Metabolic Interchange, as of 0.4, is nearly always a bad idea.
With the passive power drain, you wake up hungrier, need to eat more constantly, and it turns the burden of daily hunting into something almost unbearable.
Would it be possible to remove or ‘depower’ passive bionics that one doesn’t like? Aside from malfunctioning bionics, which are an intentional risk of installation, there’s no reason the removal process shouldn’t be available.
Please. I REALLY can’t stand Metabolic Interchange. It’s just annoying.
The OP may not have been aware just what would happen when they installed the bionic. Given how rare bionics are, I don’t think “you should have know already” can always apply.
Now, in terms of the suggestion itself… I do agree that bionics should be reversible, somehow. I suspect that allowing rapid activation/deactivation would mess with balance of certain things (metabolic interchange and the armor bionics, at a minimum). However, uninstalling seems reasonable. I’ll put it on my list of things to consider, although I’ve got a few other things that I’m working on at the moment.
On/Off instantly would definitely break some things, but why not time out over a period of time? 1 hour in game or something?
That would make it to where the CBM’s continue to function normally but eventually shut off like you asked them? of course this could be variable, ranging from a quick 20 minutes to 3-4 hour shutdowns, based on skills involved or something?
Uninstall would be fine.
Wouldn’t save my current character from the pure horribleness that is Metabolic Interchange, but it might save someone else who ignorantly makes the mistake to install that piece of crap.
Personally I don’t find the Metabolic Interchange that bad, kinda depends on the Bionics you install, how much batteries you install and how frequently you use active bionics. Even with enhanced memory banks and skill rust on I don’t find it that hard to keep myself full.
Using something like the finger laser to clear a town with a Metabolic Interchange installed expect to be eating enough food to feed a entire country for a month in one sitting.
Combine with an Ethanol Burner, raid a liquor store and you will mostly be needing water, which is much easier to come by.
I’d like to change metabolic interchange really. Maybe make it only recharge if you’re eating over satiation. So you eat until you’re full, then it kicks in when you try and cram down another chunk of meat and converts it to energy. Prevents it from starving you to death and also means it doesn’t instantly override all other power sources, it’s the sort of thing that can be used to recharge once you get back to your base, unless you want to sit down and have a three course meal in the middle of the battlefield.
i tend to stay away from it for that reason, but working to act as a backup that way would be fine.
but back to removing bionics, why not have the same system as putting them in but reverse? failure could result in injury or damage to existing modules?
balance risk/reward.
this would also add some forethought to putting in CBM’s: “am I going to remove this later? do i even want to put this in right now?” kinda thing
[quote=“Williham, post:10, topic:862”]If uninstall is added to bionics; the process should irreparably damage the bionic in question, meaning it cannot be reinstalled once stripped.[/quote]Methinks it should depend on the bionic. Armor plating should be removable and be able to be made fit for installation given you don’t use hacksaws to get it out and you give it a good sterilization before going back in.
Also, this give me an idea, I’ll make a suggestion thread soon.
The problem, Darkling, is the way power drain works, especially at night.
Every. Single. Time you wake up, you are Very Hungry, and your power is like twenty units below its maximum;
just make it activatable. Make it like Ethanol Burner, except instead of consuming liquor it consumes your satiation;
if you’re in a pinch and need power, turn it on, burn up your food, and go on your way,
but the way it currently works is, you’re ALWAYS either maxed out on power or starving because you can’t get power, even if you don’t use bionics often enough for that power drain to make sense.
Even with Light Eater and Recycler Unit, Metabolic Interchange still sucks.
I think it should work the other way round - it only activates when you at zero power and try to use something, and then it pulls directly from your body to power… whatever.
I actually think that Metabolic Interchange is one of the best power sources right now.
Batteries are not exactly scarce but they aren’t really renewable, plus you need to eat too many of them to reload your power, and they are used for lots of other things.
Solar panels require sunlight, so they are unreliable.
Ethanol makes you drunk/addicted, is not exactly plentiful and is required for other things.
Internal furnace is probably the best one, since wood is a very abundant resource.
Metabolic Interchange only requires meat, a renewable resource and I always have way too much meat, so that’s a good way to make use of it. Things might be different if you weren’t able to cook good food from spoiled meat, since it would force you to hunt every time you’re hungry. But right now I think it’s no biggie to eat a couple extra meals to go from empty to full power, and even when you’re drained, it won’t starve you too much.
But then, I’m mostly using passive bionics and the actives ones I keep for emergency situations, so I’m not expending too much power all the time.
[quote=“Mdnthrvst, post:12, topic:862”]The problem, Darkling, is the way power drain works, especially at night.
Every. Single. Time you wake up, you are Very Hungry, and your power is like twenty units below its maximum;
just make it activatable. Make it like Ethanol Burner, except instead of consuming liquor it consumes your satiation;
if you’re in a pinch and need power, turn it on, burn up your food, and go on your way,
but the way it currently works is, you’re ALWAYS either maxed out on power or starving because you can’t get power, even if you don’t use bionics often enough for that power drain to make sense.
Even with Light Eater and Recycler Unit, Metabolic Interchange still sucks.[/quote]
My proposed solution was to only make it take food if you ate more than you could stomach. I.E, you’re very full, you try and eat more and instead of asking if you want to force yourself to eat, it would just convert the excess to energy.
That’s pretty much it, Sirian. Metabolic Interchange sounds good on paper, but for high-drain bionics or large battery capacities, the hunger debuffs could effectively kill the player. Problem is, this isn’t obvious when installing it, and not everyone reads the wiki & forum first.
And MI may be the only power source the player can find.
Hence, people wanting to tinker with it. I don’t have a problem with any of the proposals, though I’d prefer toggleable/only at over-satiation. Pulling nutrition only at 0 means that players could effectively have a Food Blaster Arm.
[quote=“The Darkling Wolf, post:15, topic:862”][quote=“Mdnthrvst, post:12, topic:862”]The problem, Darkling, is the way power drain works, especially at night.
Every. Single. Time you wake up, you are Very Hungry, and your power is like twenty units below its maximum;
just make it activatable. Make it like Ethanol Burner, except instead of consuming liquor it consumes your satiation;
if you’re in a pinch and need power, turn it on, burn up your food, and go on your way,
but the way it currently works is, you’re ALWAYS either maxed out on power or starving because you can’t get power, even if you don’t use bionics often enough for that power drain to make sense.
Even with Light Eater and Recycler Unit, Metabolic Interchange still sucks.[/quote]
My proposed solution was to only make it take food if you ate more than you could stomach. I.E, you’re very full, you try and eat more and instead of asking if you want to force yourself to eat, it would just convert the excess to energy.[/quote]