Recycler Rage!

[6742585151a79Join2]

Holy hell the recycler is some degenerate gameplay. Janitor Shock 2.

[6742585151d2eMarvin]

Hey, keeping the environment clean is not degenerate!

[6742585151fbbZylonBane]

Holy hell the recycler is some degenerate gameplay. Janitor Shock 2.

18 years later and you're just now noticing the Recycler?

[67425851521acstraight bozo]

Holy hell the recycler is some degenerate gameplay. Janitor Shock 2.

Viscera Cleanup Detail prequel?

[67425851523caJoin2]

18 years later and you're just now noticing the Recycler?

Well, no. I've always ignored it for precisely this reason. It's just that JML spelt out the full extent of it and what it encourages, something I only ever imagined briefly. Never bought it in any of my playthroughs.

[67425851524c8ZylonBane]

Pfft, it more than pays for itself.

[6742585152611voodoo47]

yep, pretty sure it does, as long as you collect all the cigs, magazines and potted plants.

[6742585152703Marvin]

The recycler is essential for some of the more weirder playthroughs such as psi only. I don't know what's so bad about it.

That video is hilarious, btw.

[674258515283eJoin2]

It more than pays for itself, if you don't also include the janitorial work one must do. Also, what of the resource expenditure when dealing with respawned enemies when doing the rounds, that probably factors in?

Going back to previous decks and cleaning all the garbage, how long does that take? Is it fun? Doesn't it damage the pacing of the story on some level? Not that the latter is of absolute importance, the game within is absolute...if it's actually fun, and of that in the case of the recycler I am highly sceptical. It was argued the hybrid shotgun unloading was busywork, but this is next level. 

[6742585152967Marvin]

Why would you be concerned about some autists breaking their own game flow? 99,9998% of the players will never ever backtrack to earlier decks and scour every room for material to recycle.

[6742585152a55voodoo47]

whoever goes back to scour the entire game for all the cigs, magazines and plants, deserves the extra cyber module.

[6742585152b38Join2]

My point is, design-wise it probably shouldn't even be an option to begin with, and instead something more interesting could have been in its place.

[6742585152c7cKolya]

But there are more interesting things to do. And this is an optional quest.

[6742585152d95Djant]

It's interesting that you think returning back to previous levels to scavenge everything is pointless busywork, when the research mechanic is basically the same, only with less items and more waiting around, or having inventory slots wasted on items getting researched. It's not like researching has any great benefits either, besides on Impossible where the +25% damage bonus becomes essential due to how fragile you are.

[6742585152fc6ZylonBane]

It's not like researching has any great benefits either...

Get out.

[67425851532ccMarvin]

It's interesting that you think returning back to previous levels to scavenge everything is pointless busywork, when the research mechanic is basically the same, only with less items and more waiting around, or having inventory slots wasted on items getting researched. It's not like researching has any great benefits either, besides on Impossible where the +25% damage bonus becomes essential due to how fragile you are.

What? You can collect chemicals while you're doing other backtracking, you can do whatever you like during research and the damage increase vs. time/skill investment is among the best there is compared to what you'll have to do to obtain similar improvements, such as spending an OS upgrade slot on Sharpshooter. Plus you get access to some nice items.

[67425851535e9Join2]

Yeah research isn't equal to Janitor Shock. Far less time consuming being the obvious one. The rewards are unique. You learn additional backstory as a plus. And the majority of perceived waiting around is on the player, as you can do research on the fly.

But there are more interesting things to do. And this is an optional quest.

Absolutely, but instead of the recycler we could have had something just as interesting as those other things, that is also optional. Heck even recycler grenades could be one such thing as long as the nanite returns are a net loss. They'd still be beneficial to use to recycle enemies and remove certain obstacles. That's how I used them in Prey. I even used them to assist when I couldn't find an object in Alex's room. Just recycled the whole room using multiple grenades to cut down on the number of interactive objects to dig through as well as remove any objects that it may be hidden under/behind, since quest items can't be recycled for obvious reasons.

But yeah, just demonstrating that it could have and probably should have been something else more interesting and less grindy. It's a novel concept and fitting to the fiction, only problem is it encourages gameplay that isn't all that interesting.

[6742585153846Djant]

You can collect chemicals while you're doing other backtracking,

Which requires sacrificing even more inventory space. It's annoying enough to have one slot taken up by a researchable item, dragging around the chemicals makes it even more of a chore.

you can do whatever you like during research

Provided that you fill your inventory with dummy items that waste space for an arbitrary period of time, sure you can. Ultimately what it does is add pointless backtracking and encourage players to wait around chemical storerooms or go back and forth throwing and picking back items.

and the damage increase vs. time/skill investment is among the best there is compared to what you'll have to do to obtain similar improvements, such as spending an OS upgrade slot on Sharpshooter.

An OS upgrade doesn't waste any time compared to going all the way back to a storeroom, dropping out items to carry the chemicals, sitting around or running back and forth to pick back whatever you dropped to research an item, and furthermore, most OS upgrades raise damage against all enemies, while research raises damage only against the relevant archetypes. The damage boost is nice but again only is a big deal on Impossible, because there you're too fragile and so are encouraged to take out enemies as fast as possible.

Plus you get access to some nice items.

Like? The Crystal Shard is cool, and the annelid implants have interesting concepts to them(besides the worm consumption implant), and I guess the healing/PSI restore glands are neat, but almost everything else is just junk organs or Exotic weaponry, which tends to be awful in System Shock 2.

[6742585153a05Marvin]

Jesus christ, you're rambling about a few seconds of drag and drop and some inventory fiddling vs. a 25% flat damage increase. Yes, for a speedrunner with a gimped strength of 1, research might not be worth the hassel. And no, the OS upgrade doesn't waste time, it wastes slots. Of which you only have four in the entire game.

Show me on this doll where the research mechanic touched you:

[6742585153b40straight bozo]

honestly the free research glitch and straferunning are the only speedrunning glitches i actually enjoy using in a casual run.  lots of things in that category completely change the game to make it unfun as hell and not system shock 2, but god help me i will not spend 2 hours of gameplay with an annelid arachnid organ sitting in my inventory with my labassistant in wasting my implant and an inventory slot, i'd rather sit at a menu for like 2 minutes in medsci as i do something else

[6742585153cb9Nameless Voice]

Being able to use an item in your inventory to dispose of unwanted junk is a lot more fun than having to collect it, one inventory-full at a time, and haul it to a merchant to sell.

[6742585153e00icemann]

If the recycler in SS2 annoys you, then you'd REALLY hate the recycler grenades in Prey. I thought they were the most awesome thing in that game.

[6742585153f42Join2]

What's up with the thread title "Rage"? I made an observation, and it's surprise you're supposed to see within it. Not agitation or anger. Tthe naming is confusing members. See icemann's post above.

[6742585154214ZylonBane]

What's up with the thread title "Rage"? I made an observation, and it's surprise you're supposed to see within it. Not agitation or anger. Tthe naming is confusing members. See icemann's post above.

It's almost as if the thread title is mocking you for holding such a silly opinion.

Nobody is confused.