Changeling Expansion

[Camellia]

Title:  

Changeling Gameplay

What is this request about?: 
Request, though big, a rework on changeling to give it diversity.

How would this effect the server?:
For one, I feel the big thing about changeling is how restrictive it is.

To "progress" or drive a gimmick, you sort of need to kill and devour others and, while yes, there have been one off cases where changelings are decapping others 7 into the rounds, restricting people to horror form or blade arm is very boring for everyone for everyone involved, this is why this thread will be advocating for diversity.

To this end, i've written up some possible changes to the changeling antagonist;

Bioweapon;

"You are a mutant agent made by a power only you are aware of. You have access to an armory of organic creatures that serve your aims, ranging from spiders that explode into gas to flames that can deny an area, preventing entrance or taking others down to you, but ultimately, what you do is up to your employers. Good luck, operative."

>Access to optional objectives that give you upgrade points.

They allow you to become more durable, focus on the aforementioned organic creatures or faster, what you upgrade yourself with depends on you but being a jack of all trades is not advised. These objectives can be traditional "steal x or y" items and ship it back to your employers or, you could simply consume organic matter.

You can either retrain your humanity or become a creature that can lay and command spiders.

Leach;

"You have been infected with a mysterious infection. You must resign yourself somewhere and spread your infestation. Your infestation allows you to infest/control robotics and place souls into custom made automata that serve your goals, from scout bots to a very expensive droid with a laser carbine. Propagate, steal energy and reveal yourself for the glory of [DATA EXPUNGED]

>Tower defense like antagonist

Start out small, sort of like a blob, you leach power from departments over time, you can hide through vents though at a certain stage, you are too massive to hide in vents and you have given up your humanity. Ions and fire are very much deadly as well, and your "CPU" can only handle so many bio-organic droids, think the WAU:

 

The Assimilator;

You are a swarm of nanites, purely technological. Your main weapons are subterfuge and stealth. Your goal is to absorb the genomes of crew members and to consume inorganic matter to further heal and mend yourself. Weaponry is very deadly so you are to hide until you grow stronger, attempting to assimilate the AI however, might yield interesting results. . .

 

>You can infect crew members.

Purely optional thing that too, maybe. Allows those to be infected to either be an antag or be cured. Assimilators can perfectly mimic and impersonate other crew members save for the actual mannerisms. They find themselves unable to take memories from others as well. If you are able to assimilate the AI, however, you become a fully charged Leach, forcing crew members to start relying not on technology but themselves.

 

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This thread was made in response to the current problems facing changeling, expanding on the more alien aspects of the changeling concept with themes of biological weapons and technological infestations/themes, a complete facelift here, rather than just changes to what we have already.

[Sparky_hotdog]

I'd be down for this. As is changeling is mile better than it was say, six months ago imho, but that still doesn't mean its perfect. These options all seem cool, and simply by virtue of creating more options for what exactly a changeling is you increase the variety of the rounds, and reduce the weirdly repetitive nature of ling at times (Ling dies, medbay autopsy, ling revives, repeat).