Mercenary tech fab

[ErhardSteinhauer]

About the PR

Mercenary techfab

Added mercenary techfab and a couple of technologies for researchers to unlock. Conceptually, mercenary techfab should primarily provide utilities and a way to obtain Liberation Station guns if someone decides to buy them all, so no crazy guns or ammo types are included in the list of available crafting recipes. Other design considerations:

• Shouldn't replace ammo fab.
• Shouldn't replace salvage techfab.
• Shouldn't replace autolathe (Failed here tbh).

Weapon available for printing:

• All guns from Liberation Station.
• Svalinn Laser pistol.
• Mk58.
• Disabler (need research).
• Kammerer (need research).
• Laser Carbine (need research).
• Advanced laser and recharger (need research).
• Antique laser pistol (need research).
• Modular grenades payloads (need research).
• Stunbaton (need research).
• Katana/kukri knife/machete/baseball bat (need research).

"Hacked" mercenary techfab

• Has a low chance of spawning as expeditions loot.
• Has slightly different recipes available from the get go and through the research: most notably allows you to craft incendiary and uranium ammo, grenades (not payload), laser cannon.

Other changes:

• Rearranged available recipes on tech fabs under _NF and Nyanotrasen.
• Portable recharger no longer fits in backpacks/duffels (reminder: it can be works as a backpack), but charges twice as fast.
• Added T3 medical tech research that unlocks printing of advanced topicals. Now medical ships have no excuse to keep their microwaves.
• Added new sorting categories to some lathes: Clothing, Kitchen, Medical, Storage.
• Changed available recipes for salvage and service techfabs.
• Made toolboxes and weapon cases craftable.
• Made combat magboots researchable. Moved advanced magboots to T3.
• Punk boots function like combat boots have item slot.
• Added pockets to punk bulletproof armor, now it functions like bounty hunter flack coat.
• Randomized punk clothes can now be recycled and butchered (since those are printable now, that means players can spam them until they get the one they like).
• ThreadsChoom and BonanzaMatic vending machines now can be unanchored.

To do:

• [x] Turn portable recharger into a backpack.
• [x] Standardize common utility lathe recipes availability between various lathes.
• [x] Remove sec techfabs and vendomats from exped loot pool: handled here to be merged.

Why / Balance

How to test

Media

• [x] I have added screenshots/videos to this PR showcasing its changes ingame, or this PR does not require an ingame showcase

Breaking changes

Changelog :cl: erhardsteinhauer

• add: Added mercenary techfab and additional arsenal research.
• add: Added T3 medical tech research that unlocks printing of advanced topicals.
• add: Added new sorting categories to some lathes: Clothing, Kitchen, Medical, Storage.
• tweak: Portable recharger no longer fits in backpacks/duffels, but charges twice as fast. It can be works as a backpack.
• tweak: Made combat magboots researchable. Moved advanced magboots to T3.
• tweak: Randomized punk clothes can now be recycled and butchered.
• tweak: ThreadsChoom and BonanzaMatic vending machines now can be unanchored.

[github-actions[bot]]

RSI Diff Bot; head commit f3bf00e3a7bc225821b6292221af362f8ab05ff1 merging into ddb94c36bfd6479e340b8b98bc9603191669139d This PR makes changes to 1 or more RSIs. Here is a summary of all changes:

Resources/Textures/Structures/Machines/techfab.rsi

| State | Old | New | Status | --- | --- | --- | --- | | nfsd |  | ![]() | Removed

Resources/Textures/_NF/Objects/Devices/flatpack.rsi

| State | Old | New | Status | --- | --- | --- | --- | | mercenary | ![]() |  | Added

Resources/Textures/_NF/Objects/Misc/module.rsi

| State | Old | New | Status | --- | --- | --- | --- | | hacked-merc-fab-board | ![]() |  | Added

Resources/Textures/_NF/Structures/Machines/techfab.rsi

| State | Old | New | Status | --- | --- | --- | --- | | mercenary | ![]() |  | Added | salvage | ![]() |  | Added

Edit: diff updated after f3bf00e3a7bc225821b6292221af362f8ab05ff1

[dvir001]

Please also remove all security techfab from expo with this added as they wont be needed there.

[ErhardSteinhauer]

Please also remove all security techfab from expo with this added as they wont be needed there.

Removed it in this PR

[dustylens]

• big edit because I'm a dork who didn't note that this PR had changes for machines other than the mercenary tech fab.

"Added T3 medical tech research that unlocks printing of advanced topicals. Now medical ships have no excuse to keep their microwaves."

An alternative approach to microwaves is something I've long hoped for. I have deep reservations about the recipes. Durathread and silver for advanced topicals is a radical departure from the vanilla recipe.

With the framing of medical ships "no longer having an excuse" I'm not sure if this is intended to be seen as the first step in "medics have had it too good for too long" or what the big picture is here.

I agree that the microwave piece is contentious. I would prefer to not cook my sutures in the same machine that heats my soup. I believe that changing recipes like this and going through lathes/research (especially locking fundamental tools for a role, which is kind of a shocking change in its own right) behind research and this kind of material system isn't the best path forward.

I would personally prefer a new machine that allows us to whitelist specific medical/alternative fabrication recipes to take advantage of reagent + entity combinations. Rather than relying on the microwave for that kind of lift.

[ErhardSteinhauer]

"no longer having an excuse" I'm not sure

It is called dark humor, you wouldn't get it. 🤡

But no, it's continuation of crusade against kitchen utensils on non-kitchen ships. This is another band aid for an issue that is too bothersome to fix: microwave is the only kitchen machine thing you need - it is used in vast majority of kitchen recipes. And in case of its medical application it has only 2 (two!) somewhat obscure recipes, that almost no one bothers to use because you can just print bruise packs/ointments until the heat death of the universe. Research gatekeeping, which isn't that big of an obstacle imo, is only there to make sure the new recipes don't completely replace common topicals.

(especially locking fundamental tools for a role, which is kind of a shocking change in its own right)

It's not a fundamental tool for a role, you can perform your medical duties without those advanced topicals. The ability to print advanced topicals doesn't prevent you from going the old route (but the absence of a microwave will).

Feel free to revert the recipe and research node, when you make that new machine for medical recipes.

[dvir001]

Ill be honest im sure we going to have new balance issues from this but this is nothing we cannot fix by just removing and adding lines.

Its fine for testing live.

[ErhardSteinhauer]

im sure we going to have new balance issues

For sure