Remove Transform Sting

[Susan]

It does not add anything.

It is irreversible.

It is stupid.

Every single occasion I've ever seen it used is either spamming it in the halls to change people, or spamming it to piss off security when in custody.

It offers nothing to the round.

[Lady_of_Ravens]

I strongly agree. This ability basically exists to create a distraction... and it does so at the cost of irreversibly disfiguring characters, usually with no RP. I'd rather be ganked.

Alternately, making the effect of the sting temporary would pretty much solve the problem as well.

[LordFowl]

Instead of removing it, rework it so that it just transforms the target into their simple mob counterpart, and increase its cost.

[SierraKomodo]

Personally, I think making it a temporary effect would be the best fix to the issues. As genetics no longer exists, it's now impossible to change back unless the antag decides to change you back.

[LordFowl]

Personally, I think making it a temporary effect would be the best fix to the issues. As genetics no longer exists, it's now impossible to change back unless the antag decides to change you back.

 

Genetics being gone is no more than a temporary byproduct of the code switch. It should be returning along with the new map.

[Lady_of_Ravens]

Personally, I think making it a temporary effect would be the best fix to the issues. As genetics no longer exists, it's now impossible to change back unless the antag decides to change you back.

 

Genetics being gone is no more than a temporary byproduct of the code switch. It should be returning along with the new map.

 

It's my understanding that genetics is staying gone... but irregardless, a geneticists can't restore a person's original UI unless they already have it backed up. The best I've ever seen a geneticist do is give someone a random protohuman's UI... hopefully of the right gender.

[Guest]

This would be depressing, because it would eliminate the ability to reliably transform your captured victim into you, then absorb them and then change into them.

This strategy is probably one of the more fun ways to play changeling (and it makes forensics so fucking confused). I say that changeling players that spam this should be scrutinized instead for character griefing.

[LordFowl]

Countering the hallway spam would be adding an activation message, so that everyone knows who the dickweed changeling is that's trying to turn everyone into a kawaii lesbay scientist with floor length hair.

Perhaps make it un-activatable when bound? I too like Delta's strategy, but the strategies mentioned by Sue are very irritating.

[Skull132]

Mayhaps it might be an idea to make the effect only work on corpses? That way the strategy would be functional, but you couldn't just lolsting a live target.

Another alternative is to make it loud and require time to complete. If you get transform stung, the ling could have then very well consumed you anyways.

I also realized we're missing Duck's patch on making ling stings loud.

[Guest]

Another alternative is to make it loud and require time to complete. If you get transform stung, the ling could have then very well consumed you anyways.

 

Yes. This would immediately oust the changeling and overall stop them from spamming it, as it isn't a cheese sting that the ling can immediately get away with.

[Guest]

Why not make the transformation temporary?

[Guest]

Why not make the transformation temporary?

 

Because then my above strategy would be completely useless.

[Lessick]

Why not make the transformation temporary?

 

Because then my above strategy would be completely useless.

 

Is there a way to make it temporary in living characters, but permanent in dead people? Something that gets processed (very slowly) in the blood? It sounds... probably way too complicated coding-wise, but. That'd address both ends, ignoring the noise level of the sting previously mentioned, anyway.

...Also, if you have anyone changing back suddenly in front of someone else, it might make "evidence" for them being the shapeshifting intruder, rather than the real changeling.

[Carver]

Could just make it last 10 or so minutes. Enough to do something sneaky or cause a distraction, but will still wear off afterwords. Both on living and dead bodies.

[UnknownMurder]

Or... We can just... Like absorbing the DNA, you must give up time for the transformation to take effect. The transformation sting literally can't happen at the speed of a light, that only works in games - Oh wait.

Proposal:

The victim would be suffering transformation.. Such as.. A minute later after stung. Your nose feels weird... Four minutes... Your hair is changing... Two Minutes... Your skin has gotten darker... A minute... Your eye color has changed.. You get general consensus. However, probably give an interval of one is transforming in progress, you cannot use it until transformation is finished.

Or...

Grab, Choke, transform!

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Transformation sting is necessary to hide the identity of your previous victim's corpse.

Transform sting spamming should be punished as bad-rp, the entire mechanic doesn't need to be removed.

[SierraKomodo]

Transformation sting is necessary to hide the identity of your previous victim's corpse.

Transform sting spamming should be punished as bad-rp, the entire mechanic doesn't need to be removed.

 

This i would be fine with, and i think this is probably the best route to go, perhaps combining with an emote/delay on the transformation to help deter public spam

[K0NFL1QT]

Transform sting is easily reversible if you had bothered to go see your Geneticist at the start of the shift. The scanning process takes maybe a minutes worth of RP and is a sure guarantee against character death, or gene-based fuckery.

For some reason people hated going in for a scan despite the benefits. It's why a PDA cartridge for Geneticists that scans a copy of the targets genetics onto the database would have been great. Or start the round with every present crewmembers genetics pre-loaded on the database.

[Guest Menown]

Transform sting is easily reversible if you had bothered to go see your Geneticist at the start of the shift. The scanning process takes maybe a minutes worth of RP and is a sure guarantee against character death, or gene-based fuckery.

 

Really at any given time, there's a nine out of eleven chance that the geneticist is a ling, so it's not like this is actually viable.

[K0NFL1QT]

Transform sting is easily reversible if you had bothered to go see your Geneticist at the start of the shift. The scanning process takes maybe a minutes worth of RP and is a sure guarantee against character death, or gene-based fuckery.

 

Really at any given time, there's a nine out of eleven chance that the geneticist is a ling, so it's not like this is actually viable.

 

You shouldn't be playing on that assumption anyway. And even if they are a 'ling, what danger does it pose you to prevent your character getting a standard back-up? Precisely none. A 'lingneticist already has a stackload of monkeys they can absorb for free points without incurring any extra attention due to people disappearing, and nobody really cares about dead science monkeys turning up.

[Guest Menown]

You shouldn't be playing on that assumption anyway.

 

So why can I play on the assumption something's going to happen that requires me to get a genetic scan?

[K0NFL1QT]

You shouldn't be playing on that assumption anyway.

 

So why can I play on the assumption something's going to happen that requires me to get a genetic scan?

 

Because you don't -know- for certain whether the shift will be calm and quiet, or hectic and bloody, irregardless of the game-mode. There's plenty of reasons to assume that 'something bad might happen', without pre-planning for anything specific. You're on a floating tin can in space, and in a lot of places the only thing separating you from cold vacuum is two fucking sheets of glass. By the way, cyborgs don't give two shits about opening airlocks into vented areas. Plasma based accidents happen, entire departments or the whole station can go up in flames or vanish utterly when that toxins guy messes up their mix. Engine malfunctions can happen; this used to mean a giant blackhole tears the station in half, but now only an entire department gets vaporised. Some assholes with guns may decide to roll up on Big NT and see how much loot they can skedaddle with. The station might have portions of it utterly decimated by meteors. You may get killed in the everyday requirements of your job, especially if you're security. None of these are specific to antags but are inherent dangers of working on a very profitable space station.

Getting your shit backed up should be standard procedure, if not outright enforced by corporate policy.

[Guest]

If the genetics fuckery is done or not doesn't even matter if we opt out for the less gamebreaking, annoying option of making the tranformation sting less subtle. We all know some sort of ling and wizard power revamp is a long awaited refreshement to the stale Aurora formula.

[Xelnagahunter]

You shouldn't be playing on that assumption anyway.

 

So why can I play on the assumption something's going to happen that requires me to get a genetic scan?

 

Because you don't -know- for certain whether the shift will be calm and quiet, or hectic and bloody, irregardless of the game-mode. There's plenty of reasons to assume that 'something bad might happen', without pre-planning for anything specific. You're on a floating tin can in space, and in a lot of places the only thing separating you from cold vacuum is two fucking sheets of glass. By the way, cyborgs don't give two shits about opening airlocks into vented areas. Plasma based accidents happen, entire departments or the whole station can go up in flames or vanish utterly when that toxins guy messes up their mix. Engine malfunctions can happen; this used to mean a giant blackhole tears the station in half, but now only an entire department gets vaporised. Some assholes with guns may decide to roll up on Big NT and see how much loot they can skedaddle with. The station might have portions of it utterly decimated by meteors. You may get killed in the everyday requirements of your job, especially if you're security. None of these are specific to antags but are inherent dangers of working on a very profitable space station.

Getting your shit backed up should be standard procedure, if not outright enforced by corporate policy.

 

Bolding contradicting statements. If NT sent a copy of everyone's genetic code then sure. But my characters usually refuse to line up outside of genetics to have his DNA handled unless he's working a hazardous job like mining or engineering, and even then it requires prompting and good RP from a geneticist. I have no reason to beleive, ICly at least, that shit is going down. Meteors are avoidable if you get to station center, plasma accidents and engine malfunctions should not happen as those are routine jobs that should have people who know what they are doing, and they should be containable by their procedures, and no one should be fighting security enough on a regular basis to cause loss of life. These are all supposed to be isolated events (read: antag actions) that don't happen on the regular.

I find your argument invalid, for the most part.

[K0NFL1QT]

Not contradicting. Pirates attack off-shore oil wells, I was referring to that sort of activity. I did not say Nuke Ops/Mercenaries, just assholes with guns. I'm sure they would exist even if we set aside the Syndicate (who are the actual antag incarnations of 'dudes with guns' and are more terrorist than opportunist pirates). Point is, there's assholes with guns and they may or may not be Syndicate but NT sure has a lot of valuable stuff lying around if you're motivated enough to try and take it. The universe isn't Grimdark, but neither is it Hippy-Dippy Love-Powered. Bad shit happens.

http://nypost.com/2013/10/24/pirates-kidnap-us-captain-and-engineer-off-oil-ship/

Disregarding antags completely, accidents happen in any industrial work place. And if Security weren't expected to be confronted with lethal force then they'd not have lethal weapons to match, nor increasing degrees of body armor, nor would there be any entry for Assault and Murder in corporate regulations because, by your summation, 'its just not something you should act as if you expect'.

I'm sure NT goes through great lengths to provide a safe working environment, or at least make the employees think they're safe, but accidents happen and sometimes people are dicks. Security is trained, and expected, to deal with aggression and/or lethal intent by employees or outsiders.