A "Modified" trait to machines

[Dovahkick]

I've had this idea since a moment since for me it would make sense to be able to let a dupe apply modifications to a machine after its construction. By modifications, I mean something similar to how mutated crops work.

For example, one could have a Hydrogen Generator that uses double the usual hydrogen, but produces twice as much power and triple the heat, or a Natural Gas Generator that produces clean water instead of polluted water but produces only half the energy, or even a Solar Panel that doesn't produce power, but instead has pipe input/output that heats up the liquid that passes through.

These modification traits would have to be researched for each machine, the quantity of research would depend on the tier of the machine (being low for Manual Generators, and high for Solar Panels, Steam Turbines, etc...) and the type of trait that would affect the chosen machine. But if one wishes to do research for a trait, they'd need to create a blueprint station which works pretty much like a Research Station/Super Computer. But instead of using dirt, water, radbolts or plastic as a resource, it'd need steel (like 10 or 15kg per research point).

[AndreyKl]

On 8/20/2021 at 8:35 PM, Dovahkick said:

or even a Solar Panel that doesn't produce power, but instead has pipe input/output that heats up the liquid that passes through.

I think this radiators and collectors should be part of SO without any need to modify something.

Building temperature control is very tedious and repeatable in SO (since you need at least as many as there are asteroids). Low-tech and low-player-effort solutions like vacuum-radiators will simplify that.

On 8/20/2021 at 8:35 PM, Dovahkick said:

Hydrogen Generator that uses double the usual hydrogen

Generators are extremely unbalanced as is, plus they have tune-up... While I understand the appeal, I think this will backfire with exploitable perpetual-machine loops.

[Dovahkick]

Mmh...I dunno, I thought my idea of tweaking machines was okay enough, that it would allow for different kinds of building methods while still having upsides and downsides like mutated plants do.

[kisukin]

The idea is good but tricky to apply for now. It would be like a sequence of optional upgrades for a midgame crisis (I think the energy crisis is this stage). Let's say that the machines consume O2 (combustion ones), then you would have a parallel upgrade in the research tree to make the machine run that way or consume less O2... in this scenario this idea would run cool ( have a razoable machinery when you discover a new tech and develop a better version on late game ).