SabreML

As memey as this is, I actually love this idea. It sounds like exactly like one of the obscure, unneeded mechanics that make SS13 so fun to play. It could even force them to have a lisp or something for a while too, just to add insult to injury.

Code wise, it would actually be pretty easy to implement both of those ideas. With the simplest being to just copy over the 'No bones' feature from Slime People to Shadowlings. Having a 'Repair bones' action button would also work, although it would add to the usual action button clutter that some antags get already. The issue here is that https://github.com/ParadiseSS13/Paradise/pull/15690 exists as a PR to remove Shadowlings entirely. While that PR hasn't been updated for almost three months now, it was posted by a maintainer, so it has a pretty high chance of getting merged. (Although likely not any time soon as Fox is busy at the moment.) Any PRs to change Shadowlings while that's open will most likely just get shot down, or kept in limbo until the 'Shadowling removal' PR is either merged or closed. So while Shadowlings not having to worry about broken bones is a good idea in theory, you'll probably just have to stick with surgery from thralls for now.

TG has a cult leader system which could probably be ported over relatively easily. My main worry with that is that the same few "robust" people will keep getting chosen as the leader every round, and anyone who's not as popular will just get passed over. From what I've seen from TG, that is what happens almost every time, so it's not an unfounded concern.

Might add some more later, but here's some of the stuff from my list: Too strong: Flagellant Robes. Mirror shields. Wraiths vs the AI. Cult ascension threshold. (Cultists usually get halos way too late) Might need tweaking: Non-sharpened cult blade damage. Stun spell mute duration. Cult ghosts from manifest runes. Constructs (Once they've died, the player is permanently out of the round). Observer participation in the round. Wraits after they've killed the AI. (Nothing to do, really) Soulstone shades. (Currently useless, maybe could return to the soulstone if they die) Too weak: Cultist summoning. (Very easy to counter if you're paying attention) Nar'sie rune. (Can be denied with a single cleaning grenade, or space cleaner bottle) Holy soulstones. (Maybe let the chaplain bless runed metal for a construct shell) Blood spear. (Cool as it is, it's overshadowed by other items)

How's your coffee addiction going, if that's not too personal a question?

Oh, should probably mention the outcome of that PR here as well. I got a system working with separate options for Gender and Body like you suggested there (as shown in the PR's images), but in the end it was closed due to the worry that people would end up either mocking players who use the system, or making over the top transgender caricatures specifically to upset people. While I do believe that anyone who would act like that doesn't belong on the server in the first place, it would require extra administrative action. And given the admin shortage there sometimes is already I can definitely understand the concerns. (This isn't the only reason of course, just my own take on it.) You can view all of the discussion around the issue on the PR itself if you're interested, as well as one reply on the Discord server which I've attached as an image here. All of this is fully public already so I don't see any harm in sharing it. Just for the record, I do agree that closing the PR was probably for the best. It's just a shame that it had to get to that point.

The server is still up, at around 120 players. The link is here if you can't find it on the hub for whatever reason: byond://byond.paradisestation.org:6666 Paste that into the 'Open Location' thing here and you should connect.

This has already been suggested actually, believe it or not: The biggest issue really is that it would take a lot of work to implement it. It's possible, but someone needs to be pretty dedicated to the idea.

Posted a PR adding the existing system to all species rather than just a subset of them. This does mean that anyone who picks the 'Genderless' option will use the female sprite by default, but I personally don't see that as too big of an issue. This is more for the pronouns than anything else at the moment. https://github.com/ParadiseSS13/Paradise/pull/16007

Diona, Drask, Greys, IPCs, and Vox all have a 'Genderless' option in the character creator, so code wise at least it would be very easy to add it to the other species too.

Isn't that exactly what he said? "There are performance issues around enabling and disabling it." vs "It being enabled or disabled causes performance issues."

Happened multiple times recently, three or four that I know of.

Hmmmm....

Drask are all pretty cool guys.

Never forget the horrors of April 1st, 2021.

This'll probably be my last post on here (For a while anyway) since I seem to be spamming the thread, but I just wanted to clarify a couple of things from my own perspective: While I'm definitely aware of the surprising number of banned Vox players, I personally have never had a bad experience with one ingame. Maybe I got lucky, or it's a timezone thing, or maybe the bans have just removed all of the people causing problems, but having nothing but good experiences with Vox players (Chikitita, Kikeri, Kar-Ski) definitely makes me biased here. In my opinion, the actions of (presumably) now banned players from one and a half years ago shouldn't be taken as a reason to ignore the complaints of newer players, or those who stayed out of the issue. Many people seem to believe that tweaking or buffing Vox is inherently a bad thing because "Metaclique" or "Vox bad". I'm not trying to claim that you are one of these people but as I said above I've never actually seen the clique myself, so from my point of view it does just seem a bit unfair to the remaining people that I have seen. For the github brigading point: While attempted vote manipulation is obviously not a good thing, mass upvotes or downvotes wouldn't change anything either way since community feedback isn't taken into account when deciding the outcome of a PR. (Edit: This last point wasn't intended to be disingenuous, it's just what I presumed was the case from my experience on the github.) (Edit Edit: The first edit also wasn't an attempt to start something, please don't take it that way.)

Well... Yes. I think it would be. More people drinking in the bar means more talking and roleplaying, more getting to know each other, learning people's backstories, that sort of thing. Even if they only talk to ask for another drink they'd still be interacting socially. I also don't think that being intolerant to alcohol would make people more likely to go to the bar. If anything I think people would be less likely to turn up since they're not able to get drunk (Or at least, have to try really hard to get drunk).

(Somewhat off-topic from the main document, but I figured this would be the best place to post this.) (Also yes I double posted, sue me.) I've compiled a (somewhat) comprehensive list of all unique features that the different species get in order to hopefully better explain what is, personally, my biggest issue with the current species balancing. This isn't meant to be a list of all buffs or maluses, just the things that one species can do that no others can. Full list: (Spoiler'd because it's big) I will say that Tajaran are in need of a species rework far more than Vox, they don't even have any emotes. I can't comment on Vulpkanin since I've never played them but I personally haven't heard any Vulp mains complaining about the balancing. Anyway, assuming that I didn't miss anything, Vox and Tajaran are tied for second to last place for the lowest number of unique species features. Despite one of them being a default species and one being a 45 Karma Point Unlock which you would expect to be on the same level as Slime People, Drask, Grey, IPCs, Kidan and Plasmamen. On top of that, the single thing Vox do have is objectively useless. If a Vox has been dead for more than five minutes they'll need Strange Reagent in order to be revived. Strange Reagent, of course, having the effect of rotting every organ in your body when used, internal and extenal. (10% chance for every organ after being dead for 5ish minutes, 20% after 10ish minutes, etc.) To clarify, I'm not suggesting Vox buffs or Vox nerfs or anything like that. Just some sort of unique gameplay feature for the species. The only thing they have going for them is the self-imposed 'accent' and the general community. (Both of which are apparently bad things, and are unrelated to gameplay.) To use a recent example of what I mean, silent footsteps. I won't get into that whole debate again but removing that feature also removed the only real 'Exclusive Vox feature', since the 'no decay' thing really doesn't count.

I guess I'll start with a simple one: Personally I'd like to see the exact opposite of this, maybe even to the level of drinking everything in the bar and barely even getting a buzz. Vox being short is most likely the reason for them being lightweights at the moment, but they're also an ancient species of Bio-Engineered Space Raptors from space. You could even justify their livers/kidneys/organs in general being specifically resistant to the effects of alcohol. No dehydration issues or anything like that, just goes straight through. Anyway, I just think it'd be pretty funny to see a 3'5" spess bird drinking a whole group of Unathi under the table.

I think the name here speaks for itself.

Standard screenshot of a mentor giving advice in #helpchat.

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