Some ideas for improving Alcohol

[Nanako]

In real life, people love drinking. They enjoy it. Quite a lot of people spend most of their money on it, and do it every chance they get, it's become such an ingrained part of human culture, that we even invented a word for the Addiction to the stuff, Alcoholism

In SS13, there is an obvious attempt to reflect this part of culture. We have Lots of types of alcohol, we have a bar, and we have a dedicated role for it, the barman. At least one role, the detective, has his own supply of the stuff, and a little flask intended for carrying it around.

Characters can get drunk, and it causes slurring of speech, which is kind of fun, the first time at least.

However, i want to talk about practicality. In practical terms, your character being trunk is not actually that fun for the player, the speech slurring becomes annoying when you're trying to actually do anything, and as far as i'm aware, alcohol doesn't really have any other effects. Passing out drunk isn't really fun for the player, it just removes your control of your character for a while. These things don't help with a stressful job, they add to it. The real-life fun of being intoxicated is impossible to convey in a game, and all we're left with is the negative effects which CAN be conveyed. The server can't just tell you "you are having fun". It's not real, and doesn't work.

As a result, the bar is only really populated by roleplayers. Quite a lot of people, especially those trying to get things done, will go whole shifts without ever visiting it. The bartender's job is nowhere near as interesting as it ought to be because people don't really need or want to drink, and this often results in him leaving the bar to find other things to do, or going afk. Not good.

With that in mind, i have a few ideas for remedying what i see as problems. Ideas that i think would add, not detract, from the roleplay value of alcohol, and especially of the bartender's job

1. Enhance movement speed.

This is the first and foremost one, and i believe by far the best. I'd say that when slightly intoxicated (Ie, not heavily drunk and staggering around) you should move a bit faster. This wouldn't be unrealistic, as alcohol often does actually make people more energetic and outgoing, it's one of the reasons drunk people are famed for doing (or attempting) strange physical feats, and getting into a lot of fights.

One of the most noticeable things for any new player on aurora is the movement speed of characters. It's vastly decreased. I'm sure this is done for a variety of reasons, and i agree with it, it makes combat a lot more interesting.

By allowing slight intoxication to make you move faster, you'd be able to get things done more capably, which would directly reduce the stress level of your job. You'd have engineers taking a sip of dutch courage before going into dangerous situations, and crewmen of all kinds having a drink whenever work is getting too tough, and they have a lot to get done.

This wouldn't at all affect the roleplayers who like to sit at the bar and converse, but it WOULD vastly increase the bar's patronage as people come in to pick up what is now a very useful tool for their lives. This would notably include antagonists, who'd want that extra edge to help escape security, and the public exposure of visiting the bar might work against them. If nothing else, it'd certainly give security and detectives more reason to question the barman when looking for a fugitive, as it's likely he's seen them. The barman would have more to do, causing their job to be more interesting, more commonly picked, and less likely to go afk or log out in the middle of the game.

By only applying this benefit to the early stages of intoxication, people would have a reason to carry a drink around with them, or keep a bottle onhand in their office, and it would give an additional little balancing act of trying to stay slightly buzzed, without going overboard and having it negatively affect your work,

2. Give the barman some cleaning supplies.

A mop, a bucket, and some trashbags. None of the fancy things like cleaning grenades, space cleaner, or galoshes, those are the janitor's toys.

Maintaining the bar area is the barman's job, it makes a lot of sense that he'd have things on hand to clean it, i don't know a bar or pub in the world that doesn't. Bars, both in real life and ingame, are one of the most commonly messed up areas, whether it's foot traffic dirtying the floors, barfights spreading blood everywhere, or drunkards vomiting all over the floor.

Having to call the janitor in to clean up these messes detracts from the bartenders already-extremely-light workload, and is especially egregious when the station doesn't even have a janitor, which is often the case. The janitor has every other part of the station to clean, he can afford to yield a little of it to someone else, and cleaning the bar is often a low priority when he's mopping up a murder scene in a maintenance hall somewhere.

3. Introduce the Zombie mode.

A scenario i've seen on many other servers as a possible gamemode. An outbreak of some kind of virus causes people to lose their minds, and run around biting others. Getting bitten gives you the virus, and will cause you to turn into a zombie after a while.

The way this relates to alcohol, is that Whisky is the cure for the zombie virus, and on those servers the barman suddenly sees an influx of stressed medics demanding strong spirits for their patients

It's worth notingthat zombie mode on other servers often includes the spawning of hordes of NPC zombies. I don't think this part makes sense, an i wouldn't like to see that ported over, except possibly some initial npc zombies to start the outbreak

4. Damage Resistance, and Combat Enhancement

Some of these effects may already exist, it's hard to tell. but if they don't, i'm suggesting adding them

As previously mentioned, drunkards are known for getting into fights. An increase in punching damage (or maybe damage with any melee weapon) and a resistance to brute damage, would help reflect this fact. These changes would also farther incentivise antagonists to visit the bar.

Radiation resistance.

There are some studies that indicate alcohol consumption can help against radiation poisoning. They're contested, but pseudoscience is good enough for a game, and it's a common trope anyway, many other games have used it http://stalker.wikia.com/wiki/Vodka

Since iirc, radiation deals toxin damage anyway, extending that to all forms of toxin damage would seem reasonable, and it'd give people a reason to drink up before trying to run through a hallway with a phoron leak

5. Taser resistance.

The last, and perhaps most controversial idea, so i'm putting it here seperately. Alcohol dulls a lot of senses, and drunken people are known to shrug off a lot. It might be a good idea to include a feature whereby, when someone is heavily drunk (Ie, slurring and staggering) being hit with a taser/stun weapon wouldn't instantly knock them down, but instead slow them to walking speed, and require a second shot to bring them down. This could give drunken antagonists an edge in combat versus security forces, but balanced against the fact that being heavily drunk is suspicious, and often grounds for arrest due to dereliction of duty, creating a workplace hazard, or suspicious behaviour

Again, another reason for antagonists to visit the bar, and increase their interaction with the crew

I'd like some thoughts on these ideas, ideally individually. implementing some of them, and not others, might still be good. I believe the movespeed increase is the most critical one, and i'd like to see that more than any of the others

[Carver]

The way this relates to alcohol, is that Whisky is the cure for the zombie virus,\

Suddenly every Detective becomes the hero of the apocalypse.

 

5. Taser resistance.

The last, and perhaps most controversial idea, so i'm putting it here seperately. Alcohol dulls a lot of senses, and drunken people are known to shrug off a lot.

Alcohol already acts as a painkiller. It's just a shitty one.

Vodka also already reduces radiation. But like the above, it's kiiind of shitty at it.

[Nanako]

Suddenly every Detective becomes the hero of the apocalypse.

that seems like a win/win situation to me, i feel like detective is a but of an underpowered role right now, Often picked for the cool factor, but with an extremely high attrition rate. (but that's a topic for another thread)

 

5. Taser resistance.

The last, and perhaps most controversial idea, so i'm putting it here seperately. Alcohol dulls a lot of senses, and drunken people are known to shrug off a lot.

Alcohol already acts as a painkiller. It's just a shitty one.

Vodka also already reduces radiation. But like the above, it's kiiind of shitty at it.

My idea was for it to act more as a layer of armour against thse damage types, than as a healing method. Ideally significant enough to be worth obtaining it.

But it's a minor idea anyways, movespeed is the core here, what are your thoughts on that?

[UnknownMurder]

I'd rather not take actions to make alcohol a good thing and make it harder for Security to fight back against a drunk personnel.

[Dreviore]

I'd rather not take actions to make alcohol a good thing and make it harder for Security to fight back against a drunk personnel.

 

It's rare to not see a security officer drinking on the job.

The only bit of this I might agree with is the higher pain tolerance.

[UnknownMurder]

I'd rather not take actions to make alcohol a good thing and make it harder for Security to fight back against a drunk personnel.

 

It's rare to not see a security officer drinking on the job.

The only bit of this I might agree with is the higher pain tolerance.

 

We all know security officers should not be drinking on the job. (Except non-alcoholic.) If they are drinking on the job, expect an infraction. I don't take kindly to Security Officers drinking on job... Actually, let's just not serve alcohol to anyone. The alcohol actually makes the station unproductive, however in return higher morale.