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So, I'll just repost what I said the last time this got brought up: To summarize: The problem isn't so much that it's too easy or too hard to win, because that really depends on the skill level of the players, and there is a huge gap there. The problem is that the high skill players don't have sub-optimal paths to challenge themselves with. You'll never balance shadowlings because the difference between a new player and an experienced player is way too wide. If you balance for the newbie, the experienced player always wins. Balance for the experienced player, the newbie has no chance. So instead, give multiple paths to victory and what happens is the experienced players will challenge themselves. This is how basically all other antags work. Except shadowlings. For shadowlings, experienced players snowball to a quick victory because there's literally no other way to play shadowling. Oh, and one easy way to improve the mode I think would be to end it as soon as a shadowling ascends. If any antag doesn't deserve a 5 minute gloating murderbone victory lap, it's shadowlings.

Field Report A-3: The New Langdon Infestation Perhaps one of the most curious events related to the Xenos Umbra was the massive infestation that took place in the colony of New Langdon between the years of 2487 and 2489; these three years, while taking a severe toll on the population in terms of physical and mental exhaustion, allowed NanoTrasen researchers and security personnel to observe and register novel behavioral patterns, chart the progression of individual power of these creatures, and first begin true inquiry into the nature of the individuals subverted by the species, commonly called "thralls". The colony of New Langdon was officially founded in 2315, on a planet christened Nuova Roma, located in the Sigma-17 binary system, and funded almost entirely by NanoTrasen, with minor contributions from private investors securing transit in the colony ship. The entirety of the population was gathered from Mars, and the new colony was to serve as an innovative, long-term commercial venture by the since-defunct NanoTrasen New Worlds Project (initially established to fund and exploit colonial ventures, but shut down in late 2425 due to rampant corruption in the administrative staff and "gigantic monetary losses" in its operation). Its initial population amounted to 5000 individuals, with more being encouraged to migrate with financial incentives and company care packages; many were relocated from NanoTrasen housing facilities to planet-side domiciles, in order to boost the population numbers. Curiously, no Bluespace research, or indeed any company-related research, was ever conducted on New Langdon, making it puzzling as to why an infestation took place in this location. Colony development is uneventful and proceeds in accordance with expected models for most of its existence, until the year of 2487 rolls over and, over the course of the first few months, a familiar pattern emerges: increased failures in the electrical infrastructure, powergrid malfunctions coupled with higher-than-average occurrences of brownouts and blackouts, and a gradually increasing number of medical complaints related to insomnia, night terrors, vivid nightmares and heightened aggression. Seeing as NanoTrasen were, at this point, already aware of the existence of the Xenos Umbra, a team of specialists was dispatched, headed by one [REDACTED]. How unfortunate. The team is listed as having been composed of seventeen Xenobiologists, fifteen security personnel armed with a surprising amount of weaponry, and a company representative meant to serve as a liaison between the team, the local colony council and the NAS Sirius, the closest NanoTrasen administrative center. The team was officially designated "Jackal Sierra", and acted mostly independently from any other entity, under the leadership of Representative [REDACTED]. Over the rest of 2487, "Jackal Sierra" worked extensively in coordination with the colony council in the installation of a newer, more distributed energy grid, training of law enforcement personnel and distribution of select amounts of classified information meant to better prepare the population for what might possibly be a public calamity of unseen proportions; with no prior incidents of Xenos Umbra infestations in large population centers, it was impossible to know what the end result would be. While it had been hypothesized that a hard "cap" existed to the amount of power one specimen could accrue before an Ascendance Event took place, no experimentation had taken place to find a definitive answer; and regardless, an Ascendance Event taking place in such a location would be a catastrophic disaster, one that would not only force NanoTrasen to publicly acknowledge the existence of the species, but would also most likely bankrupt it with the sheer costs of repaying the investments made towards New Langdon and the life insurance payoffs towards the surviving family members of anyone on the planet at the time. However, such an hypothesis would be quickly put to the test when the first confirmed sighting of a Xenos Umbra specimen was confirmed in a sewer system in late 2487, with members of "Jackal Sierra" initiating pursuit but losing track of the creature and falling back to their field HQ. After this sighting, Representative [REDACTED] issues a single message to the NAS Sirius: The wording used seems to indicate that "Jackal Sierra's" objective was not so much to help contain the infestation, but to chart its progress for the sake of increasing the knowledge pool on this species of parasites, potentially at the expense of the local population. While I cannot tell for certain, it would be consistent with future decisions made by NanoTrasen, and the relative success of the New Langdon infestation study most likely contributed to increased risk-taking on the part of the company. But I digress. Over the course of the next few months, a curious phenomenon began to arise: the number of sightings of Xenos Umbra specimens began to rise more quickly than expected, far more than what would be possible with a singular entity infestation like NanoTrasen had seen before, until, in mid 2488, "Jackal Sierra" confirms the existence of a second entity, followed by a third one three weeks later, a fourth one two weeks after that, and twelve more over the week after that. The research team's records seem to indicate a heightened state of alarm, and the number of confirmed specimens was never revealed to the colony council, instead being reported directly to the NAS Sirius; in response, NanoTrasen authorizes the activation of ERT Lambda-7 (Code Name: Last Out), their finest Gamma-level Emergency Response Team, only used in extreme, company-threatening circumstances. Lambda-7 immediately scrambles to New Langdon a mere ten minutes after activation, and sets up a secondary field HQ next to the existing one manned by "Jackal Sierra". Here, the operation takes on different, and slightly bizarre contours, with "Jackal Sierra" and Lambda-7 apparently working both in tandem, and independently, with the former attempting to capture and study live thralls and Xenos Umbra specimens, and the latter overseeing police and military training, weapons distribution and powergrid reinforcement efforts, along with leading occasional raids into suspected thrall hideouts. It is also noteworthy that, despite the number of active specimens, and the population of the colony exceeding 50,000 individuals at the time of the infestation, no more than fifty simultaneously extant thralls were ever positively identified, and the amount of Bluespace distortions that could be verified by long-range scanners barely diverged from expected, background values. Despite this, "Jackal Sierra" acquired a number of thralled individuals for study (in fact, the very first recorded use of the word "thrall" dates back to this infestation, as a means of classifying general behavioral patterns), using them as test subjects in a myriad of ad hoc tests designed to testevaluate motor function, logical thinking and emotional intelligence; curiously, while the first two remained unaffected when in comparison with unaffected members of their species, individuals thralled by Xenos Umbra specimens exhibited traits commonly associated with sociopathic individuals. Additionally, while upper brain functions remained unaffected, thralled individuals were often spotted undergoing long periods of starvation and general deprivation in order to accomplish goals presumably set by their parasitic host, with seventeen recorded cases of death by starvation, and twelve recorded instances of death by dehydration. It is also here that NanoTrasen first becomes aware of what causes the process of thralling to begin with, with MRI scans of affected individuals revealing large, tumorous growths seemingly "attached" to their frontal lobes, presumably a means for the parasitic organism to enforce its influence onto the subject's conscious mind. Much like Xenos Umbra specimens, these tumors were highly sensitive to direct light, and would quickly shrivel and melt into undifferentiated cell matter upon being exposed to direct lighting for more than a few seconds. This is also when the first recorded instances of "de-thralling" took place, and the New Langdon infestation served as the field manual for emergency "de-thralling" surgery. Eventually, in late 2488 and early 2489, Representative [REDACTED] receives a series of orders from the NAS Sirius ordering the end of any field observations, and mandating the termination of all confirmed active specimens. Over the course of the following months, Lambda-7, in conjunction with local police and military forces, launch a series of strikes against known hotspots, culminating in the destruction or capture of all known Xenos Umbra specimens, all of them terminated and subjected to intense sunlight for a period of no less than three (3) hours. The surviving corpses were encased in concrete and shipped to the NAS Sirius, where the trail grows cold. All company operations related to the Xenos Umbra threat cease in mid 2489, with no further reported cases of Bluespace distortions or infestation from the colony. Lambda-7 is officially recalled, as is "Jackal Sierra", as New Langdon celebrates Victory of Light Day. The New Langdon infestation is curious, as it never quite progressed to any level close to an Ascendance Event, despite the number of active specimens and simultaneously extant thralls. This seems to indicate that the progression of power required for such a thing to occur is fluid, rather than static, and perhaps even linked to the population size of the infestation site, which opens up a series of interesting hypotheses. Nonetheless, the infestation also informs us on NanoTrasen's increased interest in the creatures, what lengths it would go to in order to prolong an infestation to study it, and what it would do with such information; emergency "de-thralling" procedures would, from that point forward, be included in a small package of classified information reserved for on-site Captains for NanoTrasen installations, to be used at their discretion, and a series of missives from company HQ in Sol indicate the establishment of a special sub-division of NanoTrasen's Xenobiological Research Division dedicated entirely to locating and studying Xenos Umbra specimens. This sub-division, aptly code-named "Shade in the Sun", was based on the NSS Ragnarok, and continues to operate mainly from there to this day. This is my next destination. Signed, Quincy D. Huxley END LOG.

But also different to cult, thralls are more easily identified. For a cult, you have to catch the cultist in the literal act of doing something cult OR have cult paraphernalia on them. In the cult situation, the situation is entirely reactive in terms of the crew. That meaning, the crew has to REACT to the cult. With thralls, the crew can be PROACTIVE, since thralls can be more easily identified by their 'strange features'. Security simply has to examine people they walk by, or tase, cuff, and unmask people who are hiding their faces. Additionally, it's very textbook to make sure that the medbay is being guarded since it's a likely target for sling divebombs. Dropping even one guard on medbay can cover both the ORs pretty well. Plus, the de-thralling surgery is so easy and quick that it's actually faster than holy water deconversions. So, this is an interesting point. From a security perspective, it's really, really easy to see that there's a security officer without their mindshield. They might as well have approached you screaming they're a thrall. From a non-sec perspective, I can see how it's frustrating to get bumrushed and stunned, then dragged back to maints while no-one really bats an eye. I think that security converts are what really solidifies the "snowball" effect. Once you've got a thrall with a ranged/melee stun and restraints readily available, it can get out of hand super fast. As sec on a sling round, when you lose that first officer that's when you know it's about to get really rough. So now that I've made those two statements, here's what I think of your proposals: If we buff mindshields, it'll become meta to just mindshield everyone in medbay as they get de-thralled, making it too hard for slings. Deconversion is already a pretty easy and quick thing to do as is. I can see this being a thing, but assuming that the station's so far out of control that you've got 15 thralls, by this point if an ERT is called in or there's still enough security to pose a threat, they're just killing thralls to deny them a chance for the sling to ascend. By the time you've gotten close to your objective, it's likely you'll be under the necessary thrall count. I actually think this is the best way to balance out the shadowling mode. There's a nice ability that sacrifices a thrall to delay the shuttle's arrival so you can buy more time to get those precious thralls. Here's the thing though: slings get access to an ability called 'Black Recuperation' at the 9 thrall mark and typically once the shuttle's called, you've got 9ish thralls so naturally the most common play is to use 'Destroy Engines', kill a thrall, then revive them. It completely nullifies the cost of Destroy Engines. I like this idea, but ultimately it would be at the cost of a complete rework of slings, which no-one really has the energy to do. Their abilities would all have to be either scrapped or almost unrecognizably changed. A good blanket change would be to make some abilities literally harm the thralls. A good strategy is to make each ability do a set amount of damage and then divide it equally among the amount of thralls. For example, Veil would deal 25 brute and burn to all thralls. If there's 5 thralls, it'll deal only 5 brute and burn to all thralls. Compound this with the fact there's probably 2-3 slings running around, it'll become very annoying to be a thrall since they're basically living batteries for the slings. Additionally, this fixes the issue of the fact that a good sling will always beat the best security officer, because slings have so many round start abilities to get out of any mistakes they make, it's really hard to actually catch one. Example: Sling is stunned, shadow walk, sling gets stunned again before the 30 second cooldown is up, icy veins, sling is stunned AGAIN before the 30 second cooldown, sonic screech and by then, shadow walk/icy veins is back up and they continue to slip out of any engagement. Combined with their regeneration in the darkness, it's quite difficult to pin down a sling even if they made three consecutive mistakes. Adding the blanket damage will actually harm the slings intent in the long run, since for each time they have to use abilities to cover up their mistakes, they are actively impeding themselves by damaging their thralls. If they don't make mistakes, their thralls live. If they do, their thralls die. tl;dr, if you want to fix slings, make them actually be what they're advertised as: Parasitic and manipulative beings.

Shadowlings are, I think, one of the less popular gamemodes. Often, it feels rather hopeless and as if the slings are almost guaranteed to win (at least to me). Here are my thoughts on the shadowling gamemode: 1. It is too snowbally Each thrall you capture not only deprives the station of a crew member but also gives you one more. Now, this isn't unique, cult can convert as well. But the thing with cult is that deconversion is a lot easier, as you just forcefeed someone some holy water while a shadowling thrall requires surgery and gives the slings ample time to burst into the OP and get you back, on top of also taking the doctor. On top of that, being able to thrall mindshielded personnel, especially sec officers, makes this entire factor a lot worse, as slings then use the newly turned officer to then 'arrest' and convert people. It isn't rare for slings to turn most or all of sec to their side, at which point the station is basically completely fucked. And there's never enough time for an ERT to be called, arrive and save the day, which brings me to issue two: 2. There is no proper progression towards a goal Here is how a group gamemode should play out, IMO: Gather resources and manpower -> accomplish objective-> (get rewarded for success -> accomplish additional objective) -> win The issue with Shadowling is that gathering resources, aka getting converts, is also your actual objective. You can just lurk in maint forever, picking off people that wander and suddenly win out of nowhere. The crew gets, if you do it right, almost no warning or indication of how far you've progressed or even that you've done anything. You could in theory do a full stealth win. No other antag type has such a lack of progression. Cult converts, then has to go in and grab the warden or a sec officer for a ritual, then has to take over one of very few specific locations for the summoning ritual, giving everyone a last chance to stop them. Individual antags often have to murder a specific person or steal a specific object, which forces them to go out and be proactive. Even nuke-ops have to get the disk and then set up the nuke. Shadowlings just lurk in maint, grab assistants that come by, then grab occasional sec officers that come by, then they win. They don't need to steal anything or gather any equipment. 3. People let themselves be converted far too easily. It is still not rare for people to run into maint on sling rounds, looking to be converted. While this is something admins can act against via liberal application of bwoinks, we could also stand to make sling thrall less attractive in other ways to discourage it. And here are my thoughts on how to improve the mode: 1. Buff mindshields or make deconversion easier Probably the more controversial proposal. But I don't quite get why cult can't cult through a mindshield and shadowlings just need some additional time to do it. IMO, mindshields should block conversion like they do for cult. Getting a sec officer is still a good catch because you now have all his equipment and access. I'm not quite sure how to make the dethralling easier, but am open to suggestions. 2. Give Shadowlings additional objectives in order to ascend Gathering thralls and then you win feels just too easy. It gives the crew not enough time to respond and very few warning signs. For all you know the ascension could be happening any minute now, even if there's actually just 2 thralls left. Giving slings objectives they have to do before ascension would give a good landmark of how far they've come, give the crew something to rally around, etc. As for specific objectives, I had several ideas: Thralling or killing a certain person, like the captain, could work, encouraging a direct assault on bridge and forcing the slings into the open. Or something more creative like 'make sure XX% of the station is shrouded in darkness' and so on. I'm sure there's many possibilities here. 3. Play up the 'thralls are just used by their masters' angle Slings already have a power that sacrifices their thralls for things, but they are rarely, if ever, used. So my idea here would be to make slings more parasitic towards their thralls, to make being a thrall less desirable. Maybe have the heads of all thralls explode when a shadowling ascends, gotta use all that psyonic energy. This would probably require some reworking of the sling powers for more big, flashy effects with a cost in thrall lives or health. Like maybe teleport to any thrall's location, but it gibs the thrall as you as a living shadow burst out of his chest. Things like that.

When the nukies declare war, plow through the crews defense, get the disk, and then... DAMNIT! YOU HAD ONE JOB! ONE! JOB!

So i was observing a round when i got a prompt asking if i wanted to play a sentient creature. Having no idea what that meant i decided to accept and suddenly i am a Space Koi. I breach an area that wouldn't cause very much damage, it got fixed quickly. After running around saying hello to everyone trying to RP as a koi, which i felt was a simple minded friendly kinda personality. Eventually A Blob gets announced and I'm chilling in front of the bridge saying that i would like to find it but i can't without maint access (Which i don't think there was anyway to get me said access). Conner Elder who was also just hanging out said that he would search with me. So we go off on a huge blob hunting spree and eventually find it (We started in the exact wrong direction, Sec had already killed it when we got there). Afterwards we just hung out and chilled. Its a lot to say so I've some screenshots here. The first few are in the beach gateway where we complentated life and such, soon afterwards cultists were about to summon their god and we ran back to hide. I had the idea of escaping into space with Conner, so we got him an eva suit and just left the station, me serving as a kind of jetpack dragging him along. While exploring space we found tcomms and boarded. Teleported back onto the station because we saw the shuttle was about to leave. Arrived at arrivals beacon, went to the pods and escaped! Very tender and emotional fun within a round. Oh and i was named Hobbes the Koi at the end. Hobbes out

When was this

Little does Zeke remember was that I was a bad shift.