Deterioration: design discussion with dev (spoilers)

So we deteriorate the condition of upgrades, drones, etc, over time. We do this in the hope that you have to continually adapt, using new upgrades and strategies, which is where I feel the game shines.



However, that deterioration is only exhibited by a "failure probability" on the upgrades, and not exhibited by the performance of the upgrades themselves. Though we we do manifest the deterioration on the drones through the performance (the drone feed becomes more and more unreliable).



Many have asked for the upgrades to do something similar, but the issue is simply that it's hard to apply this evenly across all upgrades.



For example, the motion sensor would be a great candidate. In perfect condition it would scan all adjacent rooms around you, and as it's condition deteriorated, it would report back more rooms with inconclusive results.



However, many upgrades are are less conducive to states "in-between" working and broken. For example mines, sensors, towing, etc. I feel that we don't want to do something severe, like making a mine not go off or giving a false positive on a sensor, because then as soon as the item deteriorates it can't be trusted. Players would also get aggravated by the involvement of the RNG in some instances.



Also, in some instances would the deterioration be cool or obnoxious... if a deteriorated tow occasionally released it's target, or a damaged drone (ok this is a bit off topic because it's HP vs wear/tear) steered off to the left, would that be cool because it felt real, or annoying after a while?



So the question becomes: is there a way to make this work across all upgrades? And if not is it worth only doing on some?



Thanks for any thoughts on this, and keep all the cool ideas & feedback coming! You guys are helping us make Duskers better :)



- Tim Keenan (Duskers creator guy)