Brain Slugs

[Korinra]

Cortical Borers

They've existed for SOOOOO long but never get used.

The idea sounds great, but the idea of killing the host without much chance of failure is a nightmare for moderators/admin to have to think about.

Problem

We have a great game mode that just isn't being used! Meanwhile, Changeling is a round that no one seems to like as it's just a murderboner spree.

Solution

*cracks knuckles* Time for a rework.

Round of Cortical Borer:

Cortical Borer should spawn inside of the vents, hidden entirely.

They find a host like they always do, by stunning them and crawling into their ear. Here's where things change!

Instead of slowly eating the brain, Cortical Borers have now evolved into full parasites, feasting on brain waves. This causes the host to survive the attack.

The host however, begins receiving chemicals from the borer, depending on how strong the borer is.

Initially the borer starts off with only a couple options, "Send thoughts", or "Send emotion". This allows the borer to post simple emotions, "You feel hungry", "You feel tired", etc... Maybe they'll illicit a response, maybe they won't.

Over time, the borer gains more and more abilities, "Detect health", which now allows the borer to see the general health of their victim (which now replaces their own while they're in the host). Detect hunger, which again displays the host's hunger.

Soon, they become more in control, "Control Host", which while it sounds powerful simply does this:

Control Host

A screen pops up with the following options:

Hunger: [stuffed/Full/Hungry/Starving] This changes the host's visible hunger meter, and can limit how fast the host moves. If the host thinks they're starving, they'll run slower and exhaust faster, for example. This can't be used to speed them up though if they really are hungry.

Health: General health will show a percentage meter that you can change with a +/- scale, showing the host as whatever health you wish. Don't want them to think that minor injury is worth seeing a medic? Set them to 100% and they won't have a reason to go.

Oxygen: Whether or not they can breath. If you set this to no, the host will take halloss damage, even going critical halloss, but will take no real damage. The host may even pass out as a result, but eventually wakes up fully fine. Additionally, a host being told they can breath even though they can't, won't see the damage they're taking until they critical.

Temperature: Want the host to panic a little? Tell them they're experiencing high or low temperatures to scare them away from where they are, or hide that the nearby fire is causing them to take heat damage... until they see they're bleeding.

Finally, the last step, "Grow eggs". This one causes the host's mind to develop a cortical borer egg. When the egg hatches, the second borer is stuck in the head, but can leave whenever they want. Once it's safe to leave, they crawl out and look for a host of their own. With this they also get "Neuronetwork" where they can speak to one another using brainwaves, so all borers can hear each other.

Ultimately, the goal of a cortical borer round would be to take over all intelligent humanoid staff members. Once all are under control of the borers, they take over the station. However, NT doesn't like the idea of brain slugs controlling their assets, so the crew wins if the borers are extinguished.

To summarize abilities:

Hide - Hide's like a mouse

Climb in vent - Climbs in a vent like a mouse

Stun - Stuns a nearby victim like a changeling (makes them unable to speak or move), but then puts a message when it ends, "You forget why you stopped."

Infest - Climbs into a host, takes a few seconds, but usually Stun will have enough time to infest.

Thought - Put a thought into host's head. "You feel the urge to flip off the CMO". (Fuck you Ferdinand )

Evolve(1) - Allows you to see the host's health/hunger/etc... Accessible after so much time passes as a parasite.

Evolve(2) - Allows you to control the host's perceived health/hunger/etc... Accessible after so much time passes as a parasite.

Lay eggs - Allows you to birth another borer (With an indicator if the borer is intelligent or not, triggered by a ghost taking over the borer). A non-intelligent borer simply allows a ghost to take over later.

Neuronet - The default language only borers can hear, allowing them to speak to one another through brain waves.

Link Thoughts - At any time, a cortical borer can reveal to their host that they've infested them, which gives the host a new verb, "Think". Think works like Say, allowing the host to think a thought that only the infesting borer hears. In some cases, a borer might take a chance depending on the situation, sometimes having a borer is beneficial to both parties.

At the end of the round:

X Crew member / X survived / X ghosts / X non-infested with borers

The higher the last number, the better the borers did. This can even go into other round types. Imagine, a cortical borer showing up during a round of autotraitor, or during a vampire round. Since Vampires aren't "living crew", they wouldn't be able to be infested, so that round type could be called, "Domination", vampires vs borers. The crew doesn't know about the war being waged between Vampires and Cortical Borers.

Cortical borers could also double-antag someone. Since they eat brain waves, they would get the indicator if their victim is another type of traitor. "Ok so this guy is a traitor, how can I help him and myself?" A cortical borer might even reveal themselves to the traitor they infest (with Link Thoughts), hoping to make an alliance.

Pros/Cons (subject to change based on how people discuss)

Pros

• More player involvement: If you're dead, you can join the game as an antagonist. Giving people ways to join/rejoin a round.
• Played well, no one dies. A borer round will either be a medical savior, or a borer in every brain. Killing would be reserved for eliminating someone who found out, and needs to be silenced.
  
• RP - While the borer isn't being talked TO, the borer treats the mind of their victim like an AI rule set. Interacting with the host to accomplish their own goals without having to murderbone people. Additionally, the cortical borers would interact with each other to coordinate goals.
  
• Fun - Being taken over by a borer could lead to a normal-ish round where you pass out for a few seconds (every now and then when eggs hatch), but otherwise you can RP like normal. Or you might begin realizing something is wrong when you feel SUPER hungry despite having eaten a ton of food, because a borer didn't realize they didn't raise you to feeling full. In both cases, RP can happen as a result.

Cons

• Silent antagonist - Done well, the borers will never be discussed by the crew
• Fear of having control partially lost from character you play
  
• No true way to resist with current iteration of idea
  

Edited April 18, 2018 by Guest

[Asheram]

I like this. An ideal round would involve almost the entire crew (except for IPC's) and make things more interesting.

I do worry about OOC issues, and that people might feel uncomfortable with having their literal characters taken over, but such is the way with all antags.

Another point of worry is that it indeed is a silent antagonist. Perhaps this could be avoided with the ability to give hallucinations and emulate sounds the same way traitors have their voice modifier, but that only the host can hear.

: There seems to be a plague of somekind going around on the station. Everyone report to the medbay.

: Belay that order, there's someone impersonating me. Stay away from the medbay.

[ShameOnTurtles]

I like the idea of utilizing unused assets in the form of gamemodes (I still think shadowling would be cool >:C) and I like this idea, but I think that borers should be able to communicate to the host without needing to reveal themselves, similar to how it works currently. In some event rounds with borers that has been used to very interesting effect.

[Coalf]

I have discussed this with you in discord and at the time we agreed on this.

The gamemode itself could perhaps use a bit more fleshing out, perhaps a bit more regarding powers, perhaps a bit more variety or ways to resist for the host.

But as a replacement for ling it's great, Ling has been already made obsolete with the addition of vampire who is basically Ling 2.0 and yet this keeps the "Xenological Body Horror" vibe going.

[Korinra]

I like this. An ideal round would involve almost the entire crew (except for IPC's) and make things more interesting.

I do worry about OOC issues, and that people might feel uncomfortable with having their literal characters taken over, but such is the way with all antags.

Another point of worry is that it indeed is a silent antagonist. Perhaps this could be avoided with the ability to give hallucinations and emulate sounds the same way traitors have their voice modifier, but that only the host can hear.

: There seems to be a plague of somekind going around on the station. Everyone report to the medbay.

: Belay that order, there's someone impersonating me. Stay away from the medbay.

 

I added the lack of control as a possible con, I agree to some extent on that. The borer wouldn't have a direct control, but more of a direct influence over the host. In this iteration I suggested, the borer has two ways to communicate. One of the ways is a one way communication that implies the host is having thoughts, so it would look like this:

Borer Types: Thought You can't shake the feeling of anger toward Jorge Moberly, maybe he'll apologize if you confront him.

Host Sees: You can't shake the feeling of anger toward Jorge Moberly, maybe he'll apologize if you confront him.

While it's not a traditional form of RP, there is a sense of of RP involved.

 

I like the idea of utilizing unused assets in the form of gamemodes (I still think shadowling would be cool >:C) and I like this idea, but I think that borers should be able to communicate to the host without needing to reveal themselves, similar to how it works currently. In some event rounds with borers that has been used to very interesting effect.

 

One of the ways is a one way communication that implies the host is having thoughts, so it would look like this:

Borer Types: Thought You can't shake the feeling of anger toward Jorge Moberly, maybe he'll apologize if you confront him.

Host Sees: You can't shake the feeling of anger toward Jorge Moberly, maybe he'll apologize if you confront him.

While it's not a traditional form of RP, there is a sense of of RP involved.

 

I have discussed this with you in discord and at the time we agreed on this.

The gamemode itself could perhaps use a bit more fleshing out, perhaps a bit more regarding powers, perhaps a bit more variety or ways to resist for the host.

But as a replacement for ling it's great, Ling has been already made obsolete with the addition of vampire who is basically Ling 2.0 and yet this keeps the "Xenological Body Horror" vibe going.

 

Told ya I could make brain slugs work!

I'm not sure, for resisting vampires, there's really no way, but vampires are fun for most people. A vampire spends exactly one second in close proximity, and you GET bit. They can, from there, out right kill you if they want to. This is the same thing WITHOUT the option to kill the host. I added this to the possible cons regardless though, just in case.

[zyymurgy]

I've always been a fan of mind-control slugs, so adding Not-Yeerks would be pretty sweet. Definite plus one. I can see the slug trying to proliferate itself sneakily being some good RP opportunity, with the host being influenced to get someone alone with them and both the slug and host having to work together to figure out how to do it, or the host fighting them the whole way.

One thing I do wonder about is the Host versus Slug internal battle. Would the Slug be able to assume direct control and have their commands result in direct action? Or would the Slug have to subtly coerce the Host into meeting their demands? If the Slug was trying to play quietly and also reproduce and help their offspring get into another crewmember's ear in a secluded place, and they were trying to coerce the Host to do so, but not wanting to tip their hand, and the Host is a player who is OOC not inclined to follow the slug's directions because they know OOC they've been infested... I have to wonder how something like that would play out.

[Eve]

I'm honestly strongly against this idea, at least the way you've fleshed it out. And here is pretty much why:

 

They find a host like they always do, by stunning them and crawling into their ear.

 

This is a great way for someone to immediately go to medical and have the borer removed via surgery, if that's a thing, that is.

 

Link Thoughts - At any time, a cortical borer can reveal to their host that they've infested them, which gives the host a new verb, "Think". Think works like Say, allowing the host to think a thought that only the infesting borer hears.

 

Yeah, because everyone likes antagonists that force you to self-RP.

 

Lay eggs - Allows you to birth another borer (With an indicator if the borer is intelligent or not, triggered by a ghost taking over the borer). A non-intelligent borer simply allows a ghost to take over later.

 

In a roundtype which the antagonist can't kill anyone (and probably shouldn't because they're inside the crewmember), sure do you depend a lot on the use of ghosts, eh?

 

Hide - Hide's like a mouse

 

An antag which can ventcrawl, hide and insta-stun sounds more overpowered than half of the Xenos in CM, really. Hell, I have a tough time killing mice myself, because they can just evade you with ventcrawling and hiding, but there is a serious reason why no other antags have the mice abilities.

 

Fun - Being taken over by a borer could lead to a normal-ish round where you pass out for a few seconds (every now and then when eggs hatch), but otherwise you can RP like normal. Or you might begin realizing something is wrong when you feel SUPER hungry despite having eaten a ton of food, because a borer didn't realize they didn't raise you to feeling full. In both cases, RP can happen as a result.

 

Passing out randomly during extended and randomly getting alerts that I'm choking/hungry/burning is pretty much the opposite of fun for me, I don't know about you, though.

 

RP - While the borer isn't being talked TO, the borer treats the mind of their victim like an AI rule set. Interacting with the host to accomplish their own goals without having to murderbone people. Additionally, the cortical borers would interact with each other to coordinate goals.

 

Call me stupid, but I really can't correlate 'RP' with the explanation that follows. RP doesn't mean not murderboning, even though murderboning is pretty detrimental to RP itself. You've no way of host-borer interaction apart from the borer making them feel hungry/making them feel like they're choking/whatever, and a 'think' button that forces the player to have a one-sided RP with the the parasite.

 

Hunger: [stuffed/Full/Hungry/Starving] This changes the host's visible hunger meter, and can limit how fast the host moves. If the host thinks they're starving, they'll run slower and exhaust faster, for example. This can't be used to speed them up though if they really are hungry.

 

That's not how the brain works.

 

Silent antagonist - Done well, the borers will never be discussed by the crew

 

Bad idea. Even the most stealthy antags have a point where they are announced, or they are acknowledged to become a threat to the crew . Take ninja, for example. They're the tools to cause crew interaction and accomplish their objectives at the same time, or maybe malf AI, who has to start off as stealthy but has a moment where it goes 'haha it was me all along harhar nuke'.

All in all, there is a reason why borers are not a gamemode in pretty much almost all servers, and are used for events alone. The concept of Plague.inc-ish taking over people and being ling 2.0 is niche, but the mechanics they have, and the mechanics that you've suggested make it impossible to be reliable in both highpop and lowpop as antagonists that may be remotely close to desirable.

[Korinra]

I'm honestly strongly against this idea, at least the way you've fleshed it out. And here is pretty much why:

 

They find a host like they always do, by stunning them and crawling into their ear.

 

This is a great way for someone to immediately go to medical and have the borer removed via surgery, if that's a thing, that is.

*Should probably read the part where it tells them they remember nothing after being stunned.

 

Link Thoughts - At any time, a cortical borer can reveal to their host that they've infested them, which gives the host a new verb, "Think". Think works like Say, allowing the host to think a thought that only the infesting borer hears.

 

Yeah, because everyone likes antagonists that force you to self-RP.

*Would you prefer it killing you and taking over your body like Changeling? Besides, it doesn't STOP you from RPing with other people.

 

Lay eggs - Allows you to birth another borer (With an indicator if the borer is intelligent or not, triggered by a ghost taking over the borer). A non-intelligent borer simply allows a ghost to take over later.

 

In a roundtype which the antagonist can't kill anyone (and probably shouldn't because they're inside the crewmember), sure do you depend a lot on the use of ghosts, eh?

*Yeah, and do you know how many times you see ghosts in an extended round? Enough for this. Not everyone readies for the round. Additionally, you should read more where it also DOESN'T require a ghost at all, but ALLOWS a ghost to take over if they are there.

 

Hide - Hide's like a mouse

 

An antag which can ventcrawl, hide and insta-stun sounds more overpowered than half of the Xenos in CM, really. Hell, I have a tough time killing mice myself, because they can just evade you with ventcrawling and hiding, but there is a serious reason why no other antags have the mice abilities.

*Borers ALREADY do that. They also die in less hits than a mouse (2 hits)

 

Fun - Being taken over by a borer could lead to a normal-ish round where you pass out for a few seconds (every now and then when eggs hatch), but otherwise you can RP like normal. Or you might begin realizing something is wrong when you feel SUPER hungry despite having eaten a ton of food, because a borer didn't realize they didn't raise you to feeling full. In both cases, RP can happen as a result.

 

Passing out randomly during extended and randomly getting alerts that I'm choking/hungry/burning is pretty much the opposite of fun for me, I don't know about you, though.

*Well if it's random, sure that would be annoying, but it would also prompt me to go to medical. Now if you got a message, "You feel like you could take a quick power nap to feel better", then a few minutes later passed out, that wouldn't be random, would it?

 

RP - While the borer isn't being talked TO, the borer treats the mind of their victim like an AI rule set. Interacting with the host to accomplish their own goals without having to murderbone people. Additionally, the cortical borers would interact with each other to coordinate goals.

 

Call me stupid, but I really can't correlate 'RP' with the explanation that follows. RP doesn't mean not murderboning, even though murderboning is pretty detrimental to RP itself. You've no way of host-borer interaction apart from the borer making them feel hungry/making them feel like they're choking/whatever, and a 'think' button that forces the player to have a one-sided RP with the the parasite.

*And again, you should read the part where the borer CAN reveal themselves and be fully able to communicate two ways with the host should they trust the host won't kill them.

 

Hunger: [stuffed/Full/Hungry/Starving] This changes the host's visible hunger meter, and can limit how fast the host moves. If the host thinks they're starving, they'll run slower and exhaust faster, for example. This can't be used to speed them up though if they really are hungry.

 

That's not how the brain works.

*And this game is not how a LOT of things work, point being?

 

Silent antagonist - Done well, the borers will never be discussed by the crew

 

Bad idea. Even the most stealthy antags have a point where they are announced, or they are acknowledged to become a threat to the crew . Take ninja, for example. They're the tools to cause crew interaction and accomplish their objectives at the same time, or maybe malf AI, who has to start off as stealthy but has a moment where it goes 'haha it was me all along harhar nuke'.

All in all, there is a reason why borers are not a gamemode in pretty much almost all servers, and are used for events alone. The concept of Plague.inc-ish taking over people and being ling 2.0 is niche, but the mechanics they have, and the mechanics that you've suggested make it impossible to be reliable in both highpop and lowpop as antagonists that may be remotely close to desirable.

*So a Malf AI, who wins by never being noticed as a malf until code Delta. Or an autotraitor who silently completes their objective, or a vampire who never once is seen using their powers without you instantly forgetting, or a GOOD ninja who's never seen because of cloaking...? If you think you need to KNOW there's an antagonist in play to enjoy the round, consider Extended rounds. There's NO antagonist, so the round is fun for other reasons. This would feel like an extended round, but a few people would know it's not. And more and more people will know it's not. Over time, most of the station will know it's not. The hope for the borer is, "No one will know until everyone knows."

 

Not trying to be argumentative, but none of your points really made sense like the previous posts.

[Korinra]

I've always been a fan of mind-control slugs, so adding Not-Yeerks would be pretty sweet. Definite plus one. I can see the slug trying to proliferate itself sneakily being some good RP opportunity, with the host being influenced to get someone alone with them and both the slug and host having to work together to figure out how to do it, or the host fighting them the whole way.

One thing I do wonder about is the Host versus Slug internal battle. Would the Slug be able to assume direct control and have their commands result in direct action? Or would the Slug have to subtly coerce the Host into meeting their demands? If the Slug was trying to play quietly and also reproduce and help their offspring get into another crewmember's ear in a secluded place, and they were trying to coerce the Host to do so, but not wanting to tip their hand, and the Host is a player who is OOC not inclined to follow the slug's directions because they know OOC they've been infested... I have to wonder how something like that would play out.

 

I'd say that the slug has no direct control over most people, but if the person SSD's, then it could be safe to say the slug could have an option to take over completely. That way the slug isn't just SOL. Like, if you go to a cryo tube with a slug in you, and you ghost. The body just instantly is taken over instead of vanishing, and the other person can now be you. People might notice "Boy he's acting strange", because the borer has "destroyed too much of the brain and is now winging it".

As for the power struggle, it would be somewhat meta gaming to CONSTANTLY ignore the borer, but for instance, if the borer says something drastic, that might just make the person confused. "You feel like committing suicide", "But I'm happy... so that was a weird thought. Maybe I should see the psychiatrist." However, the guy who's been on the station for a while, "You feel like taking a break, it would be nice to go talk to the Head of Personnel and see how their day is." "You know what? That's a good idea, I'll go see the HoP". The trick is, the borer would have to find the things the character would consider 'acceptable' thoughts without making the person so confused by their own thoughts that they see a psych. If the person is a workaholic, being told that they want to take a break would be odd. If they're lazy, and being told to work harder, that would feel strange. That's the struggle.

[Saudus]

I'd love to see this done. That said, there are some issues.

Like Eve said this would indeed be a VERY ghost intensive mode. Frankly, I don't think it would work because of that. You really can't infect enough people because there aren't enough ghosts. Hell it's hard enough as cult to get a single ghost often. There'd better be LOADS of ghosts hanging around waiting to take over crew for this to work.

I have two suggestions regarding that:

1, when the egg triggers the host dies (in a way that doesn't make it very suspicious) or goes into some kind of coma (i.e. dead because the ghost has left them). The dead player becomes the other borer.

2, there are two kinds of eggs. Big and small. The big one does indeed require a ghost as before. The smaller one is not player controlled (or maybe you get to control it for a little while to enter a new host and then get returned to your "Big Borer"). It would instead be used to make that host much more pliant and friendly to your host.

Also, I think the infested player need to be able to "think" speak all the time with the borer. So they can effectively reply to their thoughts without seeming crazy to everyone. An example:

"Borer: You feel a strong desire to kill Mr Coalfsson with the hatchet in your hand!"

"Host: What? No I can't... I just can't kill someone..."

(that is not something you would say out loud if you did get that impulse, but the borer deserves to hear your reply so they can fine tune their influencing)

Lastly, maybe allow the borer to leave their host? It'd KO them for a bit and provided they didn't see the borer when they wake up they don't have any new knowledge of having been infected.

Apart from that I get that some won't like this mode due to it's nature. But I'd really like to try it out.

[Korinra]

Twice people mention how ghosts are required, and to them I quote this line:

Lay eggs - Allows you to birth another borer (With an indicator if the borer is intelligent or not, triggered by a ghost taking over the borer). A non-intelligent borer simply allows a ghost to take over later.

This means the host is still infected with an NPC borer that does nothing. Then later on, someone could, "Join as borer" if one is available. This ALLOWS ghosts to join but does not REQUIRE them to.