Abstract
CChems = Changeling chemicals, their resource to use their abilities
Chemicals = Chemical, not the resource used by changelings for their abilities. The ones produced in either a chemical dispenser or found around the station
Recently, I had a thought, wondering why clings dont have some way to either store chems, or isolate them from their bloodstream. Since they can control their body’s physiology, and can mutate into being able to control their body more, why cant they isolate chems from their own body, and maybe sting others with them? Or, some asshole just shot you with chems, sure you could Anatomic Panacea them away, but those chems could be useful later, so why not store them not for that potential? I think all this could be added by adding a new Sting to changelings, the “Chemical Sting”
Goals
The goal for this changeling ability is to add a new way for changelings to manipulate and use chemicals in their body, similar in use to a sleepy pen, but with changeling costs and uniqueness in mind. This should add the ability for changelings to be able to store/isolate specific chemicals from their blood stream(stopping them from working) and then allowing for the changelings to either dispose of the chems via stinging others, or maybe some other way of getting rid of them. This would allow the ability to be used offensively if you want to risk ingesting dangerous chemicals and isolate them to be later used, it would allow that, but at a risk of taking a lot of damage in the process. Alternatively, it would allow changelings to get rid of chemicals in their body that were injected there by a hostile entity and allow them to use it against them.
Non-goals
The Chemical Sting ability shouldn’t be a better or carbon copy of the sleepy pen. It Also shouldn’t be a better Anatomic Panacea. It shouldn’t purge all chemicals from your body, and it should only be able to transfer a small amount of chemicals that were stored. It also shouldn’t be better than any of the other stings(Ie, a cling consumes a bunch of ice, stores it, and then has a better version of the cryo sting).
Content
New ability, Chemical Sting. CChems Cost per sting: 25.
Allows the changeling to store chemicals that are in their system and later use them for Stinging. Could have a Chem Cost to store, a Chem regen reduction for keeping chems stored, and a cost to perform the sting.
When stinging, it transfers 15u of whatever chemicals are stored into the person they stung.
New ability, Isolate Hostile chemicals. CChems cost: 10.
Stores all hostile chemicals in the changelings system capped at max total storage which could be 120u. Reduces CChems generation rate by 0.25chem per 30u stored. (Changelings regenerate 1 CChems every 2 seconds normally)
Alternatives
An alternative to just adding Chemical sting and a store ability, maybe Anatomic Panacea could be changed to store the chems rather than purging them, however this would make it so that you had to get both abilities to functionally use Chemical Sting, maybe make it so that if you have Anatomic Panacea you could store a larger variety of chems, however you could only sting one at a time.
Perhaps instead of taking varying amounts of chem regen reduction, they just have a max storage of 30u and only isolating the chems from their system costs CChems
An alternative idea to rather than storing chems, is perhaps they could synthesize their own. Rather than having to ingest and then store the chemicals, perhaps they get a very basic ‘chemistry dispenser’ in them that costs CChems to use rather than electricity. For heating chemicals into reacting, maybe have it tied with their body temperature, that way they have to heat themselves up in some way for it. WIth this alternate approach it might also be good to consider changing the sting to transfer multiple chems from the storage area, rather than just a single one.
Rather than having the ingested chems be ‘stored’ with the “Isolate Hostile Chemicals” button, it could also be a button that summons a 'beaker' that represents their internal storage. This would remove the defensive aspect of it, however it would probably be easier to code.
Potential Changes
Balance wise, I can see several issues with there being 3 CChems uses when using this. Once, from storing the chemicals, once in the form of getting less CChems per X amount of stored chemicals, and lastly in the stinging operation. I could see either the amount of chemicals being stored being increased at the cost of the regen, or keeping the amount they can store small, but also removing the CChems regen cost.
Doc Containing the same info, I just copy pasted into the forms:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VANz3sgHLVf4ME4UK-49aC3AeDxwKayG-ZZW-Dwx_oY/edit?usp=sharing
