User:Generaldonothing/Guide to Combat

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Stuns

These are one of the common "damage" types you'll see in this game, a stun applies immediently on hit, knocks you down, and then renders you incapacitated for the durration of the stun. When stunned, you are unable to perform any actions for the duration of the stun, however, someone can help you up if you're on the floor stunned. Certain items can reduce this stun timer such as the adrenaline implants. Notable items which cause a stun are turrets (which shoot [link the electrode section here] when set to nonlethal), stun batons, and the syndicate chainsaw. Very few ranged stunts exist in this current state of the game, and of them, very few are accessible to the crew.

Stamina

This is the most common non-lethal damage type. Stamina projectiles (often characterized by a blue laser projectile) deal a certain amount of stamina damage based on the weapon firing them. When shot with a disabler, you'll notice your healthhud interface icon drop in health, however, you didn't actually take any permanent damage from that. When you are hit enough times with a weapon that deals stamina damage, you go into "stam crit (Stamina critical condition)". Stam crit is a state where you are fully incompacitated, and unlike a stun, people cannot help you up in this state, you must wait until you start automatically healing off your stamina damage through waiting to get out of stam crit, after you get out of stam crit, you will be slowed,eventually, you'll heal off the stamina damage to the point where you can walk normally. IMPORTANT, stamina damage does not actually deal temporary damages, you will need to still deal the damages you normally would to kill someone EVEN if they are in stamcrit. A notable weapon that uses disabler beams would be the security [link disabler here].

Stamina VS. Stuns

It might seem odd, but stamina and stuns are two different effects, this will state the primary differences between them

STAMINA

• Damage is healed off at a fixed rate over time
• When in stamina crit, you cannot be helped up in any way
• Only affected by things that heal/deal stamina damage
• Disabler beams can go through windows

Stuns

• Healed off in "Stun cycles" (2 second intervals, the amount of cycles something stuns for is configurable)
• Only affected by things that heal specifically stuns
• Can be helped up by other people after being stunned
• Electrodes cannot go through solid but transparent objects

Lethal Damage Types

Brute

Brute damage is an extremely common damage type in this game, most melee items deal brute damage alongside ballistics. Brute damage is seen as bruising when examining someone. This damage type can be fixed with a variety of healing chemicals, such as saline glucose or have a brute automender applied to you. When you apply brute damage to someone, a variety of secondary effects can occur, there is a chance they can develop internal bleeding, break one of their bones, have one of their internal organs take damage, or have the targeted limb fall off entirely.

Burn

Burn damage is extremely common as well. Items such as a lit welding tool and energy guns deal burn damage. Most burn damage comes from lasers, which are a red beam that are fired out of energy guns. Burn damage can be fixed with a little bit of ointment or a burn automender. Burn has only one special effect, after someone takes 300 burn damage they enter a state called "husked", in this "husked" state they become significantly harder to revive, and lose all recognizable traits on their body. Atmospheric conditions can also deal burn damage, such as when you are extremely cold, extremely hot, or are stuck in a fiery area.

Toxin

Toxin damage is a bit rarer than the other damage types, and primarily comes from sources of venom such as cyanide, or extreme alcohol poisoning. Toxin damage can be fixed by taking a number of chems, such as charcoal. When you take toxin damage, your liver may slowly take damage itself, you'll probably notice this due to the sharp pain you feel in your groin, and you might even throw up, which stuns for a short while and causes you to drop your weapons. Lots of biohazards have the ability to deal toxin damage, so it might be a good idea to grab a pill or two for yourself.

Respiratory

Respiratory damage is extremely common, but it shouldn't be if you are aware of how to combat it. Respiratory damage is commonly accumulated through a lack of breathable air, often due to a breach in space or it being replaced with something else. In your bag you have an item called "the emergency box", this holds a epipen of ephedrine, which is helpful if someone is having a heart attack, a emergency oxygen tank, and a breath mask so that you can properly use the emergency oxygen tank, finally, it contains an emergency glow stick if you need some quick lights. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to go into an area with a lack of breathable air, just take that mask and tank out and use them. Respiratory damage can be fixed by simply staying in an area with breathable air or taking a chemical such as salbutamol. When in critical condition, you take large amounts of respiratory damage as well.

Cellular

Cellular damage is the rarest form of damage that you might encounter in this game. The main ways you can deal with it is through xenobiology's slimes or through a decloner. Unlike all other forms of damage, there is no really accessible fix for someone outside of medicine. The most common way to fix this damage type is through the use of a cryogenic pod in medicine. Most of the time you will never see someone actually have Cellular damage outside of xenobio, and the decloner is generally reserved for extreme situations.

What damage type should I use?

Every single damage type in the game has its pros and cons, and it's largely dependent on the situation to choose to use one over the other, so it's good practice to assess what you are going to be dealing with, and plan accordingly.

Brute damage

Pros

• Has a plethora of other effects that can occur, such as IB for slow damage over time or a broken bone making a limb useless.
• Often high damage output
• Normally uses mags or speedloaders for ammo, so swapping types on the go is helpful
• A little specific to heal

Cons

• You can (and probably will) run out of ammo
• Resisted by armor very well
• Often times costly to use effectively, and sometimes you just can't get more ammo

Burn damage

Pros

• Husking!
• Lasers pass through windows, so you can use them for cover against a brute damage user
• Resisted by armor very poorly
• Little cost to use, for most burn weapons, any recharger will recharge them

Cons

• You need to use a recharger to recharge most of these weapons, so if you don't have access to one it can be frustrating to recharge them
• The secondary effects are less useful than brute
• Generally easier to fix, someone with a few packs of ointment can easily fix the burns that they were caused

Toxins

Pros

• It takes time to fix effectively
• Mostly caused through reagents, so spreading it through food can be easy
• Practically requires you take a trip to medical to have those reagents purged from you

Cons

• Tied to very few ranged weapons, so it can be extremely hard to actually get someone to take a poison
• Charcoal, although hard to get for the majority of the station (without hacking a vendor), is at excess in medical
• It's slow working, often it takes time for someone to die, which can prove to be a problem

Respiratory

Pros

• Extremely easy to cause, simply breaking a window to space is enough
• It can rarely make revival extremely annoying

Cons

• Extremely fixable, salub can be found in some emergency oxygen lockers and everyone has a oxygen tank in their emergency box
• No easy way to cause it without affecting more than one person

Cellular

Pros

• Extremely hard to fix

Cons

• Extremely limited ways to cause it
• Really sucks for the person you are causing the damage to, it's seen as a last option for this

How do I take less damage?

Now, because we know what can damage you, lets see how we can prevent you from taking that damage

ARMOR

Armor is an extremely powerful tool for preventing damage and is rather accessible, let's use a piece of security armor for example

This armor has armor values of: MELEE = 30, BULLET = 30, LASER = 30, ENERGY = 10, BOMB = 25, BIO = 0, RAD = 0, FIRE = 50, ACID = 50

What this means is that the security armor only takes 70% damage from Melee, Ballistics, and Lasers. It takes only 90% damage from electric attacks. This armor also makes you only take 50% damage from acid and fire and 75% from bomb damages. Finally, you get no defense against biological contaminants and radiation.

Security armor also only protects the upper body and lower body, so if someone aims for other areas of your body, the armor will not apply.

SHIELDS

Shields are a powerful way to play defensively, most shields have a passive 50% chance to block any incoming attack when held in your hand. These shields also often have secondary effects, such as being unable to be pushed while holding a riot shield. This doesn't make shields uncounterable however, items such as e-bolas go through shields. Remember! you still need to hold the shield, so you won't be able to use two handed weapons with one!

What are the most important parts of combat

Combat itself has three primary factors tied to it, Mechanical knowledge, Situational awareness, and Physical advantages.

What's Mechanical Knowledge?

Mechanical Knowledge of the games systems and how they interact with each other. It's the understanding of what items do, and how those items interact with other items. Mechanical Knowledge helps with preparation in combat and positioning, and is an extremely important part of combat.

How can I improve my Mechanical Knowledge?

Research is an excellent way to improve your Mechanical Knowledge, the wiki (You're on it!) is a great source, asking knowledgeable players in the community by reaching out through the paradise discord is also an excellent option, the SS13 paradise codebase is also open source, so you can also directly look at the code itself and learn through that. However, the most effective way to learn Mechanic Knowledge is to play the game and experiment, do something crazy and see if it works. You can always press F1 to Mhelp in game to ask for tips!

What's Situational Awareness?

Situational Awareness is the ability to understand a situation based on the provided context within that situation. Situational Awareness can drastically improve your positioning during combat (one of the most important parts of paracombat), improve your understanding of when and where to escalate, and when you should go for critical plays in combat. Without situational awareness, adaptation becomes near impossible and you'll lose out on a lot of possible advantages you could have gained.

How can I improve my Situational Awareness?

The most important thing to understand about Situational Awareness is to understand that it's *situational*. At no point are two situations going to be exactly the same, and it's up to you, the player, to fill in those gaps for yourself. The most effective way to improve your situational awareness is to play the game and be willing to branch out into new ideas, at no point should you feel that the best course of action is to just do the same plan over and over again (Hint: Not only is this thought process entirely incorrect, it's boring). Remember, it doesn't matter if you fail, it matters if you are able to assess your failures and improve off them.

What's a Physical Advantage?

Physical advantages are often seen by (bad) players as what makes you robust or not, aside from this being totally false as it's just a part of combat, not all of it so if you can't keep up in this department, you're fine. Some Physical Advantages include good internet access also known as low ping, good physical health, and a good setup for playing SS13.

How can I improve my Physical Advantages?

First of all

Don't

It might seem odd, but Physical advantages can be almost entirely negated by being clever. Decently high ping? Buffer your inputs so that they occur at the first possible opportunity when you can move. Lack of a good setup? Assess what you lack and remap your controls accordingly (You can totally play this game with a trackpad, just takes a little practice). Health related issues? Find a play style that suits you (If you have hand pain, you can always just play a little slower, nobody needs to be a robustness god). MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL, REMEMBER! This is an RP game, combat is part of it, but you are *never* forced into it, it's OK to not want to do combat, and most of the time you are never forced to.

Yeah but really important note here, you don't need to do some shit like buy a new PC or anything, I prefer to play with a trackball myself, weird stuff is fine.

Targeting interface

That funky little thing at the bottom right of your UI is the targeting system, you click on a part of their body and well, it targets that part of the body when you attack. Targeting specific parts of someone's body during combat can be quite helpful and have various uses. You have a random chance of missing that targeted part of their body, however, and just hitting another part.

Head: Damages organs and bones in the head, if you take too much damage to your head, you'll become unrecognizable and require plastic surgery

Upper Body: Damages organs and bones in the upper body

Lower Body: Damages organs and bones in the lower body

Arms: Damages bones in the arms, if the bone breaks, when using items in their respective hands you take a small amount of damage

Hands: Damages bones in the hands, if the bone breaks in the hands, that hand with quickly drop anything picked up in that hand

Legs: Damages bones in the legs, if the bone breaks, slowdown is applied to movement

Feet: Damages bones in the feet, if the bone breaks, they are forced into a walk speed, after their other foot breaks, they are rendered immobile

Mouth: Damages bones in the head

Eyes: Damages bones in the head, damages eyes severely

There is another big bonus to targeting specific limbs, and that's armor. Some armor pieces like the security armor only covers certain parts of the body (Upper body and Lower body) so if you aim for a part of the body that isn't protected by armor, the damage you deal is not affected by that piece of armor.

Intents

The square at the bottom right of your UI is called the "intent wheel". It looks a bit like this [link goes here]. On this intent wheel, you have four possible intents to choose from: Help, Disarm, Grab, and Harm. You can freely switch intents by hitting 0 on your numberpad, using your 1-2-3-4 keys to jump to a specific intent, or clicking on the intent you want to move to. You'll know which intent you're on because the intent which you are on is brighter than the others.

Help intent

Help intent is the default intent that you start on and has a green icon at the top right of the intent wheel, this intent is (largely) passive. If you click on someone with nothing in their hand, you'll help them up or give them a hug. Most items will still attack whatever you click however. If you walk on the same tile as someone, you'll pass right through them and move them back a tile if they are also on help intent, however, if both of you try to walk on the same tile, you may start shuffling between each other and would require you to change intent or move.

Disarm intent

Disarm intent is the second intent on the intent wheel, and has a blue icon at the bottom right of the intent wheel. While on disarm intent, you can attempt to disarm them, this has a 60% chance to make them drop the item in their current hand, and a 20% chance to knock them over and leave them stunned for a very small amount of time. On this intent, people cannot walk past you.

Grab intent

Grab intent is the third intent on the intent wheel, and has a yellow icon at the bottom left of the intent wheel. While on grab intent you can click someone with an empty hand to enter a passive grab, while in this state, the person grabbed can freely escape the grab by moving away, or otherwise do most things they normally could. If you press the grab button again in your hand slot, you can attempt to enter an active grab, when attempting to enter an active grab, you are able to throw the person of which you have grabbed. After you fully grab them, they can no longer easily escape the grab, and would need to actively fight you to get out of it. After you fully enter the active grab, you can attempt to enter a aggressive grab, which allows you to either hold them in a fireman's carry, or just grab them. When in this state, they are unable to escape normally without outside help. Finally, you can enter a kill grab which starts strangling them, in this state they take respiratory damage, and are fully unable to do anything. On this intent, people cannot walk past you.

Harm intent

Harm intent is the fourth intent on the intent wheel,and has a red icon at the top left of the intent wheel. While on harm intent, almost every item used in this state will just attack the selected target. While in this state and holding no item, you can punch people and objects, although this does almost no damage. When pointing at someone with intent to harm intent, you point your weapon at them. You also gain a small chance to weaken people using some weapons, which is a short stun. Finally, all ranged weapons can be fired at point blank, rather than hitting them with the gun. On this intent, people cannot walk past you.

Ranged - Energy vs Ballistic

• There are two common types of firearms in this game, Energy weapons (Such as Laser Guns) that can deal Burn damage and Ballistic weapons (Such as the Riot Shotgun) that can deal brute damage. Choose the weapon needed for the current situation.
• Unlike Ballistic weapons, Lasers pass through glass, making it effective against targets taking cover on glass.
• But most Energy weapons require a charger to charge the weapon's internal cell, which is not flexible in some situations. A few energy weapons have an internal self-recharging cell, allowing it to recharge over time.
• Ballistic weapons on the other hand can be reloaded by inserting its respective clip/shell to the weapon, which can often be done in the middle of combat to keep up pressure.
• Many energy weapons and ballistic weapons have some special secondary attribute attached to them, picking the correct type of weapon for the right situation is vital to succeeding against unlikely odds.

Electrodes

That sparking ball of energy is known as an electrode. Electrodes apply a stun on hit, and are unable to go through walls or damage objects. Electrodes also have a rather short range to them, so the option to walk away is often a good idea. Electrodes are most commonly used by tasers and turrets. This projectile deals 5 cycles of stun (10 seconds).

Disabler Lasers

The clear-ish blue laser is known as a disabler shot. Disablers apply stamina damage on hit, and are able to go through windows, but unable to damage objects. Disablers have an infinite range, so it's common to quickly get disabled while running at someone. disablers are most commonly used in the security disabler, and the energy gun. These projectiles deal 30 stamina damage.

Laser

The deep red laser is known as a laser. Lasers apply burn damage on hit, and have the ability to go through windows. These projectiles also damage objects they are fired at. Lasers also have infinite range, so you can shoot them at someone at any difference. Lasers are most commonly used in the advanced energy gun, and the laser gun. These projectiles deal 20 stamina damage

Pulse/Heavy laser

The light blue laser is known as a pulse/heavy laser. Pulse lasers apply burn damage on hit, and have most of the same characteristics of lasers, with the difference that pulse lasers are able to destroy walls in one shot. These pulse lasers are most commonly used in the pulse gun, and the tech shells that can be made from research and development. These projectiles deal 40-50 burn damage.

Emitter beam

The light green thick laser is known as an Emitter beam. Emitter beams apply burn damage on hit, and carry the same characteristics as normal lasers. These Emitter beams are most commonly found in Emitters and are critical for some engines. These beams can be redirected through mirrors. These projectiles deal 30 burn damage.

X Ray beam

The green thin laser is known as a Xray laser. X Ray lasers apply burn damage on hit, and are able to pass through all objects but lose damage for each tile they travel. The Xray lasers are most commonly found in X Ray guns. These projectiles deal 15 burn damage, and lose .75 damage for each tile they go through. These lasers have a maximum range of 15 tiles.

Toxin laser

The dark green electrode is known as a toxin laser. Toxin lasers apply toxin damage on hit, and cannot pass through any objects. This type of laser is most commonly found in the plasma pistol. These projectiles deal 20 toxin damage, and apply 20 units of radiation to the target.

Bolts

The dark green bolt is known as a bolt or crossbow bolt. Bolts apply toxin and stamina damage on hit, and cannot pass through objects. This type of projectile is commonly found in the energy crossbow, and mini energy crossbow. These projectiles deal 15-20 toxin damage, weaken for 1 second, and deal 60 stamina damage.

Lightning

This purple lightning is known as lightning. Lightning applies burn damage and a stun. Lightning cannot pass through objects, but can fire through windows. This weapon will also zap anyone else (including you!) within a maximum 30 tile area around the area where you fired it.This projectile is commonly found in the shock revolver. This projectile deals 10 burn damage, along stunning for ~3-4 cycles (6-8 seconds).

Decloning beam

This almost clear electrode is known as a decloning beam. Decloning beams deal cellular damage and cannot pass through objects. This beam is most commonly found in the decloner. This projectile deals 20 cellular damage, and irradiates the target with 10 units of radiation.

BSG

The BSG projectile is a massive sphere of blue energy, and is known as the BSG beam or BSG shot. The BSG projectile deals a small stun and burn damage. It does not fire through objects. This projectile can commonly be found in the BSG. This projectile deals 60 burn damage, and stuns for 2 seconds.

Foam dart

The Foam dart is a small, easily replaceable and recoverable ammo type which looks like an orange nerf bullet, with a bit of yellow or blue on top. This foam dart either does no damage at all, or a riot dart which deals stamina damage. This projectile cannot go through or damage objects. This projectile can be commonly found in foam pistols, or donksoft brand gear. This projectile deals no damage, or if it's a riot dart, 25 stamina damage. These projectiles have 10 tile ranges.

Foam riot sniper dart

The Foam Sniper dart is a small, easily replaceable and recoverable ammo type which looks like a black and red nerf bullet. This foam dart deals stamina damage. This projectile cannot go through or damage objects. This projectile can commonly be found in the Donksoft Sniper rifle. This projectile deals 100 stamina damage.

Bullets

The bullet (I know crazy right) is a small... bullet. It deals brute damage. It can't fire through objects, but can damage them. This projectile can commonly be found in guns that fire bullets. A bullet deals damage depending on the type of gun or ammo type it is, they will be listed below.

".357 bullet": 60 brute

"Beanbag slug": 5 brute, 80 stamina

"Incendiary slug: 20 Brute and leaves a trail of flames where it fired.

"Stunslug": 5 cycle stun (10 seconds) Range of 7

"Dart Slug": 5 damage and all the reagents in that shell

"Dragonsbreath Slug" 5 Damage and fire

"Metorshot" 30 damage, 1 cycle stun (2 seconds), moves objects when shot

"Rubbershot" 3 damage, 25 stamina (per pellet)

"Buckshot" 12.5, AP of -30

"Mime buckshot" 12 damage

"Booze buckshot" Injects ethanol

"Traq darts" Injects ether

"WT bullets" 35 damage

"C20 bullets" 25 damage 65 stamina

"9mm bullets" 30 damage

"10mm bullets" 25 damage

"9mm AP" 27 Damage 40 AP

"9mm Hollowpoint" 40 damage, -50 AP

"Mime bullets" 40 damage, 10 second silence

"Sniper rifle bullets" 70 brute, 3 cycle stun (6 seconds)

".38 bullet" 25 damage

"Toxin bullet" 15 toxin damage

"AP WT ammo" 15 damage, 40 AP

"Metal foam bullet" injects metal foam solution on hit

Syringes

Syringes are a syringe like projectile. It injects the reagents within the syringe. This projectile cannot pass through objects, and is deflected by any thick clothing. This projectile is commonly fired by the syringe gun. This projectile simply injects reagents, and deals no damage.

Help! I'm under attack!

Congratulations, you're in combat! First of all **DON'T PANIC**, this is a 2d space game and you are going to need to think. For starters, examine who is fighting you and see what they have. Do they have a gun? Are they wearing armor? Information like this is critical to being able to perform well in combat. Secondly, assess what you have, what weapons do you have on you? Do you have any healing supplies? What tools do you have? Now, the third thing you should do is ask yourself "Do I actually care?". This may seem like an odd step (they are attacking you after all!) but you might not care that much if someone is trying to beat you with a crowbar or run at you with a welding tool. Running away is always a good (if not optimal) option. The fourth step is to assess your positioning, where are you in comparison to the attacker? Is there cover to hide behind? Is there an easy escape route? If your positioning is poor, look to improve it. Finally, actually attack the attacker(click on them with your weapon of choice).

Running away

Sometimes, it's not enough to fight someone head on, and you need to throw in the towel and leave. This is actually a very common thing to do in combat, after all, if you're not going to win you should minimize your losses.

///Entirely WIP, please DM me on discord for requests