TrickingTrapster

And that is what it all comes down to, isn't it? If it's the playerbase's fault, change the playerbase. But we can't just do that. If we want to change the playerbase, we need to give the incentive to change. Which will not happen by keeping cult as it is right now. Besides, we keep getting the same players as starting cultists. Why? Because no one else seems to like playing cultist. Now why would that be? I think, that if we change cult to be less agressive, people will be more receptive to it. I know I would.

Arzion, your point actually solidifies what I have been saying. What the hell is a mode that promotes fast-paced action doing on a server that is built on text-based RP? Such a mode will work a lot better on low or medium RP servers, but on a high RP server like ours, it just doesn't work that well. This is why I'm saying to remove or change it to better suit the high-RP environment. For example, having acolytes/initiates, which are basically half-converts. They cannot draw runes or remove them with the tome, but they can aid in incantations and receive the rune bonuses. You could set a timer on them, that, once it expires, say, 15 or 25 minutes, they can be "promoted", or "ascend" into full cultist status, which will require a rune. However, getting initiates will not require a rune, and instead works more like rev, where you just ask them to join you. This would obviously mean some balance changes to runes, you can't just rush some initiates and call up Nar'Sie, that will require more than 3 cultists. Same with the more powerful runes, say, summon cultist or manifest spirit, which cannot be used by initiates. The reason I think this is a good idea is because one, this will promote more less-forced RP, and actually encourage the cultists to "teach" their initiates during their acolyteship. As for researching words, well, the more cultists you get from initiates, the more words you will have, no? No need to rush words like that.

Except no, you're not given an option, the only option you are given is join before or after you die from them trying to convert you because they will soulstone you afterwards anyway if you die. The literal message that appears when you get culted is, "there is no you, only the cult". That's pretty damn restrictive. Sounds like it's stripping your character's personality off, really. As for vampire, at least they have to do some RP to get you someplace they can make you a thrall and don't leave you with a sense of "well this is bullshit". Also, I have tried to do whatever I wanted several times during a cult round, but I either get bitched at for not doing anything or not knowing what I'm doing. And, tying in to one of my major issues with cult, why in the holy mother of fuck do fresh converts suddenly know EVERYTHING. From drawing runes to the correct incantation pronuncication to suddenly being able to use swords effectively. And before you say "that's the magic", no, because if that were true the first few cultists wouldn't even need to convert others. What I think would be a huuuge boost to cult would be an initiation or acolyte system. Vamps need to build up blood, a traitor needs to set up a situation, a changeling needs to set up their target, heist and merc need to set up their cover. But cult? Nah, you know everything suddenly. Fuck that.

Pretty straightforward, this one, but what I was thinking was going over the lore of our species and making an alternative title for every known religion lore-wise. Titles like Priest, Shaman, etc. should be more standard. Currently we only have Chaplain and Counselor, which is rather... Unrepresentative, especially with all the religions of the other species going around. Tell me what you think.

Here is Titanfield's interview.

Here is Omega's interview.

Here is superiorform's interview.

Yeah, the basic idea I had was to put purely aesthetic changes, and give people a reason to actually get some martial arts in their records. I just left the mechanical option open because people like options.

So I got this idea when making a character and talking with catnip about character origins and security things when I got a great idea. The ability to set fighting styles! It will be mostly for aesthetics and nothing too mechanically, although if people want it could mean mechanical changes. Now, why fighting styles? Well, I'm sure quite a few characters on the server went to some sort of martial art or the other. Karate, taekwondo, judo, or just plain street fighting. It would be awesome if this could be represented in the game, by selecting one or two fighting styles in the character setup screen, and possibly able to toggle between said styles with an IC tab button. What it will do, is change things like, "Urist McOfficer punches Grey Taide in the chest!" to "Urist McOfficer lands a palm strike on Grey Taide's chest!", or "Urist McOfficer performs a roundhouse kick against Grey Taide's head!". It's not meant to be integrated into weapon strikes, but it could be if people would like that, though it would be unneeded. Mechanically this doesn't have to change anything, though maybe, if people really want it to, it could grant a few bonuses like increased knockdown chance or a few extra damage points. But for the base, it won't change things mechanically. Let me know what you think.

Here is Not Megatron's interview.

Okay, not shocking, then. But my point remains. Almost nothing the cult can do is RP oriented, mechanically.

That IS my case. The players have no choice to use the gank tools because the cult has nothing but gank tools. Give them roleplay tools in a roleplay game, you know, where the focus of a roleplay game should be. Shocking, I know.

Yes, like I have reiterated countless of times now, the current concept of cult is really not suited for a RP environment. And if not the concept, then the execution. What's the point of giving the cultists only one word whe they're going to try and figure out all of them right away? Why not give them a bit more RP-oriented variety in their runes? As far as I know, all of the runes have some mechanical impact. Why not make a few decorative ones you can use to disguise other runes in between? Why not a voice changing rune? I dunno, a rune that doesn't feel like the cult is trying to powergame their way through, maybe. Give the cult more options to be a more RP-oriented cult and the players will actually try to use those options.

Skull, with counters, I do mean more mechanical counters. Incentive to counter means jack shit if there is no way to counter it. Maybe, I dunno, make an item crew can wear that can be made that prevents being converted? Something that can be worn on different places or maybe some type of material you can mix in a drink that makes you temporarily immune. Right now there are two ways to counter the cult: Chaplain them or kill them. No one either plays chaplain or cares enough during a cult round to do something about it. That means that security has to bust out the weapons and kill the cultists, resulting in yet another firefight. And as for different goals? Why should their cell be the one to summon nar'sie? Maybe a cell planetside is doing it so here they just make a base for worship? Or make sacrifices to help planetside? I find it hard to believe that the station we RP on has to be the cell that summons nar'sie every time when there obviously have to be more cultists out there. And, give the cult some more incentive to be less murderboney would help as well. Or kidnapconverterboney.

Whoa now, Scheve, don't put words in my mouth. Only one was removing it, the other ones were putting it aside for voted only and putting it aside until updates are made. We gave vampire this huge overhaul, I say it's cult's turn next. Also, I'm fine with being forced to do something from a RP perspective, but as soon as mechanics start forcing me to RP a certain way I'm drawing the line. There's not really any incentive to counter the cult as it is now either; Yes, it is entirely possible for the chaplain to do this, but, give me two solid examples of rounds you have had that were cult, had a chaplain, and where that chaplain was actively, and with RP, de-converting people. Either make more ways to combat the cult, or give some more incentive for chaplains to interact with the cult without immediately making it boil down to OH NO EVIL PEW PEW NULL ROD. Right now, as I can see it, the gamemode is /solely based on the fun of the ones playing the cultists/, not the crew. If anything it should be the other way around.

I'm not saying remove nar'sie. Summoning nar'sie is fine by me. But the fact that it's literally the /only/ thing the cult has as a goal makes it outright boring to observe the path they take getting there, or worse, having to RP being on that path. Give cult a bit of variation it can use, like mercs or heist. Give it a goal it doesn't /need/ to convert people for, give it a goal that is not summoning nar'sie besides summoning nar'sie, and, above all, make /getting to the part of summoning nar'sie fun/. If you're playing cult purely for the end result while the path is a slog you're doing something wrong.

Scheve, yes, this is roleplay. And if I have to roleplay as a pawn of Nar'Sie that will have to influence everything I do then you can as well replace me with a simple mob because it's just limiting me as a player. I fail to see how forcefully converting people that then almost /have/ to do the same to other people with no choices attached adds anything to any roleplay. Yes, it's partly on the community. And some players can make this work. But if only 10% of the community can make this gamemode work then I have to look for the problem in the gamemode rather than the community. Cult is literally the only gamemode left with a clear "greentext": Summon Nar'Sie. Meaning: It takes away roleplaying freedom. If I wanted to be a dark, brooding eldritch deity-worshipping character, I would have ticked that antag box. I didn't do it for a reason. There is no creativity left in cult. Get creative, update it. Make it a cyber cult or something. It doesn't even fit with a space theme right now. Right now cult requires as much brain as doing a good zerg rush on starcraft. Get more to convert more to win. And that's the problem, the cult has to play to win. Change that goal. They need to play to roleplay, not to win.

Ron, it's the same as when vampire logs show up that your mind goes blank, or when you are being dominated. When you get converted, the log that appears is literally "there is no you, only the cult". You have to adhere to that.

No, Ron, you're wrong. The CT /can/ be called at two hours, but it doesn't have to be. Same reason why malf AIs rush system override is so they can do something fun before their time is up because they couldn't do anything due to the research taking too long and people thinking the round is boring. I also never said you had to obey the ones that converted you. I said that you don't have a choice in why you do the actions you do after you get converted. You can disagree on what other cultists do, but if you do, it /has/ to be in favor of the cult as a whole. You have no choice in that. Also, by any means, share what you think needs fixing.

Warning: Huge amounts of salt for this gamemode incoming. I am going to seriously propose something, however, so skip to the end to see what it is. Let me start by saying, I absolutely hate cult and everythiung about it as it is now. Like, rotting away in a prison cell for a day seems more fun than to play this broken shitty gamemode hate. That much, yes. Why is it bad? Now, onto the why. Cult, at it's concept, is already terrible for a roleplay game. It's only fun for the people starting as cult - since they chose for it - but for everyone else? Roleplay, at its core, is having input on the choices you make with your character. As soon as you are converted? Woops, no more free will, sucks to be you, you now have to only help the cult. You can't do nothing, you can't go against them, not allowed to cryo unless IRL shenanigans because it will be meta. Your character HAS to make their choices in such a way that they aid the cult. To be basic: Your input has been taken away. You're not roleplaying anymore, you're playing a strategy game of "how do I convert until nar'sie". Might as well play a MOBA or an MMO, that's how much input you have left. Maybe not even. Oh, and if you decide to not join the cult, and resist conversion? Too fucking bad, you die and get captured like a pokémon as a ghost, put into some shitty construct and are forced to be cult anyway. Lore Issues It doesn't stop at the mechanical issues, oh no. I may have said this somewhere before, but cult's lore makes no sense at all. So, okay, you have Nar'Sie. Some people worship him, yadda yadda. Good so far, right? Okay, so the cult starts with 3 people, all of which get a single word to make runes with. Okay, cooperation. Fine. So, what happens when someone gets converted? They immediately know how to accurately draw runes, get a word whispered into them, know how to correctly pronounce each word instantly and what rune does what. What? If Nar'Sie can do that, why not make one omnipotent cultist? Or, give all the cultists the words right from the get-go? Or, better yet, appear at roundstart so the round is over and we can get back to doing actual fun things. Okay maybe not that last one, but you get what I mean. It doesn't make any sense. Where are hte initiation rites? The making of a sacred place for Nar'Sie? There is seriously none of that. The AI going to telecomms to be powered by a magic SMES makes more sense than this bullshit. How to Fix it For starters, fix the lore issues. Do not instantly turn someone. Make them do an initiation rite, and slowly let them slip away so there is actual opportunity to RP it out. Give the cultists a bit more cult-y things to do than "ooh blood drawings". Might as well be called "magic hooligans" and use magical graffiti instead. Give them more than one goal to work with. Make conversions a little harder to do, and maybe not lethal when someone doesn't want to. In short, make it more interesting and fix the issues with the lore. Either that, or remove it from secret rotation so people know what they are getting into when it is actually voted cult. Cult, as it is now, is shitty and broken and not fun at all. I'm not talking about people playing the cultists, but the gamemode itself is just hugely toxic to a RP environment. The Propositon So, I have several propositions for this. -We can remove it from secret rotation so it's only cult when voted. -We can remove it until the issues listed are fixed, or updated to be actually fun. -We can remove cult altogether. There is, of course, also the option to do none of these. If this turns into a poll, and the option to leave it as is is selected, I will drop it and stop being salty about this gamemode, and concede to playing it. If there is no poll, I will not change my ways. Please tell me your thoughts in a post/vote in a poll if that happens. Thank you.

These are very nice! Do you take requests on this thread or do we look somewhere else?

Right, first off, thanks for the replies and constructive remarks. I used the Unathi lore page mostly, and went mostly from that. Jackboot, your concern over the hospital thing. The doctors debunked the theory in their eyes, but never convinced Anszar. I maybe should have mentioned somewhere it has to do with Anszar believing it's the spirits causing it, according to the Th'akh belief, but I didn't find a good way to incorporate it into the story. Muncorn, about the skrell thing, I said it was taken at face value. So (almost) without lore knowledge. The contact war, well, he was taught about it, and he doesn't like it, but he's not had personal experience with it, so his opinion is veeery distant. As for the cold war, well, he isn't outright hostile to skrell, but most certainly distrusting. And nanotrasen because one, he thought he needed to find the cure off-planet and two, it went via contacts of the clan elder. As for the personality thing, well. I can't establish a 100% solid personality without playing him once or twice first.

BYOND Key:TrickingTrapster Character Names:Yumi Yotin, Albert Gizro, Rose Gizro, Ranie Raf'Iqa, Megan Thuris, Emily Overdale, Miles Houther, Astrid Austad. Species you are applying to play:Unathi What color do you plan on making your first alien character (Dionaea & IPCs exempt):Red. Have you read our lore section's page on this species?:I have. Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph format. One paragraph minimum per question Why do you wish to play this specific race:I have been playing dominantly humans and every now and then a tajara, even after having my tajara whitelist for quite a while now. I thought it was time for a change, some new roleplaying to do, and the only (to me) interesting choices were Unathi and Skrell. Taking them on face value without reading the lore pages, skrell just seemed like human squids with more intelligence, while unathi had this whole honor thing going on. After reading the Unathi lore page, I definitely think this would make for some fun roleplaying to come. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human:Aside from the obvious s hissing and mechanical differences, Unathi have a whole honor and social system that is radically different to human's way of socializing and attaining respect. Unathi also have a different way of expressing comfort and discomfort than humans, which I find interesting and probably have to adapt to using. Character Name:Naz'Relz Anszar Please provide a short backstory for this character, approximately 2 paragraphsHailing from Moghes, born on the outskirts of the capital, Naz'Relz was born as the youngest son of the fourth most important family of the Anszar clan. Having two older, and by extension, somewhat more important brothers left Naz'Relz with more free time as a child, usually spent playfighting with other children during the day and watching shuttles fly to and from the city in the evening. One fateful day, when Naz'Relz was 13, his father was diagnosed with a terminal illness and left as a Guwandi three days later. Rumors between the clan's men and children was that it was caused by the air of the Wasteland already covering the entire planet. Naz'Relz himself didn't want to add to the conversation, but the fact it was possible haunted his mind for many years, even after seeking spiritual help. Then, when he was 24, looking at a shuttle leaving the city, it suddenly hit him: He could look for an opportunity to counteract this Wasteland air outside of the planet! When he discussed this with the clan, some members were skeptical, but most saw it as a logical conclusion, including the clan elder. The clan elder had a way to get him this opportunity. However, it included being bound to one of those megacorporations for some time. Naz'Relz replied that it was a small offer for an opportunity for safety for the clan, and thusly the elder got him into contact with NanoTrasen. After two years of frantic searching and asking around his workplaces as a security officer, however, he found out that rumor about the Wasteland air was just that: A rumor. Now, he is still bound by contract to work for Nanotrasen, relieved that the Wasteland air wasn't causing the illness. In the back of his mind, however, he thought of the possibility of it happening later... What do you like about this character?Aside from being an exciting new species to play, as mentioned above, I think having some sort of personal goal of preserving his clan's safety from this "Wasteland air" that actually doesn't exist would make for some fun interactions with people. This would also make him pretty triggered when hearing about nukes, aside from the fact that nukes caused the Wasteland to begin with. How would you rate your role-playing ability?Purple out of Wednesday. I mean 8/10. Certainly not perfect and room for improvement, but solid and consistent. Notes:I may have to familiarize myself with some Unathi mannerisms once I start playing, though it didn't take long with my Tajara so I think that will sort itself out.

To add to Sierra's thing, even if it's not due to an antag thing, getting it by the CCIA means it's made canon, right? And we can't have that, because then people outside of whitelists may know about it. And if that's made canon, well, goodbye secret nuke forever.

As far as I know, this rule was enforced because people were talking about the nuke in non-captain positions with their captain characters. And not just a few cases, either, but a whole lot. The nuke is supposed to be restricted knowledge to the captain, and the captain ONLY, outside of central command. And we can't say "memory wipe" and be done with it. If people hadn't spoken up about the nuke like that this would not have been needed. Sorry to say, but the community brought this upon themselves, as far as I'm aware.