Applicable Use of Slimes

[Jboy2000000]

So, this is spawn from Fowl's complaint, where he released a slimepocolypse on the station. Since Skull said to leave the complaint alone, and I wanted to continue the discussion about whether or not slimes can be used as a tool against antags. Skulls mentioned this in the thread mentioned above, so Ill start here.

 

There has to be a chance to create roleplay out the deaths and the situation. This rules out most cases of massive plasma fires, bombings, etcetera. They may technically engage the station, but there's no chance to make a story out of it.

 

Basically the meat of the whole Major End Tatoring rule. Lets picks at it a bit. No plasma fires, like the holodeck plasma fire? Well, why is this on the list? You could roleplay out the fear of massive death fire going around the station, so, whats the problem? Well, the plasma fire is a super destructive force that can eat through the station is such a little amount of time, kills people extremely fast, and makes it near impossible to safely procure people for cloning. So, ruled out for being too deadly to be really roleplayable. So, what does this have to do with slimes?

Let's ask Delta, Mofo, or Fowl himself. Slimes are death incarnate in newcode. If you release any numbers of slimes, they can completely and utterly rekt the station. Even releasing just one has the potential to really fuck over lots of people because they split more easily, kill much faster, split faster, and grow faster. So, why do I think this makes them unusable?

Well, if you release a 'slimpocolypse' it's getting to get very hairy, very fast because slimes can go anywhere they want, rip people apart, and fester there until forever because they're SO much harder to kill as well. So they can get anywhere, kill easily, just don't fucking die anymore, breed, kill more, become more in numbers, and repeat. What RP can be garnered from this when everyone is dying against an enemy that can kill you in seconds, but has zero weaknesses. You're gonna be too busy running and dying to an enemy that has more than enough potential to kill anyone, anywhere on the station, just like a plasma fire, or a bombing.

[Nanako]

Out of curiosity, can you kill slimes by starting a plasma fire?

[Dreviore]

Out of curiosity, can you kill slimes by starting a plasma fire?

 

Yes, but it's pretty slow.

[Carver]

If you're extremely familiar with the system, you can easily use slimes against antagonists in a controlled setting.

One example of a controlled release being when I used red slime cores to ward off the construct army created by a wizard, said army being composed of the rest of the dead crew and was sent to assault xenobiology. I survived the entire ordeal due to the friend system making enraged slimes ignore you, whilst they tore apart the Wraiths and Juggernauts. You won't even need to leave Xenobiology for that strategy.

How to completely fumble this up, though, is to do this when you're not the only crewmember inside xenobiology, or to attempt this outside of xenobiology, which would effectively lock out anyone but yourself from entering the slime-laden area. You must keep in mind that any area you unleash enraged slimes is hereby a no man's land for anyone but yourself.

In short, a controlled release is an extremely effective strategy for defending yourself from a highly dangerous entity/group as a xenobiologist. If you're an antagonist, though, I don't see an issue in a less controlled release. So long as you're using this distraction to further some greater goal, like a robbery or kidnapping during the chaos, or to defend yourself against Security/ERT. Perhaps even securing safe transit on a pod or the shuttle during a pursuit by creating a 'barrier' of slimes.

[Skull132]

So, ruled out for being too deadly to be really roleplayable.

 

This is a personal limitation.

Not only can all of these items be used in a controlled manner, there are situations where literal war is completely acceptable escalation. That is the entire point of roleplay: to roleplay and to see where the heck it takes you.

[Garnascus]

I lump all those massive killer things together. Plasma fire,singulo,sharknado, and slimes. I think they should be thought of more as "antag endgame". Kinda how we view nar'sie for the cult.

[Jboy2000000]

So pretty much nothing is against the rule as long as you package it as some kind of 'end game?'

[Garnascus]

ERP endgame is totally legit yeah.

Seriously though, you just need to have a fair bit of buildup and escalate it properly. These things are incredibly lethal and usually end the round. So they are most appropriate as final solutions given how much buildup they require. What is and isn't justifiable buildup is tricky to pin down in words. They are usually a case by case basis since they happen so rarely and players usually ahelp for guidance.

[Nanako]

Personally if i were an admin, i'd ban slime releasing on the grounds of it being an exploit. Jut about everyone agrees that slimes are horribly overpowered and too hard to kill, they need to be fixed before they can be allowed into gameplay. right now they just ruin everything

[Dreviore]

Personally if i were an admin, i'd ban slime releasing on the grounds of it being an exploit. Jut about everyone agrees that slimes are horribly overpowered and too hard to kill, they need to be fixed before they can be allowed into gameplay. right now they just ruin everything

 

What about in the situation that an antagonist is being hunted by security, they have absolutely no other means to defend themselves other then a group of 'friendly' slimes?

What if they strategically placed a singular slime into maintenance to protect themselves, and if someone comes the slime jumps them, and quickly multiplies because that person decided to let it into the central hallway.

I don't see an issue with using slimes as a means to create chaos when you're given no other choice... Say for example, a Malf AI that has it's core being assaulted by engineers, and security with an emitter, is it wrong for the Malf AI to start pumping phoron into the station through the vents so that when they turn on the emitter, they all find themselves burning up? I'd like to think not.

[Zundy]

As long as it's largely fun or compelling I literally don't care if we character dies (even a canon death) to slimes, holodeck fires or whatever. I think RELEASING THE SLIMES is fine as long as it's not every other round.