Security Station Buff (and clinic nerf)

[YertyL]

So, I still find myself basically never building security stations, because anything a security station can do, a clinic can do better. Security stations prevent sanity loss from disasters and renegade actions. But renegade actions seem mostly negligible anyways, at least definitely not worth a 3 worker building, and clinics can heal sanity from anything. And also heal health. And also significantly lower the comfort threshold for births. Basically, you want clinics everywhere, and security stations nowhere. So, my simple solution would be this:

Move the sanity healing function from clinics to security stations.

You could name the effect "feeling safe" or something similar. That way security would have a tangible function (compensate for your heavy workloads and night shifts) while not being completely mandatory; at the same time, clinics would be not quite as mandatory -- still powerful just for the increased births and needed for chronic condition/hypochonder. But just for the heallth, you could substitute them with gyms occasionally (another underused building IMO).

I would also reduce the worker number for stations to 2 (6 for all shifts), same as the clinic, because even with the buff, 3 workers seems insanely high for what the stations actually provide.

What do you think? Btw, does anyone know if the devs actually check these forums?

 

[Major Malfunction]

I build them only to have 3 officers so I can send them to sabotage missions for precious techs. Never ever saw a rebel.

 

[YertyL]

I build them only to have 3 officers so I can send them to sabotage missions for precious techs. Never ever saw a rebel.

Never tried that....do they actually need to be working to send them?
Officers themselves seem to be a good alternative to untrained colonists simply for the exercise interest. And I did occasionally have renegades steal 2 food or something.... but even if you make these effects way more severe, the best course of action would still be to build exactly 1 station in 1 dome and funnel all your renegades to this dome. I firmly believe security stations need some general function to be worth it.

 

[Major Malfunction]

I just never bother to check if said 3 security officer colonists alive or died, so I just leave 3 job positions and University trains new if someone would die. Even in worst cases colonist will become earthsick and leave, so renegade problem kinda solves itself. They never stay and keep doing some renegade stuff and even if they steal 2 food so what, I can't care less when i have thousand of food units.
i don't think devs actually check the forums, maybe some time after release to check for bug reports and post dev diary.

 

[sortulv]

Security stations seems something you want if you like to pick fights with your compeditors, to prevent enemy spies killing your scientists, to steal stuff, etc...
Clinics are mostly useful early game when you have fairly low comfort - once the comfort levels take of, you no longer need them as much.

 

[YertyL]

Security stations seems something you want if you like to pick fights with your compeditors, to prevent enemy spies killing your scientists, to steal stuff, etc...
Clinics are mostly useful early game when you have fairly low comfort - once the comfort levels take of, you no longer need them as much.

OK... but then you might as well directly make them part of "space race", no? Instead of effectively making them a noob trap in the base game. And are they then worth it as a 3 worker building? I own the DLC in theory, but so far I have not tried out the fighting option.

 

[sortulv]

OK... but then you might as well directly make them part of "space race", no? Instead of effectively making them a noob trap in the base game. And are they then worth it as a 3 worker building? I own the DLC in theory, but so far I have not tried out the fighting option.

In the base game I only ever built them as part of a mystery... Hadn't even thought of them as a newbie trap, simply because there isn't anything to draw you to them...

 

[YertyL]

So, I have finally discovered the best way to utilize security officers...




But seriously: A more conservative solution might be to give security stations a sanity heal on the level of medical centers instead of removing it from clinics, but it would be really nice if a whole class of colonists was not almost universally pointless in the game.

 

[Xeorm]

Some thoughts for buffs:

• Make them colony wide buffs instead of dome wide. Plus if you're doing something like this make renegades matter more, so I feel like I need to combat them.
• I can see moving the sanity buff over...except then infirmaries feel weak, and security stations still feel meh. Plus it seems bad with the message about Mars? Like countering losing sanity from working outdoors or working late by using lots of security officers leads to the wrong message.
• Possibly some other general buff from security officers.
• Make rival colony sabotage worse that can be countered by having colony-wide security stations.
• Remove them from the game, have domes naturally employ a security staff. Add additional stations for w/e, but it requires person maintenance without requiring more precious space.

 

[SillySMS]

Never tried that....do they actually need to be working to send them?
Officers themselves seem to be a good alternative to untrained colonists simply for the exercise interest. And I did occasionally have renegades steal 2 food or something.... but even if you make these effects way more severe, the best course of action would still be to build exactly 1 station in 1 dome and funnel all your renegades to this dome. I firmly believe security stations need some general function to be worth it.

If you get to the point of a couple dozen renegades, they can blow up a rocket, by the way. $3 billion down the drain.

And also the only significant problem I've ever seen renegades cause. Otherwise, the thefts are cheaper than spending valuable manpower and dome space on security stations. Those security officers could be manning a spacebar to keep your much more important engineers entertained.

Renegades rarely cause enough damage to be worth spending manpower on combating, and security stations take a ton of manpower: you need more security officers than there are renegades.

What I might suggest is a comfort malus from having renegades in the dome, which can be addressed with a security station in the dome (optionally in one connected by a passage).

 

[Tyrberg]

Security could change a bit from being "policeforce" to being other securities or rather safety. They could be a fire squad? Maybe "fast repair men" ?
Maybe they do part of the in dome maintance and lowering that need? That would make it really useful to keep them in a dome with many electronic. If a dome do have security a leak could be not that hard and drones could repair it faster?

I think the use of security is to change the focus to safety. We do usually not like to make a marsian KGB as the security officers sort of feel like. I like firemen and ambulances for people in need.

 

[YertyL]

Security could change a bit from being "policeforce" to being other securities or rather safety. They could be a fire squad? Maybe "fast repair men" ?
Maybe they do part of the in dome maintance and lowering that need? That would make it really useful to keep them in a dome with many electronic. If a dome do have security a leak could be not that hard and drones could repair it faster?

I think the use of security is to change the focus to safety. We do usually not like to make a marsian KGB as the security officers sort of feel like. I like firemen and ambulances for people in need.

That's a nice idea, because it would also buff bigger domes, which are not exactly OP curently either.

 

[GrandAdmiralFox]

Hm, well then we should call Security something else, maybe Emergency Services if that's the path you'll take? They could also work as an inspectorate to slow wear and tear and lower chances of a complete and unexpected failure while they're at it...