Water Dump / Draw Zones

[Interloper]

Manually mopping stress-induced vomit or urine is a repetitive and unfun task for the player that detracts from the fun of the game – planning out a base and managing gas, liquid, food, and stress support systems. Further, mopping can be detrimental because, as far as I can tell, mopping destroys the mopped liquid. For example, this makes a common  strategy for infinite water, i.e., using stress-induced vomiting/urine to generate unlimited water, more difficult to implement. Whether this is an intended feature or an exploit, the reliance on this system is often used as an argument against automating mopping.

I think the game would benefit from a water zone designation system, similar to what is used in Dwarf Fortress. For those not familiar, DF allows the player to designate areas that Dwarves (Dups) can use as a water source, and also designate areas that Dwarves (Dups) should dump water into. (See DF Pit/Pond) A similar system in ONI would allow the player to designate areas that Dups should take water from. Further, the player could designate areas that water (or separately, contaminated water) should be dumped into, allowing for transport jobs that create reservoirs of water and contaminated water.

ONI already allows Dups to carry liquids (i.e, when a Dup draws water from a water source) and liquid-gathering jobs (i.e., drawing water for delivery to an algae farm). Extending this system to allow water drawing and dumping zones would allow mopping to be automated (removing a repetitive, unfun task for the player). Also, allowing the mopped liquid to be dumped into an area of the player's choosing would allow for easy (albeit inefficient) transportation of distant water sources to a main water reservoir, prevent Dups from stealing from a pump reservoir, starving the pump, and allow for the efficient transfer of vomit into contaminated-water receptacles for recycling.