[SUGGESTION] Revamped Butlertron #52
Description
Butlertron gets reimplemented in rebase, serving a purpose not entirely unlike the Produce Orders Console that exists in some Space Station 13 codebases.
Butlertron's limited-time recipe bounties contribute to a bank of Chef Scrip that can be used to purchase ingredients. You'd open up Butlertron's UI to see what bounties are in need of doing, each with a certain value - maybe 10-50 "credits", et cetera. It also comes with a big order request list of items, each with a different credit cost.
In a pinch, this currency can be used by chefs to obtain produce in the absence of a botanist. You can also obtain condiments and possibly niche sauces/ingredients, which opens up the possibility for designing ingredients that are niche enough that it wouldn't be worth going to Cargo for them - but the Butlertron is right there! You can just ask him.
I would refer to the Produce Orders Console section of the tg cooking guide for what I mean here
Butlertron will never be more efficient for ordering mass quantities of common ingredients than asking your coworkers - Cargo, the Botanist, and occasionally the Bartender. However, if you need just one banana, or an otherwise difficult-to-obtain condiment like syrup, or there is no Botanist? Butlertron may be able to help.
Also we should reflavor butlertron
Why?
This reintegrates Butlertron into chef gameplay in a way that actually caters to the interests of the chef. What's a chef gonna use two thousand spesos for? What chefs really want is ways to obtain niche and tedious ingredients. I would know; I'm chefs
From a developer design perspective, we could also design ingredients where the means to obtain them would be difficult to design in a way that seems worth the effort. For example, some plant-based spice that would require planting a whole new crop, and that spice is only used in a small number of recipes. Instead of tapping into Botany's limited supply of trays, we can just say you can obtain gingerbread through Butlertron. Easy
How It Works
Butlertron will request a bounty for a food item. It can have up to two bounties at a time, and adds a new bounty every 10 minutes. Effectively, this makes bounties last 20 minutes in Butlertron, with a "current" and "still accepting" system, not unlike the Oracle.
More complex recipes, such as brownies, some complicated burgers, pizza, chow mein, some salads, etc... will result in higher credit rewards. Simpler recipes, like bread, some soups, or especially anything that can be made with the ChefVend alone, will result in lower credit rewards.
Underneath the bounties (or in another tab), there is a long ingredient list to order ingredients such as botanical produce, reagents (sugar, flour, rice, salt, pepper), or condiments (honey, syrup, bbq sauce, oil, coldsauce).
Let's say 1 plant produce item costs 10 credits each; you complete a simple recipe (15-ish credits) or a complex one (30-ish credits) and have enough credits to buy, say, 1-3 chili peppers. This is nothing if you have a Botanist on the station, of course, but this can encourage chefs to branch out of their comfort zone in terms of cooking by making these small quantities of produce available.