The interaction between the HQ and the various workbenches gets me all riled up. Let me elaborate:
In my book, the Workshop should be superseded by dedicated buildings for the various functions that fit in the Workshop building:
- Food Production, Processing and Storage: We have the Greenhouse and Mess Hall for that.
- Sleeping: We have bunk Capsules for that.
- Water Supply: The Bathroom Capsule can serve for that, and the Greenhouse also has a dedicated place for a sink.
- Miscellaneous Storage: The Lobby has a spot that can only be used for a Refrigerator or Storage Cabinet, and the shelve racks are not much use for anything either except for placing additional Storage Boxes.
- Battery Rack and Scrubber: I love to put them in the Lobby, too. Battery so that I can pick up a fresh battery before leaving the base, and the Scrubber to refill CO2 containers after cleaing solar panels.
So, what's the HQ good for?- 3D printer: Yeah, we can plonk one in there; seems reasonable enough.- The wardrobe? That one feels more home into the Lobby, but clashes with the Battery Rack & Scrubber that I prefer to have there. So HQ is an alternative, and it doesn't eat much space; so it's fine there.- This leaves us with the Workbenches, of which there are 6 in total: The workbench proper; the tech workbenches for Botany, Electricity, Materials and Mechanics; and the new Chemistry workbench.BUT: the HQ has only space for 4 workbenches. The lower floor doesn't accept workbenches at all (and I wouldn't want them there anyway; that space should be reserved for stuff that's accessed more frequently), and on the upper floor we can't place 2 workbenches directly side by side, so of the 8 slots only 4 are usable for workbenches.
Now it would be acceptable to have only the "classic" 4 tech workbenches on the upper floor, and the Chemistry workbench on the lower floor, since it might see more use, if only to produce table salt every now and then. But as we've seen, the lower floor won't accept the Chemistry workbench. Nor any of the others, for that matter.
(While I'm at it: Another gripe I have with the workbenches and the HQ is that two of the workbenches have such a high back panel that they are visually too high for the HQ's upper level, and - at least if you don't pay too much attention into which slots you put them exactly - will poke not only into the ceiling, but even through and outside.)
So we can't put the workbenches all into the HQ. But where else would we put them, especially if we want them all in one place?
The only building that can house all of them (and at the same time doesn't seem to be entirely inappropriate) is the Workshop.
But the workshop can house more than the 6 workbenches. Specifically, it can also house the other items I'd consider for the HQ.
So what on Mars would I need the HQ for, if I need a Workshop anyway?
Okay, so enough for ranting; what do I want?
Ideally, I'd want the layout of the Workbenches to be changed, so that the top floor of the workshop can house all 6 of them (without them poking out of the roof, thank you very much); that doesn't necessarily mean that any one of them would have to fit next to any other of them; I'd be ok with 2 of them (e.g. the Workbench proper as well as the new Chemistry workbench) each fitting directly next to any of the other workbenches on either side; that'll solve the issue.Alternatively, I'd want to see any of the Workbenches to also fit on the lower HQ floor - or at least 2 of them (preferably the Workbench proper as well as the Chemistry workbench).
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