Eler00

I agree in principle with the goal of making many things not emag-dependant. Maybe making them hackable would be a more fun/interactive way IMO than the current 'shoot it a billion times with a KA/point an emitter at it' thing.

?Senitor ? Nanotrasen Representative

I thought zipties already are faster to put on than handcuffs? That + not leaving behind handcuffs once remvoed is their advantages (as in, you don't need to go reclaim handcuffs from a perma prisoner after you buckle him to his bed and so on)

For those unaware, a PR adding sleeper agents as a buyable option for nukies is currently open: https://github.com/ParadiseSS13/Paradise/pull/10357

You could even let the operatives decide the objective of the activated traitor when they buy the option.

Nukies don't win that rarely, in my experience. Yes, war rounds do favour the crew, but I'd say it's more 40/60. Also, declaring war is explicitly labelled as 'challenge mode' for the nukies. It is supposed to be harder than not declaring war. That said: The idea of nukie reinforcements sounds interesting and could lengthen the round quite a bit. It would make it feel more like a proper war and less five random murderhobos. Sidenote: SOP doesn't apply to war, as it is for standard situations now, so SOP can't forbid handing out all access during war.

Highly trained elite syndicate operatives struggle to enter their shuttle. Not pictured: Getting the nuke disc but dropping it on station while going back to the shuttle, where a sec officer with a pinpointer could pick it up. Also not pictured: One operative dying to fastmos when breaching the station.

The door was bolted and without power. Without power, bolts can't be moved. The apc in the room it lead to didn't have power, and I assume the door is mapped to belonging to that room instead of the room with power.

Some attempts at nerfing x-ray vision were recently shot down on the github (See https://github.com/ParadiseSS13/Paradise/pull/10102), which sparked some discussions on the discord where we concluded the real issue with genetical x-ray vision is the random nature of genetics that sometimes can give all of sec x-ray 15 minutes into the round if the geneticist is lucky, to give an example. Making all kinds of powerful abilities entirely random on when you get them is, IMO, rather poor game balance. As Tiger says, we're in need of a genetics rework/balance. I intend this thread to hopefully spark a bit of a discussion on this. I also plan to present my own idea on how genetics can be rebalanced, though I am currently working on a different project and so can't currently code it in even if I believed it would get approved. I'm writing it down here so I don't forget and to get more input, though it was well-received in coder_chat. So, how my reworked genetics would function: Instead of each DNA block having a power or disability assigned, powers would instead be activated based on the interplay of different, active DNA blocks. We keep the 54 DNA blocks from the current system. For example, let's say 5 of the blocks get randomly flagged as 'improving vision'. For the sake of my example, let's say 2, 4, 20, 34 and 50 At the same time, DNA blocks also get flagged with certain disabilitites. So let's for example say 4, 8 and 15 cause stuttering. Note that a DNA block can be flagged by both. In theory, a DNA block could also be flagged by several powers or disabilities. A power or disability would only be active if enough flagged blocks of it are active. Simply setting block 2 to active (via the same system as currently, IE it has to be above a certain value) wouldn't actually give you x-ray vision. Certain powers might have tiers, where a small number of flagged blocks give a lower tier version of the power. For example, having 2 active vision-improving blocks would grant thermal vision, while 4 are needed to get x-ray. This means you can't simply go through and mindlessly max one block after the next to test for powers. Instead, you need to keep several blocks active at once, see if any powers manifest, then try to narrow down which blocks are actually responsible. For example, you activate blocks 1-10 on someone and see he's now blind and also is a dwarf. This would tell you that some of the blocks 1-10 are flagged for blindness, but some are also flagged for dwarfism. Then you have to one by one de-activate blocks again to narrow it down, mapping out which block holds what ( I can also imagine other, more effective ways to go about it). This way, players need to draw some more conclusions and think more on what possible combinations could explain the powers they see. It also ensures that more high-tier powers like hulk are less 'swingy' in how soon you can discover them, since you need a higher number of active blocks to get them active. Also, sometimes disabilities might overlap with useful power blocks in such a way some powers or power combinations can only be gotten by also accepting a disability. To compensate for the added effort this causes, you might have to make the DNA modification itself less random, so players can more easily activate and deactivate DNA blocks, since they'll need to do more of it under the new system.

I mean, there's nothing stopping you from fixing any mistakes you spot. A wiki is open for everyone to edit after all.

Sec prepared 10 minutes for raiding cult-base in telecoms. Everyone but 1 officer was there. And then...they get stalled for 10 minutes by a bolted door with cut AI wires. Naturally, no cultists were arrested in the process.

This role is pretty much entirely taken by medical hyposprays, isn't it?

Funnily enough, I thought about ways to make the military belt better myself. My idea was to make it either able to store larger items, or to make it come preloaded with some goodies when bought, such as a combat knife, handcuffs, a flashbang and a teargas grenade. Some tactical/combat equipment that would make it low-cost 'grab-bag' of items. I even thought about making the exact contents random. I like your idea more, though. Making it look like a toolbelt yet able to hold weapons and stuff would make it actually useful. As for the toxin kit, it might be a bit cheap for the cost, but seems neat. And yeah, bone repair kit seems a tad overpriced.

85% of thrall requirement would mean you get a warning when they are like 1 or 2 thralls away. IMO, that's just not enough. Heck, you could even meta it by capturing and cuffing people but not converting them yet until you have enough to get over the treshold all the way to 100% And I am not sure people's behaviour is that heavily influenced by post-round ascendant gibbing, but I could be wrong.

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.

Sell insulated gloves for 6000 credits at cargo. BAM, money is now desired by the greytides.

You also can't enter a spacepod while carrying the disk. The disk will lock the spacepod's doors when you try, somehow.

So, join as head, go to account uplink terminal, drain your department's account into your own, repeat for a few rounds, get filthy, filthy rich with no consequences? Sounds like a plan.

Do you know what's worse than being in perma? Being in perma, in lockdown, colorblind and blind. The black and white gives it a whole new level of hopelessness.

IMO, they should be able of reproducing so that the crew has a harder time telling if it is normal borers or syndicate borers, casting doubt on every borer round and hopefully cutting back on the people that just run into maint to get infected.

You can hack cigarette machines to get those sweet, sweet zippo lighters.

*She, sorry.

He claims he meant to say disks, but I have my doubts.

In Space Station 13, nobody can hear you scream.

Engineer builds cage for herself, then calls for help to get out.