Cog power setup fix

[TytosB]

About the PR

added lattices, wires, and a meteor shield to the cog power setup area

Why / Balance

cog's power has been infamously bad for a long time, i personally cannot count the number of cog rounds that ive seen cut short because the power was still not set up after thirty minutes, causing the entire station to go dark and people to start suffocating. its basically a meme in the community at this point. and when it does get setup it teslooses half the time because of a lack of meteor shielding.

Technical details

Media

Requirements

• I have read and am following the Pull Request and Changelog Guidelines.
• I have added media to this PR or it does not require an ingame showcase.

Breaking changes

Changelog

[ss14-map-server]

This PR contains new or changed maps:

• cog.yml

Maps are being rendered. This comment will be updated if rendering them is done.
01/03/25 00:41

[SlimmSlamm]

cog does NOT need a fix. its my favorite map to setup power because it actually gives a challenge to engineering and now all the fun from it is just gone. good engineers can get the power up in 10 minutes alone.

[TytosB]

cog does NOT need a fix. its my favorite map to setup power because it actually gives a challenge to engineering and now all the fun from it is just gone. good engineers can get the power up in 10 minutes alone.

yes it does. YOU may be able to get power up in ten minutes, and truly, you have my respect, but most engis cannot. "good engis can do X" isnt a good argument because by that definition most engis AREN'T good. if the idea is that we need to hope and pray that one of the engis on a cog round just so happens to be ultra competent guy that can do it in ten minutes at the risk that if that ISNT the case everyone gets denied their round and has to wander suffocating in the dark, then a change is necessary. im sorry, but you're an exception, and we need to balance based on the norm.

[SlimmSlamm]

cog does NOT need a fix. its my favorite map to setup power because it actually gives a challenge to engineering and now all the fun from it is just gone. good engineers can get the power up in 10 minutes alone.

yes it does. YOU may be able to get power up in ten minutes, and truly, you have my respect, but most engis cannot. "good engis can do X" isnt a good argument because by that definition most engis AREN'T good. if the idea is that we need to hope and pray that one of the engis on a cog round just so happens to be ultra competent guy that can do it in ten minutes at the risk that if that ISNT the case everyone gets denied their round and has to wander suffocating in the dark, then a change is necessary. im sorry, but you're an exception, and we need to balance based on the norm.

but thats also where the fun of SS14 comes from. I learned to do it that fast because of cog. It helps engineers actually learn and be competent. If they fuck up then that's fine its SS14. maps should have differencing setups. some should be hard and others should be easy. everything being an absolute cakewalk would suck and be boring.

[ArtisticRoomba]

Power was rebalanced in #33930, and from my recent playtime and experience with Cog, I'd say it's okay, but Cog should have had a damn containment in the beginning. Everything I said would happen making it DIY happened, and now here we are, to the last thing that I said would happen: someone PRs an actual containment.

Containment design looks fine to me but I would definitely give it some more shape other than just "rusted rectangle". Some containments like Oasis are aesthetically pleasing and I think you could get creative here.

[TytosB]

but thats also where the fun of SS14 comes from. I learned to do it that fast because of cog. It helps engineers actually learn and be competent. If they fuck up then that's fine its SS14. maps should have differencing setups. some should be hard and others should be easy. everything being an absolute cakewalk would suck and be boring.

the issue is that with engi there cant be room for error, if any other department fucks up it doesnt instantly derail the round, if engi fucks up no one gets to play the game. no chems, no salvage magnet, no cargo pc, no sci computers, no sec wanted list, no working prison cells, etc. this is admittedly a larger issue with engi as a whole, but staking the ability for the other 60 spessmen to be able to play the game theyre dedicating their time to play on 2-3 players not fucking up at the start of the round is bad game design.

[Alpaccalypse]

The issue with Cog is, as an engineer it's a breeze if you have studied the map, know the pitfalls and have an established SOP that you know works. It would be nice if instead of that there was more allowance to good engineers, who have never played the map before, being able to work it all out from scratch, without a very high chance of the station falling into disarray while they are scratching their heads or running around panicking.

The meteor shielding is certainly a good start towards lowering the insider knowledge issue, hindering a decent Cog start. I agree that it is a shame to take all of the challenge/panic out of getting Cog running smoothly though. I already just switch on AME, drag generator to atmos, just in case, then just get a Garteg up in 10 mins. Never fails, and people are grateful another cog round hasn't ended in the first 30 mins, but it is a bit boring that this is so surefire and the safest bet, every time.

I usually play engi, and I think I've literally only seen the part of the map you are editing about twice, in-game. Based on that, I'd certainly assume there are some tweaks worth making still.

[ArtisticRoomba]

The recent power balancing to Cog allows much more time for experimenting with TEG designs and Tesla setups when following the intended AME -> Solars -> Engine setup path. I'd recommend to toy around a bit rather then setting up an open-loop TEG.

[Alpaccalypse]

The recent power balancing to Cog allows much more time for experimenting with TEG designs and Tesla setups when following the intended AME -> Solars -> Engine setup path. I'd recommend to toy around a bit rather then setting up an open-loop TEG.

I will. I don't think I've had a Cog map since that rebalance. Learning that "fool-proof" Cog setup got so streamlined as a habit, I probably wouldn't have noticed things had changed, if I hadn't seen it mentioned here.

[ss14-map-server]

This PR contains new or changed maps:

• cog.yml

Maps are being rendered. This comment will be updated if rendering them is done.
01/05/25 07:32

[ss14-map-server]

This PR contains new or changed maps:

• cog.yml

Maps are being rendered. This comment will be updated if rendering them is done.
01/05/25 07:34

[TytosB]

i made it look a little less bland

[ss14-map-server]

This PR contains new or changed maps:

• cog.yml

Maps are being rendered. This comment will be updated if rendering them is done.
01/09/25 20:43