Carver

Perhaps a little off-topic, but a damp rag is capable of wiping prints from what I recall. You needn't suffer.

I feel like Zombies and Borers already have some mild crossover in regard to 'Biological outbreak that uses the crew to sustain itself'. I'm not against the idea - bar that the name reminds of Gamorreans - but it feels like this niche somewhat already exists but just isn't played much.

Is it not somewhat supposed with their (at least previous) brute resists that Hephaestus units and to a lesser extent Ka (I honestly can't remember which of the bug sub-types had the brute resist) have built-in helmets? It seems silly to me that a G1/G2 in particular would want some impact-resistant plastic instead of relying on their industrial-grade frame. If anything, I'd prefer a return to mining having lanterns or perhaps those heavy flashlights you rarely see about.

As is, slugs are the only non-Cargo (shuttle) option for Security that is still good vs armour (with laser rifles doing a measly 8 or so damage vs Syndicate Voidsuits and the cheap/orderable Heavy Armour). Without them, Security doesn't actually have viable combat options against the average mercenary without having to order more guns or Science possessing the materials and knowledge to create good weapons. Damage references as follows: Something of note is that their fire rate isn't all too great, so their burst damage is nowhere near as good as one would expect. While they're strong vs unarmoured people, buckshot is far far stronger.

I'm sad to see Detective gone, but can only hope the combined role retains his varied and wonderful closet of formal apparel.

I'd like a manual clear rather than speeding it up, helps to have more fine control over it.

I'm not big on the perspective shift, even if it can offer some unique details, it'd be more of a case of 'make our server like the others' than anything new or 'better'. I've also never seen a server do proper isometric, so much as a weird semi-angle from the top. My big critique of the aesthetic is that it just looks like shit when you add more perspective-shifted sprites, and demands the entire rest of the server's angled sprites match it in some form (aka vending machines, computers and various containers off the top of my head).

I'm not really sure how to feel about this, they don't actually look any visibly different in comparison to things like toeless jackboots so I can understand why they don't have much appeal, but I'd rather antagonists get a wider selection at roundstart than remove these species downsides.

Another argument that hadn't occurred to me until a little bit ago; the Disruptor's systems are managed by an ID registering the user, given that the e-mag's entire flavour is 'a hacking tool in the form of an altered ID card that exploits NanoTrasen's love of swiping cards' it's a bit standout for it to not apply here. Most of my previously listed examples of where an e-mag has use are items/devices that are accessed by ID cards in some way. I hadn't entirely realized that it stood out to me at first to make this suggestion because the reason I tried an e-mag was, per the consistent design and behaviour of the game otherwise, ID-toggled locks are what the e-mag was made to defeat.

They look certainly nice enough, my only critique being that the trigger on the Lawgiver seems a bit... unergonomic? As though it weren't designed with the grip in mind whatsoever.

While that is fair, it does somewhat pale in value to spend 2 whole telecrystals on a firing pin versus the 5 for a cryptographic sequencer with multiple uses (doors, hardsuits, consoles, even more frivolous or niche things like hailers and prosthetic limbs), no need for extra tools in most cases (bar hacking cyborgs and I think the comms console), and just generally a whole lot more bang for your buck. The magic of the e-mag is in most cases it'll get your job done immediately without extra fuss, usually at the cost of some notable damage or trail. A firing pin is a somewhat awkward purchase given that it doesn't even come with a screwdriver and you won't find many other weapons to use it for, outside of Research-produced articles (and if you can access those you're wasting a pin on a disruptor). It's a very feels-bad buy, even with the fairly decent argument that you're paying 2 TCs to 'permanently' unlock a lesser e-pistol.

Yet is there not an inconsistency when an item designed to be the uplink-paid method to get around the more slow and painful methods (as for that example, there are already ways to get around the locks on stationbounds, hardsuits, doors and more without an e-mag), by in this case defeating every single other lock, does not function in a case where you'd especially expect it given how low-tech disruptors are?

Per some weapon tests, I've come unto the interesting realization that the lethal Blaster Bolts of Disruptors do Energy instead of Laser damage. I'm not sure if this is intended, but it leads to the following: These are the results of the Laser Rifle versus a Syndicate Voidsuit: These are the results of a Disruptor set to Lethal versus a Syndicate Voidsuit: These are the armour values of a Syndicate Voidsuit, showing the difference in protections that explain this behaviour: What leads me to be unsure of if this is a bug or intended is that the exact same energy protection is present on the Syndicate Hardsuit, as well as several of the faction themed/'gimmick' voidsuits/hardsuits. I'm not certain if Energy was ever intended to be used for lethal projectiles (or at least incredibly common lethal projectiles, given Disruptors are standard-issue for Security and TCFL packs a plethora of blasters).

An addition to my thoughts: As shown by testing, a lot of the flavour/'gimmick' voidsuits that are based on factions absolutely suffered in testing. On investigation, it's that their very middleground armour values - which would have been acceptable under the old armour system - are now very weak due to armour being based on thresholds instead of percentage reductions. I really hope these sets might get reworks given this information, as I'd hate to see them fall into disfavour.

Quick addition: Laser Rifles were nerfed as of about March 8th, so their numbers here are outdated. I won't be doing another test for a while because this whole thing took some hours, but be aware that as of March 9th only Slugs, Buckshot and 45lethal remain accurate test-wise (excluding against the hardsuits bugged at the time of the test)... and Tachyons I guess, but you'll never see those unless Rooster is meming with events. I saw a lot of people talking about the lethality of various Security weapons and how they're having issues against them, so I decided to put some of the most common weapons to the test against a variety of armours utilized by primarily Mercenaries (and for the Banshee/Revenant, occasionally enterprising Traitors) and against Security's own beloved high-ends. Results are compiled and categorized in the following: armourtesting-feb27code.zip Some curious notes: As of Feb. 27th, Hardsuits are broken and do not apply their protective values. Alberyk may have fixed this, as I noted the issue mid-testing. This means that the tests are not remotely indicative of how they should be acting, I'll consider another review of solely those suits later. Potentially patched, will test later. The Syndicate Voidsuit takes full damage from Disruptor Lethals, but minimal damage from Laser Rifles. If I had to guess, Disruptor Lethals are protected by Energy values and not Laser values? This means you're better fighting default-suited Mercenaries with your Disruptors than with Laser Rifles. Patched by MattAtlas. The Syndicate Voidsuit is the best all-around voidsuit for Mercenaries - in many tested cases matching the protection of Heavy Armour. Unsurprisingly, Heavy Armour is the best all-around non-vacuum-resistant protection for antagonists. Gimmick Voidsuits besides the Banshee on the other hand show rather sad results, failing almost across the board against the beloved Laser Rifle. Sol Marine Fatigues offer a non-marginal boost to protection from ballistics when layered beneath a good voidsuit. If you can get them for free, they're better than your Tactleneck. Ablative Armour is the best all-around protection for Security if facing multiple damage types, with a modest amount of ballistic protection. The Head of Security's Voidsuit is absolutely pathetic protection despite not being bugged, showing worse results in nearly all categories compared to the other tested suits. In most cases, Disruptors are now quite superior to .45s, given that rubbers do 0 damage to all non-bugged armours in this test and lethals are fairly reduced in damage by most of the rest. As mentioned earlier, Disruptor Lethals were patched. I also tested Tachyon Rifles per Roostercat's request. They just do a flat 25 burn, ignoring all armour.

Funnily, the disruptor has a particular niche - it's lethals are better vs the default syndicate voidsuit than the laser rifle in the current armour system. I'll make a thread showing some weapon/armour test results once I've finalized all the materials. On that note, I've made a thread addressing this issue so hopefully they can return to not being curiously more lethal than Laser Rifles in some cases.

Or in other words, allow it so you can use a Cryptographic Sequencer on a Disruptor to bypass the user registration (and various alert/brig-enabled locks on it's [mode-switching] functionality).

Simplistic direction, but good details. I like these well enough, nothing immediately negative springs to mind (unless you count thunder thighs as a negative thought).

I'm still not a fan of the colour choice (given my x-com comparison earlier), but the new lasers do look exponentially less toy-ish at the least. A significant improvement.

Seems like a sound idea given how broken the current implementation could be for insta-murdering someone with the right mix, as well.

I'm not sure this is an apt comparison, given that said discord does not appear in the #affiliated_groups channel on the official one, to my knowledge doesn't have an icon in the style of the officially-managed discords, and as isn't brought in for any form of arc interaction (again, to my knowledge). I do find it rather amusing though that you're throwing shade at an entirely unrelated discord on the assumption that 'everyone' knows what's going on there, because I don't. It has no real affiliation, why should I care what happens there? Same goes for the other departmental (and the old species) discords that, despite whatever may occur in them, are no longer advertised on #affiliated_groups after their replacement by the Department Hub per the below image.

Having a separate pool of discord staff to ease potential strain from in-game staff is good and all, but are they put through similarly rigorous application processes? All official server staff are rather publicized in their application, recruitment and promotions - if this server were integrated, it would be ideal to retroactively put it's own staff through the same to prevent an unfortunate grandfather clause.

As long as the system isn't so dumb that it thinks severing an ear makes you deaf. Make it require in-depth surgery and/or similar combat mechanics to blinding someone with a pen/screwdriver to actually deafen them.

I've never felt a reason to use the relay or any of the affiliated departmental discords because of specifically this. If it is held in such an uncertain and semi-official position then it should be subject to the same moderation, checks and balances as the official server.

Specialization is one thing, but there's such a thing as overspecialization to a very limited scope that can be readily covered by other roles. At it stands there is nothing an FR can do that a Physician can not do, bar perhaps that FRs are supposed to demand some degree of IEVA training - something that's not uncommon among Physician characters anyways, given the setting. You mention missing Nurses, but I see FRs as Nurses in ugly coats due to just how limited their ability to help a critical patient is. For most every other department, when a role is so specialized it tends to have something it does that others (bar the Department head, occasionally) cannot. Atmospheric Techs refining their namesake infrastructure; Detectives and Forensic Technicians sweeping the scenes of a crime for fibers, prints and gunpowder residue; Xenoarchaeologists spending an hour and a half digging to get an artifact that kills them; etc. FRs have no unique mechanics about them, their place is merely being so focused that they can't be asked to do anything else. It's almost criminally punishing to have a role so limited with the current medical mechanics.