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[Valguris]

I imagine it'd be fun seeing engineers rush towards a destabilized explosive machine to stabilize it. Especially if stabilization takes some time or requires multiple engineers to work together -- then one could see an engineer standing next to a reactor preventing it from exploding NOW, like some poor guy who is stuck holding a bomb's trigger, lest the trigger is released.

This offers a few tactical options to Cogmind:

• Just seeing engineers rush into the room means that some machines in it were probably destabilized and you should run
• Destroy the engineers to allow the machine to finally explode, perhaps at a more convenient time than that of the original destabilization timer
• Standing near explosive machinery is now safe if engineers are close enough. On the other hand you can't set machines to explode with weak weapons when engineers are nearby.

Furthermore if the engineers were to far to prevent the explosion, but managed to get into explosion's radius, they might survive the damage and call reinforcements, further pointing out that more destruction means more trouble.

Also, engineers already use Structural Scanners, so it makes sense that they use it (well... more than just to avoid unstable tiles [which they don't do?] while reconstructing walls).

[zxc]

Sounds cool. More interactions and connections between existing systems is always cool. Should it be engineers (builders) or mechanics?

[Kyzrati]

Yeah it does add another layer of interaction, which is always nice, though I don't think it would be too meaningful in a mechanical sense given that destabilization leads to destruction very quickly. A majority of machines will explode within 10 turns, often less.

Also technically lore-wise this job would belong to Mechanics, and there aren't nearly as many of them around.

I'd think thematically it would be more interesting to have Engineers and/or Mechanics rebuild destroyed machines, but we don't even have that at present...

[zxc]

Builders assemble machines, mechanics come along and turn them on?

[DDarkray]

Also technically lore-wise this job would belong to Mechanics

Actually, according to the Engineer analysis record, shouldn't the engineers be the one who build and maintain the machines? The mechanics are only concerned about repairing robots and parts.

U-05 Engineer
---------------
U-class builders lay floors, assemble new machines, and reinforce and analyze the structural integrity of walls. They travel alone, but all those within a certain vicinity will work together to complete a task.

M-28 Smith
------------
M-series mechanics are valued in dangerous areas for their ability to rebuild components, repair simple core integrity, and restore missing functionality by attaching temporary backup components. M-28 Smiths are sometimes dispatched to support an assault force, or are otherwise assigned to a designated repair station.

[Kyzrati]

Heh, whoops, right, good job pointing that out, been years since that was written and I was already starting to lean towards repurposing Mechanics towards machine-related tasks as a result of the hacking system (but hadn't done this yet, it was just something that might come up in future hacks)

Should probably stick with the original lore and keep them separate like that...

[Terminus]

As it's written just with those snippets, engineers look like they only build new machines. Having mechanics gain new mechanics (stablizing/activating machines) may not really be a big deal, since they are far-less commonly seen than engineers, so giving them new functions wouldn't conflict with previously-held expectations of behaviour as much. Then again... far less common on the floors, so it would mean "wandering" mechanics on the hunt for machines to fix/activate for that new function to ever really be seen in a normal run.

[zxc]

Regardless of what the lore currently says, it seems to make sense to me to have Builders focus on walls/doors and Mechanics focus on machines.

[Terminus]

I feel like... I remember seeing a gif of engineers assembling new machines, and some robot came along (not sure what class) and started it up... hmmmm
Anyways, yeah, I think having mechanics monitor and activate or stabilize machines would be a neat... concept, although I wonder how well it would work with how relatively stationary mechanics currently are. Perhaps there could be additional mechanics that just wander about, without being coupled to a repair machine.

[Kyzrati]

Hehe, I think I've shown so many gifs over the years that people are starting to make up extra gifs that never existed

In any case, even if this were done, for balance purposes I never planned to have the machines actually be started up "while Cogmind is still on the floor." Just rebuilt, nothing more.

Of course the balance would be equivalent if they were brand new machines created mid-run in places where there should have been machines to begin with, so that could work purely as an immersion thing. I've had this bit in my notes for a long time, it just hasn't seemed worth doing so far.

[zxc]

Machines being rebuilt the same way walls are rebuilt would be cool. I'd tune it so that it takes significantly longer for them to get rebuilt and then switched on, to vary it up some.