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How to lose friends and infuriate people A guide to combat on Paradise Station "Robusting", "Robustness" or "Being robust" are the colloquial terms for being good at things in Space Station 13, more specifically applied to combat. Combat can take many forms and end with many outcomes; such as death, incapacitation or mutilation to a stint in the Brig or a minor slap on the wrist. This guide will take you from the basics of interacting with other players in a combat situation, to surviving and eventually winning a combat situation. The absolute basics I have defined Combat as to engage in a fight with; or to oppose in battle. It is almost impossible to play Space Station 13 without engaging in combat of some shape or form eventually, combat is not every player's cup of tea and rightly so, however it pays dividends to know how to approach (or not) a combat situation when it happens. Firstly and foremost I must outline the number one rule for engaging in combat; "This is a game, I can die." Remember that we all play this game for enjoyment, if you approach combat with the sole intention of winning above all else then you will not enjoy the experience. Combat in this game has far too many elements to consider and you will need a level head to be good at it; try to approach combat with a calm attitude and don't rage if you lose. There will always be someone better, luckier or better prepared than you are. Remember we all play this game to have fun and it's not all about winning, so try to take each loss with good grace and sportsmanship and use it as an opportunity to learn and develop yourself as a player. Maybe even congratulate another player after the round is done if they did something great? ------ Now, this guide is about winning after all - so now that is over with, lets get on with it. For all of the below, I highly recommend playing in Hotkey Mode. Hotkey Mode allows you to use WASD for movement as well as access key shortcuts detailed below to save you time in twitch situations, all hotkeys will be highlighted in purple going forward. Important Hotkeys and shortcuts to know are as follows Z - Use item in current hand X - Swap hands R - Throw Q - Drop Shift Click - Examine Control Click - Drag Intents Learning to switch between intents quickly and as needed, as well as how the intents change how you interact with the world is one of the most fundamental parts of combat. Knowing which intent to use and when could be the difference between success and failure. In Hotkey Mode you can use the number keys at the top of your keyboard to change intent corresponding to the below numbers Help (1) - Help intent might not seem too important for combat, however help intent allows you to pass through other players who are also in help intent which is very useful, whereas all other intents will make you unable to be passed through yourself. Disarm (2) - Disarm intent is useful if you are unarmed yourself, using disarm intent on someone has a chance of disarming the item they are holding to the tile below them, or pushing them over which results in a short stun of around 1 second, however as this is RNG based you should not rely on it. Grab (3) - Grab intent when used on someone with an empty hand will apply a passive grab, you then have the option to reinforce the grab by clicking your hand or pressing the Z hotkey which will change the grab to an aggressive grab. An aggressive grab allows you to table someone by clicking an adjacent table, which will stun them momentarily. You can also throw people by using the throw button or the R hotkey. Once in an aggressive grab you can again reinforce the grab to aggressive grab (neck). You can reinforce this grab yet again to begin strangling the person, effectively incapacitating them and making them unable to resist or take an action. Be aware that someone is able to resist out of this action at all stages except for the last. There is a cooldown between each reinforcement stage. Harm (4) - Harm intent will allow you to attack aggressively with your fists or an item. Harm intent is not as important as you may think as most weapons default action is to attack when you click on a person, this is best used situationally and dependant on the item you are using at the time. For example, using harm intent with a ranged weapon on an adjacent person will cause you to hit them with the weapon instead of firing it. Movement and positioning The way that you move is fundamental to all combat encounters, the combat system in Paradise stun-based and being stunned unexpectedly by a taser or baton can and will end you if you do not have an anti-stun. Therefore it is paramount that you stay out of the reach of stuns as much as possible. Do not take your opponent(s) for granted and assume that unless they are incapacitated they can and will be a threat to you. If you are able, you should be moving all the time whilst you are fighting, remember that if you move faster than your opponent can click on your sprite then they cannot attack you. Avoid moving in straight lines or in predictable patterns and use the environment to aid you, corners and choke points can help to funnel enemies if you are outnumbered, open spaces are helpful for dodging ranged weapons. If you are in a bad place or being overwhelmed by numbers - move somewhere else if you can! Better still, learn and prepare your environment before fighting. Don't fight fair and always have an escape route such as a hidden door or a window. Having good knowledge of your opponents potential weapons or abilities will greatly aid you with knowing exactly where to position your character in relation to theirs. Preparation "If you fail to prepare you are preparing to fail." If you do not prepare adequately for a combat encounter then you have a much greater chance of coming off worse from it. Having a weapon, chemical or ability available to use can ensure that your enemy's body is floating in space at the end of the shift and not yours. Knowing exactly who you are fighting against and what they bring to the table will also increase your chances of coming out on top significantly. If you are playing as an antagonist then find a security headset and keep tabs on security communications, if you are security then communicate with your team. If you are able to identify threats before they come down on you then you can prepare that much better. Useful items to keep on your person are as follows; Melee stun - A melee stun such as a stun baton, telescopic baton or stun prod. Abilities such as the Vampire's glare can also fulfil this role. Security officers and Heads of Departments carry these. Ranged stun - Ideally give preference to a hard stun such as a taser or a weapon with a taser mode. Disablers are strong at range however require around 5 shots to incapacitate someone fully whereas a taser requires one albeit at closer range. A lot of these weapons have different modes which can be toggled with the Z hotkey. Security officers usually carry these, however you can find them in the Secure Armoury or you can print weapons from the protolaithe in Research and Development. Slip item - Useful to have to slip people chasing you. A slip is almost as good as a taser and gives more than enough time to apply handcuffs, however these must be used with caution as you can easily fall on your own sword. Empty a spray bottle and refill it with water to create an easy reusable slip. (10 units of water required) Handcuffs - Handcuffs, cable cuffs or zipties. Once you have stunned someone it is wise to cuff them to ensure they cannot easily continue fighting once they recover. This is especially important when fighting multiple opponents as it is almost guaranteed you will run out of stuns before you win the fight. You can make cable cuffs with 15 cables. Flash - Use on cyborgs to apply a stun, almost necessarily if playing antagonist on a cyborg heavy shift. Most security officers carry one. Toolbelt with all tools - Tools are almost always necessary and can be printed from an Autolaithe. Toolbelts can be found in maintenance and are usually carried by engineers. Backpack or Satchel - With space, once you disarm or stun someone then take their weapon immediately, if their weapon is in your backpack then they cannot use it against you should they recover and you have the opportunity to use it for your advantage. Medical Kit - If you get hurt it's wise to keep a few patches or medical items around to heal up fast, remember that damage can slows you down significantly. Actually fighting So you're kitted out with your gear and ready to robust whoever comes your way, but how do you actually use it effectively? Effective combat follows three basic steps as of the current meta. Disable - Either with a stun of some form or with heavy damage, we want our opponent on the floor and helpless so they cannot inflict damage on us and we can move on. Secure - Highly situational, securing your opponent can range from simply applying handcuffs to stripping them depending on what you are trying to achieve. Handcuffing your opponent renders them unable to pick up items or move if you are pulling them; always handcuff first if possible. Removing the headset means that they cannot call for help easily, removing shoes will slow them down, removing their jumpsuit will mean they have no suit sensors. Ideally at this stage you want to ensure that your opponent has no means of retaliating against you. If you intend only to kill and have significant stopping power then you can skip this step completely. Finish - Congratulations you now have someone at your mercy, it's up to you to decide how to proceed, if you are fighting multiple opponents you may have to simply leave one person handcuffed while you repeat this process with the others. Remember you do not have to kill everyone at this stage. Simply leaving the person bucklecuffed to a chair naked while you make off with their equipment may be victory enough. Remember they are a player too. Sounds pretty easy doesn't it? In the next stage we will expand on these steps and discuss the most effective ways to achieve them.

*autistic screeching*

I'm making this thread as a result of the thread I made, suggesting to give medical borgs a 4th module slot. Instead of that idea, I think this is a better one. However I recommend reading that thread first, since a lot of what was said will still apply to this discussion. Anyway, here's my suggestion: Instead of a fourth slot, make the health scanner BUILT IN to the actual borg. So rather than it being a module, just have it be default active all the time. So that if we click on someone with no module selected, boom it'll give us a readout just as if we had used the scanner. This isn't just about making it more convenient to scan people, it's about freeing up a module slot for other things. My standard loadout is scanner, cyborg hypospray, and defib. If the scanner were built in, my loadout would instead be the trauma kit, hypospray, and defib.

I doubt you'd be able to code it to be for medical cyborgs specifically, as I can definitely see balance concerns if this were to apply to security borgs. But as far as medical borgs, the amount of times I've had to switch stuff out in my "hands" is really annoying and slows me down a LOT. I typically keep the health scanner, cyborg hypospray, and defib paddles on the bar. If I need to heal someone up a touch with a trauma kit, because they're too damaged to be revived, I have to swap out something for the trauma kit. If I need to put someone on a roller bed because they have broken bones for transport, I have to swap. If I need to pull out the nanite paste to repair someone's robotic parts, I have to swap. A 4th module slot would be so very much appreciated.

I had this idea that I thought would cause chaos. The idea is pretty much a new color slime that comes after maybe the black slime or as a alternate spawn of it. Instead of a full Queen its a egg of a face huger that will become a queen when placed on a humanized monkey or monkey. it grows like normal xenomorphs. I'm thinking it could be like a double edge sword. The Queen can decide to listen to the Xeno-bio or it can betray them and make Xeno-bio is new home. Any thoughts?

This would be like when miners would seek out facehugger treasure rooms on the asteroid so they could play an alien. We ended up making it so the larva is a random ghost rather than the person who was infected, and we STILL were seeing a lot of miners willfully returning to station once infected to start infestations. A more reliable way of triggering them is just a BAD IDEA to me, since you know it will become an almost every-shift thing.

Here's a "I died plz nerf dis" Sort of... Just rolled Nuke Ops for the first time in 2-3 months. My regular character has a mechanical heart. I was unaware my nuke op apparently also has a mechanical heart because of this. I died to a fellow nuke ops EMPed a borg near us. *I* even though of getting EMP implant which I apparently would have killed myself with. Can Nuke Ops be altered to just spawn as a generic meatbag instead of carrying over my other character's traits? I know the easy solution is don't have a mechanical heart. It leads to some interesting situations IC from time to time and follows my characters backstory.

Medical borgs are SUPPOSED to be super doctors, dude. They give up so much in order to excel at a specific role. An extra hand is not a big deal, it's just convenience.

They are good as they are.

It's not a bug, it's intentional. You can always ahelp if you want it removed for the round.

Because of that science should be splitted in more departments. So it would be possible to create new sectors. Like bioengineering for medical ( augmented organs) and so on. And a fortress in outer space for dangerous xenobio experiments, like in the alien movie would be really cool.