Port Polaris Changeling Mechanics

[Kaed]

http://ss13polaris.com/wiki/doku.php?id=game:guides:changeling

Now, hear me out here, I'm sure there's a lot of eye rolling and groans, because there is probably a 'fix changeling' thread at least once every two months.

Bay changeling is just not very well designed. It is entirely focused around murdering people, and the mechanics you have are almost all 'sting' related and to get the good ones you actually require several murders to occur. Early game changelings are barely even antagonist, with an array of powers that amount to 'moderately inconveniences someone for a half minute while you use tools you picked up elsewhere to down them'. Balance retooling has made it even harder on changelings, with things such as alberyk removing a lot of the stings undetectability by making people feel pricks when they are used, and having monkey eating removed.

Late game changelings are just plain obnoxious, having abilities like instant paralysis for what feels like a trillion years (but is actually about half a minute or so), making stealth kills laughably easy once they get going. They also have significant blind spots in their skillset that other antagonists do not have, such as them being absolutely helpless against any synthetic in existence.

People who don't want to go around beating crew members to death with a toolbox after silence stinging them have very few options, which mainly involve spamming hallucination/transformation sting until everyone starts ahelping in exasperation or mimicking voices.

All of these issues are addressed with this method of changeling. There is no paralysis, transform, or hallucination sting (the shitty triumvirate), there is a method to effective cause EMP damage around you, along with a whole lot of exciting other options like making false clothing and IDs, travelling in space, becoming nearly invisible, and putting armor on yourself.

More importantly, everything is accessible from the get go, but you can only choose so many evo points worth of abilities. If you want more, you need to hunt down your fellow lings, and if you want to change them, you need to slurp up a crew member. It definitely keeps the spirit of DNA eating shapeshifting monster while removing a lot of the frustrating aspects.