Now hold on! It's a big suggestion but this should have been seen coming from a mile away. I'd rather make this than just have "Please add clockwork cult. End of suggestion" somewhere just posted without any reason. This suggestion was made eons ago in another topic regarding removing the blood cult and replacing it with clockwork but I feel like it was a bit too simple and to be honest I don't exactly agree with removing the blood cult.
https://github.com/tgstation/tgstation/pull/29741/commits/c909f25fe42cd017656429f8f11f13071e1f9a3d
Personally I got no experience in coding but from what I've heard if an existing code already exists, there's a bigger chance it'll get reviewed and from what I know tg station used to have the clockwork cult that was eventually removed but the "scrap" could still be found. It is a year old though because the original maintainer abandoned it but if it could be integrated with para would the maintaining of the code be that hard?
I think it'd be a great idea to add the clockwork cult not only because it would add more antagonist variety but because it could also interact nicely with the existing blood cult (that I also want to talk about a bit). The two problems with the interaction between blood and clockwork is the fact that there are three different types of cult in paradise. The blood cult has three options to be chosen randomly at round start and once it has been chosen, the cult number 1 will never interact with the 2 other cults that are possible to also spawn individually unless some admin trickery is made. I have the solution for this problem and it'd be simple as either removing the other two cults, leaving one (most likely Nar'Sie's) or then separating the cults apart. Separating Nar'Sie's cult for them to have their own antag HUD and some minor gameplay tweaks which are inspired from... guess what... tg! I know, how original! In all seriousness it would be as small as adding a cult leader. Why? Because the clockwork cult adds one too and to have someone who can be chosen to guide new cultists is an ABSOLUTELY great idea because some of the cultists which you will convert or start with have absolutely no idea what they are doing! This could be made more easier for them to learn the tropes if there was a voting system of sorts or a way for the cult leader to give his position for someone that can guide those new cultie players. Now again, this feature can be found on tg station and since I don't probably want to mention tg a lot because it has become too repetitive by now, I just want to say that please, PLEASE for the love of Nar'Sie and Ratvar, add the better looking robes from tg and the ritual dagger to replace the arcane tome for the blood cult. I am not on my knees or anything but it just looks better and more edgier plus why am I cutting my hands or wrists or whatever with a goddamn book? The whole reason for antags is to be fun and exciting, there is nothing more that excites people than cutting their wrists with a book while looking unedgy. Some of the features from tg are really fun and useful in paradise like the cult master not because they would be a personal favorite but also because they would be very useful. I spent a bit too much time on the cult master part but this was something that had to be talked about.
Now the actual interaction with the clockwork cult and the blood cult would be very simple. If the other two blood cults (that aren't Nar'Sie's) would stay, they would function as normal. If they spawn in, the round is a normal Reaper or Pyr'Kus round. But if the clockwork cult or the blood cult that worships Nar would happen to spawn, there would be a chance that they'd spawn together and have a clash. This would make the gamemode of cult much more enjoyable and diverse rather than the normal "chase down and deconvert". In all honesty I think that the cult of Pyr and reaper could easily be replaced by clockwork not only because it is confusing to new players that there are 3 types of the same cult but also because what pyr and reaper strives to be, clockwork does much better. Not that I am mocking the ones who made it, they most likely had gameplay diversion in mind.
I have not yet talked about the clockwork cult itself but I wouldn't like to do another paragraph as this is already long as it is so I will drop this link here (https://tgstation13.org/wiki/Clockwork_Cult) The armor of the clockwork cult wouldn't be hard to add for specific species since I've noticed the inquisitor armor is the clockwork armor retextured.
I think I have come to the end for this suggestion. I think. So I will just lastly say that I highly doupt the clockwork cult will be considered as an addition since it's such a huge project but I can still pray for the gods since they added lavaland after all. I'd just think with the addition of the clockwork cult and fixes to blood cult, it'd fix a few problems the cult gamemode has had while adding a level of excitement with the cult clash and unique cult type. So in conclusion: Praise Ratvar, our savior from eternal darkness and blood. The god of bluespace himself who will ensure our safety by defeating the evil redspace god Nar'Sie herself.
