Sytic

i also got an early view of it from kyres and loved the idea in general. would approve

Well, I think it's fair. It takes away the most difficult issue with Hypospray (the instant knockdown of Chloral Hydrate being overpowered as shit) while still giving the hypospray back to the CMO so it's not just erased. It's very rare for antags to use it, and they still probably won't- leaving it mostly in the hands of the Tranq darts and Chemistry. Moving it away from a chem able to be created by Chemistry, to something that may be ordered by Cargo, antags or found in the tranq darts would be much more suited for most rounds.

I'm alright with Synth's suggestion, as it's not on the floor- it's bringing them up to you. At the moment, being able to human shield someone on the floor is misleading and stupid.

See title. At the moment you can human shield somebody you've grabbed that is on the floor on a different tile against someone shooting you from a completely opposite direction. This is bullshit and skewed so many encounters as of recent.

this hurts me emotionally

suggestions are literally designed to give feedback on something to add or how to fix something. this is what this subforum is for. this is what I am doing. We should implement something like it, something with similar if not the same elements, because at the moment, this LRP configuration of changeling is more fun for the players who get killed by it than our HRP server and the only other thing people are suggesting to do is to scrap it entirely. [mention]Trazz666[/mention] if we're going by exactly what goon does, goon allows the ling controlling the hivemind to selectively mute people they've absorbed. for us it could be easier as a toggle, or just to boot them out of your head entirely instead of being muted. or maybe that's part of the challenge.

title says it all, but here's what I posted in discord earlier: goon ling is the shit. you wanna know why? because goon ling has hivemind. hivemind is badass. you still get to interact and have fun with the guy that nibbled you and gave you the succ. you also get to interact and they can give partial control to you to persuade people that they're you. it's fucking radical. it's awesome. in short: implement goon-like ling. you can still interact, still hang out with other people, even when you get got. it makes you feel included despite getting got, and also reinforces a more chill playstyle for Ling without sacrificing its deadly ways.

no. until you can say why it's a bad thing. yes, it's a "dick move". they're a bad guy. that's their modus operandi. they cause problems for the crew to react to. you need to show why it's a dick move OOCly. why it hurts RP. until you can prove that, there's no reason why it shouldn't be done. ((((((still not involved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! whoooooops!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)))))) This is a moot point, as the antagonists didn't take all of the surgical equipment. But if they did, this would undoubtedly cause mass collateral damage for no real reason other than powergaming and a desire to win, bodies created be damned. That'd be deliberate collateral damage because "I WANNA WIN". EDIT: This thread is getting out of hand.

The big problem is that there's frequently only one way to go about the AI issue: "In this world, it's gank or be ganked." You have to punk them as hard as you can, as fast as you can, which immediately jumps everybody to lethals and makes the round Call of Duty: Spaceman Edition. In cases like these, it's not fun. More thought needs to be given on the AI role, and it shouldn't just be taken away from players because Secret rolled Changeling or something.

I've always appreciated good 'ol antags going into other departments and screwing shit up, especially in Science and Service where I feel that sort of interaction is needed most (less so Engineering, because I see them much more involved with the round than not). And why AREN'T they interacting there? Science has a bunch of cool tech! Service has a bunch of cool loot! And with the shutdowns of fun from Sec, it feels just "NO FUN ALLOWED" sometimes. Sometimes it's annoying or disruptive, but a lot of the time they're not doing any harm, so why do you care so much? Wholeheartedly support this.

Speaking from experience as someone who readily enjoys playing ERT and has faced off with Kyres and another antagonists multiple times, as ERT, you don't come to fuck around. Your warning should be, "Be on the ground when I see you or I put you there." You have been called in under the belief there is already a highly dangerous threat that Security can't handle. There are very few scenarios in which you should be taking prisoners. Your opening line when seeing an operational antag should be a grenade, not text. The antagonists know you have come to royally fuck their shit up. You should expect that and counterbalance this with fucking their shit up.

I have one requirement: These weapons should not be allowed to antags in a team, e.g. Merc, Heist, or any other sort. Reason: In all other cases, this sounds badass and pretty fun to use. I'd use them.

Killing them willy nilly = Security will kill you. Not killing them at all = Security will kill you. Laying down ground rules and going, "welp, shit outta luck" and killing them when a ground rule is violated = Perfectly reasonable. If you lay down the ground rules prior and Security violates that, you should bump them off. Just make sure they aren't your only hostage.

Turn their suit sensors to everything EXCEPT tracking. 100% will help if you are on-station, as it provides: Guaranteed proof of them being hurt/killed, applies reasonable pressure to Sec, and just in case they want to KNOW you have them hostage, you can shoot them in the foot for more evidence. Gonna also quote what Azande said, because it was smart. If you do this, understand the following: - Security will not care at all if you take further hostages - The above means Security will literally fuck you up regardless of how many people you have hostage, because you are liable to kill them already risking their death to get you is generally seen as collateral - Everyone will operate under the belief you are a hostage-killer, and EVERYONE you try to take hostage will fight back violently, because they risk death just by being caught by you If you provide evidence to a hostage being alive, and you haven't killed hostages before (otherwise they will undoubtedly consider your hostages as collateral and move to prevent further death) and Security still dismisses it and moves to kill you, you might want to inquire about that. (For maximum effect, implant your hostage with a bomb. Leave the hostage if Security is coming and track them- when they start moving from their buckled position, blow them up with the hostage.)

I've had a lot of issues with AmoryBlaine's aggression out of character. Taking a joke poorly (edit before submission: This one is actually my bad, after the initial very hostile response and after my attempts to say "it was just a joke" failing, I messed with him for a good twenty minutes.) or dragging a situation in PM's on for far too long in an attempt to get in the last word is common with Amory. But while Daniel is edgy at times and desperately needs a psych evaluation, I've rarely had a problem with the way he plays him. The only times I've seen Amory play him irritating to the point of utterly getting me pissed off was when Decanus, Head of Security at the time, requested Daniel wear their stab vest. Daniel began questioning it heavily for no apparent reason, even going out of his way to request they bust out the heavy vests from the Armoury for some reason (I think it was to give the Cadets some stab vests????). To this end, Decanus (remembering Daniel being petty from prior rounds) decided to shoo Daniel away by threatening him with a psych eval. Daniel then roped in the IAA and got Decanus stuck in an IA hell for the rest of the round, unwilling to let this utterly small event affect him with a visit from a CCIAA. And the round paid for it with practically no physical HoS influence. That's the only ever situation I've seen him be particularly annoying- OOC and one time ICly that wasn't even involving me. On this, I'll note that: 1: AmoryBlaine, while irritating to some extent in OOC, plays Daniel Carmichael well. Daniel is foil, and foil is nice sometimes. 2: AmoryBlaine does go a little far in OOC in many extents, and this very occasionally affects how Daniel acts.

you're right With the element of surprise, and an adequate murder weapon, anybody can be assassinated. He was snuck up on from behind. Even then, the article describing his murder mentions the bathroom being utterly wrecked. He went down fighting. Even navy seals can be murdered by randos with luck and circumstance. you're right See, my issue with this event was, Drea was always pinned as the killer. If they were the killer, more sense should have been applied to their physical stature, as the original cams shot (First killed target holds open the door for [?????] would have outlined them as Tajaran immediately) as well as much more. If this was detailed, why didn't the Odin investigative team act on it? Missing that someone is a Tajaran for quite some time when there would have been physical evidence to support this the whole way through, and just saying "you're right ;)" does not a good investigation make. Drea was to be the killer from the start, and it was mishandled. Clues are supposed to reveal a killer's identity, and missing their goddamn species so easily until a final witness proclaiming so (and even then, the Bugle didn't even say they were Tajaran! It had to be revealed in a fax!) is... dumb. And if Drea wasn't supposed to be the killer from the start, then it's just suddenly pinning it on someone who fits the bill, and I'm not sure if that's worse or better. (note:i actually liked this event it was just this that really cheeses my bacon pls dont get mad daddy jackboot) EDIT: Right, I feel like I should clarify: Letting the playerbase know their species would have narrowed it down heavily and really put pressure on to make sure it wasn't an easy "IT WAS MIRMTAR". I realise that. I'm only saying from a realistic perspective, it'd probably make more sense to realise someone's species very quick.

For something that was originally so minor and blown up so dramatically, it was well done. There are some holes, including: 1: The cheese wire Drea had was never found. 2: Drea would never be able to kill Charles. I'm sorry, no. Going up against a 6' behemoth who specialises in combat as a 5' furball that can snap like a twig is ridiculous. Shit, they would barely have the height. 3: Forensic evidence for a Tajaran would be, logically, easier to get. Hairs, most especially. As well as claw markings on targets where they'd be grabbing them. Besides these, I think it was all very nice. It was not intended for a large audience, but it was fun to watch, and it added to many rounds where all there would be talk about is lunch or some stupid shit like bowling.

I would like this in the Armoury, with our current .45's being of sufficient knockdown caliber right now. It allows a sense of trust- If a Head of Security trusts a person, they might hand them these guns with lethal capabilities.

My issue with Alb's events in general, is that they either go one of two ways: 1: There is an interesting way to solve a problem, or a way to brute force through the problem. Multiple avenues are given and creativity is rewarded. It is challenging but not impossible. The goalposts remain where they are. 2: There is one way to solve the problem. It is impossible unless you do it the way he wants you to. The goalposts are moved when a way around this is made. The biggest example of this is his Sarlacc event. These are run quite often, and begin with the Worm (God, more on that in a bit) Brain being placed in the Bridge. It is a fleshy bulb surrounded by regenerating mass. The only way in is to breach in through the front, surrounded by regenerating walls, floor tentacles, and they have the ability to despawn the floor underneath to the asteroid layer, spawn a tentacle there nigh instantly, while it does damage to every person on a tile around it. On top of this, the Worm knows everything of what is going on around it, and places its mouths underneath doors specifically because the sprite is overlayed by the doors just accurately enough to disguise its existence. The reason it's such a pain in the ass, and not challenging, is that you can only complete the event the way he wants you to. If you don't enter and kill the brain via the hole he plants in the upstairs z-level, you cannot kill them. On one occasion, an IPC walked up with an assault shotgun and dumped a mag of slug rounds into the small fleshy bulb, then was EMP'd into the ground with the excuse of the Worm being an eldritch God. I really, really like Alb as an admin, and think he's one of my favorite admemes. However, he's also one of the few to pull this kinda shit. Is this a major issue? Personally, I don't think so. I didn't stick up my hand about it prior (I was waiting for the next time the event was run) and did not believe it to be such a problem. It's only 2 hours. (also I've literally never seen another admin do this, probably should handle it in a staff complaint instead)

Maybe just make toggling on and off running take stamina for those races. It'd make sense.

The problem is, psychology's mechanics never were a problem, and there WAS a decent chunk who played them. Nowadays it's Beck and a C'thur that recently popped up that comes to mind, and that's it. The gamey mechanics is exactly what drew people AWAY from the role, and it's making cloning a hell of a hassle trying to get around the nowadays dipshit psychologists not bothering to learn their role in any OOC or IC capacity. Trauma mechanics don't require changing, because players are able to have the capacity to git gud and get better at treating them. The Low-RP, /tg/ tier roleplay psychologist we have right now does not help in any capacity for players who want to play a psychologist to want to get better at it to reach the skill ceiling in their current role from an OOC standpoint, as it's not fun to roleplay them.

guess who's back, back again. The monthly revisit to this thread, these changes, and complaining about it. Oh boy. Foreword: In this, I mix up psychologist and psychiatrist often. Here's what Google has to say about the difference: "Because psychiatrists are trained medical doctors, they can prescribe medications, and they spend much of their time with patients on medication management as a course of treatment. Psychologists focus extensively on psychotherapy and treating emotional and mental suffering in patients with behavioral intervention." For the sake of this, insinuate that I mean both spheres of psychology and psychiatry, and their respective methods. I'm surprised this isn't locked after me constantly having to come back in here and talk about it, but I've already given my opinion on what better solutions would be available, and I'll add a third one to the quote. It's gonna be in a spoiler. With that out of the way, I wanted to talk about two things in particular: Both the opinions of this suggestion with the effects I have seen it have on the playerbase, as well as why these current methods of therapy should be changed from what they are. The Opinions on the Psychology Update and its Effects I've seen a massive decline in the amount of serious psychologists. There used to be a good chunk of them- now, there are very few. Where have they gone? They can, assuredly, still operate just like they used to? Wrong. There's a few reasons for this: By incorporating pseudoscience as a base for the psychologist's medium of fixing trauma, there's no actual fun out of attempting to fix someone's mental state anymore- You can just hop in the magical crystal chair and have that solve your problems, right? It makes the psychologist dull and boring, only useful and VERY IMPORTANT when corpses come in that can be cloned. But when someone's cloned, you fix the trauma, give 'em a slap on the back and they can walk off. You can literally do it while drunk, if station Security didn't stop you. The psychology wing is now much more larger, but because of where it is, it is now much less obvious. Psychological evaluations are much less commonplace now that the psychology wing is very, very out of the way. Nobody sees it anymore, the only thing they see is the pointless never-used examination room and the stairs leading to it, leading to barely any traffic as it is the most out of the way place in Medical. Even the sublevel gets more traffic, and that's just to get around having to get into the bridge to sneak up to the AI! (and virology but we don't talk about virology). Yet psychologists are still incredibly important. With the massive amount of brain trauma players now get (shrapnel damage in head, oxyloss, cloning) you will be completely screwed without a way to fix trauma, even if chemistry can fix the damage. So the only way to fix the trauma is to drag them up to the psych wing and toss them in the magical fix-me chair. However, due to the reasons above, nobody does it. I'd assume the CMO has to go up and do it themselves, due to the lack of a psychologist. Don't have either? Guess you're shit out of luck! Better prep the surgery ward. (Although, all cloned patients automatically have to see a psychiatrist anyways. As previously stated, psychiatry and psychology is boring now.) But where did they all go? Well, it seems like the now meme-role Psychologist managed to flip another role and do a complete 180 on its perception in the community. Nowadays, the Counselor and to a lesser extent, the Chaplain gets much, much more traffic by players who are actually interested in properly roleplaying and helping members of staff get through trauma and stress. This is great for the role, as it always used to be the home of bad roleplay and just some really, really stupid players, but now it's done a complete turnaround. While it is still occasionally a joke, it's now much more trafficked than the actual licensed psychologist on the station to get across your mental troubles. And what are the opinions on the psych update? Everyone but a few players I've gone to have said it's stupid. It's very dumb. The few players who have disagreed with me, have said it is more alongside the reasons of, "Well why couldn't chakra therapy work in 2460? Maybe they found the just-right crystal that makes it all work!" (I've covered that in the next point). What does the actual contributor think? Well, we've joked about it in the past whenever it's brought up. It's referred to, in Fowl's eyes, their "magnum opus". It's a fucking meme on its own. Magic Spess Crystals: Why Not? Everything on Aurora has a base in sense, unless it's an antag. And roughly half the antags do regardless make sense. All of our Science system seems hypothetically possible. It hasn't been rendered false, as does most things on the station. The supermatter and the singularity, two things that seem to be the least explained elements of the station, still seem reasonable in a sci-fi environment. Everything that is consistent across rounds makes proper fucking sense, or at least seems like it can in the 25th century. EXCEPT the psychologist. Neither Chakra, Isolation or Hypnotism have proper, across the board mental health benefits. They do not fix trauma. They are not cures. At best, they are placebo for the person involved. The chakra chair is the closest it gets to actually making any sense (and, ironically, so is ECT. The reason it got pushback was because of the way Fowl made it, which was a literal electric chair), and that is because it uses "magic space crystals" as a reason. Does it still make sense? No, because at a base level it is described as chakra therapy, which does not work. There are many avenues you can go to making a realistic way of curing trauma in a sci-fi environment, some examples posted in the spoiler above. And, referencing earlier statements about the lack of fun the psychologist has, the complete lack of realism of the trauma repair system makes the role feel worthless. If everything is solved via magic space crystals, why put in the effort of repairing the trauma as a real psychologist would? What's the point of it, if any? The complete disconnect from realism kills the roleplay of the psychiatrist which has no incentive to roleplay any of their treatment, as it's so unrealistic anyways. "But Sytic, it's the 25th century! Suspend your realism for a bit! It's science fiction!" Okay, fucko. It's also science fiction. If your supposed fictional element is based on something that already doesn't work and literally cites the dumbest possible excuse as a way to get around it, you need to improve your writing. Implement something that is improving and makes some sense. Ultrasounds, neurosurgery, and chemistry all have current, improving methods towards fixing and at least assisting with brain trauma, rather than these outdated placebo at best forms of therapy presented and pushed for the Psychologist. Closing Statements I don't mean to come off as rude, or an asshole to Fowl. Like Skull said, an update needed to be made to the Psychologist so it could fix brain trauma. Can brain surgery affect traumas? Thankfully, it can. Is the Psychologist still fucked? Yes, yes they still are. Like it or not, the Psychologist has been gimped. Players have moved on from the role entirely, and Alberyk, as well as Fowl himself agreed that, because of the lack of psychologists, there should be less mental damage affecting them. The psychologist is a role that is dead in the water. It's unfun and also desperately needed to have traumas fixed speedily. By giving them "gamey" ways to get around trauma, nobody uses them. Brain surgery is still the main way to do it due to the absolute lack of psychologists. The lack of a role to just straight up vent to and talk to ICly has naturally caused a role that, once known for its shitters, has actually evolved to have a few characters who are pillars of the community. And it has no gamey elements whatsoever. [mention]Skull132[/mention] I summon you, as you wanted to be told about the suggestions towards fixing Psychology. Here it is. EDIT: Relevant Image below.

Did anybody forget the quite major flash nerf that made having eye protection much less important to have if you are not a Vaurca or Robot? (Treepeople didn't get any buffs from eye protection, anyways.) There are already even less reasons to use flashes. Flashes are much less common. Needing to tactically switch between the two is now relatively irrelevant unless you fit specific criteria, as you can just run the fuck away from whatever flashed you. It just adds meaningless bloat. (That being said, the sprites look cool.) -1 from me.

We also don't really need this. The tall/small traits look fugly on character models and the whole thing needs a dedicated system to work. If you have limited drawbacks for traits with some out-there ones, you get snowflakes abound. If you have an even split for balance, people start gaming the system as much as they can. Both of these things wouldn't work for our server. Hard pass. -1.

IIRC the flash was only changed recently to avoid the major stunning capability of the flash that made it essentially the "meta" for Security. Expanding on this without making it stun would be just an expansion of the concept, so I agree. +1 to this.