Rework Changeling Regen

[Susan]

We all know this story. Changeling is being a butt. Changeling is shot. Changeling 'dies'. Two minutes later it regenerates, still straitjacketed, prompting security to go 'o no so spoopy' and shoot it again until they decide to cremate it.

Regenerative stasis is crap. Changelings are basically utterly invincible short of cremation or sawing their head off, and there's no roleplay fostered by this ability. They just come back like a zombie. No bone squelching blood spurting horrible abomination like what someone would expect a mode based off The Thing to be. In essence;

 

 

So I propose a smart way to rework changeling stasis. If you guys remember from the movie, the scientist in the arctic outpost did in fact succeed in surprising and then torching The Thing, presuming that they killed it. But instead of it magically reviving, it did something more subtle, smarter.

Watch that, then come back to me. I'll wait. Go on.

You finished? Good. Because what I'm proposing is similar to that. When a Changeling dies and enters stasis, rather than reviving as some sort of not-spooky zombie, it instead attempts to save itself and pops its head off, creating a little headspider mob that can hide and ventcrawl similar to a mouse. The body is a shell left behind, and changelings with more points could possibly disconnect their other limbs, like their hands, to distract security or whoever as they escape. Hands like facehuggers, lunge at your face, stun you, while the headspider gets away.

 

 

So the changeling is a little headspider right now, and how does it become a force to be reckoned with again? It escapes somewhere safe and then proceeds to nest and regrow a body, since it is capable of doing so. During this time, the changeling is vulnerable and can be killed if the head suffers enough damage, but it can disengage from its nest to escape again if need be. Thus, the invincible boring zombie changeling is gone, the spoopy The Thing changeling returns, and to compensate for the loss of stupid overpoweredness, Greater Form could be reworked and re-added if the headspider or full changeling want to put themselves in harm's way to transform into their spooky ass self.

[EvilBrage]

At first, I found myself muttering, "well you could just wait instead of just hitting the stasis button immediately after you die so it's even spoopier when they see you later," but by the end there I found myself saying, "this is the creepiest fucking idea ever and I love it." We wouldn't really have to throw in or change Greater Form, just make the ability work like stasis does (that is, even after death, allow them to detach their head.) The downfall of many a changeling is that they don't exploit the fact that everyone thinks they are dead. Where do dead people go? The morgue. Typically with all of their things intact, so you could either break out or ambush the poor doctor who comes in next.

However, with spooky headcrab antics, I could see many, many more interesting things happen.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

This is a super cool idea. My only worry is: When a headspider regrows back into a human, they're nekked. It'll be extremely obvious to anyone intentionally or unintentionally meta'ing that this naked dude they found in the incinerator room is the ling; and even then it's IC suspicious.

The routes to take after the crew as a whole go "something mighty spoopy is going' on here" is to go back into hiding or do your final form and try to pick people off.

[Carver]

Could give changelings an ability to make fake 'organic' clothes, akin to the real versions. Think a chameleon suit without sensors, that's immediately noticeable if you try to take it off or you attack them.

[Guest]

Pretty badass, this would definitely fix the major grievances a lot of people have with the game mode.

[Hackie]

Would the headless thing be able to lunge at people like the headcrab? Or use any 'ling abilities? Or is it just some head that needs to regenerate?

[Susan]

We want the head to be vulnerable, but not entirely powerless. If discovered by a single guy it could stun him and flee. Defensive abilities, not offensive.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Could give changelings an ability to make fake 'organic' clothes, akin to the real versions. Think a chameleon suit without sensors, that's immediately noticeable if you try to take it off or you attack them.

 

Being able to shift outfits would be amazing. You could actually steal someone's identity much easier if all you had to do was take their ID and headset rather than strip them, spend the time changing, then dump the body + your old items before the random sec maintenance patrol 'stumbles' upon you.

[Guest]

There's a bigger Hitman thrill to it by stealing someone's clothes and dumping their naked corpse down disposals.

I recommend we not change that.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

There's a bigger Hitman thrill to it by stealing someone's clothes and dumping their naked corpse down disposals.

I recommend we not change that.

 

It could be an option, depending on your playstyle. There's different risk/rewards if the organic clothes cost DNA and can disappear if you are hit hard enough.

I'd see it like gooping a bunch of your organic material on the ground and it reforms into an outfit. Similar to Goon's emergency vacuum suits, it 'tears' and disappears after either a length of time or after taking some damage. It gives you time to assume the identity and dispose of the evidence, but also adds a ticking clock to actually finding proper clothes to wear.

[CoolfoolFTW]

Sounds like prototype.

[DeezyJ]

I was seriously thinking about your idea and i must admit i like it. I have changeling disabled in my antag options because when i play it i struggle too much between roleplay and absorbing as much genomes as possible. So this changes, as far as i understood, will bring a bit more fun for everyone.

However! It requires amazing coding and maybe some spriting skills (and enthusiasm) to bring your idea alive, which i, unfortunately, dont have.