Stage 1 Lingfixes

[Kaed]

https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/5865

I'm finally doing it. Praise.

This is Stage 1 of my ling rework. It is intended to be a standalone fix that corrects one of the particularly frustrating aspects of changeling, along with a few minor QoL tweaks. There WILL be more stuff later as I continue the rework, but this is sorely needed now.

Here is what it has done:
-There is now an ability called Absorb DNA available to all changelings, it has replaced the old ability of the same name.
--It can target anyone adjacent to you, and they can't move or it fails.
--It takes the same time as a normal succ, but you don't have to grab them, you just have to chat with them or whatever to encourage them to remain put. You know, roleplay and stuff.
--It does not kill the target, or work on other changelings.
--After it is completed, you receive 1 DNA point
--Approximately 10-15 seconds after you complete the process, the target will receive a small but noticeable amount of genetic damage. This is do prevent people from immediately flipping the fuck out because they took damage and pointing at the person next to them as the cause.

-The extract DNA sting has been commented out of the power list for now

The original flavor succ is still there, but it has been renamed to Full DNA Extraction. Using it gives you 10 5 DNA points.

Also, the old 'large organic needle' meme has been replaced with something more generic.

Edited December 29, 2018 by Kaed

[sonicgotnuked]

3 minutes ago, Kaed said:

The original flavor succ is still there, but it has been renamed to Full DNA Extraction. Using it gives you 10 DNA points, though if you think that is too many, I can reduce it. Maybe to 5? I want it to be rewarding as killing someone is supposed to a rare thing for antags.

I would make it 5. This would immediately unlock horror form if I go decide to succ someone or a proto-human. 

[Kaed]

Reasonable.  Done.

[sonicgotnuked]

Also I got a request: Another almost DNA extract that would give you 3-4 genetic points.

 

It would seriously fuck up someones memory, but it also screws up someones genome so bad that they change appearance, have a chance of changing species, or perhaps get husked. Perhaps it would scar the person mentally with the amount of pain so they remember being attacked by a monster but they don't remember the person or situation.

 

Just an idea of course. 

[Kaed]

I will add it to the idea table for later.  Right now I'm trying to keep this PR as atomic as possible so that it gets through as soon as possible.  It's sorely needed.

Edited December 29, 2018 by Kaed

[sonicgotnuked]

Reasonable

[GreenBoi]

FUCKING PRAISE! If this goes through I may actually have a reason to enable Changeling and roleplay. The role's always had a good theme and atmosphere, but with this. I could actually get to the higher tiers to do more interesting things.

[Garnascus]

These changes are a good direction to take changeling in. I have one issue though. It says that the absorb DNA takes as long as the normal succ. The normal succ took.... quite a while and thats a long time to ask to stand adjacent to someone. It definitely should have a time but im wondering if just making it the same is a little too long. Added to it a lot of characters never let people get within a tile of them. 

[Kaed]

6 hours ago, Garnascus said:

These changes are a good direction to take changeling in. I have one issue though. It says that the absorb DNA takes as long as the normal succ. The normal succ took.... quite a while and thats a long time to ask to stand adjacent to someone. It definitely should have a time but im wondering if just making it the same is a little too long. Added to it a lot of characters never let people get within a tile of them. 

How much do you think it should be shortened to?

[Kaed]

I've made an alternate version that takes about 35% of the time previously required (3 stages instead of 4, each half as long, for a total of 22.5 seconds instead of 60)  Does that seem acceptable to you?

I admit my main concern is that if I make it too short it will encourage people to treat it like they do stings, i.e. running around doing it on everyone without a word.

Edited December 30, 2018 by Kaed

[Garnascus]

I would be blindly speculating if i tried to think how short it should be. Its prooooobably not a huge issue if its too long to start though. We can always make it shorter. 

[Kaed]

It's been over four days with no requests for changes or approvals. I'm not even tagged as being under a waiting period, which I recall being 3 days when skull wrote the new rules out?  Is there anything else I need to do?

Edited January 2, 2019 by Kaed

[driecg36]

I think it should be 15 seconds, or around there. 22 seconds is a long time for someone to sit still, and I doubt it'd be very useful like that tbh.

[Evandorf]

This is a more complex suggestion and I would expect the simpler changes to go through first but I wanted to put it out there. 

As far as I know Changeling is restricted to organic crew. Makes sense but even though I enjoy the game mode I play synths a lot. Can we open this up to synth players using a kind of T1000/nanite swarm aesthetic?

I know it would require changes to the flavor text, names of abilities, and sprites but let me know if you think it's feasible.

[Kaed]

We're going to try 22 seconds and then shorten its if needed. Right now what this needs is a playtest rather than wild speculation on how long is too long. As Garn said it can always be shortened later.

As for synthetics, the simple answer is no there will not be any implementation of synthetic based changelings. Their purpose if they want to be in a rounds with changelings, is to be a counteracting force, as they are immune to being impersonated and parasited and are extremely difficult to kill with Conventional Weapons. I do not share the philosophy that antagonist roles have to be all inclusive. I had no choice when we kept IPC cultists and I had no choice when we kept wizard robots, nboth of which I protested against.

If I'm going to be putting in the work coating this, then I think my design philosophy should have some merits.

If you want to add a liquid metal changeling robot, then code it yourself. I realize I sound a little hostile and I apologize, but I'm a little sick of people acting like synthetic players deserve all the treats that everyone else has when they already have their own treats that no one else has.

Edited January 3, 2019 by Kaed

[Evandorf]

That's understandable, although to be fair this is less about normal syntheic crew benefits and more about a specific antag. 

 

I agree with you that cult synths are ridiculous and I wouldn't want to implement vamp synths. Wizard synths can be fine depending on how they flavor it; making it more tech based and less magical. To me, liquid metal changlings are more acceptable simply because of the scifi precedent but I'm not going to make you work on and implement something you don't agree with. 

[Kaed]

I also added a new bit of code: If you perform absorb on someone who has over 100 genetic damage, you skip the stealthy timer entirely, and they immediately husk on the spot. As a result, you are encouraged to not over-feed on a single person if you are trying to be stealthy, because due the variable amount of genetic damage you deal each time, you will get between 6-9 DNA points from them before they obviously turn into a gross husked monster and reveal that something is going on.

Husked people no longer are useful for absorbing DNA for in any fashion, but it's worth noting that unlike with the probiscus succ, they do NOT necessarily die, they just briefly are paralyzed with the pain of their DNA corrupting from over-extraction.  They WILL likely begin shrieking over the radio in this event.

Edited January 4, 2019 by Kaed

[Itanimulli]

A synth changeling would work completely differently anyhow and be a huge damn headache. I like what you have here so far.

[Skull132]

Stage 1 is merged and now live.

[PoZe]

Moved to complete projects, since it is merged