Suggestion: helpful microorganisms

[Morse]

Right now all the microbes in game are pathogens, and the only game mechanic related to them is "avoid". But microorganisms are not only pathogens, some of them are very helpful, and our modern life depends on them very much. I can instantly see two uses for them in game:

1. Food fermentation. Right now, this is only hinted at in the name of the building: "microbe musher". I'm not a native English speaker, so I don't quite know what that supposed to mean. The dictionary sais that a musher is "a driver of a dogsled". Hm... Well anyway, processing something inedible to something slightly less inedible is very like what a fermentation is. But it would be nice to see the process implemented in more detail, so that it didn't look like dupes are eating dirt. Again, English is not my native language, but I'm pretty sure the phrase "eat dirt" is not supposed to be taken literally. And speaking of brewing... alcohol! Great for stress relieve. Massage tables are getting old, you know. Also disinfection. And even radiation poisoning, should the game ever go in that direction (actually no, that's a myth, ethanol doesn't help for radiation poisoning, but it would still be funny).

2. Waste treatment. Filtering polluted water is fun, but how about biological water purification. That's how we do it IRL, you know. Helpful bacteria can live in polluted water and convert it to clean water. And BTW, "helpful" doesn't necessarily mean "harmless", they can still cause diseases, so you'll need to get rid of them before the water becomes usable. But don't get rid of them all, you'll still need it for your purification process! That's the new idea I want to get through: you shouldn't destroy all the germs on sight like you do now, but rather contain and control, like you do with some deadly gases, which have no business floating inside your colony, but are vitally important in some places.

And that's just the beginning. Fuel production, fertilizers production, some symbiotic microbes (maybe some plants would grow slower, or not at all, if you don't cover them with the needed microbes). The possibilities are limitless.

[vovik]

Also, how about disease that causes stress but makes dupes a bit faster?

[DraconicSiege]

Native English Speaker here! My take on "musher" is that it means "something that mushes". "to mush" something means to reduce it to a soft, wet, pulpy mass. So in this case the machine "mushes" dirt and meal lice into a wet, pulpy mass (Yum...) thus it is a "musher".

The "-er" is often times added to a verb to indicate a machine/tool/person that performs said action. Some examples are a cooker will cook things, a washer will wash things, etc. You get the idea. "Musher" was made up by the devs for this game and isn't an "official" English word so it might not be in dictionaries. I hope this was helpful!

[Morse]

9 hours ago, DraconicSiege said:

My take on "musher" is that it means "something that mushes"

Yes, that's what pops into mind, but what does it make a "microbe musher"? Something that mushes microbes? Or a machine itself is a microbe that mushes? Because as far as my idea goes, I was more interested in the "microbe" part, than in "musher".

[Gurgel]

Probably means it also mixes microbes in there (after turning it to mush) to make the stuff "edible". Mixing dirt with water is not enough, you need some microbial processing in addition. 

Makes on wonder how a mush bar actually smells....

[WordWeaver]

This is an excellent idea. Most of the systems in the game have positive and negative, germs should as well. Variety of more negatives among newer updates could be good as well such as a ranching germ that only effects animals that are not managed properly.