Specific Designations and Classes of Research.

Started by Call me Arty, April 17, 2018, 04:05:39 PM

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Call me Arty

 There are a couple classes of research out there, when you thinks about it, which makes researchers skilled in all of them a bit odd. As anybody who's attended school can attest to, it's a real "jack of all trades, master of none" scenario when you try to balance about six periods of different classes, and not fail any of them. Meanwhile, in Rimworld, making colored lights are technically rocket science, as a far as your researcher is concerned, as they study lights just like a biologist would study weaponsmithing. I suggest a change to this.

First of all, as this affects the rest of my suggestion, the "classes" of research.

  • Agriculture. Food production and terrain management, it's all about cultivating the things around you to let nature put more effort into supporting you. Notable inclusions are: Moisture pumps, Devilstrand, Pemmican, and Brewing.
  • Warfare. Offense, defense, you need it all to survive. Notable inclusions are: Precision Rifling, Mortars, Long Blades, and Power Armor.
  • Technology. You can't stay in the stone age forever, or at least, you shouldn't. Notable inclusions are: Electricity, Multi-Analyzer, and Ship Tech.
  • Processing. You're only going to get as much from the Rim as you put into it. Notable inclusions are: Refining, Complex Apparel, and Electric Smithies.

There are, of course, exceptions to these rules, and some things won't be either-or. Take growing lamps, for example. It's certainly technology, as it's based off of electricity. That's pretty complex. At the same time, it's a specialized light intended to aid plant growth, which is absolutely agricultural. However, it's certaintly closer to what would be a pure technology research (such as electricity or a multi-analyzer) than it is to what would be considered pure agriculture (devilstrand). This leads to my idea of a four-part split, kind of like making mixed drinks or some food. The example of sunlamps - which are basically standard lamps with an agricultural leaning - would be three parts technology and one part agriculture (3:1). Meanwhile, things like hydroponics - which have no use out of agriculture but are still advanced far beyond standard methods of farming - would likely be a 2:2 split.

How is this used? Well, researchers could have affinities, or there could be hardware that helps along the projects.

The affinities are just various traits, similar to green thumb and brawler. Here's an example.

Warfare Affinity: Topics concerning Warfare always came easy to ________, though they studied it at the sacrifice of ignoring other fields of study.
+5% research speed per Warfare value, -5% research speed for other values. +10 mood while researching depending on whether or not they're studying warfare. +2/3/4 permanent Intellectual skill.

Smithing ●●●/ = +15% increase.

Rough, yeah, but I'm open to suggestions. Why would we have these? They're so situational! Note that (most) pawns aren't one-trick ponies, they've got a lot of other things to bring to the table. The issue is: most people have a designated researcher. If they're falling behind in some skills, they're damned to the laboratory until the end of time. This way, swapping researchers out is encouraged, so everybody gets to participate in more aspects of the colony, and can build relationships with other pawns they otherwise wouldn't, reserved to one room for most of the day. If it sounds like too much work, you could potentially get a pretty major boost to your research overall to compensate.

Finally, to either add to the traits or to serve in place of them: Hardware modules. Like furniture, you could them from traders, and they appear to be boxes with one of the research class's colors and work like more specific multi-analyzers sized to be 1x1, with a capacity to fit two. Get a technology module? Plug it in the side, and get a similar effect to a pawn with Technology Affinity, improving a dedicated research, but slowing others. Why use this? If you want to make a dedicated rush for Precision Rifling, you have to research not only that, but also Gunsmithing, Blowback Operation, and Gas Operation, which would be undeniably Warfare orientated.

So, what do you guys think about my suggestion that's probably never going to get remotely close to implemented and is probably just closer to me messing around with the "Change Color" feature?
Why are you focusing on having a personal life rather than updating a mod that you're not paid to work on?

If there's a mistake in my post, please message me so I can fix it!

sajberhippien

I agree with your basic premise, but disagree with your solution. Making different researchers good at different subjects makes sense, and makes labrats less of an on/off thingy. However, adding a whole subsystem seems unnecessarily complex and in a way arbitrary.

Rather, I'd like to see the speed for a research job be determined as a combination of Intellect and skills relevant to the topic at hand; a skilled tailor should certainly be able to leverage their craftsmanship when trying to figure out how to make carpets or complex clothing. A ratio of 2/3:1/3 int:other should make it relevant without making intellect superflous.

That way, no strict categorization is needed -just a note on what skill is relevant for a particular job. Little to no new UI would be needed, but the end effect would be similar; diversified researchers. It would also encourage researchers to have some actual field experiments ;P

Call me Arty

Quote from: sajberhippien on April 21, 2018, 07:13:44 PM
I agree with your basic premise, but disagree with your solution. Making different researchers good at different subjects makes sense, and makes labrats less of an on/off thingy. However, adding a whole subsystem seems unnecessarily complex and in a way arbitrary.
. . .
That way, no strict categorization is needed -just a note on what skill is relevant for a particular job. Little to no new UI would be needed, but the end effect would be similar; diversified researchers. It would also encourage researchers to have some actual field experiments ;P

B-b-but then I can't use a bunch of colored text?

That idea is way simpler and way better than mine. Pretty sure I've had it before too, I just ignored it for this complex idea that's really more of a mod. Oh well. Good point!
Why are you focusing on having a personal life rather than updating a mod that you're not paid to work on?

If there's a mistake in my post, please message me so I can fix it!