After reading your posts, I have to say that I would find it very hard to not immediately be either terrified or outraged. In fact only my previous experience with you counters this.
I’ll write a small wall about the reasons, but they’re actually really simple, just easy to elaborate on.
A lot of QoL changes cut down on pointless mechanics or eliminate pointless interactions. I’ll repeat what I stated many times before - one organic player interaction is worth more than 100 bland, system-enforced ones. When the majority of forced crew interactions are just asking for a thing or getting let in somewhere, you know they aren’t worth dealing with. Many jobs have these interactions right now and are for the worse of it. There is no RP in asking a scientist for a scanner, for example.
So, when going about dealing with QoL, if you don’t strike precisely, you just end up making gameplay more annoying, potentially even frustrating all-around. You have to hit what’s removing organic interactions instead of hitting what’s removing routine ones. Anyone who threatens to bring so much potential negativity to the game will trigger active players.
As a word of advice, the best way to make organic interactions is to make jobs less about power and more about doing interesting things. A job that can perform many unique actions instead of simply providing the same things every round is already more fun. When a job’s basic providence is neutered, the job turns sour, but when the additional, interesting things they can do are locked behind cooperation, players may actually work together for them. While it’s the best way to handle this, it also requires the most unique code and effort which is why you seldom see it.
I will provide 3 example changes for those who need them to understand what I’m going at here.
Example 1 - Doing it right
Botany is very self-sufficient. We will add a plant that normalizes the atmosphere surrounding the tray to botany, but mutating into this plant will require specific chemicals gained from science or engineering (atmos).
(repeat this change for several unique plants and unique methods of getting them without removing what we have)
Expected result: These plants can be very useful in certain scenarios so botanists may ask for cooperation if the round calls for it, or if they want to prepare them just in case.
Example 2 - Doing it wrong
Botany is very self-sufficient. We will remove all mutagen including plant mutagen chemicals and lock them behind chemistry.
Expected result: Botanists have a soulless, routine interaction with chemists every round. Meta eventually shifts to tiding botanists and mutagen factories made by chemists who give a fuck, all for the sake of skipping the pointless and repetitive interaction.
Example 3 - Technically Correct
Xenobiology and Virology are removed.
These jobs do not have any crew interaction beyond ocassionally giving their produce to them. Even ignoring power levels, this makes them bad. We remove the jobs.
Expected result: People have to play other, more active jobs. Several people might be mad over losing their jobs though. (In my opinion, this direct removal hurts less than keeping a “limping” job around)