Donator
What does this suggestion change/add/remove:
If possible, allow for the chem vendor UI to fill whatever held receptacle (any flask/beaker/vial/etc, so long as it's empty) with a chemical.Optionally, you could allow for refills to be at a very slight discount (when compared to getting a normal 1L of X chem) to encourage its use over buying a new 1L flask of X chem, which would enforce the positive effects of this suggestion more - A potential pricing range for chems obtained this way:
Held Receptacle | Price of bought chem (for 1L) |
|---|---|
None (Buying a chem normally without having a flask on you) | 100% (Standard 1L price) |
Empty 1L Flask (or small beaker, which is also 1L to my recollection) | 90% |
Empty 2L Large Beaker | 180% (as you are buying 2L) |
Empty 200ml vial (inc. injection vial) | 10% (as you are buying 200ml) |
or just Zen's reply if possible.
Has something similar been suggested before? If so, why is your suggestion different?:
There was the favourite chems in chem vendor from Scotsman which was accepted - And a currently active suggestion for quick filling/emptying of centrifuges. Both of these are related, but ultimately serve a similar (in terms of convenience), but otherwise different purpose to this suggestion (although the centrifuge one does overlap a little more in terms of entity count reduction).Possible Positives of the suggestion (At least 2):
- Reduced Entity Count - This is the primary reason for the suggestion; Yes, there's the despawn system w/ the timer but you can still have a bunch of empty flasks just laying around before that kicks in and starts removing them. During sessions when people are making lots of chems, the flasks just pile up because you always get a new one from the vendor for each chem you buy; Which means the count can skyrocket depending on what chems you're making, especially now that we have a new chem lab on the server (Which makes for a total of 4 - RsD, Medbay, CI base, GOC base - All of which could feasibly have a significant amount of people making chems in at the same time, each with dozens upon dozens of flasks on the floor). Encouraging people to use existing flasks with a discounted chem price should, ideally, alleviate any issues relating to having a lot of flask entities spawned.
- Convenience & Streamlining - Then of course, from a making chems standpoint, you need to put any empty flasks you have down before buying another filled one from the chem vendor (ergo contributing to the first point). This way, you can just have your flask, go to the vendor, fill, continue. If the discount for refilling as an incentive is implemented, then it's additionally cheaper to do it that way instead of buying new flasks each time.
- Potentially More Chem Lab Locations In Future - As per the first point, if all active chem labs' contribution to entity count becomes significantly reduced as a result of this suggestion, this means more locations could be easily considered to have a chem lab of some description if and where needed (although that means more chem processing entities)
Possible Negatives of the suggestion:
- Underutilisation - Habit's hard to break and it also takes time for new information to get around; It's possible that the standard chem-making practice wouldn't change enough to warrant this - If it's also not doable at a discount, then there would be little reason to, aside from it just being more convenient. Ideally you would just try and let people know, maybe remind them, but they don't always listen.
- Feasibility - Even though the chem vendor UI is likely to be worked on anyway as a result of a prior suggestion I mentioned, that doesn't mean that this is either easily doable or even possible in the first place, as this also concerns the actual chem container SWEP you have on you and swapping it out conditionally. Either that or the dev work on making this all happen, while retaining existing and planned functionality, would probably not be worth the result. And that's not even considering what bugs or exploits could result from it.
- Price Imbalance - If you do implement the discount for refill, it could have unintended effects on the server economy. May also not be what SL wants.
- Possibly A Non-Issue - This might not even be a problem (or at least one worth addressing) and this entire suggestion may just be completely pointless.
Based on the Positives & Negatives, why should this suggestion be accepted:
So long as people use this, everything gets simpler & easier, less empty flasks sitting around on the floor waiting to despawn, can maybe consider more chem lab locations if they're needed, etc.
Last edited:
Game Master
Community Sup.
Group Moderator
