Give genetic modifications a game-mechanics risk

[Lady_of_Ravens]

So, we all known genetics is a little... broken. In terms of RP it's quite risky and has a number of associated side effects (which are probably why humans are humans and not psi-hulks), but in game... not so much. There's some risk involved in injecting an SE, but even that's easily treated, and then you're golden (or at least luminescent). We need for the game mechanics to match the lore.

Now, I know I've suggested alterations to genetics before (in someone else's thread, I think, and ages ago), but I'm going to try and keep it simple this time. To this effect, I'm proposing three changes. First, add an ongoing risk associated with genetic powers which increases exponentially as you add more powers. Second, add two new powers which act to mitigate that risk. And third, and this is mostly a matter of taste, remove the silly glowy sprites which serve mostly as a means of alerting people you have powers... the fact that you're vomiting, developing suspicious rashes, and suffering b-b-b-brain damage ought to be enough of a hint.

For the first, every x number of minutes (not really sure what the best timing would be) each power you have gets a roll to see if it'll generate an effect, and each roll has, say, a 10% chance of causing an effect per power you have. So, the risk grows exponentially as you gain more powers.

Most of the effects would be pretty minor... 5-10 points of toxin damage, developing a rash, a period of twitchyness similar to what's caused by hyperzine, or similar annoyances. Intermediate effects could include hallucinations (though last time I checked our hallucinations are pretty crap), genetic damage, radiation poisoning, broken bones, large increase in toxins, and, to make things especially interesting, randomization of an SE block (so your powers could go away, develop new ones, or cause disabilities which have to be dealt with). If you're really unlucky you might get organ damage, spontaneously combust, suffer an extended (like, 10-20min) blackout, and so on. I don't really know enough about our medical code to know all of what's possible here.

Now, this all sucks, but that's why there are two new powers to stabilize other powers (they probably shouldn't count as powers for, like, determining your chances of generating an effect). One of the two new blocks dramatically increases the period of time between checks (perhaps by a factor of 5 or 10) and the second one has a similar effect on the severity of the effects (perhaps preventing severe effects entirely and reduce intermediate ones by, like, 80%). And this is where the science comes in... because the only way to find either of these blocks is by injecting subjects and then watching how fast they generate effects. It could be done on protohumans, but player test subjects would be better because they could report more of the problems. Either way, finding both should be a very serious achievement.

This might make genetics a wee big too risky if there are no medical staff around... on the other hand, it would mean that anyone leaving medbay while they have powers would be punished by the code, no harmbatons required. It would also make genetics a source of RP rather than a source of chucklefuckery. At least, that's the idea. There are a lot of refinements I could suggest, but like I said, I'm trying to keep this simple.

[Frances]

I can fully support this, though... I feel like genetics is gonna get deleted sooner than reworked (and honestly it shouldn't be there).

Anyway, the big problem is it can stay for antagging, and can stay for [legitimate scientific research], while the biggest issue with it is geneticists giving themselves powers every round to powergame while pretending to be cool. This suggestion would sorta solve this issue, or at the very least turn giving yourself powers for "cool factor" into a minor annoyance. Even better if power side effects display some ridiculous public messages.

[Garnascus]

The reality is there is more discussion and complaints regarding genetics than the effect genetics ever actually has on rounds. Its already incredibly boring, time consuming, and RNG based to get powers and a large portion of them are undetectable unless you inject yourself to see what they are.

Why do we need their to be mechanical repercussions to powers? It would be one thing if atags where constantly getting robusted by Dr. Xavier's institute of mutants but... That rarely happens. You have on average as a geneticist 2 to three hours to play with getting powers and that's assuming you make a beeline for the gene lab and have no trouble getting hyronalin to speed up research.

Also genetic defects are a thing. Blindness is the only one you can test for and then its hoping you get lucky to find out which block that one is too. By the the time you get enough powers an hour or more of the round has passed if you're lucky and then you have to repeat it all next round. The frustration people may feel by the presence of these powers pales in comparison to what its actually like being a geneticist. The RP and indeed the mechanical repercussions are enough to serve as limiters.

Also your suggestion on adding "powers" to mitigate the defect check. Literally nobody would test it as you say as they would serve to artificially lengthen and increase the already absurd amount of luck and time required.

[Frances]

I, for one, am not advocating lengthening the process of genetics research any further (Garnascus has a point), but I'd simply like to see something added to remove the "coolness" factor of "oh hey look at how I'm a superpowered hero just doing my job as a geneticist lol" while still giving antags a chance to use powers.

Basically, make giving yourself powers for a whole round for "testing" an extremely stupid or inconvenient thing, while mostly preserving it for antag things.

[Lady_of_Ravens]

The reality is there is more discussion and complaints regarding genetics than the effect genetics ever actually has on rounds. Its already incredibly boring, time consuming, and RNG based to get powers and a large portion of them are undetectable unless you inject yourself to see what they are.

Why do we need their to be mechanical repercussions to powers? It would be one thing if atags where constantly getting robusted by Dr. Xavier's institute of mutants but... That rarely happens. You have on average as a geneticist 2 to three hours to play with getting powers and that's assuming you make a beeline for the gene lab and have no trouble getting hyronalin to speed up research.

Also genetic defects are a thing. Blindness is the only one you can test for and then its hoping you get lucky to find out which block that one is too. By the the time you get enough powers an hour or more of the round has passed if you're lucky and then you have to repeat it all next round. The frustration people may feel by the presence of these powers pales in comparison to what its actually like being a geneticist. The RP and indeed the mechanical repercussions are enough to serve as limiters.

Also your suggestion on adding "powers" to mitigate the defect check. Literally nobody would test it as you say as they would serve to artificially lengthen and increase the already absurd amount of luck and time required.

 

I actually started out playing genetics back when I was new to SS13 and you somewhat overestimate it's difficulty. A single geneticist with an assistant as a test subject (I've always thought self-testing was bad form) can plow through the entire set of genetics possibilities in an hour or so. Less if you have two geneticists working the genome from either end. And what do you have to show for it? The ability to easily grant any genetic power in the game and create your very own psi-hulk super mutants. Which, unless you're an antag, is virtually useless.

Genetics isn't boring because it's too hard, it's boring because it's too easy. And the powers are useless not because they're actually useless, but because we have a very toxic attitude toward genetics due to how crazy-easy it is to abuse. I think the RP generated by looking for those to stabilizing blocks would be far more interesting than just being able to make powers noone ever uses.

 

I, for one, am not advocating lengthening the process of genetics research any further (Garnascus has a point), but I'd simply like to see something added to remove the "coolness" factor of "oh hey look at how I'm a superpowered hero just doing my job as a geneticist lol" while still giving antags a chance to use powers.

Basically, make giving yourself powers for a whole round for "testing" an extremely stupid or inconvenient thing, while mostly preserving it for antag things.

 

Well, this wouldn't actually lengthen the time necessary to find all the current power/disability blocks... so long as you didn't leave the powers on yourself or your test subject the risk would be low. It would make using those powers more dangerous as an antag, but even then you could carry a few syringes with power SEs and clean SEs to mitigate the risk.