Consider the following - The effects of an antagonist on the round are largely defined by his objectives. That is, that any antag is strongly encouraged to pursue his objectives, and discouraged from doing things unrelated to his objectives. Also consider that this is reciprocated by most players - antagonists seek greentext, security seeks redtext.
Consider the following - By changing both the quantity and type of objectives, we can encourage players to do certain things and, in turn, manipulate the overall 'tone' of the game. We can steer antagonists into more conflict with crew and more widespread effects thereof by using greentext to direct them.
Most objectives are pretty easily accomplished. Stealing, in particular, frequently targets items that won't be missed (ex. jetpack), and murder is as simple as getting the target alone then stun-gag-cuff-kill-dispose-clean. I think we can do better.
What if we changed 'murder' to 'mutilate'? So you'd have a spaceman or two as a target, and in order to accomplish the objective one would need to break or sever two of his limbs. Say, cut off both his arms, specify that he must remain alive. This makes the antag's presence felt, but more importantly it makes him an enemy, rather than removing someone from the round. For good sportsmanship alone, we should avoid things that remove players from the round and especially encourage permanent round removal. Old Changelings were absolutely awful for this, but generally murder objectives necessitate this. It's much better to have someone alive, crippled, and baying for the Traitor's blood.
What if we changed 'steal' to 'steal and grief'? You could do this with a simple string change - "Steal [object]" to "Steal [object] and cause trouble with it" in objectives.dm or whatever the file is. Steal is by far the easiest objective to greentext, just smash, grab, and lay low. It's pitiful - unless he's physically taking the item off someone's body, the antag isn't coming into conflict with anyone. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to check whether or not an antag used an item to griff - thus, just change the objective text and hope the player plays along.
What if we added a new objective to sabotage a piece of vital equipment? The Gibber, the Cryotubes or Sleepers, the Chem Dispenser, the SMESes, the Brig Timers, the Comms Console, the ID Console, the Robotics Fabricators, the Protolathe, the Cargo Ordering Computer, the Autolathe. Generally, most jobs require some certain piece of equipment to function properly, so if a traitor was to destroy them it would cripple the department. At the end of the round, check if this equipment exists, if not, greentext. Again, this creates conflict and makes enemies - the afflicted department will want this guy's head.
What if we added an objective to vandalize an area? Kitchen, medbay, science, cargo, captain, engineering, etc, somewhere that requires breaking in. At the end of the round, check for crayon graffiti, ripped up floor tiles, blood splatters, egg splats, tomato splats, papers, et cetera. If it's past a certain high number, greentext. Basically, break into somewhere and make a big fucking mess of it. Guarantee, the Chef is not gonna be happy about some greytiding arsefuck climbing over the tables and wrecking up the joint - bam, conflict.
What if we added a lot more interesting things to the objectives list? Magboots and jumpsuits are boring, captain's ID is more like it. We want stuff that people will miss, and ideally stuff that people will actively be using. How about two eguns? That'd mean breaking into the armory for sure. What about the Warden's hat? How about body parts? Organs? Steal four appendixes. Steal three right legs. Steal eight Insulated Gloves - that'd mean taking *all* of engineering's gloves. Steal the Janitor's keys. Steal the Paramedic's keys. Steal the surgical tools - two scalpels. Steal an Antimov law board.
Does Paradise have 'Die a Glorious Death'? Because that is, bar none, the single best objective in all of SS13. If you don't have this, what are you even doing with your life?
What if we gave antags, traitors especially, more objectives? Changelings and Vampires are in a good spot - they've got three plus escape. Traitors typically only have one plus escape, so they could do with a few more to make them comparably difficult to full greentext.
