Oh, okay. I think I finally understand what’s going on here.
Can’t you just pulp them first? I generally do and take them away if I can. But it may reduce my CBM chances.
I’m pretty sure that’s supposed to negatively impact CBM yield, and significantly so. In any case, it seems like it would be better to focus on the JSON updates to the butchering overhaul (what @KorGgenT linked) first, and look towards adjusting dissection afterwards.
I do have some ideas for making dissection more compelling, without changing too much about how it works. In fact, I think there’s room to make it much more involved if we can adjust when the RNG is rolled. I’m imagining a ~5 minute “bionic appraisal” step (requiring fine cutting 1 for exploratory incisions, etc), perhaps with the assistance of bionic diagnostic equipment. The extraction requirements and difficulty can correspond to the particular CBM that gets rolled. Especially elaborate, long-term extractions could even require some sort of corpse restraints. Some CBMs could require acidic dissolution to be freed from interlaced tissue. Just brainstorming rn. Personally, I’d be willing to jump through extra hoops if I knew what CBM I was working for.
I will point out that while dissecting out CBMs will remain a thing for the forseeable future, it’s going to become a less important thing pretty soon as bionically equipped enemies become more uncommon. I predict the major use of dissection will be the more normal use: using it to get scientific samples. That doesn’t mean that the mechanic for cbm removal can’t be made more compelling, it’s never going away, but it might not be the best time for starting a dissection improvement project.
Why’re CBMs being taken somewhat away???
Good to know. If anything, rarer bionic corpses are a good reason to implement a change like this. Later, of course, since it seems like a lot of adjacent systems are about to be reconfigured.
Lores been updated, CBM’s are no longer Native Earth tech, they’re extradimensional like the blob. As a result, the vast majority of the human populance wouldn’t have had access to them at all, so zombies with CBM’s are going to be very scarce at best.
Edit: Source on the lore claim
I’m sad to see them going as they’re a really interesting part of the game, that would really limit some of the more interesting zombie options. And wipe out all the cool military bionics. 
The bionics absolutely still get to exist. The ‘source’ will just be different, both in how you loot them and how the lore explains their existence. If anything, this really opens up the possibilities, as the cybernetics no longer need to make Earth sense, and while they have to be explainable with our modern tech, they don’t have to be something that the military would value. No nanoforge ammo fabricator installed in yer thigh, but the fusion blaster arm is likely to stay.
As for zombies, the lore explaining shocker zombies might change, but I doubt our favorite day ruiners will actually disappear. Something something something, zombies with pacemakers have that electrical surge cranked to a million, and now the zombies arcing electricity everywhere, for the blob cares not for your rules of reality.
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Disclaimer: New player who’s never used a CMB…
I think “harvesting” should either be a case where you seize the chance to grab one when it happens, or the result of a targeted action where you prepare for the hunt, which included bringing the tools required.
I can see three options:
- Current (stable) operation, i.e. you encounter a promising target, take it out, and do a (not so) quick and (very) dirty job of rooting though the corpse in the field after taking some quick precautions (hauling the corpse away from the remainder of the horde, wait in a cool place for a while try to avoid heat stroke, etc.)
- Finding “candidates” is the same as 1, but then you get means to “prepare” the corpse so it doesn’t raise on you, after which you haul it off (laboriously, as I would guess some of the best CMBs are in bulky bodies) to a place with suitable facilities (nothing too complicated, but still possibly too much for you to lug around), with a window of a number of hours before it’s too late, do the job, and have a much better chance of getting something at all than the current situation, and some high tech (but light weight) means for the later game to scan the body to determine what’s in it, and so whether the effort is worth it. Just because a body contains a Highly Sought McGuffin doesn’t guarantee it’s in usable condition, and definitely not that you’re skilled enough to retrieve it, though.
- Targets with a well defined range of CMBs (that your character would have to learn, somehow) appear in known locations that it won’t hurt you too much to put on hold until later (like safes…). Once you’re ready you hit the location and drag the body off to your black van where the job is performed.
You can, of course, have 2 for lower end CMBs and 3 for the higher end, and possibly even split CMBs into tiers where low end stuff can be extracted with little more sophistication than butchery, but high end gear requires brain surgery level operation (and I’m not talking zombie brain, but the kind where the patient is expected to recover afterwards): microscope, robot assisted tools (to allow PCs to get sufficiently steady tools), etc.
Profugo_Barbatus has the long and short of it.
Shocker zombies will be a mutant zombie just like all the others.
CBMs aren’t going away, there will be room to add many more types of CBM now.
The only zombies that may need some rethinking are the bio-operator and the technician. I’m quite sure we can find a way to work them in as well.
The military zombies with CBMs should stick around though. The real military of most nations has always been a test/lab rat kind of thing. Makem rare. Big deal, right? But as to requiring a surface to dissect them(clean or otherwise). That is a bad idea for every reason I already mentioned. I wouldn’t require a surface at all, be it clean or dirty to roll around in dog shit. That is on par with zombie guts as far as I see it.
well if you read Erk’s earlier posts here, you would know they are making cbms be alien technology so the military probably wouldn’t have them
In our world, using cybernetics for military stuff is not likely to be better than worn equipment for an exceptionally long time, maybe ever. It’s always been a huge stretch to have it make sense. Making them an introduced tech makes the design space a lot more open, and also conveniently helps to reduce labs being such a one stop shop for everything
I’ve been playing the game long enough to know that this would be a massive change, for the better. Lab diving is fun but I do feel a bit spoiled by all the loot. My only concern is whether this would make them more boring places to explore.
My worry is lab diving might become to unrewarding if we’re not careful as @Fload mentions . But I’m sure we’ll figure it out.
No reason labs would have less stuff in them. Its just less of a one stop shop for endgame loot. I imagine they’ll become a bit more specialized, for when you need specific equipment, drugs, experimental tech, etc.
More specialized labs where you can kind of predict the valuable loot at the bottom from the type of lab would be kind of cool. I’d love to see more core game robot stuff for labs too.
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Yeah, I have no problem with diminishing the “one stop shop” aspect of labs if it’s counterbalanced against layout changes for more focused goals. If the loot possibilities were reduced without any other adjustments they would just become really really boring.
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Well I drew a framework for DIY robots that Kevin crapped on. But CBMs and robots should still be in a lab somewhere being worked on for scientific research and prototype work in my opinion. Rare of course but still in the world. It would also make the reward less a sure thing of lab diving and more of a chance gamble. But you would have to enter in and explore to find such items. Just because putting together rare stuff is difficult. Should not mean excluded from the game. Work shops in labs where the player can find and copple together implants and oddball robots similar to the vehicle construction system really would be a compelling late game thing.
DIY doesn’t mean make a robot out of trashcans fyi. It means, you find rare parts and collect them to put together a companion; With high skills in computers, mechanics, fabrication.