Make mesons reduce darksight for all races that wear them.

[Guest]

title.

Short explanation, I'm sure we've all expressed woe and annoyance at the typical Tajaran powergame regarding wearing meson goggles. Since they have darksight that extends as far as their initial sight radius anyone has at the start, they can literally see people from the corner of their screen and effectively just have ghetto Night Vision Goggles.

Sight is an incredibly important part of the game, especially what with how incredibly dark unlit areas can be given Baystation's lightcode. Given mesons can be found anywhere in maintenance, a Tajaran can fetch themselves NVGs at no small price whatsoever.

This has developed into certain "meta-game" aspects of using certain features to an advantage that really cannot be countered by itself.

Thus, I propose to even the playing field and forever invalidate mesons as ghetto combat NVGs, more sashaying then into their intended niche: An engineering tool intended to locate breaches within the vicinity and perform quick patch-jobs. Not to don as a security cat officer with a hardsuit covering over it to undermine flashes or flashbangs, and hunt antagonists in maintenance.

Reducing the amount of darksight a mob has for wearing them as they are activated will greatly reduce the effective sight range a character will have while wearing them. They're for spotting breaches and construction purposes.

Naturally, to avoid compilation errors, there should be a point where any sum that goes under a certain threshold defaults to that threshold so that a spaceman isn't totally blind.

And thus the problem regarding powergaming the mesons completely goes away. The end.

[TrickingTrapster]

I can see why this would pose a problem, but I've never really seen it happen. (Though that may be me not playing sec.) Another question you could ask is, why are there mesons everywhere they shouldn't be? Those should be in engineering and mining, nowhere else. Just putting it out there.

[Guest]

I can see why this would pose a problem, but I've never really seen it happen. (Though that may be me not playing sec.) Another question you could ask is, why are there mesons everywhere they shouldn't be? Those should be in engineering and mining, nowhere else. Just putting it out there.

 

They're scattered all about in maintenance, there are numerous racks and crates in maintenance with mesons in addition to the firefighting closets that have them.

[TrickingTrapster]

Yes, that's what I was saying. Why are those there anyway? What's their use? Maybe a lot of the problem is solved if you make them less accessible.

[LordFowl]

I don't see the issue with this. If Darksight worked properly for Tajara, which it may very well do soon, they would have similar advantage at all times. Sight is a very important part of this game, and it is to the advantage of the Tajara thanks to their racial bonus.

[Nanako]

i don't get it. Mesons allow you to see turfs, not mobs. is there some wierd interaction i'm missing?

[Skull132]

i don't get it. Mesons allow you to see turfs, not mobs. is there some wierd interaction i'm missing?

 

It comes from species that have dark-vision. The way Bay uses that specific mob mechanic is by giving all species with darkvision very slight visibility in an n-radius, while in pitchblack. It's barely noticeable without mesons. However, put mesons on, and the shadows from that dark-vision clear up completely. You won't see further de jure, but you can utilize your dark vision properly.

To understand what I'm talking about, play a Tajaran and put mesons on in a pitch black hallway.

[Dreamix]

I did a quick test to see how tajara mesons actually work.

Human without mesons. All black.

Tajara without mesons. Only slightly better.

Human with mesons. Meh.

Tajara with mesons. Holy shit!

 

i don't get it. Mesons allow you to see turfs, not mobs. is there some wierd interaction i'm missing?

And yeah. You can see mobs in the dark.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Night vision is one of the buffs of the Tajara race.

If anything they should have the ability inherent at all times (all tiles for them should be more visible like wtf it's still pitch black) at the cost of flashes doing further damage to their kawaii eyes.

[Guest]

The bottom line is that meson scanners should never be used as night vision goggles. I care not for Tajaran balance itself, regardless of how relevant it might be. It needs to be streamlined throughout all races as a tool used to detect breaches within your vicinity and perform necessary repairs on identified hull damage if necessary. Even Unathi can use them to this effect, as can cyborgs, which also have a great deal of darksight.

[Nanako]

so the problem here isn't that tajarans are overpowered, it's that they're broken, and meson goggles happen to fix their bug. And your solution is to....remove the fix? Why?

No, the correct solution is to fix the nightvision so it works without them. LF seems to have some ideas on how to do that

[Guest]

so the problem here isn't that tajarans are overpowered, it's that they're broken, and meson goggles happen to fix their bug. And your solution is to....remove the fix? Why?

No, the correct solution is to fix the nightvision so it works without them. LF seems to have some ideas on how to do that

 

Did you read a single word of anything I have been posting in this thread?

This is why I've been avoiding the matter of it effecting Tajarans, Unathi, or cyborgs and that their darksight needs fixed. Because there is a rule in this subforum that bars mixing multiple different ideas into one thread and distracting from the main OP.

Go make another thread if it matters that much to you or make a PR regarding that.

This is about inputting an effect that reverses darksight to those that wear mesons so that they are unviable as any sort of goggles for maintenance combat or navigation to hunt someone down while wearing them. NVGs are for the former, thermals are for the latter. They are an engineering tool.