Alt Cults: Fire Cult

[HugoLuman]

 

Well, in general I think cults could use a bit more variety (different flavors/objects of worship, slight mechanical differences) but here's a specific idea: Fire Cult

 

Worshiping the Eternal Flame, dedicated to keeping it ever-burning and spreading its warmth through the ages. Mechanics wise, I'm thinking fire magic instead of blood magic. Perhaps making bonfires to cast spells, whether being just renamed runes created with a lighter and a wad of something flammable instead of a book, or casting spells by burning specific things. The most concrete ideas I had for this being killing people by burning them in effigy, and fire elementals instead of constructs.

 

We could probably swap a bunch of sprites and names easily, though they should be somewhat mechanically different than the standard cult.

 

[ProperPants]

 

Worshiping the Eternal Flame

The Eternal Flame you say...

 

[GelatinousGlob]

Smoking cigarettes could be fire cult worship and potential source of fire magic or a fire magic catalyst. It would be interesting to say the least and maybe cause some fun as anyone with a cigarette, lighter, or welder is looked upon with great suspicion. People carry these items and smoke already so it wouldn't be as easy to profile who is and isnt part of the cult like you can when examining blood cult users and seeing they have 1,000 scabs.

[Tauka Usanake]

 

How about instead of spawning a Nar-Sie the cult enacts a ritual that starts to slowly cover the whole station in a deadly fire and the cult members turn into elementals that have to bring others into the flames to turn them too? Holy Water could put out the flames and stop it from spreading for a while.

 

Bonfires are a little tough to hide. For permanant runes I think that would work. For temp ones I'd say keep the paper written runes but lighting them on fire to make the rune work until the fire stops.

 

This wouldn't fit in SS13 lore anywhere much but I'd love to see it become a thing. I'd totally play fire cult all the time

 

[Kevak]

 

The issue with starting a massive fire is that codewise, fire will melt through the floor into space and will cause significant lag due to all the atmospheric processing that it needs to do.

 

((I actually spent a good hour the other day lighting fire to the station in a private server. Apparently two plasma tanks and a single oxy tank is the ideal mix for a fire by the way. Too much oxy and it'll burn blue and melt through the hull, to little and it burns itself out.))

 

[necaladun]

Some lovely ideas here but that's a -lot- of coding work. Like, a lot.

[Kevak]

 

On the topic of cult coding in general. I was actually considering trying to make the random unused cult assets in the code actually do something/be acquirable. Like make pylons heal constructs/cultists in the general vicinity and get constructed by artificers, or make the daemon forge function similarly to the Imbue rune but take stuff like a set of cult armor + a space suit and create a cult spacesuit out of it. Or that Cult Alter prop and have it take a few empty soulshards to make a Soul Stone that lets the cult make a considerably better Shade. (Maybe a more guardian style ghostie but for cult? Or maybe a cult bound reve?) Forge could take a few shells and make more versatile constructs perhaps. Seems befitting of a forge. (Maybe one with hands but relatively no armor? Functionally similar to a Manifested Ghost but in construct form? Since a given shell takes 120 seconds for an artificer to produce, making a special shell costing lets say 4 shells, that's 120 seconds * 4, meaning a considerable time investment. (8 min per) Might work for balance. Same goes for the potential soulstone thing, 5 min per shard. Even with 3 shards as the regent it would take 15 minutes to produce one Stone.)

 

Would obviously need a way to deconstruct or break said props in that situation of course, maybe chaplain pouring holy water on them? Dunno. Could be fun though.

 

[Tauka Usanake]

 

It wouldn't have to be a destructive fire but one that cleanses the station of the impure. Just some function similar to Nar-Sie that eats people, maybe not as quickly because fire burns and only holy water will get rid of the fire.

 

Those other cult object uses sound nice. For removing them you might as well have the chaplain nullrod them apart. A few good wacks depending on the object should do the job

 

[HugoLuman]

 

@Necaladun Well, at minimum I was thinking palette swap, with runes>bonfires and maybe talismans drawn with charcoal on a piece of paper. I don't know how hard that'd be codewise, but adding any new spells I'm guessing would be a huge pain (though imagine Fireball talismans).

 

Additions to regular cult should probably be its own thread, but on the subject. I'd say holy water rather than null rod. There's only one null rod, very easily gotten rid of

 

[Kevak]

 

The main issue would be balance concerns with constructing the object.

 

For example. If pylons heal in the general vicinity, they'd prolly need a substantial production cost cause that's a pretty huge buff for the cult. Maybe something like 200 glass, 15 unprocessed silver ore, a Soul Shard, maybe sacrifice something living (a monkey?), and maybe a Construct Rune that functions as a regent rune. Said Construct Rune with different sets of inputs could be used to make the forge, desk, and alter perhaps as well. Hell, it would give a way for the cult to make cultwalls besides having an Artificer. 10 metal and one unprocessed iron ore maybe?

 

[HugoLuman]

Welp, asking on the Discord, even a basic palette swap of cult would be quite an undertaking. Still, I guess we can always dream, and maybe possibly get around to it one day if we come up with cool enough ideas.

[necaladun]

 

Sadly it would be a lot of work, but I'd really really like it to be a thing, even a palette swap! Having the possibility of different cults would be nice, as it's already mentioned briefly somewhere that cults of Nar-Sie aren't the only ones. Cult of Steve Jobs anyone?

 

(in b4 scientology sue.)

 

[FalseIncarnate]

 

Some casual idea brainstorming on Discord this morning seemed to be in favor of even something simple like a sprite and name change. I also tossed the idea of different cult types perhaps causing different types of damage when making runes (a fire cult causing burns, for example), which seems feasible enough if we shift the different cults to be datum-based information rather than hard-coded into the gamemode.

 

Some potential alternate cults:

- Fire Cult: Runes are fire/ash themed, making runes causes burn damage instead of brute, constructs are fire elementals, cult walls/floors could have a lava style

- Winter Cult: Runes are ice themed, constructs are snowmen / ice elementals, god is evil santa (joke)

- Machine Cult: Runes are circuitry patterns, constructs are robotic versions of Nar'Sie constructs, making runes causes burn (shock) damage instead of brute

- Miasma Cult: Runes are green sludge, constructs are oozing horrors, making runes causes toxin damage instead of brute

 

Ideally, each would get special runes related to their theme (for example, fire cult might get a fire wall rune to summon forth hellish flame barriers, or miasma cult might get a miasma cloud rune that summons a toxic smoke to choke their foes), or perhaps even cult-specific themed objectives (assemble 5 constructs of the Machine Cult), but this would be even more code-based work than the simple sprite and name swapping.

 

More cult themes and such would be awesome if people have ideas.

 

[Dinarzad]

 

Death cult, with necromancy themes.

Fits the several ghost/spoopy runes Cults already have and 'Constructs' can be sort of like specialized undead. Wraiths being... actual wraiths, etc.

 

As for the notion of having several different cult types, that would be super cool. It wouldn't be "Nar-sie" all the time, and gives some variation to the kind of spook you get from it, some cuilts being more sinister and quiet types, with some being a little loud and proud about it. Even if it just comes down to sprite changes, it gives it a fresh feel at least.

 

[ProperPants]

 

- Miasma Cult: Runes are green sludge, constructs are oozing horrors, making runes causes toxin damage instead of brute

inb4 this cult comprises only of IPCs. No toxin damage is the best toxin damage.

 

[HugoLuman]

 

Chromatic cult: Worships something like the Colour Out of Space. Probably will be derisively called "Rainbow cult." Blinding and technicolor lights will ensue. Their runes might pass for crayon runes drawn in all the colors.

 

Degenerative cult: Worships a big single-celled amoebae god. Mutational horrors and deformed monstrosities abound. Runes cause genetic damage

 

Nature cult: Magic plants instead of runes (but functionally the same), brute coz they need your lifeblood to grow. Perhaps able to summon kudzu. Constructs might also be plants, or they might be mythological creatures

 

Spider cult: Web-patterned runes. friggin Bibiliths instead of constructs.

 

Atomic cult: Worhips an entity given form by the collective fear and awe of all races who have invented nuclear power/weapons. Radiation accrues in the body with every rune drawn. Their big summon either turns everyone into irradiated horrors or nukes the station.

 

[HugoLuman]

Hey, if that datum based cult PR goes through, we could actually do this!

[Keilden]

Clown cult if only for adminbus

[HugoLuman]

 

Let there be light

 

[Boltersam]

 

So, I'm seeing a lot of cult suggestions here, but they're all...Basically resprites. The only two things I saw that would be mechanically different and unique (Burning of paper and such as temporary runes exempted) is a choking gas rune, and Fire Walls.

 

I'd like to suggest, that each cult gives its followers minor abilities, and some major abilities.

 

Major abilities:

 

Blood Cult: Can use a strong grab to drain the life out of someone, making the Blood Cultist stronger physically, small bonuses like increased damage by hitting people with objects, and your fists, but can stack up to a lot of strength.

 

Fire Cult: A "Burning Ember" spell-like ability for them, a ranged attack with a 40 second cooldown, that does something like 10-15 burn damage, and sets people on fire.

 

Miasma Cult: Choking cough, more of a larger radius attack, 60 second cooldown, creates diseased gas that causes slowness and a slow buildup of toxin damage.

 

Machine Cult: Electrifying touch, 40 second cooldown, melee spell, stuns and does 10 "shock" (Burn) damage.

 

I'll come back later after finishing some things up and suggest some unique runes and such.

 

Minor Abilities:

 

Blood Cult: Very slow, 1 per tick brute regeneration.

 

Fire Cult: 1 per tick burn regeneration.

 

Miasma Cult: 1 per tick toxin regeneration.

 

Machine Cult: ability, Force Obedience, only usable on cyborgs. Overrides all laws with Cult runic writings and magic, forcing the cyborg to serve the cult.

 

Edited May 11, 2016 by Guest

[HugoLuman]

 

They don't all need to be completely different gamemodes. Different sprites, different spells (since the current list only makes sesne for blood cult), and different constructs (it's easy to modify their stats and abilities) alone would do a lot to diversify the cults. On top of that we could probably do different "rune" drawing/spell casting techniques and very different summoned entity behavior (they don't all have to be big things that turn people into various flavors of harvester).

 

Some ideas I've seen on discord for summoned entities:

 

Fire Cult: Summons sacred flame, spreads in the same way that water turfs/vines do, burns only non-believers (not actual fire that needs temperature/atmos calcs). On examine, says "It's so beautiful..."

 

Nature Cult: Devouring: Swarms of giant insects/polinators/plant creatures.

 

[HugoLuman]

 

I wanted to resurrect this since there's stuff in the code to support this now

 

Personally, I'd rather that the Fire Cult not just be a reskin of Nar'Sie