Make Greys Great Again

[NTSAM]

 

Alright, since Nickcrazy is a lazy fuck, I made a thread for discussing how to make greys good.

 

Also, some problems with them as of Apr 22 2016:

 

• They lack the water weakness and the acid strength-ness that Nick said they should have.

• Their ass and hands stick out of jumpsuits weirdly.

A ton of shit look god damn weird on them.

Their Telepathy is ass

They've barely been touched in ages and should get some attention.

 

 

ok discuss im out

 

[nickcrazy]

 

With their telepathy being absolute ass, meaning it's absolutely useless now, the race is barely worth the 30 karma it costs.

 

If anything should be done to fix them, perhaps giving them a different ability apposed to telepathy that would make them a unique race.

 

Now I know you people said it wasn't possible with our code back then but I think now enough has changed with the character icon code to allow this feature to be added. Excuse me while I shamelessly copy/paste my suggestion from long ago in a threat dead and buried.

 

Okay, I JUST got this idea, looking back at this good ol' game called "Destroy All Humans".

 

What if, the Greys have this ability to create an illusion to others based on their appearance?

 

They would be given a modified CMA menu with the spell that would have a heavy cooldown and would require the Grey's to stand still for a solid minute so they can focus their mental ability to form this illusion. They would be able to alter their racial appearance(WITH LIMITS TO WHAT SORT OF RACES THEY CAN PICK, NO SKELETONS OR SHADOWLINGS) as well as customize their appearance just as a CMA would allow you to. What would separate this ability to the normal admin triggered CMA would be they could not change their DNA, fingerprints, name, or stats with this ability, only giving them the appearance of a different being.

 

Now, before you say too op, this ability requires them to use tremendous concentration, making them weaker and slower with this ability active. This ability can also only work so long as their form is not touched. Meaning any physical damage while using this ability would double the damage taken to them and also bring them out of the power, returning them to their actual appearance.

 

So to state clearly, this ability would be AESTHETIC ONLY with a heavy debuff at the cost of having it active.

 

I would really love some feedback on this idea.

 

[Spacemanspark]

 

The weakness for water was removed by Fox, I think. Both lorewise and codewise.

I think it was broken at the time anyways.

 

[NTSAM]

Well we can bring it back now that the code has like systems for it now, don't it? Plus we can change the lore again

[nickcrazy]

Like we aren't due for a major lore overhaul anyways.

[Spacemanspark]

We certainly can, it'd be interesting.

[fludd12]

 

I'd like water weakness re-added, so I have an IC justification for always using telepathy, other than 'lol im mute probably.'

Oh, yeah, and the interesting gameplay that adds. That's cool, too.

 

I feel like if Greys had other interesting telepathic abilities, it'd be great. Make a lesser telekinesis that only works on small items? I dunno.

Right now, they don't feel as alien as they should.

 

[Dinarzad]

 

I'd like water weakness re-added, so I have an IC justification for always using telepathy, other than 'lol im mute probably.'

Oh, yeah, and the interesting gameplay that adds. That's cool, too.

 

I feel like if Greys had other interesting telepathic abilities, it'd be great. Make a lesser telekinesis that only works on small items? I dunno.

Right now, they don't feel as alien as they should.

 

I agree fully.

A drastically weaker telekinesis would be cool, even if it's just like. Pulling small items directly into your hand from afar.

Imagine a Grey Surgeon with that, that'd be legit.

A lot of it was kinda hurt when Telepathy was changed to be on-screen only. Before you could telepathically speak to anyone on the Z-level. While this may or may not be "2 gud" to have for free, it did fit in with Grey lore and in a way it WAS their racial language, they talk to each other via telepathy, they don't really HAVE a language in the sense of Vulpkanin or IPC.

 

They definately feel like a more 'psionic' race, but I don't fully know how we could express that without making them crazy OP

 

[Doukan]

 

Changes should be fine as long as they don't have full telepathy again, every nuke ops round being meta'd 30 seconds in was getting rather stale.

 

I think they currently take more brute damage to pay off for the lesser telepathy, what I was thinking might be funny would be replacing that with somesort of extra vulnerability to brain damage, they've got great big bulbous heads right? It seems to fit better than "lol u grey have a broken bone".

 

[tigercat2000]

 

Changes should be fine as long as they don't have full telepathy again, every nuke ops round being meta'd 30 seconds in was getting rather stale.

thing is, they couldn't even do that

any antags that start off station (IE vox and nukeops) didn't show up on the telepathy list

still nerfed for some reason

 

[Doukan]

 

thing is, they couldn't even do that

any antags that start off station (IE vox and nukeops) didn't show up on the telepathy list

still nerfed for some reason

I recall at least one wizard round being discovered right away because of super mind powers, it was still a bit much.

It'd be nice if they could have a greater range since it's the only upside for greys right now.

 

[Dinarzad]

 

thing is, they couldn't even do that

any antags that start off station (IE vox and nukeops) didn't show up on the telepathy list

still nerfed for some reason

I recall at least one wizard round being discovered right away because of super mind powers, it was still a bit much.

It'd be nice if they could have a greater range since it's the only upside for greys right now.

 

Old Telepathy was Z-level based. so if the Wizard had JUST poofed to station and a Grey was using Telepathy just at that point, it may have been the wizard showed up on his list, but I wouldn't know, that was not a personal experience of mine.

 

[pazneria12]

 

i loved being able to talk to revenants, i became friends with one a while back! maybe make it so that they have a telekenises for those nearby, and one for other Greys anywhere?

ps. all i can think of now is a grey with small telekenetic powers doing surgery from outside the room, that sounds awesome to me, doing your job without needing the use of hands.

 

[nickcrazy]

 

Right now I think what Greys need most is their water weakness working and their sprites fixed.

 

Someone get on that or something.

 

[pazneria12]

one thing i remember getting tossed around was greys able to disguise as other things, like a chameleon projector, and I was thinking, what if they could disguise their clothing and other visual aspects aswell? l but if they were hugged or touched they would revert instantly, and they would go slightly slower when using it as they would have to focus, giving it a semi obvious show to players.

[fludd12]

 

I've got two ideas for Grey abilities, on top of their current telepathy. Feel free to keep telepathy on-screen, or on-z-level, I don't mind either way.

 

Minor Telekinesis

This one is kind of simple. It adds an ability similar to genetics telekinesis, that only works on small class items, and removes the capability of dealing damage with them. This'd be an interesting, useful ability for speeding up stuff in the workplace, or just having fun, without the downside of dickwads abusing telekinesis to ram a locker into you seventy times, or beat you to death from a distance.

 

Mental Illusion

This one would be a bit more difficult. You create an illusory object with your mind, kind of like how hallucinations work. People with the mental block gene and synthetics would be unable to see the illusion, and only you can interact with it. This would have both fun and practical applications, such as giving yourself an illusory uniform if you've lost one, making a fake weapon to trip up security, or even making a fake wall. I don't know, but I am pretty sure these examples are much easier to accomplish, code-wise, now that Tiger's alternate appearance system was implemented.

 

Illusions require you to stay in eyesight of them to maintain, and your speed is reduced to walking for the duration of it. Only one illusion can be in place at a time.

 

Thoughts?

 

[nickcrazy]

 

Mental Illusion

This one would be a bit more difficult. You create an illusory object with your mind, kind of like how hallucinations work. People with the mental block gene and synthetics would be unable to see the illusion, and only you can interact with it. This would have both fun and practical applications, such as giving yourself an illusory uniform if you've lost one, making a fake weapon to trip up security, or even making a fake wall. I don't know, but I am pretty sure these examples are much easier to accomplish, code-wise, now that Tiger's alternate appearance system was implemented.

 

Illusions require you to stay in eyesight of them to maintain, and your speed is reduced to walking for the duration of it. Only one illusion can be in place at a time.

 

Thoughts?

 

If you can get it to work, and also make it balanced so that all the maintainers are happy, Go for it. I have no objections to this idea.

 

[fludd12]

 

After a bit of discussion on the server, a lot of people think that the illusion ability might still be a bit too powerful, which, despite its lack of real weaponization capability, is perhaps correct. One suggested nerf is that either contact with the player (Grabbing, hugging, punching, etc) would disrupt the illusion, or taking damage would. Also, if you want to limit it to purely social use, which is fine by me, that's okay.

 

One problem with the ability, however, is that selecting an item to create could be particularly difficult. I can't figure out how it'd work, besides using something like what the spawn menu does.

 

[necaladun]

 

Grey is one of my fav races...for some reason, and I have to agree that long range telepathy was actually quite powerful when used right. From being able to convince the chaplain/clown to do things for me, to silent communication with fellow cultists/revs with no chance of being caught, or letting someone know i'm being murdered by a changling in maint when i'm silenced and telecomms are down, it was actually very powerful when used right.

 

I liked it a lot when water did damage to them, mostly so I could scream at chaplains trying to feed me water, but it had a nice feel of difference. Sulph acid being drinkable was fun as well, not that it had much of an effect.

 

The main problem with telepathy is it's not a unique ability - it's something the geneticist can get and give out. A unique form of some psychic ability could be cool, but if done I'd love them to have extra damage from brute or the like to make up for it. Playing as someone weaker who will lose in a 1 on 1 punching fight I find quite fun, it makes you play very differently.

 

[fludd12]

I definitely agree there - if any of my suggestions are added, I'd really like grey's melee strength to be even further lessened. They're a mentally adept race. To quote/paraphrase Vaarsivus, "I'm sorry I spent countless years of my extended lifetime learning how to manipulate the very fabric of reality with my mind instead of, say, going for a jog. It tends to leave one a bit fragile."

[necaladun]

 

I think instead of melee strength being reduced further, they should take more brute damage. A grey should lose a toolbox fight.

 

In return, some psychic powers would be great to give them, and best of all, ones that the geneticist can't create...but what? The minor tk and illusions are great ideas but I'd love them to be fleshed out.

 

[pazneria12]

if your going to make them even weaker damage wise, cant you be a bit more forgiving for the powers the illusion grants?

[fludd12]

Minor TK is a smaller counterpart of a genetics power, sure, but at the same time, it's quite a rare one. The illusion thing is definitely a cool and unique psychic ability, and as for fleshing out, it really needs some discussion as to how you'd choose something to create, and how you'd place it. Any ideas for either, particularly from those who know the coding behind it?

[Dinarzad]

 

Minor TK is a smaller counterpart of a genetics power, sure, but at the same time, it's quite a rare one. The illusion thing is definitely a cool and unique psychic ability, and as for fleshing out, it really needs some discussion as to how you'd choose something to create, and how you'd place it. Any ideas for either, particularly from those who know the coding behind it?

 

Maybe like a psychic Chameleon projector-ish effect?

As in you use the ability and then click an item to "Scan" it, and then when you use the ability on a tile, it makes the illusion of that object there?

 

[pazneria12]

but what if you wanted to make some clothing? Say Security clothing, you would have to break into security, in which case you could just steal the clothing and not suffer from the downsides. Maybe start off with a short list, that you can improve upon, or hold a certain amount of scans? But you start out with things like jumpsuits and jackets and etc..