Making Taj and Vulp different from each other

[Toroic]

 

As everyone may or may not know, Taj and Vulp are currently identical, and both are given 8 darksight that doesn't actually do anything unless you have mesons on, which makes it act like nightvison.

 

What I propose is that we give both taj and vulp different advantages, and a similar disadvantage due to their similar biology.

 

Tajaran

 

The defining feature here has and should continue to be nightvison. Simple and convenient.

 

Vulp

 

Canids don't have exceptional nightvison, what they have is an exceptional sense of smell. There are a number of ways to implement this, but here is my suggestion:

 

Give Vulps a verb where they can smell another character or spot of blood with a verb, which gives a scrambled version to the dna given by the forensic scanner. This means that a vulp can smell their coworkers and if a ling comes in disguised as one, it will return a different 5 digit value.

 

It needs to be different than the dna because otherwise they could just report it to the detective and metagame, but gives an advantage to catch any ling or traitor who goes to a department disguised. Scents don't lie, but this ability should be blocked by biosuits amd hardsuits.

 

Downsides for both

 

In earth canines and felines, chocolate is poisonous and caffine and other stimulants are dangerous too.

 

What I propose is that chocolate is a mild toxin for them, and a stimulant overdose causes frequent and long-lasting siezures. This provides Taj and Vulps an advantage against traitors, and traitors a counter when their target is one of those species. This is also scientifically accurate, at least to the standard other science on paradise follows.

 

It also means that it is more difficult for Taj and Vulps to reap the benefits from stimulants in exchange for proper nightvision and the ability to literally scent out imposters.

 

 

Thoughts?

 

[NTSAM]

Vulps were going to have chocolate poisoning with the reagent-does-cool-things PR by tastyfish but he shot it down for some god damn reason.

[Regen]

 

Not happening

 

The metagame from the "Smell" bullshit will go far and beyond.

 

Also, smell would change with the changeling as well, as they literally change their DNA

 

[Machofish]

 

"What's that, Lassie? Jimmy got stuck in an airlock?"

 

I am thoroughly against the idea of Vulps having a garbled DNA scanner on them. It would not only be a big step towards making the actual detective obsolete, but it would give the Vulpkanin a tremendous advantage when dealing with anything concerning antag roles. Unless you're referring to the boxed emergency injectors everyone gets at round start, the bundled downside of 'all stimulants are harmful' is far too mild and situational, compared to the bonus which is all-encompassing. Again, even if it did include emergency injectors, I'd prefer not to have a species whose special ability lets them stay two steps ahead when it comes to fighting or playing as any antag that relies on infiltration.

 

Even the default 'vulnerable to fire' debuff that the Taj and Vulps both share is a relatively situational debuff as it is. I wasn't even aware the Tajarans still had the ability to get themselves functioning nightvision, which seems more than a little absurd, all things considered.

 

While I agree the Vulpkanin shouldn't just be an alternate version of the Tajara, I disagree with these proposed changes at present.

 

[TheDemonic]

 

personally I like the idea of giving Vulps a good sense of smell, How I would like to see it done if at all possible is:

firstly allowing them to smell blood, have blood and bloody objects produce some sort of gas which is visible to vulps and can be toggled on and off (because it would get annoying sometimes)

secondly if you want to be able to smell your crew mates I suggest having a similar thing as the blood where they produce gas that you can attempt to follow.

Thirdly allow showering to completely wipe away your scent for about 20? minutes, to stop sec and stalker vulps from being overpowered as hell.

 

Fourthly only because the OP suggested it, have lings produce a slightly different amount of scent than the original. so only the most observant people in the community could notice. Also this means that returning to places that the original visited a lot (where his scent would be) makes it impossible to know and of course they can shower.

 

Final its probably way to much work to code and will probably cause a bit of lag, BUT I CAN DREAM CAN'T I!?

 

[Toroic]

 

"What's that, Lassie? Jimmy got stuck in an airlock?"

 

I am thoroughly against the idea of Vulps having a garbled DNA scanner on them. It would not only be a big step towards making the actual detective obsolete, but it would give the Vulpkanin a tremendous advantage when dealing with anything concerning antag roles. Unless you're referring to the boxed emergency injectors everyone gets at round start, the bundled downside of 'all stimulants are harmful' is far too mild and situational, compared to the bonus which is all-encompassing. Again, even if it did include emergency injectors, I'd prefer not to have a species whose special ability lets them stay two steps ahead when it comes to fighting or playing as any antag that relies on infiltration.

 

Even the default 'vulnerable to fire' debuff that the Taj and Vulps both share is a relatively situational debuff as it is. I wasn't even aware the Tajarans still had the ability to get themselves functioning nightvision, which seems more than a little absurd, all things considered.

 

While I agree the Vulpkanin shouldn't just be an alternate version of the Tajara, I disagree with these proposed changes at present.

 

I disagree that it would step on the toes of a detective, because the vulp would have a scent with nothing to compare it to compared to a detective that can get and match dna, fingerprints, and fibers.

 

If the scramble was different from round to round, the metagaming would be minimal/impossible as well.

 

Another option would be to simply be able to tell the gender and species from blood. Species is easy even for human noses, and considering dogs can be trained to smell humans with low blood sugar, I imagine gender wouldn't be hard either.

 

As far as stimulant availability, there's coffee dispensers all over the station. Couldn't be any easier, and it's not contraband if you're searched.

 

[johannhawk]

 

Give Vulps a verb where they can smell another character or spot of blood with a verb, which gives a scrambled version to the dna given by the forensic scanner. This means that a vulp can smell their coworkers and if a ling comes in disguised as one, it will return a different 5 digit value.

Changeling: Yes, i shall miraculously kill one of them and infiltrate their clique and then convince them to convince my vulp target in a mech to get out of the mech.

*Gets literally sniffed out*

Changeling: ...welp

 

[Toroic]

 

Give Vulps a verb where they can smell another character or spot of blood with a verb, which gives a scrambled version to the dna given by the forensic scanner. This means that a vulp can smell their coworkers and if a ling comes in disguised as one, it will return a different 5 digit value.

Changeling: Yes, i shall miraculously kill one of them and infiltrate their clique and then convince them to convince my vulp target in a mech to get out of the mech.

*Gets literally sniffed out*

Changeling: ...welp

 

I was wrong about that, as a changeling's DNA should match. Would still work for traitors who stole clothing though.

 

[Travelling Merchant]

 

I've considered smells when thinking of Kidan balancing, as a massive part of of their culture is smells. No matter what sort of system (Especially like the one you're considering), it will always be a little bit too much. Especially being something that makes an antag role even harder than it already can be. This would be incredibly overpowered for Vulps to have.

 

Stimulants like Coffee were also supposed to effect Kidan negatively, but that was removed. It might work for Vulps, but there has to be a reason it was removed from another race.

 

Sure, I like furs, but I have to admit Vulps are played over most other races. Giving them an ability as powerful as smelling would only increase that.

 

[Doukan]

 

The smell thing would only end up being more trouble than it's worth most likely, it's a good idea but it just wouldn't go well and be abused to high heaven (same as vox freaking leap).

 

The reagent effects would be interesting though, maybe with lower OD thresholds (10/15 instead of the usual 30 or so) as opposed to outright damage? then it'd still be a disadvantage that can be taken advantage of (auto inject them into submission!) whilst not being particularly game breaking.

 

That'd still leave vulps without a legup to the tarajans nightvision however...

 

I'm no expert or anything but I can say with confidence that a dog's stamina is something very special indeed, it's something they all share and is arguably their main evolutionary advantage, a straight up speed boost would be too unbalanced and not very accurate, so how about a greater stamina reserve/faster stamina regen? something minor but still significant.

 

I'm referring specifically to stamina here though not stun resistance, that's something else entirely (ie: tasers/explosions stun the same, disablers/boxing gloves somewhat less effective).