I like decoration, but I also like when decoration isn’t just visual noise. When it doesn’t come to furniture, it’d be better if anything we attach to the base walls or roof have an ACTUAL USE. I am referring, obviously, to the decoration pieces : wall panels, units, vents, roof antennae, listening dishes, cylinders, and pumps.
These could be use to give the base a slight boost in some of its functionalities !
Of course, their recipe should be adapted to match the new boost’s importance.
Here’s some examples I can think of :
- Roof antennæ extend the reach of all scanners in the base ! Small one extends it by a bit, large one, by much !
Fairly standard. - Listening dish can pick up on, and extend the reach of, multiplayer voice chat. If someone is in the base, they can hear and talk to other players from further away than outside the base. Though two far-away- from-base players who are communicating TO a base can’t hear each other, it only strengthens the signal to and from the base.
- Roof pumps could be REQUIRED to be placed near an eventual water filtration machine, that you need to place directly on top of !
Or, alternatively, make them a requirement for AQUARIUMS to keep the tank sanitary ! And if you don’t the tank gets dirty and the fishes die out !
OR, if the structural integrity returns, they could serve to pump out water from flooded bases faster the more pumps you install ! - Still about structural integrity, wall and roof panels could serve as hull reinforcements ! Though I would prefer a more malleable, customizable, EXTENDABLE system like windows.
- Wall vents could help regulate the habitat temperature in case of building in a hot (or cold ?) biome, or, ∗∗∗∗, if submarinean weather events (or even REGULAR weather events) come to the game and demand body heat regulation !
Personally, I liked that mechanic of Below Zero, even if it was half-baked, I think it could be well-readapted/reinvented in SN2 !
That only leaves the roof cylinder… there are a lot of ways THAT thing can even be interpretated. We don’t even know what’s inside, it could be a venting coil, it could be extra storage, it could be wires, it could be nuclear. I’m thinking some sort of external base customization interface ? Like the control room from Below Zero ? But I’m not sure. It feels clunky.
Well, it could always serve as a remodel to the habitat beacon, which looks kinda weird IMO. Too tiny. Or maybe some sort of low-power booster for external energy sources within a small radius, like solar panels or thermal plants ?