big Pharma, we should behave to them like they're De Beers.

No country or company speaks against these corporations officialy, the only comments on them you'll hear are from reporters and individuals OR from time to time a nation will decide to have a legal proceeding which will most likely be rendered moot due to the sheer amount of lawyers.

Yet NanoTrasen has for long been a fucking laughingstock of the lore, every joke carried out on its name essentially nobody giving a big ravioli shit about what big NT might do if they act against it.

Also apperantly Elyria has phoron which means NT isn't a monopoly, they have a contender making point 2 valid.

Point 3:

THISSSSS

Phoron is supposed to be this alpha and omega of fuels, the most efficent fuel resource.

Yeah what do we get out of it? Three guns and an engine for the gygax?

Science is already a barebones department with people being to hammer down R&D in 15 minutes without metagaming but just by shoving random things into the analyzer and banging their dicks against the screen.

Outside of research? Yeah sure medical needs it for like five medicines that aren't even important to survival of the crew (anti-toxin).

Engine? Please, you can run an engine with N2 and CO2 easily, sure it was required when we had singularity but now? Yeah sure you can use it but you don't really have to, just tweak the engine a bit.

Simple thing is, phoron isn't needed mechanically, it's there but nobody needs it, not having phoron isn't a big hurdle the crew has to overcome, it's a speedbump.

Seriously phoron desperately needs some more love put into it, it is the REASON we're on the station and yet it's the least popular branch of science with it only being used for buffet snacks.

tl;dr Phoron, the reason and main resource in the entire universe is underused and undervalued constantly.

[Superiorform]

Coalf has said everything there is to be said, really. I would like a greater focus on phoron. And I can say, I have seen the head of security order all the phoron vented into space. I tried to point out just how expensive and wasteful that was, or say it could be kept in a locked room, but to no avail. We need to do something to show just how expensive phoron is.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

How come nobody cares about NT being a monopoly?

???????????????

https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=The_Syndicate

Due to Elyra's location, they sit with some of the largest reserves of plasma in their area Nanotrasen was quick to notice this, and for the better part of a decade has been fighting tooth and nail to press claims on the deposits. The smaller systems that had initially depended on plasma mining and refinement found themselves muscled out by Nanotrasen, leading to a rising unemployment level and growing discontent about Nanotrasen policies in Elyran space. The Liberal Reform Party has attempted to pass tough legislation punishing Nanotrasen, but the Progressive party, in a coalition with the Workers of Elyra party, block these bills. There are rumours that Nanotrasen has many members of these parties in its pockets, and there have been some whistleblowers warning that Nanotrasen is corrupting Elyran democratic processes.

This has lead to sour relations with Nanotrasen, and Elyran military vessels repeatedly harass Nanotrasen shipping, attempting to either intimidate them or goad them into a confrontation to make it impossible to be politically viable to support Nanotrasen.

 

Why Doesn't Sol Just Nationalize All The Mega-Corps And Seize Phoron By Force?

because the economy would die.

Why would Sol blockade their only source of super fuel, a few combat synths? Really?

 

Pictured: Not worth the hassle of sanctions.

How can Sol keep such a giant fleet?

$$$$$$$$$

Have you seen how people behave to phoron? And not even normal players, HEADS, the people we pick out as "above-average" don't give a flying bacon stuffed pizza roll about phoron.

You should make more incident reports I guess.

Simple thing is, phoron isn't needed mechanically, it's there but nobody needs it, not having phoron isn't a big hurdle the crew has to overcome, it's a speedbump.

Technically our engine runs on phoron though also technically you can generate power with a single zippo lighter. The supermatter is super-condensed phoron. I agree that aren't really enough uses for phoron mechanically. Its primary use in-lore is FTL travel and power generation, so one possibility is feeding phoron into mechs as power instead of energy cells or something.

[Coalf]

How come nobody cares about NT being a monopoly?

???????????????

https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=The_Syndicate

Due to Elyra's location, they sit with some of the largest reserves of plasma in their area Nanotrasen was quick to notice this, and for the better part of a decade has been fighting tooth and nail to press claims on the deposits. The smaller systems that had initially depended on plasma mining and refinement found themselves muscled out by Nanotrasen, leading to a rising unemployment level and growing discontent about Nanotrasen policies in Elyran space. The Liberal Reform Party has attempted to pass tough legislation punishing Nanotrasen, but the Progressive party, in a coalition with the Workers of Elyra party, block these bills. There are rumours that Nanotrasen has many members of these parties in its pockets, and there have been some whistleblowers warning that Nanotrasen is corrupting Elyran democratic processes.

This has lead to sour relations with Nanotrasen, and Elyran military vessels repeatedly harass Nanotrasen shipping, attempting to either intimidate them or goad them into a confrontation to make it impossible to be politically viable to support Nanotrasen.

"Also apperantly Elyria has phoron which means NT isn't a monopoly, they have a contender making point 2 valid."

" Point 2) Can we make NT have a monopoly of Phoron, making it a driving force behind the lore and our setting."

Why Doesn't Sol Just Nationalize All The Mega-Corps And Seize Phoron By Force?

because the economy would die.

Nobody said that.

Why would Sol blockade their only source of super fuel, a few combat synths? Really?

 

Pictured: Not worth the hassle of sanctions.

Pictured: Not worth the hassle of blockading an entire system full of the only proper fuel resource that allows you to travel between planets and actually maintain your extremely giant empire that's already a bureaucratic hell barely holding together.

(Both pictures spoilered for posterity sake)

How can Sol keep such a giant fleet?

$$$$$$$$$

To be fair I should have included "While blockading Biesel" because as far as we know the fuel prices skyrocketed to the point of crippling the Sol economy.

Oh wait we don't know because nothing like that happened because we forgot about the major import, the NanoTrasen.

Or maybe we didn't forget and Elyria simply provided the fuel, making phoron not as a critical resource, making NanoTrasen not a monopoly and supporting exactly the things Zundy requested, NT having the monopoly making Phoron more of a critical resource rather than less than common engine juice.

 

Have you seen how people behave to phoron? And not even normal players, HEADS, the people we pick out as "above-average" don't give a flying bacon stuffed pizza roll about phoron.

You should make more incident reports I guess.

Yes, let's remove someone abusing the issue instead of the issue itself.

Maybe if Phoron was actually marketed as something expensive, was expensive and was actually rare people wouldn't think of it as a spicy vape flavor.

Simple thing is, phoron isn't needed mechanically, it's there but nobody needs it, not having phoron isn't a big hurdle the crew has to overcome, it's a speedbump.

Technically our engine runs on phoron though also technically you can generate power with a single zippo lighter. The supermatter is super-condensed phoron. I agree that aren't really enough uses for phoron mechanically. Its primary use in-lore is FTL travel and power generation, so one possibility is feeding phoron into mechs as power instead of energy cells or something.

 

I think everyone can agree on it being underused mechanically, yes, I wouldn't mind mech refueling stations using phoron instead of being hooked up to general power, of course it would most likely just lead to mechs being used even less than phoron being used more. But only time could tell.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Tau Ceti was not literally blockaded from the rest of the galaxy. The Alliance shut off the bluespace gates leading in an out of the sector to cargo traffic. Cargo had to travel using more expensive freighters with individual bluespace drives. NanoTrasen still exported phoron, they just had to spend more money to get it outside of the system.

Anyway,

I don't think making mechs run on phoron generators would see their use diminished. It would just make them ride cargo's ass more about resources.

[Coalf]

Yes I read that later I should have edited it but I forgot to do that.

Anyways

And yes I agree that the addition of Phoron fuel cells (or something i dunno) into Mechs would be one of the good ways to start off a "Phoron update" to include more mechanical changes within the game itself.

It has the added bonus of forcing out more interaction.

Since phoron includes bluespace generations it also wouldn't be far fetched to use phoron as a fuel for Teleporter and Hand teleporter or even dare I say, fuel for gateway, although that's most likely out of the question as it's an arrivals tool and not actually something used in-game in any other way.

[DrHobo]

As a regular mad scientist I gotta say I fuckin love phoron, I spend a lot of the time actually conducting experiments to find new sources and uses for the stuff. Definitely agree that it needs more love and respect. For starters I've suggested changing how we handle it and necessitate gloves but if there was a way to convert the liquid and gas to solid sheets, then all phoron would be more useful and there'd be more freedom of source. Converting phoron into sheets from gas and liquid would mean those generators could be of more use when the engine hasn't been setup or is otherwise fucked, especially since dark purple slimes and mining can be unpredictable shift to shift.

A good source of early liquid phoron is grinding kois bars out of vending machines, vaurca probably can't afford them anyway. Xenobotanists and Xenobiologists could both be a great source of phoron with kois fruit and dark purple slimes if they aren't busy trippin balls or sliming themselves. I imagine these sustainable methods of phoron production would be heavily patented and controlled by Nanotrassen because they wouldn't want folks knowing they didn't have to mine for it until they've cashed in on all the rocks first but folks should work together to maximise the station's phoron stockpile as if it was RL gold.

Buckling monkeys to phoron chairs to see if they can be burned as part of a study on the safety of phoronic furniture provided a few fun shifts as mundane as furniture safety testing may sound, I reckon they should be flammable. Phoronic napalm is always a hoot, you can mix it inside a (monkey's) mouth with 2 pills. I've even taken over 10 monkeys and given them an increasing dose of phoron from 1 to 10+u as part of a toxicological study (4u+ induces vomitting, enough monkeys vomitting phoron will poison the air). All these experiments were perfect gimmicks as a scientist after the chore of leveling research.

The idea of phoron as a wonder energy isn't really the whole story despite what Nanotrassen says as phoron researchers are generally always found making bombs in Toxins, so is it being developed as an energy source or a weapon? It is an incredibly hazardous substance to any non-vaurca with it being extremely poisonous and flammable while it's generally only rarely utilized as a power source, this would probably change if it could be crystallized from liquid.

[LordFowl]

You're the loredev here, you make phoron more canonically expensive. Voting for dismissal.

[Arrow768]

Supporting the vote for dismissal, as you already have the ability to do so.

If something concrete is needed, contact the devs on discord with what exactly you would like to have changed.