TerraGov-Marine-Corps
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tgstation
Adds strains framework
About The Pull Request
To add a strain just add a child with a UPGRADE_BASETYPE upgrade to a castedatum has a flag for snowflake like weapon x
Why It's Good For The Game
this intended for sidegrades within the same castes role
I'm happy to merge if you disagree, but this seems to just be a more complicated way to get the exact same result.
Making new castes is not always a good solution, and you can see why if you compare the Crusher to the Bull. The latter could easily be a strain of the former, especially because it just doesn't work as a standalone caste. It could be fun and interesting to design minor variations of existing castes that offer slightly different gameplay experiences. Having to make an entirely new thing, on the other hand, is much more difficult by comparison. I would very much prefer having strains.
I'm happy to merge if you disagree, but this seems to just be a more complicated way to get the exact same result.
Making new castes is not always a good solution, and you can see why if you compare the Crusher to the Bull. The latter could easily be a strain of the former, especially because it just doesn't work as a standalone caste. It could be fun and interesting to design minor variations of existing castes that offer slightly different gameplay experiences. Having to make an entirely new thing, on the other hand, is much more difficult by comparison. I would very much prefer having strains.
This has nothing to do with the ingame stats/abilities/appearance of a strain. I don't know why people seem confused by this every time I bring it up. Nothing I am saying is 'don't do strains'. I am saying any xeno created as a strain is codewise just a new caste, and ingame the only difference between a new caste and a new strain is the strain has an arbitrary extra step to get to (i.e. you gotta evo/caste swap to the base caste THEN strain swap to the strain), which is literally just readding evo paths but more limited.
So if the only thing added by implementing strains IN THIS SPECIFIC WAY, is just readding evo paths, which is something we deliberately removed very recently... why not just implement strains without this pointless restriction?
As I've brought up before though, I still don't understand codewise what the difference is between something being a strain vs just being a new caste.
Codewise its the same yea Point being is at the end of the day we can have the same role with multiple flavors. e.g different boiler is siege bombarder but you can have a few tweaks to tailor to precise player playtypes
I am not saying don't do strains, for the love of god stop interpreting it as that.
All I am saying is why require players to evolve or swap to runner, before being able to strain swap to acid runner or whatever? Just treat the strains how we treat castes. Larva evolves directly to acid runner, or hivelord devolves directly to acid runner, or defender just swaps directly to acid runner etc.
We only just recently removed evolution paths since that was considered bad/limiting for xenos, but we're just readding it but specifically for strains? Why?
I've asked if this is for balance before in the past but never got a straight answer because ever seems to think I am saying not to do strains at all.
All I am saying is why require players to evolve or swap to runner, before being able to strain swap to acid runner or whatever? Just treat the strains how we treat castes. Larva evolves directly to acid runner, or hivelord devolves directly to acid runner, or defender just swaps directly to acid runner etc.
If what you're referring to is "why not add the option to evo straight to a strain from the evo menu", it's probably because that's convoluted and would either extend the list to be really obnoxiously long, or require a redesign of the TGUI interface, probably with collapsible lists per caste. It's easier at the moment to just do it this way, even if it requires an extra step. If someone else wants to go the extra mile, they can do that in the future.
(also merge this so i can start throwing strain PRs at the wall pls)
The argument for adding an entire extra mechanic (that shares a time gate with caste swapping) due to not having enough space in a window that can be any size is uh, highly questionable.
