A Synth Foods station

[Shazbot11]

I've brainstormed some ideas with the Synth crew, and came up with some potential refinements to the station purposes and locations:

1) Synth Foods HQ: If anything, this base is a MUST. Any corporation needs some sort of headquarters from which to operate out of, and direct operations. As it stands, the only place to purchase a Synth Foods ID is in Stuttgart, AND you have to even get your rep up with the Rheinland Police before you can buy it. This just doesn't make much sense at all. Beyond operating as the main base, the Synth HQ could also act as a primary distribution center for basic Synth-related commodities. The location of the HQ would most logically be in a Liberty system, seeing as how it is a Liberty corporation.

2) Bio-Dome Manufacturing Plant: A great concept, as it would stand that Synth Foods would have the most expertise on developing and refining food-production facilities. Though it is possible to group bio-domes and other construction materials under one commodity name, it doesn't make sense in the end: why would a food company be building mining facilities and station components? Isn't that what DSE/Daumann/Samura is for? Research into more efficient bio-domes would be more in-line with Synth Foods. A possible location for this station would be in proximity to 'industrial' zones, or any area along the trade paths of alloys/metals/etc.

3) Plant Research Facility: A refinement on what was mentioned in a previous post. Synth Foods R&D into new flora strains could provide a "Engineered Plant" commodity, plants specifically tailored to thrive in different environments and/or provide greater yields. Potential markets for this could exist on stations where space for food production is limited and must be as efficient as possible, or on planets that were/are being terraformed. The most logical location for this station would be in Stuttgart; with Planet Stuttgart being the biggest food-producing planet that has a large Synth Foods influence, this would also provide an excellent location for field-testing of new plant strains. Though this might give the LWB a parade-day, it would also be a good location to receive Synth-related jobs from the bar.

4) Radiation Research Facility: This one is a bit weird, to be honest. Research into plant mutation can be performed to the same extent with genetic manipulation, and in a much more controlled fashion as well (this was discussed with elsdragon). This would have it fall under the Plant Research Facility instead of its own station. If we would like to have this station, I would say to keep it in a house system and parked close to a star there instead of Omega-11 and Hessian heaven; a functional research facility should easily be able to recreate such an extreme environment within a laboratory setting.

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