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I'm too lazy to answer questions or write a word essay but I'll mention the three below points, since I don't see people bringing it up often: Having an antag that is dependent upon greytide running into maints is well and dandy, except when having X number of converts = instant win. I cannot stress that enough. It works somewhat okay for cult because cultists still need to perform the ritual that announces their location AND do a sac objective first. As it stands, slings can win a round without ever fighting sec. Just kiting and thralling greytide. Looping back to the first point, it is not a coincidence that when slings are announced half the assistants on station rush maint. imo, ahelping is not a valid solution in a long run. Its more work on the admins, they always have plausible deniability of "i ran into maint cause i wanted a multitool sorry xd" and its near impossible to tell if someone is intentionally getting thralled or got nabbed by thralls unless you are observing. With the slings abilities, it is possible for one to stall out a round for the entire shift with effective use of teleports, even if they are alone with no thralls. They can effectively kite for the entire two hour shift. The only reason we don't see it more often is cause usually they get bored and do something ballsy, or accidently teleport via lag into space. TLDR: Kiting infinitely is lame, and having an antag that is dependent upon lowkey antag fishers is a bad idea.

(I didn't want to necro a 4 year old thread, and I can't really call this a "Suggestion" thread) Starter note: This isn't a post/thread for complaining about if something should or shouldn't be removed, or about demanding someone else do something you won't do yourself. This thread is purely for discussion value, brainstorming, entertaining wild ideas, and fun most of all. Onto the topic at hand: In light of a long-awaited pull request, I wanted to make a thread for any final thoughts on the Shadowling antagonist. As AffectedArc has correctly said, there have been many discussions on Shadowlings in the past, but none of them ever lead to any results or changes. Shadowlings have been a stagnant and divisive gamemode for, basically their entire existence. So if no one wants to fix a problem, the next best fix is to remove it. But with that said, how about we create a fun set of questions. Feel free to add or remove some, but remember it's all just for entertainment. Don't take things too seriously. - Do you like or dislike the Shadowling gamemode? - Do you feel Shadowlings are unique as an antagonist? If not, what does it overlap with? - What do you believe is the overall round-flow Shadowling rounds aim for, or should aim for? - What are the issues with Shadowlings? - If you, in theory, had the ability to make all the changes yourself, how would you change Shadowlings? To answer my own questions: - Do you like or dislike the Shadowling gamemode? Shadowlings are very much one of those "Hate to fight, fun to play as" kind of antagonists. They tend to stick far out of the way for most of the station unless the Shadowling is robust or the station is already heavily thralled. Nonstop dethrall surgeries aren't very fun either. Playing as one though, is fairly engaging once you're familiar with the game. They can feel like glass cannons at times, with insane offensive power but a high risk of reaching crit without realizing it. They definitely have some abilities that are 100% unfair for the victim though. - Do you feel Shadowlings are unique as an antagonist? If not, what does it overlap with? I feel they are half-unique, in that it's an improved version of Revolution, and shares some aspects with cult. Unlike cult, they're very much solely focused on numbers and mobbing the station. Unlike Revolution, they have clear leaders, slower conversions, and a more straight-forward goal. - What do you believe is the overall round-flow Shadowling rounds aim for, or should aim for? I believe shadowlings were intended to be a slow back-and-forth between the forces of the shadowlings and the crew, with Shadowlings trying to push slowly out of maintenance with their army, as the station tried to push them back with lights and lasers. Unfortunately it doesn't work like that for a multitude of reasons. - What are the issues with Shadowlings? Many: Armed thralls (security) are too strong, being infinitely better armed than the rest of the crew, causing a snowballing effect. But they're also the ones that are going into maintenance making them the primary targets, convertible or not. Shadowlings get stronger as they get a bigger army. Why do they get stronger as a reward for getting stronger? Paradise non-lethal combat isn't back-and-forth, it's either disablers or instantly over with stun batons. Stun Batons naturally favor the aggressor, which are the thralls due to having stealth. Shadowlings are very new-player unfriendly. They start off with very little, and their abilities aren't super intuitive. Having even a slight chance as a Shadowling requires a lot of prior prep and tool gathering, which new players will have no idea about. Rounds ending immediately after Shadowling death sucks, especially if Shadowlings were newbies. - If you, in theory, had the ability to make all the changes yourself, how would you change Shadowlings? (Spoilering for length) My own final thoughts on the matter to close things out: I wouldn't be sad to see Shadowlings gone. They're jank, have some bad design decisions, and really just don't work for our current combat system. Like Xenos (and vamps before Hal9000 made his rework) they really need a massive overhaul. But that can happen literally anytime if someone really feels like they want to work on it. Until then, no point in having a gamemode that isn't fun for a majority of the server. Share your thoughts and ideas, feasible or not!

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So you rolled/want to be a nuclear agent. This is hopefully a quick guide to not fall for "noob bait" and understand how your new job with the syndicate functions. If you are in an emergency and are reading this guide read "Basics of training." After scroll down to "HELP I HAVE 3 MINUTES BEFORE I DO WARCRIMES WITH OTHERS AS AN AGENT" and hope your fellow operatives aren't as bald as you. There are alot of things when it comes to nuclear operatives, if you're currently one and the syndicate needs you to be robust and nuke a station 5 minutes from now, scroll to the bottom for the small list of things to follow. All above is going to be in depth look at gear, kits, and what to grab from the station. Agents, operatives and you. As a nuclear operative it is a MUST to work together, your 5 (ish) against 60-140 people. That might seem like alot but understanding how the station functions and how you can take advantage of it is a must. Below is a list of what to expect once you declare war against the station. Cargo ordering guns. Everyone being armed and having AA Everyone looking for BLOOD RED HARDSUITS (and elite hard suits but that's for later) AI's with the idea they can attempt to door crush you (they can't but they try their hardest) Meth-head scientists with chairs that somehow made every chemcial in the time it took you to board. That one guy in toxins. The clown. Theres a few more but these above should always be expected. Things to take advantage of. 1. Like 90% of crew has AA and you have an agent ID, if you steal their ID and scan it, you can literally steal all access. 2. Cargo can easily be bombed, do that. 3. The AI is either very rude and door bolt happy or is a respectful observer, either way the AI sat is mostly unprotected and can be broken into easily to kill the eye in the sky, probably should have someone go do that. 4. Clown has banana peel, shoot the clown. 5. If you lose your gun, you can probably use the stations against them, expect them to be alot worse though compared to your superior and cooler gear. Basics of training. HELP DYING IN SPACE WHY!?!: Look at the image below, toggling your hardsuits mode impacts alot of things. For example if you can run fast or survive space, take a look at the image provided. Good note that if the helmet icon isn't there, then you need to click the suit, if the helmet icon does not display a light, you are in COMBAT mode. In combat mode you are NOT space proof but you have 0 movement penalty. WHERE DO I BUY GUNS PLEASE.: In your backpack is a radio, use it in your hand to open your uplink. Understanding what to grab and what to leave. A huge mistake new nuclear operatives make is taking wrong items and leaving correct ones. The list below follows the order of items you can see and what you should and shouldn't grab. 1. DIRECTLY INFRONT OF YOUR SPAWN there is what is referred to as "the funny" by some and others the "BRB" or the "Big Red Button" it is a very fun and extremely underused item that isn't just a joke. Planting any syndicate bomb for any amount of time and then pressing the "BRB" sets the timer to 5 seconds. This 5 second delay is to avoid accidents and for you to run away, I won't even show a picture because if you can't find a giant button in the middle of the spawn desk then you probably shouldn't be a nukie. 2. Below the spawn desk under an airlock area is an arrangement of lockers, one for each operative normally. Inside the lockers are 3 items of interest, these are the military belt, NV goggles and the crowbar. Reason for these is NV goggles allow you to see in the dark and normally as an operative you lack glasses anyways, crowbar is the LEAST grabbed tool as a nukie but you'd be surprised how many times firelocks get in the way. And finally the belt which can hold more things then you could imagine, including your trusty stetchkin. There is also an Ion cannon and mech recharger with a tool vendor for fixing things. Ion is used mostly against crew mechs and the recharger for your own. 3. The bathroom, being above to the east is more as a privacy area and character customization with a free bar of soap then anything else. There are mirrors to change hair color and style and a small room to have some privacy and do a chameleon suit in peace or go AFK. Do note if you go AFK I suggest you LOOC to your new found friends and inform them you will be back. Try not to AFK longer then 2-3 minutes as an operative, admins may give your body up or you might screw over your team with timings. 4. Heading into the nuclear shuttle to the west reveals the first bit of "noob bait" this is the "syndicate suit storage unit" room with a line of suit storage units filled with near useless things unless you're a reinforcement. DO NOT EVER IF YOU HAVE YOUR OWN HARDSUIT USE THE "JETPACK HARNESS" Your suit can fit a oxygen tank in the suit storage and has a built in jetpack, use that for space propulsion. The actual gold is above in the corner hidden away. In the locker at the top right of the room contains bulldog shotguns, a military PDA to use PDA bombs from, stetchkin mags, a suspicious duffle bag, and some less then lethal grenades which include flashbangs which can be very useful against borgs and crew. On the table a useless intelicard because you're not carding the fricking AI and 1 free c4. 5. Directly below the room above is the medical section. If you're ever here you're probably doing something wrong but its a nice place to retreat to if you're not too injured but your medi-kit and or borg are missing. In the medical crate is replacement robotic limbs if one is broken or has IB and you can replace it rather then fix, and a free bone repair kit. The med-kits there are useful but combat med-kits which will be explored further will be below in the gear section. 6. Across from it is the explosives/teleporter room. This room exists to grab bombs and SOMETIMES build a teleporter, the parts to build the computer are around the shuttle and are easily found, if you can't find them you probably shouldn't be using the teleporter. (Teleporter board must be bought for 25 TC.) While in the bomb room who ever grabbed the "BRB" has to grab the suspicious beacons, these beacons send a high explosive ordinance to where ever they're used. Most of the time the person with the "BRB" and the beacons heads to cargo to cut off the supply of guns to crew. Make sure a plan is made between the people who wish to use these and the button. Aswell in the room there are 2 mini-bombs, useful for gibbing those you hate and area denial, trust me no one likes walking near these things and if you put one on top of someone they'll never bother you again, (COUGH VOX COUGH) 7. In the room pictured above, you must come to realize the superior object. The O2 Box. In this box there are O2 tanks, if you put one in any syndicate hardsuit's suit storage you can activate a jetpack, this will last you the entire shift unless you turn on stabilization and or are breathing the air. DO NOT EVER TURN ON STABILIZATION UNLESS THE SITUATION REQUIRES IT such as space-walk with the nuke. In your backpack you will have an O2 box, put the O2 tank of this box in your pocket and that will be your breathing air, separate from jetpack air. This air may run out and you may need to breath your jetpack air but it will last you awhile. (this is the o2 box i love him) 6. The very last room to know about is the cockpit, it is where as the commander, czar, team leader or anything else really control the shuttle, you can choose a custom location or northwest of the station. Do be careful most players will metaknowledge the northwest location and may attempt to board your shuttle, it is suggested you go somewhere else. If you go somewhere custom be sure to use your pin pointer to know which way the station is, it'd be terrible if 3/4 of the team floated the wrong way in space. To the left is a box of donk pockets (which are actually syndicate donk pockets, they have meth and a few other "helpful chemicals" (meth and stuff) but you have a high chance of addiction after consuming one, these also make the microwave useless. Theres also glass for the teleporter and a useless microwave, make sure to make fun of the microwave (for being useless) before looking in the bottom right corner to spot another armory locker with NVG's, a military belt and a crowbar, incase you're missing any. This concludes the gear and what to grab section. Next will be kits, gear and understanding how to properly sort inventory and spend telecrystals. One of the most important parts of being an operative is buying your kit, theres a simple formula for this and even if you're planning on doing a gimmick you should follow this. Main weapon cost + Adrenaline Implant + Combat med-kit + Hardsuit + Energy Sword + Emag + No slip shoes. The remaining telecrystals can be spent on ammo, more implants, bombs, reinforcements, and so many other things. I suggest allocating a bit of time to see your options and weigh the worth of you to your team before giving any crystals out. Example kits, strategies and weapons. If you're unsure what to buy and you wish to follow the formula of being a good nuclear agent, a good very unrobust friendly kit goes as follows. C20r bundle bag, 3 spare magazines of .45, 2 Adrenaline implants, 1 combat medkit, 1 shielded blood-red hardsuit, 1 energy sword and a pair of no slip chameleon shoes. The advantages of this kit are. Inexpensive and has enough TC left for alot of extra ammo, cybernetic implants and other fun toys. Allows for alot of versatility giving you a powerful SMG and suit that prevents damage completely with enough healing and anti-stuns to survive a bit of robusting, and an esword as a last resort and finisher. Also free syndicate dufflebag for maximum storage. Very newkie friendly, you click spess man with gun till horizontal and click with loud light saber, if your spess man goes horizontal use adrenaline and run away, I can't make this any simpler. Most kits bought with this formula will be competitively useful against the crew of the Cyberiad, an explanation of almost every weapon and gear will be below. (Images soon) Highly Visible and Dangerous Guns. L6: Expensive, useful if you wish to completely shred people while telling them "Yes, I spent 2/3's of my TC on ammo and this gun and I intend on using it all." Very fun, very useful but you need 2 hands open, probably for robust people only. C20r: Stamina SMG, completely broken currently when this was written and an amazing inexpensive choice for newkies and veteran operatives alike. Its main point is to quickly down and finish people off, it doesn't have the best stopping power in terms of damage but can still kill very well. Expect D-chat salt. M90 Carbine: Somewhat a compromise between the L6 and C20r, higher damage then the SMG but no stamina with more expensive ammo. Comes with a fanch 40mm grenade launcher that really sucks to get hit by, recommend basing an entire gimmick around it as its a TC sink similar to the L6. Bulldog Shotgun: Amazing fast high capacity shotgun, the bundle is purchasable for a varity of ammo including incinderary buckshot. The bulldog chews through ammo but is easy to replace, one of the main guns gimmick ops go for since they get some for free in the locker. Stetchkin: A under used idea for operatives, very easy to maintain and has speciality ammo for armored people. Doesn't pack an insane punch but unloading a stetchkin into someone will make sure they won't get up, mostly used as a side-arm and you get one for free. Flamethrower: Complete gimmick weapon, you better be named something fire related and in an elite hardsuit, avoid CM tier friendly fire (pun totally intended) and expect to die fast, fire isn't the best at killing and is more of a deterrent to people trying to come in a room and kill you. Syndicate Sniper Rifle: The true way to remove AI's quickly, mostly used as utility by veterans and sometimes as the main weapon as nuclear operatives named "Sniper TF2" it can be loaded with specialty ammo such as penetrator rounds to dispatch of people through walls, sleeping bullets because why not, and hemorrhaging bullets if you really want to make someone have 0% blood. Regular bullets can blow organs and limbs out and off respectively, including heads. Boom, headshot. Donksoft: Used as utility for easy stuns against crew without wasting ammo and not requiring to get close, mostly used by people who buy the clown kit (because that exists.) Syringe gun: Yes... this exists and probably needs to be removed. Its just a syringe gun you can buy meme chems for that work better as gas since 90% of crew has armor that syringes can't penetrate, and if they do it would have been better if you shot them with literally anything else. Not recommended to buy even as a gimmick. Useful gear. Syndicate Chainsaw: An extremely risky but very rewarding melee weapon, used by mostly people with shielded hardsuit and adrenals to recover quickly, and rarely by elite hardsuit people, it stun upon hit and does immense damage, can even turn people to meat. Combat Medic Kit: One of the must grabs, gives you a combat stimulant injector and synthflesh automender, one of the few ways to heal. CQC Manual: Situational, and you need to understand how to use it properly, can get you out of tight situations and can be very useful as a stealth operative. Not recommended for new players. Combat Gloves Plus: Just krav maga + combat gloves, easier martial art to use and can be very good if someone is rushing you, makes punches also quite deadly. May be something to look into if you have extra TC. Composition X4: C4 with alot of extra kick, very good for breaching walls if they can't be broken, alittle expensive but its the fast way to do things. Can be put on throwing stars for a fun gimmick. Composition C4: Its just terrible, sometimes doesn't even break glass, sometimes breaks entire walls. Cheap and free in the shuttle, useful for cheaper C4 + throwing star combos. Viscerator Delivery Grenade: Gimmick grenade, when thrown spawns Viscerators which deal 15 brute, one of the easiest things to forget to use, will not attack other operatives though. Honk-brand Infiltration Kit: Honk. Energy Shield: Extremely useful to newer operatives and veterans as well, makes lasers even more useless. A 100% chance to reflect lasers back at the person shooting you, but doesn't block anything else. Most crew might use combat shotguns so this may be useless alot of crew, but when lasers are used and thrown at you, this can save your life. Thermal Drill: Only use is to exist to open a safe if the captain decides thats a perfect place to put the NAD. Expect to never buy it and when you do need it that one time you'll never have it. Elite Hard-Suit: The elite hardsuit is the other option for hardsuits, its cheap at 8tc and it has superb damage negation, its job is to NEGATE not prevent. It has its use and is my personal choice but if you're new, not recommended due to how risky taking any form of damage is. If you're comfortable healing and understanding when you need to retreat and understanding and the risks (IB, broken bones) then its an amazing choice. Shielded Hard-Suit: The shielded hardsuit is the other choice between the two hardsuits, it provides a shield that prevents damage while leaving you semi squishy on the inside, its not bad armor just theres always better. The shielded hardsuit keeps you safe for a few shots, completely preventing damage, apon the shield breaking you'll take substantial damage and require to retreat, avoid dropping shield. Its the clear more expensive choice for newer players and isn't a bad choice if you use it to the fullest if you're confident in your abilities. Cyborgs & Mech & Reinforcements. Medical Cyborg: Honestly just buy a medkit, it can be really useful especially if you tell it to load you up on nanties but its... just comparable to a medkit that you can't control and can die. Saboteur Cyborg: Semi robust, gets meta tested easily and can die fast outside operative help, if it can actually sabotage it can single handedly destroy station, or some blueshield who asked AI flashes it once and it died. Combat Cyborg: The literal glass cannon, dies pretty dang fast under direct fire but steamrolls every single thing it fires at. An L6, and a grenade launcher stun and drain all it can see, expect it to do some work but for 60tc you're better off with the next thing. Reinforcement: The absolute best thing you can sink TC into, reinforcements are extra guns, and most importantly hands that can go under cover, loud, heal you, drag you away while firing, are EMP and flash resistant and just generally are strong. If you do get a reinforcement leave at least 10tc for them to buy something, most will buy no-slips and adrenals and live off the lockers and suit storages just fine, for example instead of buying a single medi borg, buying 1 reinforcement and giving him 10tc is an extra pair of hands that can take out at least 5 crew and serve as one hell of a distraction. If you're buying multiple for a gimmick it can be extremely strong having 8 operatives even if 4 are slightly less powerful then expected. Mauler: It.. doesn't die its scary I'll be honest. Its the strongest thing you can buy and its what you pay for, smoke is useless just spam scattershot and the carbine. Gygax: It's just a faster Mauler with less health, spam scattershot and absolutely destroy. (this will be finished close to last, other parts are easier) HELP I HAVE 3 MINUTES BEFORE I DO WARCRIMES WITH OTHERS AS AN AGENT WHAT I DO!?!?! This is a situation alot of people find themselfs in, this will be an extremely quick run-down of what to do, I recommend reading the above afterwards. Follow this formula and buy accordingly "Main weapon cost + Adrenaline Implant + Combat med-kit + Hardsuit + Energy Sword + Emag + No slip shoes." Recommended for newkies is C20r bundle bag, 3 spare magazines of .45, 2 Adrenaline implants, 1 combat medkit, 1 shielded blood-red hardsuit, 1 energy sword and a pair of no slip chameleon shoes. Remaining TC should be spent on more ammo and other things. Inform your team you're new, they may give you advice and help you out alot more then if they believed you where completely and totally confident, if you are but its your first time make sure that's known. Go to the bottom right of your nukie shuttle after your buy your hardsuit and open the "Internals box" with the O2 markings and put that in your suit storage, that is your jetpack oxygen and will be used to move around space. Do not enable stabilization unless its needed, it consumes alot of extra oxygen. In your backpack is an O2 box, use the suspicious oxygen tank in your pocket as your breathing air, if that runs out use the jetpack air. Make sure someone grabs the "Big Red Button" from the starting location table and the suspicious beacons, read above to understand why, if you don't just make sure someone else does. Prioritize getting "da fuking disk." Have fun, being a nukie shouldn't be annoying or tedious for you when you play it, understand how to properly board the station and stay calm, use gear to your advantage and stay as a group. More soon, with images maybe. (w.i.p will be done tomorrow or not. I'm tired.)