thought i've had for a while:
if you want to build a robust system, you should have contingencies on contingencies. 3, 4, 5 or more layers of "if this vital thing breaks, this can immediately take its place". ideally you want these contingency systems to be largely automated, so that if there's an emergency and nobody's available to press a button or do a thing to get the next backup running, it can do so itself.
this is why in strategy games where you get to design your own like, warships and such, my ships tend to be huge and absolutely terrifying. you can break the ship's back and it just keeps chugging along like nothing's wrong despite being in several pieces, that sorta shit.
