Antagonist Melee Preparation

[Colfer]

It always irked me that antagonists had the same simple slashy or batty type of hit that is identical to normal crewmembers despite whatever training or knowledge they would have as an antagonist with no real upgrades or improvements on it. This suggestion is about an "Antagonist Melee Preperation" for antags to use against their target which disable/incapacitate most targets in a single precise strike, in order to let gimmicks move along smoothly or to disable a target quickly.

How this would work is this:
All antagonists have a new verb called "Prepare To Strike" which can be accessed via the right click menu when used on a mob of any kind. Using the verb, the antagonist will get a notification that they are "looking for weaknesses on the target that can be exploited" and warns them not to break line of sight and after 1 minute, they gain some weapon relevant boost against that mob. It would also give the affected mob a warning in the chat that says "You feel like you are being watched/You feel anxious" so that the player can either prepare to defend themselves, or prepare to be a victim of an attack, whichever they feel they want (If they happen to want to be apart of a story by playing along as a victim)

Examples:
John Traitor wants to incapacitate the chef in order to take his uniform and make human meat, he has a baseball bat in his inventory and wants to use it to knock out the chef. He prepares an attack for a minute and sneaks in the back after its finished and attacks the chef in the head with the baseball bat, which knocks the chef out, allowing him to take his uniform in order to fufill his gimmick.

Jane Traitor wants to take out the captain in one swift strike but shes being escorted by security, she managed to sneak a knife into one of her pockets and prepares to strike the captain as he informs her that she will be executed for her crimes, after he is done, she informs him that it was a mistake for him to bring her here unprepared, and pulls out the knife and stabs the captain, which (according to this weapon type has a 100% chance to embed on prepare strike), embeds into him and stuns him for a moment, allowing her to pull a pen off her ear and teleport out with it (Teleporter pen exists, I think. I've seen it before?)

Why is this important?:
To me, it feels that antagonists are more or less the same as crewmembers with a catalog of things they can use (unless they arent a traitor/ninja/merc/etc) and it would be neat to be able to preform silent takedowns on the crew hitman style should they need to. Being able to prepare attack with unconventional items such as cable coils which will strangle a target, or a beer bottle to knock down a person would be great. (Also because we could recreate the OG starwars scene where a light saber cuts off a guys hand in one hit during a fight)

Isnt this overpowered/abusable/annoying to deal with/etc?:
It might be, and may require tweaking. But I figured to balance it out, you can only lock on to one mob at a time, and it only counts for one strike against the target which has special weapon related effects + just a good amount of extra damage. Lastly, this would only apply to melee weapons, and most armors would prevent disabling type of effects and instead just adding extra damage. EG: baseball bats cannot knock out a security officer wearing a helmet, but may knock it off.

Do all antagonists really need this feature?:
Probably not. I just find it useful for being able to do a gimmick or letting antagonists use non-weapon items as weapons with special verbs (such as cable coils). Or to emphasize a point. The only antagonist I can currently think of right now that might not require this feature is blood cult, since they are inherently murderous and have the tools to commit it already.
Traitor borgs could probably also benefit from this feature by allowing traitor medical borgs to prepare to strike with a hypospray to instantly inject a cocktail of neurotoxins or something.

[Tennessee116]

I haven't played on Aurora long enough to have actually rolled antagonist, but this sounds okay. However, I feel like the warning is a little off. Maybe instead of-

Quote

 "You feel like you are being watched/You feel anxious"

You could do-

Quote

"Something feels wrong."

 

[Pratepresidenten]

I feel that the whole warning your target subconsciously is gonna be meta'd the fuck out of, and I dont care for it at all.

I'd rather it be a preparational ability with a longer cooldown or something of the sort. Like the parapen for example. Its a quick jab to stun the target for a moment, but instead of using drugs, you use whatever you have on hand (Even your hand).

Alternately, this could be incorporated into a martial arts book, either new or old, to act as a single strike stun aimed at the mouth or something.

[Rotharia]

I agree with Prate, in a perfect world the warning message would work as way to give the victim options, but in practice I feel it's just gonna be a disappointing ability nobody can ever get off because people just run.

I think his suggestion for a prep skill with a long cooldown works, since your want was specifically for you to be able to embed knives and such. A side suggestion, either using your hand or a blunt object on a limb is a guaranteed fracture. I like the idea of an antag crippling his prisoners, either for pure torture or to ensure they have a harder time getting away.

[Eple]

I like this alot, then people who doesnt want to be part of whatevers going on, can move away, and i think antags needs to be able to go for a target without haveing to announce it on coms that theyr after sombody.

so in this case they would at least feel stalked and notice something is wrong and offer many ways to be slightly paranoid, seeking help ect, i just see so many ways one can rp around it.

 

its gona be interesting to see if it gets implemented.

[Carver]

I like the chance to run away. There's a fairly strong value in making someone want to get the fuck out.

[Butterrobber202]

11 hours ago, Carver said:

I like the chance to run away. There's a fairly strong value in making someone want to get the fuck out.

Correct, which is why it is a poor idea. 9/10 players will flee the moment they get the message, likely behind access locked doors the Antag won't be able to circumvent stealthily. 

I like the idea, but it would def had to be tested out. I'm also with a mind of Prate. 

Unless you can stack it with levels to increase the effect, I don't see any value in the warning.

[Carver]

29 minutes ago, Butterrobber202 said:

Correct, which is why it is a poor idea. 9/10 players will flee the moment they get the message, likely behind access locked doors the Antag won't be able to circumvent stealthily. 

I like the idea, but it would def had to be tested out. I'm also with a mind of Prate. 

Unless you can stack it with levels to increase the effect, I don't see any value in the warning.

Without a warning it's essentially just gank+, and I already heavily dislike parapens for removing thought involved in trying to disable someone. Making people fuck right off has a fairly intrinsic value in creating space for you to act a 'plan B'. Overall though, perhaps I rather just dislike this suggestion overall for creating an inexplicable case of 'The Traitor is arbitrarily physically superior to a normal person', which for the most part doesn't really exist outside of wrestling/solcom manuals.

[Susan]

The parapen exists for a reason. You have tools for this. Instant stuns were mitigated from the game (stun baton, e-bow) because their counterplay is non-existent. I really don't see the need for this with the (in my opinion) outrageous TC reductions that were merged in making purchasing tools like the parapen even cheaper and easier than it was previously.

Because, really, what would actually happen is the antag gets cornered by security and stalls for time until they can 1-shot click an officer. Might as well give them back their instant-down tasers then.