Unapologetic Tajara Buffs

[VeteranGary]

Currently, Tajara have probably one of the most aggressive balance adjustments against them which seems disproportionate to what they boast mechanically. The 30%, 20%, and 10% Brute adjustment that causes them to take bonus damage, with absolutely zero other considerations towards how brainmed currently functions. Brute is the source of all of the scary critical injuries which kill people incredibly fast, compared to burn damage which hardly has any critical wounds beside possibly blood loss, shock induced asystole, or infections. This just leads to pretty much all tajara receiving the worst possible injury types incredibly often in even mundane scenarios such as dropping a crate, getting bit in a hand/foot from a simplemob, or the other common source; combat. Which is likely why this heavy-handed nerf was implemented in the first place.

What I find this ultimately does is just makes tajara mechanically adverse to play in any role that might sustain a moderate injury, namely mining, off-ship researcher roles and security. The increased damage leads to faster accumulation of critical and fatal injuries that make anything going for tajara just pointless. You get hit in the hand from a simplemob, stray bullet, all your speed goes into the shitter from the pain after the hit either; fractured, severed tendon, arterial, or all of the above at once. Then you cannot do anything to escape and must commit or die on the spot. Very fun and engaging roleplay, right? Same goes for getting hit literally anywhere else with 90% of firearms, will send a tajara to a medical visit if they aren't wearing a full set of basic/heavy armor and even sometimes that isn't enough. 

I think this adjustment was done in the days of pointmed/metasec and this holdover doesn't belong in our current setup of brainmed and hyper-lethality. 

Considerations of what tajara have versus their current penalties; walk speed and nightvision. If we are looking at nightvision purely from a balance perspective, it's not incredibly overpowered as NVGs are practically free some antagonists or one of the cheapest items in the uplink, or they can spend one more BC for flashproof thermals. And NVGs are pretty common in the warehouse circulation, so anyone can potentially have it. Tajara just get it at all times, alongside vaurca. Not really a strong reason to keep this nerf, and there is already a downside connected to this; higher chance of taking eye damage from headshots. And eye damage from flashes, but flash protection is stupidly common atm.

Speed, it is really not all that much once you put it to consideration. Their run is faster than most other races, but they trade this for overall distance and a significantly slower stamina pool/regeneration, and poor CQC capability. They have grab mods that make them incredibly easy to grab, and most tajara can barely hold a grab against almost any other species beside Skrell, as well as less stamina to disarm with. I don't think what it is currently is justification to make tajara players be round-ended faster than other species either by medical purgatory or just dying from stacking critical injuries. Pain is already incredibly unforgiving in the current state of brainmed, and usually all it takes is one or a couple good hits against a tajara to literally slow them to a crawl. Right now it's tuned to a point where tajara basically instantly go into paincrit whenever a papercut looks at them wrong, and it's honestly quite annoying.

Ultimately I think these value should be halved. 15% 10% and 5% for Msai, Tajara, and Zhan respectively, there is no reason for it to be like this in the current state of medical balance. Personally this feels like an overadjustment from a bygone era of balance; nobody is really playing for metas but instead roleplay.

[CatsinHD]

So, this has been something on my mind a lot recently. As to be expected, frankly. Having thought a lot about it, I've come to a few determinations and conclusions: Tajara are intended to be glass cannons, but fail at it. Now, some of this is the reality of combat on Aurora, SS13, and the nature of fighting on a ship. Mobility is hampered by enclosed hallways. Flanking is difficult when maintenance is the antag's domain. So! What are my thoughts?

To preface, this is my vision for the niche Tajara fill: Glass cannons and information gatherers. They're agile, they're fast, and they're the go-to for clandestine operations. Now, that last mention is out of place for the Horizon, but it does help in informing some of what we can look to for balancing. Generally, I am a strong believer in roles. In the same way Unathi are the tanks (to avoid opening a can of worms on Unathi balancing), Tajara are the rogues. 

So how do we emphasize this! Hear me out, some of the suggestions are a little out there.

• Provide Tajara the ability to extend their vision 2-3 tiles. Similar to the Aut'akh augment or binocs, but shorter range.
  • This achieves the information gathering AND glass cannon idea. It allows firing from beyond range, but the limited extension means a Tajara is still well within reach of being rushed down and shot. That additional range is also useful for spying from afar. The trade off? Taj are frail, and the extended range risks eye damage like having nightvision on.
• Allow sensitive hearing to inform the Tajara of a conversation through walls.
  • This is information gathering. Being able to hear noises through walls and conversations (potentially knowing who is talking) is very useful. Especially in maints where security are on the back foot. The trade off? You have sensitive hearing on. It puts you at greater risk of hearing damage and being stunned.
• Increase the amount of noises that can be detected with sensitive hearing.
  • Currently, it is mostly just used to listen for airlocks. This is limited and feels half-baked. Expand it!

Now, these are NEW items, mostly. This does not get into the brute modifier, speed, or sprint. I generally am for taking a new look at all of these. Tajara were balanced for an older era with hyperzine M'sai, point med, and all kinds of other things. Whether it's reducing the brute modifier, altering their sprint, or tweaking the movement speed. I'm for it. I'm for it for all of the species. However, as Tajara are the focus of this suggestion, it's what I'm focusing my thoughts onto.