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In Mechatron you have Energy Points. How many EP your robot can recharge per day depends on how much of Mechatron-7 (the underwater enclave where you live) that has broken down (hopefully not much).

We seem to use a play style that is different from what FL intended or anticipated, but anyway: My players tend to rack up more WP than they can spend. This despite me holding back on skill use to reduce the opportunities to push rolls. I am tempted to house rule it that general talents should also cost WP to use (= level of talent). E.g. AMBIDEXTROUS lvl 3 would cost 3 WP to activate for one round of combat. Is anyone else entertaining similar ideas?

(The way we play the game is oriented toward digging into the setting's mysteries and solving social conflicts between NPCs or factions. Our sessions usually involve some element of deadly conflict but apparently we are just not fighting enough to make good use of WP.)

Our group noticed the same problem too. Every game I, as a Master, have 15+ WP (five players).
We think that it is because rest/sleep completely restore ANY damage (and create D&D-style playing with frequent rest). This leads to pushing rolls often and get a lot of WP. After all, the damage is easily cured by rest. Because of this, players do not develop skills, as you can always push the roll, and develop a lot of talents. 

We want use the rules from GenLab Alpha (1 damage can be cured by 1 resource roll) to make recovery harder.

p.s. We play stricly by rules and use a lot of random encounters (most of them non-combat). Also 50% of rolled combat encounters we avoid with high Stealth.

Well, deprive them of sleep. Much easier than adding cumbersome rules. Players protesting that they did in fact make a proper camp? Doesn't help against an earthquake, or an elk stomping through their camp, or a gang of robbers attacking in the night. As long as the players can't get 6 hours of continuous rest they regain no attributes at all. Barring certain talents, of course. Never let them feel safe.

Seems I side-tracked. Apologies.

Though I understand your point - an elk in the camp just postpones the resting until morning, right? (Unless the PCs are in a hurry)

I like the idea that healing damage is more a resource thing than a "wait 6 hours" thing. What are the Genlab Alpha rules - do you have to sleep AND eat or can you just eat (with a little short break/rest)?

Well, deprive them of sleep. Much easier than adding cumbersome rules. Players protesting that they did in fact make a proper camp? Doesn't help against an earthquake, or an elk stomping through their camp, or a gang of robbers attacking in the night. As long as the players can't get 6 hours of continuous rest they regain no attributes at all. Barring certain talents, of course. Never let them feel safe.

Seems I side-tracked. Apologies.

I do not really like the idea of denying them REST or creating problems during SLEEP. The rules do not support this. Random encounters I roll only once a Quarter of a day and once if the characters spent one day in hex (as it says in the player book). I create night problems when they have left unresolved issues behind: the enemy, the angry griffin, the deceived dragon, and so on. Nightly problems should be invested in history, and not to be random in my opinion.

You also need to remember that there are talents that allow you to REST while you are hunting and other activities. Interrupting them would be strange. And since players can easily push a roll, such an activity is almost always successful.

I like the idea that healing damage is more a resource thing than a "wait 6 hours" thing. What are the Genlab Alpha rules - do you have to sleep AND eat or can you just eat (with a little short break/rest)?

In GenAlpha to recover you are needed REST and RESOURSE per point of damage.

I try to create home rules like that:
FOOD - restores Strength or Agility
WATER - restores Strength or Agility up to second point (from 0 to 2)
SLEEP - restores Wits and Empathy up to second point (from 0 to 2)
PRIDE - restores Wits or Empathy (yes, it will be a inner resourse)

One roll of resourse recover one point af damage
To restore PRIDE, you need to gather around the campfire and replace RELATIONSHIPS you've roleplay today.

Sorry, it is just a draft of rule. We will test it this Sunday.
I believe, feeling that treatment requires resources will limits pushing rolls. It makes game more survival oriented

I really like your PRIDE-concept! Please tell me how it worked out.
Maybe you could merge Food an Water into one resource ("Provisions" or similar) so that you don´t get too many resources to keep track of?

I actually think that eating food for healing is pretty suitable for a system with resource die, so that it is a bit vague how much you actually had to eat. Otherwise it might get silly when you for instance eat a whole weeks rations for one wound.

Maybe you could merge Food an Water into one resource ("Provisions" or similar) so that you don´t get too many resources to keep track of?

I was thinking about that but there is "Thirsty" conditions and I want to have resourse which is easy to find as sleep
WATER and SLEEP will help unlucky players to move on even there are no meat and friends (in cold winter after fight as example)

p.s. I will report about PRIDE as resourse later, after this weekend. But we already feel that PUSHING rolls has huge consequenses

Also interested to hear more about how PRIDE works as a resource. What other situations than recovery do you use it in?

We eventually house ruled it that WP can be used to add more dice to a pushed roll, and that the dice then count as stat dice. I.e. you risk breaking yourself (but can also earn back spent WP).

(I did try the advice to spend all GM WP every session but the trouble is it's hard to find useful situations to actually do that unless you engage the players in deadly conflict. Our play style is more oriented toward subterfuge, deceit and solving mysteries. This means PCs and NPCs use general talents more than the profession specific ones.)