That’s precisely what we’re discussing.
Issue: bionic slots prevent building a “bionic monster” kind of character, unless the cap is so high as to be meaningless.
Solution: perhaps rather than existing weight and encumbrance mechanics, bionics should have their own form of encumbrance, taking effect when you exceed the slot limit. I suggested a few sorts of penalties they might introduce.
Furthering the idea:
There could be a few bioencumbrance effects, similar to negative mutations, with each bionic maybe choosing randomly from a list when first installed, but always applying the same effect afterwards to prevent scumming
Ideas: all of these can stack
- Reduced sense of taste. Joy penalties and bonuses from food reduced (effect on bonuses is more pronounced)
- Metabolic dulling: reduce joy from drugs and alcohol
- Muscle hindrance: move speed reduced
- Geargrind: chance per turn of making a noise at random
- System burden: chance per turn of gaining fatigue for no reason
- System strain: chance per turn of gaining pain for no reason
- Bionic malaise: flat penalty to happiness
- System shock: reduce max HP of the limb the bionic is installed in
- Out of space: add encumbrance to the limb the bionic is installed in
- Exposed systems: the bionic can be damaged by attacks, like worn gear, with potentially bad side effects.
- Constantly clicking: harder to fall asleep, stay asleep, get meaningful rest.
Not every bionic would possibly spawn all of these, and they can all be avoided by not overdoing it, but if you want to be a bionic monster I think this would mostly just add to the fun, just like negative mutations do
