This is an idea of a race loosely based on alien's synthetic humans I have been trying to code myself for upwards of 2 months and haven't manged to make any progress because I suck and I barely even play anymore so I am just going to throw my notes out there incase anyone wants to make it happen. Feel free to message me if you want more infomation and whatnot or wanna try and help me get it to work. I tried to base the exospine code off of borers but I am just to dumb to make it work. My main reason for giving up is I doubt it would ever get merged since another 45 karma species probably isnt welcome but I figured giving ipc's a "big bro" would have been cool. anyway here is my badly formatted notes:
Synth Race: (inspired by blade runner) 45 kama (My guy is called Anders)
Names are same as human names but only first names (synths dont use last names on account of being robots)
Apeearnce:
colours: any on spectrum
Hair: All human hairs
Extra: ExoSpine on back which takes up exosuit slot
limb texture:Tg/station prothetesis
Effected by human alcohol and machine alchol + welding fuel
Body is referred to as a "Snyth shell" Or "Shell" or simply body while brain (player client connection) is Exospine
Healing: Use nanopaste or synthflesh ONLY for body/organs while spine can only be fixed with nanopaste
Surgery: Can perform robotics internal maniuplation or organic surgery. Can have broken bones and internal bleeding
Oil for blood (dna is called serial number but functions as dna)
All synths have their serial number in thier notes
Synth body can repair eye damage by aiming at eyes and using nanopaste without surgery
Immune to pain if accessed through robotics surgery
2X damage from all sources and limbs come off easy like ipcs
Limbs are reffered to as snyth limbs e.g. syntheic right arm
No hunger
No genes
Not effected by disease
Breathes air
burn damage from radiation (1-2 damage per scond exposed). "You can feel your flesh sizzling and electronics baking in the hot air"
Not clonable on account of not being fully organic
All organs are "synthetic organs". can be repaired with synthflesh or nanopaste and are 1/2 as vulrable to emps as cyber organs and are immune to effetcs of strange reagent
ExoSpine is "brain" and can only be repaired with nanopaste.
Organ list: Head: SYnth eyes, synth ears, cognitive relay(appears as huamn brain but grey with wires like ai brain) (functions as placeholder brain which is soulless) "creates a stronger connection between snthbody and exo spine than pure organic counterparts". Torso: synth heart, synth lungs, synth liver, synth kidneys. Exterior is exospine which doubles as player control point/brain.
Possible to place positronic brains and robotic brain into synth head
Exospine is visible in exoslot and can be repaired by player by clicking (exoslot) icon with nanopaste.
Exospine has visible sprite on host that looks like metal spine. visiable over clothes/ hair. can be seen from back and side profiles
Exospine can detach/attach to any humanoid/lesser human mob over span of 7 seconds. Deals 10 brute damage to attach. detaching inflicts bleed status (synth Shells are immune to the damage and only take 5 seconds to attach to)
When spine detached from synth body, body will stand still(braindead) and say "it appears their control unit is missing" when inspected. Exospine sprite will also be visibly missing from back/side profile
Host can foribly remove spine by standing still and clicking exosuit spine icon with harm intent (takes 10 seconds) and deals 40 damage to host on removal and stuns exospine for 10 seconds. Other players can alsoremove exospine under outfit thing (both players must remain still). Remvoing under surgical conditions (sharp object in hand on table) wil allow to avoid 60 damage to host on removal. host still will bleed.
Hitting Exospine attached host with emp will fuse spine to host and will require the use of a scalpel/sharp object on body of lying down host to "free up connections and cut away scorred tissue" (takes 10 seconds) thus allowing exospine to now be detached either by force or by willing detaching.
Attempting to remove a fused exospine by hand will display message "you try to remove exospine*playername* but it appears to be fused to *hostname*"
SYnth exospine takes 1/10 of all damage sustained to torso
Exospine can ventcrawl and speak common, trinary and one elective
Exospine inherts eye/hearing quality of host body
Can attach to IPC without causing harm to body but takes 5 seconds
Synth movement inputs are 2nd prioty to host player movements and can be overruled by host.
Exospine takes 2 disabler shots to be rendered immobile for 10 seconds. 1 batton hit for 10 seconds stun.
When removeed forcefully exospine is stunned and placed in hand of whoever removed it.
Exospine is space proof.
Exospine can not be butchered
Live exospine cannot be placed in a microwave/oven/grill
DEADExospine will create a ruined mess if dead and microwaved/cooked
DEADExospine will creatue nanomachines if blended (only if bleding reguarl brains is possible, i forgot)
ON DEATHExospine makes a popping sound (like a light blowing) when dying and displays message "Exospine *playername* shudders then falls still"
When licked to a body exospine can use body as if it is their own (hands, clothes, bag access).
Exospine can not view host body hunger status (due to fact machine cannot comprehend hunger) and instead sees spine health in hunger bar place
Spine health is broken up into vertical bar with 4 sections 100%-75% health is blue bar, 75%-50% makes bar green, 50%-25% makes bar yellow, 25%-0% makes bar red
Exospine can control a body even after it has died (excludes ipcs) but will still be effected by slowness and depending on damage/rot will periodically fall over (increasing with more rot/damage) until reaching 500 damage (or body turns to skeleton/husk) in which body can not be moved/used and message "this body is not viable" will appear when player input happens.
Exospine controled corpses decay at 5X the usual rate
When not moving corpses will fall over and need to crawl/move foward contsantly to stand
One step deals one brute damage (maybe)
Rot effects: stage 0 no effects.stage 1 slur speech. stage two speech slur more extreme+ fall over chnace 30% once every 20 seconds + 50% chance at stage profression for eyes or ears to rot becoming unusable. stage three heavily slowed movement +fall over chance 70% every 10 seconds + +nearsighted + 10% roll chance each minute random limb will rot and become unusable. stage four body unusable
when falling over due to rot the body can not crawl/move (same mechanics as hunger fainting)
can delay rotting by periodically injectting preservative Formaldehyde. ( might be diffcuilt to get working but will be processed at a rate (1u per minute, roughly 30 cycles or 0.03u per cycle)of delaying next rot stage by 1 mintues per unit when exospine is attached to a corpse)
I think this corpse mechanics can work by clonning the body and the state that its in/inventory and remacping the old one with this new one that is a varient of teh speics which has these new mechanics (indistingusihable visually and only the server knows teh difference)
All exo spine controlled corpses are in red stamina and no chems appart from preservative are processed
Exo spine controlled corpses with preservatives will show remaining time preventing decay as a status effect
Exospine can be implanted (living or dead) into upper torso of any organic(or ipc torso) and will now behave like a regular brain(die when host dies), unless body is gibbed and spine survives or spine is removed via surgery in which it will behave like normal as it is now free.
If exospine is dead, can still be implanted into head (chest for ipcs) and will fucntion as regular brain, dying when host dies, requiring revival. Implanted as if was a brain (organ maniuplation).
can repair implanted exospines with nanopaste effectively "reviving" them allowing for them to function as regular exospine if removed
Exospine is immune to brain damage
WHen held as an exospine. will need to resist to be free from being held (takes 30 seconds) (can move during resisit)
Exospine can detach from body even if body is sleeping/crit. but not when stunned with electricity/stun batons.
Body is still vaulrable to stamina and hunger, disease with exospine in control
WHen spine detaches makes message to all in line fo sight "you see *mob name*'s exospine beginning to detach.
Attach/detach button in top rightscreen as ability card. sprite has spine with legs open and view from behind when not attached and turns to side view with legs curled under (as if liking with host) when attached.
Clicking attach button opens menu (like telepathy menu)with all mobs in range (either same tile or next door tile)in which player chooses which mob to attempt attachment to.
WHen attaching al players in line of sight get message "you see exospine *name* fusing to *mob name*"
WHen inpecting mob with exospine attached that is dead/brain removed you still see messages which indicate death/soul status/brain status. (message removed for braindead/clientless mibs)
Inspection of exospine will show name as "Exospine *playername*"
Exospine playername is the same as the name of their synth charater
When inspecting a mob earing an exospine it will show "you see the exospine *exospine name* connected to their back" in place of their exosuit description (eg hoodies/labcoat). while message "you can see exospine *exospine name* fused to their back" if exospine is fused to host (by means of emp)
Exospine can speak when in exospine form without host and can temporarily understand all languages a live host can understadn when attached
If attached to living host, will see relevant status messages and is effected by pain (e.g you feel a dull pain in your head)
Throwing exospine will deal damage to it if it hits an object/wall
Possible to order new synth body from cargo which matches appearence of roundstart body by making order with body dna as comment (costs 1000 points)
SYnth can spawn as vampire/changeling but only thier starting body will have powers
Synth's that are changlings cant detach their exospine as it disappears when they change form but appears normal expect if attempted forced removal of exospine occurs in which message "you try to remove exospine*playername* but it appears to be fused to *playername*"
If fused exospine attempts to detach from a host it will display message "you are fused to *hostname* and cannot detach!"
Message when exospine is fused to host "you feel a searing pain and hear a sizzle as exospine*playername* fuses to your skin!"
If exospine is implanted into a body, the attach/detach button disappears and exospine health icon is replaced with hunger bar
Dead/Living exospines can be placed in cyborgs without the use of MMI
Option in charater setup which allows exospine to start off implanted in torso (this setting is forced to true in the event of changelings and vampires)
Exospine can be implanted into synth/organics torso to mimic internal brain (can be implanted into mob with pre exisiting player brain in head and exospine input will still be second prioty)
Suicide messages "*playername*Is overloading their own processor!" "*playername*Is ripping their exospine appart!" "*playername*is learning the dangers of mizxing technology and water!" "*playername*'s status lights have gone dark!"
Health shows to both health scanners and diagnotic hud. organs can be viewed with health analysers and robotic part scanner
Exospine is a critter meaning cant pull items can nuzzle and "bite" and can be picked up
Can't clone any organics with exospine attached/inplanted in them. will display "non organic tissue detected in scanner" (prevents funky outcomes with two cliets connecnted to the same mob)
Exospine controlled mobs can keep moving in crit/death but not when sleeping/faint (n20 gas etc) however only exospine inputs are valid, host brain is still unconcious if dead
Chaplain cannot heal synths with bible
Host body brain condition is irrevant to exospine inputs, exospine health is the same as brain condition (e.g at low heath exospine user will have trouble using computers the same way they would with brain damage) (actually no dont add this it would be a headache to make)
Synths don't get crit they just die
Exospines at 25% health and below have a chance to fail at intergating into a host that isnt a snyth (maybe add this)
Xenomorph facehuggers can impregnate synths
WHen moving exospine slithers with legs walking like an snake with centipede legs but rears up like a cobra when standing still. (this rearing up can be prevented by toggling lying down mode and will not slow movement when active)
If mindslaved,thralled or wooloo staffed, revoltionary brainwashed, abductor organed or mindshielded: prevnt exospine from detaching until effects/implants are removed (even prevent surgical removal of spine) "you feel exospine clamping, locking you to your current body" if attempted remvoal sugircal or otherwise "exospine*playername* is locked in the clamp postion to *hostname*" Displays fused appearnce when inspected. when brainwash is removed display "you feel exospine clamps unlock" and spine can be detached once more. display message "exospine clamps are locked" if attmpet for spine to detach itself when under brainwash effects.
Maybe make it that antags/mindshiled roundstart has exospien spawn inside of body regardless of prefs
WHy its good for the game:
Adds a new species with tons of uniqure mechanics allowing for new senarios that have never happened before to exist, can make it easier for more experienced players to mentor newer players mid round almost ratatouee style. Can test the boundries of RP and introduce more ethic related rp like "is it truely ok for a crewmember to use the body of a deceased crewmate in the absence of their own?" Not to mention all the fun paperwork that would come with that from post mortum consent forms to permits from the head of medical. The creation of the synth was to be a more advaced version fo the popular IPC which merges the fragile robotic body with fun of chemical effects that organic bodies have. By making the body very fragile (2x damge from all sources) it balances out the new and interesting "exospine" mode, inspired by borers but better in every way. By being able to detach from your body it can allow for a "second wind" at the cost of being very fragile and no insurce from suit senors, being able to move corpses around is also a fun new system where you can have zombile like crew moving around (probaily heading to medical!) but still bound by the rules of stamina and stunning. The main inspiration for this mechanic was mostly so this new paper species can make it to medical/robotics after they die for the 50th time per round but also to allow interesting interactions and potential attempts at inpersonation but mainly just because I think it would be cool and unique. I have added plenty of contengcies as to prevent the spine mode from being too powerful, to the point where all interactions will end in the spine player losing. Examples include: if a spine latches onto another player who doesnt want them on them they can forcibly remove the spine and after which the spine wil be stunned and vanulrable to retrubuitn! It is possible to fuse the spine to its current host using emps and require surgery to unfuse the spine from the host (to stop prisoners just going spine mode and escaping and to add more mechanics which require problem solving and careful planning from all involved parties). It is even possible to implant a spine (dead or alive) into the head of any reguarly brain accpeting mob to contain a snyth player and make them "mortal", forcing them to once again accpet death along with their body. _-Syth race is supposed to be a mixture between organic and machine, sharing traits from both. The snyth race breathes air and is suseptable to n20 gas to make surgerypossible and feel spain from organics surgery. Synth race is also effected by chemicals both good and bad allowing for usage of combat chems like meth or poisens like cyanide.SYnths's brain is actaully located on the outside of thier body and is called an "exospine" which takes 1/10 of all damge sustained to their torso and is detachable. Synths do not need to eat (because part robot) with their hunger bar being replaced by their exospine's health bar. Synths do not have genes and are not effected by genetics. Synths look like humans and use human hair but can access the entire arry of RGB colours for their body colour (being artificial and all). Synths default names are just human first names (but can have last names if you want to rp as a snyth who thinks they are very human) but can use all manner of less organic names depending how robotic they want to RP as (rp personalities can range from emotionless Spock to a grumpy old scrooge) (being modeled after humans they have human names but no family names because no family being synthetic and all). The synth bodies can not be cloned as they are part machine, your options are robotics/medical or to order a NEW body from cargo. Synth bodies can be ordered from cargo for 1000 points and if the note on the order contains the DNA of any snyth crew members then the synth body will match that crewmate's roundstart appearance. The biology of the synths allows for the easy intergation of robotic parts being that synth bodies can easily house positronic brains and robotic brains in their heads by simply taking out the cognitive relay (placeholder brain with no client attached), putting the new one in, then reviving the body. Syth bilogy is as follows: Head contains syth eyes (can be repaired wthout surgery by applying sythflesh/nanopaste to mob while aiming at eyes), synth ears Upper torso contains synth heart and synth lungs and lower tosro contains synth kindeys and synth liver.Synth bodies/oragns decay 2x the normal rate. All synth organs take 50% damage from emps (two emps will render them dead) and are immune to the potenial death caused by strange regent but still decay outside of the body (at half the rate of normal organs). SYnth organs can only be repaired with eaither synth flesh OR nanopaste. Surgery on synths is possible by either means of regular organic surgery (in which they feel pain and need pain blockers) or robotics tool surgery (in which they feel no pain). SYthns use oil for blood (it also carries thier dna) and their blood can only be replenished with oil. Synths are vaulrable to interal bleeding and bone breakages and will require organic surgery to fix them. SYtnhs also bleed from open wounds. _-Now for the most complicated part: the exospine (I will imply refer to it as sime for simplicy). The spine is they synth's "brain" (player to mob connection) and can detach from the main body at will, leaving the body just standing there, braindead. The spine can ventcrawl, speak and attach to human and lesser human mobs (that are within 1 tiles range). I suggest you read the features for an in depth understanding for what exactly the mechanics are but a simple description is sort of like a borer but if borers were not annoying and more balanced. The spine mechanics are NOT antag friendly and will place you at a serious disadvantage in ALL encounters with other players and really are only good for RP or mentoring/helping players having toruble in an rp friendly way. The most complex part mechanic wise part is the corpse control(inspired by the way an ai controled modsuit on TGstation can walk around with a body inside), which allows spines to gain limted control over corpses for a short period of time(there really wont be a lot of chances to use this mid round unless the station is in abolute disarry and there are bodies in the halls e.g nukies). THis was mainly because i think it is an intersting mechanic which could open up a lot of rp senarios depending on how "human" you way your synth charater to be E.G a syth puppeting around a dead co-worker's corpse after they were both caught in a exposion while mixing chems and everyone freaking out. Now the same server rules apply in the sense that you would not try to prevent the revival of this player (unless you cleared it with them in looc beforehand) and would make your way to medical but there would a lot of rp options open and explaining on how a dead crewmate just waltzed on to medical. The main vision I had with the synths is that they are a partally expendable workforce with thier bodies being cheap and mass produced with ttheir real mind being the only true contant of self and able to simply jump from body to body like changing clothes (look up transhumanizim for more info on this philophy) with the option to push thier cheap and brittle bodies to the limit in the pursuit of their goals (almost like a brittle version of the replicants in blade runner, my main inspiration for this species closely followed by the androids from Alien, who I got teh idea of retaining function even in death from, I wanted to make the blood type white hydrolic fluid but I feared it could be mistaken for something else). I am well aware how this race may seem almost too powerful at first but I garantee that if you play a few rounds you will realise there are very few opputines to use this spine ability and that most synth rounds will end up without you separting from your starting body at all (at least after you get used to the gimick and stop ventcrawling into the captains office every 2 seconds). My reason for adding the spine ability was simply because these species is designed to be so easy to kill that it is pain incarnate and without the spine functions I am pretty sure most players will end up spending half the round dead because of all the hoops you need to jump through to repair the synths. It wil make ipcs and vox look like a cakewalk!
In summary it introduces a new species with similar mechanics to what we are used to but less forgiving and a higher emphasis on playing smart with more RP chances and picking your choices carefully both RP and gameplay wise
I kind of just liked the way the game was more around then than how it is now I would like to see if anyone has a copy of the code they could share with me so I could play with my friends on a private game.