Construction overhaul

[oranges]

https://hackmd.io/4TMXnLqHSPaLeQA5bKUvSw?view

please read and provide feedback on things that might be impacted by the change proposed in the document.

[Jonathan Gupta]

can the RCT body block shots? And how fast does it go?

[oranges]

No it doesn't block anything, it's a ghost.

And the speed is dependent on the item being constructed.

in general the idea will be to make things slow to build (e.g a couple of minutes for a wall), but you can do multiple in paralell, so you can build 8 walls in that time.

[Misdoubtful]

I've always kind of considered the implications of things like walls being removed as easily as they could made. Why would you hack a door when you can remove a wall (or delete the door) with an RCD? Its pretty much just faster when the wall isn't reinforced. Basic walls have always kind of been an easy to remove meme as it is anyways.

I unironically thought the RCD was better when it was a high value item only found on the CE and there would only be the one of them.

So how would this easier mass construction (Outside of the RCD removal) impact the already arguably easy deconstruction game (outside of the marker deconstruction)?

[oranges]

If you read the document it discusses deconstruction, I'm not sure what more there is to expand upon, it works in reverse of construction via the RCT, so again, much much slower, but parallelize-able.

[Misdoubtful]

Yeah I mean I understand the aspect of reverse construction deconstruction, I'm just wondering how else things might change with the RCD being tossed into a dumpster fire behind a Wendy's (Sweet justice).

[Jonathan Gupta]

No it doesn't block anything, it's a ghost.

And the speed is dependent on the item being constructed.

in general the idea will be to make things slow to build (e.g a couple of minutes for a wall), but you can do multiple in paralell, so you can build 8 walls in that time.

I meant fast as walking.

[oranges]

I meant fast as walking.

Walking speed in auto follow mode, normal run speed when you're driving it.

[Farquaar]

How will this affect my gimmicks where I build my own butter-on-a-stick stand or renovate the mess hall into a sushi bar? Is this only a revamp of the RCD (which I never use), or will all construction be revamped?

I'd really hate for RCTs to be restricted to specific jobs or access levels if they become the only way to do construction and furniture-building.

[oranges]

there's no intention to change manual construction, just make bulk construction viable.

[EuSouAFazenda]

I like the idea. My main concern is with assistants; if an assistant wants to make a larger scale maint room it's much harder to get a RCT than a RCD; for the RCT you'd have to get either Engineer's or Atmos' only RCT while for the RCD you can just ask Cargo.

What do you think about adding a ghetto alternative?
What I'm thinking of right now is what I like to call the Wallshredder. To make it you use a cable coil, a welding tool a igniter and either a mop or a broom.
It's a large item that requires 2 hands to use and it does consume more fuel than the standard welding tool per use. It can be used as a regular welding tool with the added benefit that, when it is used on a non-reinforced wall it tears it down to sheets of paper. The time it takes is the same as it takes to take down a wall down to a girder; all it does is skip the whole deconstruct girder / move it out of the way step, drastically speeding up the process of making a new room.

It's a large and 2-hand item; its drawback is the clunkyness. If you're expanding the library that won't be a problem but you can't bring it around nilly-willy. Engineers won't roundstart make it because of its clunkyness; it's better to have the regular welder in your toolbelt than bring that monster around.

What do you think Orange?

[oranges]

im thinking if you're an assistant you can pound sand

[cacogen]

I'm glad Hitler is making an effort to fix construction. I tried to explain to the zoomers on Terry once the issue of construction where beyond a certain size breaches are too time-consuming to be worth fixing but the response basically amounted to "skill issue" which renewed my awareness of why the coders don't often bother trying to explain why they do what they do to an underage playerbase who can think only in memes. Usually when I'm playing engineer, atmos tech or engiborg I'm the only one trying to fix breaches (beyond filling it in), replace atmosphere or even optimise atmos to refill rooms more quickly. I haven't read the design document in full so I'm not sure if this thing is going to suck or not but I'm glad for the attempt. Mothblocks' RCD construction overlay thing made it significantly easier and more pleasurable to rebuild walls and airlocks but as far as I'm aware it was never expanded beyond those two things.

[Jonathan Gupta]

im thinking if you're an assistant you can pound sand

unironically a good idea.

[FantasticFwoosh]

Engineer Cart (i will call it that) doesn't sound intuitive to the extent you will be fighting against atmos constantly before the upgrade when its Engineering's usually first complaint and central role, in which case trolling people by driving it into 1 wide maintenance and corridors or just bombing it will be catastrophic with robotics-wait-times and accessibility being written off as not a concern relating to the behaviour that players suffer no back-lash for early calling against engineering problems. Antagonists could just drive it to make a endless path out into space to put it out of the way or make a cultist space base, but i assume you'd think those were worthwhile features (which they probably are, but capitalize on the vehicles worst aspects).

You have more imagination than i do to tackle the problem evidently since this is a good point to launch from, but i dont buy into it being any better than Mules AI or tools to bypass girder construction: which everyone hates in and out of combat for reasons you've already said. I remember the hacked mule-crush epidemic, and that was the only notable rise in usage for them, because it was funny and violent rather than efficiently solving the station's cargo problems mainly related to education of how to do disposals quickly.

---

Here's something i would say taking this in to resolve the issue.

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[Omega_DarkPotato]

Sounds neat but I fear that removing the individual tools in favor of only a large-scale device that can only walk to places as it builds is going to rub a lot of people who just want to pipe the SM fast and then leave the wrong way. Sometimes you just wanna do some finer touchups with piping or you notice something's gone wrong in maint and you don't wanna get a big beefy boy all the way in to follow you to replace a pipe or two.

I never use an RCD as an assistant anyway because I'm a chad who manually builds everything, but losing access to something like an RPD hurts for pipe dreamers, and I also fear the accessibility issue with maint's 1-tile corridors that fwoosh's brought up.

[oranges]

There is no scope to remove individual construction as MSO is strongly against the removal of any kind of slap crafting system.

>Engineer Cart (i will call it that) doesn't sound intuitive to the extent you will be fighting against atmos constantly
It's only affected by lack of gravity and you can still bump move it.

> can be griefed
It's both key protected and if you get the upgrade, id card locked, so stealing it is non trivial.

and yes antagonists can blow anything up, that's what makes them antagonists.

[oranges]

Sounds neat but I fear that removing the individual tools in favor of only a large-scale device that can only walk to places as it builds is going to rub a lot of people who just want to pipe the SM fast and then leave the wrong way. Sometimes you just wanna do some finer touchups with piping or you notice something's gone wrong in maint and you don't wanna get a big beefy boy all the way in to follow you to replace a pipe or two.

I never use an RCD as an assistant anyway because I'm a chad who manually builds everything, but losing access to something like an RPD hurts for pipe dreamers, and I also fear the accessibility issue with maint's 1-tile corridors that fwoosh's brought up.

If you're just replacing a few pipes, that's trivial and doesn't need a machine at all.

[Itseasytosee2me]

emag_act()?

[Capsandi]

Instead, a new mobile vehicle (that operates kind of like a mulebot, but has good code) called the Rapid Construction Tractor or RCT is added. This vehicle can be driven to a location (run speed), and has a slower follow mode (walk speed), where it tries to follow you around as you walk.

Would it not be less convoluted to have a single slow riding setting? I'm not sure why a slower setting would be used by players if it also puts control of the thing into the hands of fallible path finding.
Though maybe if riding it was as slow as remote control, an automatic navigation to a destroyed area would be useful.
Picture this, an engineer is calming the sm down after some clown falls onto it, when science explodes. While they finish up on the SM, they use some sort of modular tablet app or something to tell their tractor to meander slowly over to science and wait for them.
It probably still wouldn't be used but I think giving the mass construction machine the ability to move too quickly would squander the chance to cut down on trivializing fortifications with the mass [de]construction items

also parking it should obviously anchor it so no issues arise with a fresh hole in the station sucking the thing left and right while it cancels what its doing cause it's moved.
all in all its a good idea.

[cacogen]

Why would you want to remove hand construction of all things? Why would you want to remove RCDs and RPDs, instead of just speeding up larger builds and particularly rebuilds with this thing?

[Farquaar]

Why would you want to remove hand construction of all things? Why would you want to remove RCDs and RPDs, instead of just speeding up larger builds and particularly rebuilds with this thing?

Geez Cacogen, read the thread

there's no intention to change manual construction, just make bulk construction viable.

[kopoba]

Problem is time. This design document will slow down construction as i can see. Slowing down will result coldmos/depresurization/fire of areas for longer period. Nowadays you can just grab RCD run to bombed medbay and fix breaches and pipes in a minute. With slow moves of RCT and slow construction and even with queue fixing shit will take much more time.
When you are engineer and walk to hop office and someone bombed hopline you will need to go back to your RCT in engineering to grab your RCT to fix hop line. With RCD you can fix on sight with no problem.
I see benefits of RCT but cost of loosing RCD and RPD is

[cacogen]

Geez Cacogen, read the thread

There is no scope to remove individual construction as MSO is strongly against the removal of any kind of slap crafting system.

The implication I get from this is that if not for MSO he'd want to remove manual construction. Like using metal to build a girder and then slapping that metal on the girder to build a wall. Which along with removing the RCD and RPD would mean gating all construction behind this tractor thing.

It seems to me a large impetus for making this change is to reduce the amount of people with access to rapid construction by gating it behind these rarer and more cumbersome vehicles. Which will just slow down construction and reduce the amount of people fixing things. It would be better if this change was solely focused on speeding up large scale construction or repairs and didn't affect what we already have.

[oranges]

Problem is time. This design document will slow down construction as i can see. Slowing down will result coldmos/depresurization/fire of areas for longer period. Nowadays you can just grab RCD run to bombed medbay and fix breaches and pipes in a minute. With slow moves of RCT and slow construction and even with queue fixing shit will take much more time.
When you are engineer and walk to hop office and someone bombed hopline you will need to go back to your RCT in engineering to grab your RCT to fix hop line. With RCD you can fix on sight with no problem.
I see benefits of RCT but cost of loosing RCD and RPD is
=

hey man, to fix breaches and depressurisation start with a metal foam grenade, then use the RCT upgrade that lets you replace over top of that item without removing it first.

[Agux909]

The RPD isn't as much of a problem as the bs the RCD is. RPD is useful and intuitive (after some practice) for specific things that aren't in the forefront all the time (Toxins and SM setup, atmos stuff, disposal mazes, transit tubes, quick repiping to fix air in the hallways, etc.), while RCD is a general purpose magic builder/debuilder that can affect movement around the station drastically by your generic tider.

It makes sense to remove the RCD, but as it is now, why do you think RPD should be removed too?

[saprasam]

i dont see why the rpd and rcd aren't allowed to stay as shittier, handheld RCTs
hell even nerf them if it comes down to it

[kopoba]

hey man, to fix breaches and depressurisation start with a metal foam grenade, then use the RCT upgrade that lets you replace over top of that item without removing it first.

Metal metal foam grenades is so shit that experienced engis never use them. Shity Foam walls that you must break take so much time reeeee. One wrong click and you have hole in floor.
They 99% of times used by greytide to block hallways for fun.

[WineAllWine]

Did I read correctly that it can build lights? It's always struck me as deeply strange that the rapid light constructor was admin only...

[GamerAndYeahMick]

Feels like it will make rounds actually last, and make reconstucting areas easy because this thing basically does it for you, from my understanding which is a net positive, doing atmos shit might be a bit awkward with it? the current tool offers a lot of control and if this one can keep that then I think it's good

[Cimika]

Hey Oranges, I quite like that new item. I am of the mind that change keeps the game fresh, so whether it is better or worse than current tools matters little to me, as long as it is fun and/or thematic to us. I'm all for it. Also maybe worth thinking about a backpack version with a limited amount of constructions options for emergencies? Could be fun, and prevents the use of a backpack so no using it in combat.

[Vekter]

Sounds neat but I fear that removing the individual tools in favor of only a large-scale device that can only walk to places as it builds is going to rub a lot of people who just want to pipe the SM fast and then leave the wrong way. Sometimes you just wanna do some finer touchups with piping or you notice something's gone wrong in maint and you don't wanna get a big beefy boy all the way in to follow you to replace a pipe or two.

I never use an RCD as an assistant anyway because I'm a chad who manually builds everything, but losing access to something like an RPD hurts for pipe dreamers, and I also fear the accessibility issue with maint's 1-tile corridors that fwoosh's brought up.

If you're just replacing a few pipes, that's trivial and doesn't need a machine at all.

I don't even know how to replace pipes without the RPD. Can we get it so pipes fit in construction bags or some kind of pipe bag to make carrying them not a fucking nightmare?

Plus, this doesn't even address pipe layering/coloring. I'm assuming this would come with some kind of overhaul for those functions?

[toadtheloser]

I think this is a very interesting change. The only things that would make it better is if construction was a bit faster (a few minutes seems like a while, unless you're talking 2-3, but even then that's quite a lot), and with this, you'd port over those tractor attachments from /vg/ so you could haul some extra stuff with the RCT. Also please allow drones to drive these.

[oranges]

You can't make it too fast or it becomes suitable for combat use.

[Somepan]

First will the ratio for construction of walls and destruction be the same than RCD, if yes is are you envisaging an upgrade to reduce to cost of construction. Because RCDs eat a fuck ton of mats and having to go back to a lathe to refuel after 5 walls will be a pain.( that is an hyperbole don't sue me)

[Rune_Quester]

Seems like a neat idea, but really, the RPD needs to stay. Too clunky and jank to use a entire new truck just to re-pipe the SM :<

[Tapubulu]

How will this affect laying pipes in/around the SM?

[Critawakets]

What's the point of removing the RPD/RCD? Especially the first one since atmos projects/repairs are usually going to be a bit away from what engi's doing. They should be kept in as the intermediary between doing things with your hands and the RCT, though maybe with nerf to compensate like slower/no deconstruction on the RCD.

Also how would RCTs be obtained? I imagine a cargo crate or you can just make em in engineering? Honestly i think making them engi-built is better than a cargo crate because its piss easy right now for anyone to obtain anything from cargo if they know what they're doing, job be damned. Plus having guncargo have the ability to terraform the entire station scares me.

[Capsandi]

Also how would RCTs be obtained?

Read the comments on the doc, they are built in robotics

[Critawakets]

Read the comments on the doc, they are built in robotics

Oh okay, so they're built in engineering. Got it.

[galpaladin]

I like the idea of janicart-like engineer gameplay where you just ride the thing around instead of walking, but I do think there ought to be some better way to quickly patch holes than metal foam grenades which kind of make a massive mess, like for instance inflatables or easier access to holofans or that sort of thing. "Chief engineer gets the only remaining (potentially still nerfed to be two handed or a backpack or something) RCD" is also something I'd support, could be a nice traitor objective on top of the convenience for "CE wants to do some stupid gigantic design from round start" activities, as well as mitigating the CE hogging one of the carts to themself.
For piping, I think there's a problem with small scale fixes and changes that this doesn't adequately address. The new design is great for large scale repairs since you can expect to need both a lot of pipes and a variety, but significantly hurts spot fixes and minor edits due to potential walking time to go back to base and get the requisite parts, or worse, grabbing the wrong layer pipes and having to go back AGAIN. I'd support completely removing the RCD if it became possible to change the layer of a given pipe when held in hand, and less importantly, if they were less bulky or had a dedicated storage item so you could conceivably carry around a few key parts to set up your edit wherever you want or patch small holes, though if this doesn't happen I see carried engineering duffel bags filling this niche. Oh also, I think this change would increase use of the pipe painter which is great imo, nobody uses that thing anymore.
Overall good changes, would definitely have an adjustment period of whining but I could see a positive new engineering meta forming around it.

[NoxVS]

How would this work for cyborgs? Do they still function as they did before?

I like the idea. My main concern is with assistants; if an assistant wants to make a larger scale maint room it's much harder to get a RCT than a RCD; for the RCT you'd have to get either Engineer's or Atmos' only RCT while for the RCD you can just ask Cargo.

What do you think about adding a ghetto alternative?
What I'm thinking of right now is what I like to call the Wallshredder. To make it you use a cable coil, a welding tool a igniter and either a mop or a broom.
It's a large item that requires 2 hands to use and it does consume more fuel than the standard welding tool per use. It can be used as a regular welding tool with the added benefit that, when it is used on a non-reinforced wall it tears it down to sheets of paper. The time it takes is the same as it takes to take down a wall down to a girder; all it does is skip the whole deconstruct girder / move it out of the way step, drastically speeding up the process of making a new room.

It's a large and 2-hand item; its drawback is the clunkyness. If you're expanding the library that won't be a problem but you can't bring it around nilly-willy. Engineers won't roundstart make it because of its clunkyness; it's better to have the regular welder in your toolbelt than bring that monster around.

What do you think Orange?

We already have the manual method of construction. That's the "ghetto alternative". All we are really missing is a way to manually deconstruct floors AFAIK

[Urocyon]

Lets be blunt, the Rapid Cable Layer(RCL), the Rapid Pipe Dispenser (RPD) and the Rapid Construction Device (RCD) are all removed

What does this mean for engineering borgs, mech rcd, and ERT?

Would you be open to just removing the normal yellow human hold-able RCD and PRD, and leaving the others, or do you have something in mind for those?

It seems logical to me that engineering borg should retain the ability to do self contained mass construction. I always imagined them as something like a sentient version of this RCT you are proposing. Combat use of the RCD is part of their antag/subverted deal, and it would be a pretty big hit to loose that, so I'd like to know if and how you intend to change up the orange borg. Don't forget the nukie version.

Mech RCD- I'm probably the only one in all of SS13 to ever use this, so, eh. It's incredibly clunky to use, even robotics mains probably don't know it exists or how to use it, and it's badly gated by research, but I still think it's cool.

ERT Industrial / Combat RCD- again, I might be the only person to ever use these, but I'd be interested in hearing what you have in mind for replacement capability, if anything.

[Echriser]

I think that the nanobot idea could solve a lot of issues mentioned with current construction: Leave nanobots behind for steady construction and if nanobot swarms can be harmed, you could prevent greytiders from breaking down or spam-placing walls by either beating up or having sec fire a disabler beam at the nanobot swarms. So, why not concentrate that idea into a handheld tool like a Nanite Director Tool or something along those lines? It will solve many of the same problems without the potential fighting or impatience that comes with having to construct and upgrade tractors, especially early round where it would be needed for the SM.

[SpinnerMaster]

I'm concerned about engi borg gameplay, but I really like this idea and I think its pretty cool.

[ELES]

Was talked about on discord pretty heavily and negatively, but I believe this is a salvageable idea.

A big part of that is that manual pipe laying is cancerous, and barely functional with the current version of pipes(and more accurately, it's not really functional at all, especially with pipe dispensors). Furthermore, Combat pipes are a lot less of an issue than shitting out literal walls, and the removal of all rapid construction tools seems a bit like a kneejerk reaction to one of them being broken.

That said, I think that the RCT as a concept could work if it just replaces the RCD, and other rapid construction tools still exist. This way, the RCT is technically an upgrade to the RCD as it's intended to be used, while disincentivizing the behavior that generated the need for this. The RPD is pretty much necessary for hand piping at this point, and the plumbing constructor literally requires that chemistry make plastic to get more of. It also makes it so that you aren't putting engi's big time equipment in two other departments roundstart so that they can do their jobs.

Finally, this seems to have overlooked borg and mech tools as others have stated.

[halitosisman]

It's been a while since I played, so correct me if this information is out of date.

Mining does not supply the amount of metal needed to build a basic room from scratch any earlier than the one hour mark on average. Your proposal, as written, will not enable large scale construction because the escape shuttle usually arrives by then.

This is why I always build a mining station with the aux base whenever I try any kind of construction at scale. There's no way to get the necessary material quantities unless I mine them myself. There was also no way to build anything before the escape shuttle arrived unless my production, mining and construction site were all in the same place. Hopefully your change handles the issue of prohibitive construction times.

[oranges]

it's not a removal, they're being consolidated into one item which has slightly more tradeoffs that require active user decision making.

[oranges]

Mining does not supply the amount of metal needed to build a basic room from scratch any earlier than the one hour mark on average. Your proposal, as written, will not enable large scale construction because the escape shuttle usually arrives by then.

This isn't a rebalance of mining, but I"d like to see more data on this issue.

[Knira]

I don't have any issues with this besides the fact that removing the RPD will make fixing delams way more difficult than they already are, for most people who do not know the engine very well, on top of the fact that running back and forth to replace pipes is going to just be extremely frustrating and making suicide in SM round start way more harder to deal with since the default Sm setup is complete ass and will clog and need pipe replacements.