From 6b4dcc53fb5acdd95769fcfd5525189c0abc297e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Dicerson <31220658+Dicerson@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2026 14:20:00 -0700 Subject: [PATCH 1/6] Create CyberHorror.md --- src/design-proposals/CyberHorror.md | 57 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 57 insertions(+) create mode 100644 src/design-proposals/CyberHorror.md diff --git a/src/design-proposals/CyberHorror.md b/src/design-proposals/CyberHorror.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..bedf26f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/design-proposals/CyberHorror.md @@ -0,0 +1,57 @@ +# Cyber-Horror Antagonist + +| Designers | Implemented | GitHub Links | +|---|---|---| +| Dicerson (Writer/Designer) | :x: No | TBD | + +Seeking Coder that actually knows how to code things (assuming the proposal is well-liked enough) and to help with specific numbers or refinements + +## Overview + +This proposal aims to add a new mid-round/primary antagonist type (similar in threat/scale to Changelings or Heretics) that fills a currently more or less vacant thematic niche (Cybernetic Horror/”Terminator”). It aims to fulfill this fantasy via multiple selectable kits/”Classes” which shape not just the tools but also the objectives of the antagonist. These can range from stealth/infiltration centric tools, to more aggressive/hostile tools. + +## Background + +This proposal is not made in response to any problematic game states, rather with the intent to fulfill a thematic niche that is not present - ie Cybernetic or Robotic solo antagonists. Funky currently has Replicators and the Colossus, but both are rare, neither are truly standalone, and Replicators (while very fun) are a major round-ending threat snowball type conversion antag (similar to blob) while Cyber-Horrors aim to be more long-term, softer, and “ling-like” in that they emphasize discreet objectives which do not necessarily end the round. It is also a purely sci-fi/robotic themed antag, unlike the colossus which ties into the themes of the Cosmic Cult (it being a robot is almost entirely irrelevant/secondary, it could be a ghost or spirit or even an organic creature and it would not really change its nature or function) + +## Features to be added + + - New type of Antagonist which can be rolled alongside other antagonists (Traitors, Thieves, Heretics, Lings, etc.), as part of a mid-round antagonist roll, or as the primary antagonist of a game mode (likely with other mid-rounds joining them in smaller numbers either at the beginning or truly mid-round) + - This antagonist will have 3 “Kits” it can choose from (flavor pending); each kit has its own goals and tools for pursuing them + - Before selecting a kit, the antagonist exists at arrivals as an invisible camera point similar to the AI or Blob cameras + - The first kit is the “Terminator” type kit, emphasizing stealth, subterfuge, and eventually aggression in order to assassinate targets that threaten its future existence/creation. It will have an ability to take on the appearance of any character that it has studied (requiring a doafter that can be done stealthily from any range and LoS, but which takes quite some time); it begins with the appearance of whichever character was selected when the antagonist was rolled. The only other tools it begins with are a distinct resistance to Heat and Brute damage (but weak to radiation, cold, and is EMP-able) and space/shock immunity. It always begins with one target, but once slain it “identifies” a new threat to its future existence/creation in the form of a random other crew member; each target becoming progressively more important/higher rank (it begins with civilian targets like assistant, boxer, librarian, etc.; then moves up to standard department roles; then a secoff; then a non-sec head of staff; and finally captain). Once it has killed the captain, its new goal becomes making it to CC to await its next assignment. + - Examples of tools it could potentially unlock as it gains new targets; Toggleable super speed, the ability to “liquefy” through doors, grilles, or other obstacles with “gaps”, ability to “create” a liquid metal arm blade, invisibility, glasses-less Huds (med, sec, mesons, thermal, etc.), radio access to unauthorized channels, liquid omnitool + - Special notes on combating it; Fire Extinguishers will deal a relatively small amount of cold damage and slow down this type significantly, it has no blood/does not bleed - which can be a giveaway, EMPs stun it similar to borgs + + - The second kit is a “Mechanical Horror” type, a mecha monstrosity obsessed with achieving “Perfection” through self-modification. This kit emphasizes aggressive and fast-moving play. Rather than posing as a crew member, like the Terminator kit, it instead poses as an arrivals cyborg with only 1 law: “Achieve Divinity”. It will have a button UI for selecting other lawsets, which do not actually constrain its behavior but will allow it to ‘feign’ having laws if it is asked or interrogated. It has no lawboard and cannot be relawed - only destroyed. It otherwise starts with the same model and modules as a normal borg, including the ability to “specialize” + - This antag’s goal is achieved through dismantling other Borgs and using their parts to improve itself, stealing their modules and gaining special “points” it can spend to further unlock unique enhancements and upgrades similar to a Heretic’s knowledge points or a ling’s dna. It starts with 1 such point to select a final low-level tool it can utilize to achieve its first “kill”. + - It can also gain power by “consuming” cyborg modules directly, Roboticists should keep a careful eye on their printer! It can also eat any module slotted into it, if it wants to aim for a more stealthy approach (or there are no other borgs on station); it can also, of course, eat positronic brains or filled MMIs + - As it progresses, it eventually reaches a point of no return; its sprite changes to reflect its antagonistic nature and it gains a new goal of “Assimilating” the station’s AI Core and achieving Mechanical Godhood. Once it does so it becomes a wholly Digital being with godlike powers and can roam around the station doing whatever it wants for exactly 2 minutes before it ascends to a higher plane of being (with the round continuing on as normal afterwards) + - Examples of things this type can unlock: EMP button (that it is immune to), powerful melee weapons, free and more powerful versions of borg modules (regardless of actual specialization), Hands, personal storage, reflective shield bubble, self-repairing nanobots, etc. + - Notes on combating it; It can of course be outed if it is found to be ignoring obvious laws and someone ends up checking its actual lawset (though only those without a metashield would know what “Achieve Divinity” means). While immune to its own EMP, it is not immune to EMP in general (and becomes flash immune only after achieving its “horror” form). It also shares the same resistances (and weaknesses) as normal borgs. + + - The third and final kit is the one with the potential for round-ending destruction, and is the true “Cyber Horror” type kit. This kit starts as a normal crew member (an Assistant) at arrivals, but with a dangerous cybernetic “heart” replacing their organic one. This heart is an infection which slowly consumes their body and replaces it with eldritch mechanical replacements. The goal of the antagonist begins as Survive at all costs, with the knowledge that they can “slow” the infection by removing and replacing their own limbs before they become fully robotic. Since doing self-surgery is both silly and probably shouldn’t be possible, this is achieved by “spreading” the infection to other members of the crew by rendering them unconscious and performing a doafter which transfers the “corruption” to the crew member. This is, of course, untenable as such infected crewmembers will have to start doing the same lest they succumb. Eventually, someone will fail and become “fully” robotic - turning into a grotesque cybernetic monster of gangly limbs and mechanical constructions that shouldn’t work but somehow do. These monsters are powerful and hellbent on killing all organic life. + - There are no points or progression to this antag, the individual has only whatever tools they can get ahold of until they eventually succumb, becoming a monster creature with a fixed kit + - This kit consists of: A large health pool and resistance to all damage types, the only true weakness is to EMP-type effects which can stun the monster for a short period (long enough to hose it down and potentially kill it); deadly melee weapons that can rapidly eviscerate anything; and of course speed and the ability to destroy walls and pry doors. + - Generally speaking, a single instance of this antag played perfectly can “infect” 2-3 other crew members throughout a shift and safely make it to CC without “turning”; though this is only with perfect timing/spacing between infections. More likely they’ll have to infect 4, maybe 5 others in order to survive a full 2 hour shift, and may run out of viable targets (especially as the ones they infect are themselves infecting others; and you can’t infect someone who is already infected). + - If discovered, those without metashield will know that there is no cure; the individual must be killed and their body entirely destroyed lest it turn into a Horror (which of course the individual wants to avoid). The most common out would be going to medical for Surgery for any reason (med scanners don’t reveal the cybernetic corruption; only directly attempting to remove corrupted limbs or organs). But as the corruption progresses, the sprite’s skin will change color to reflect its progress and new metallic sheen - requiring more covering clothing (or more frequent infections) to fully hide. + - This of course has major snowball/round-ending potential, if there end up being several infections or botched play; though it can also result in very little if the initial antag fails to secure infections for a long period early on (though this won’t stop sec from being paranoid about who it could be; since ordering “investigative” surgeries is turbo-illegal) + +## Game Design Rationale + + - This Antagonist mostly fills a similar role to other current mid-rounds, being a dangerous, unpredictable source of chaos, confusion, and/or intrigue; intended to create paranoia or sheer terror in the crew through their pursuit of their ultimate aims. + - Cybernetic or Robotic horrors fit very nicely into the general overarching sci-fi theme of any space based game setting, and ss14 is no different! + - This antag has variable objectives depending on the kit that is selected, giving the player a choice between more subterfugey gameplay involving deceit and intrigue akin to lings, or more aggressive murder-y gameplay akin to heretics, or somewhere in-between. This is to add variability and spice to a round, especially when this antag is the primary and different players could each select different kits - creating chaos as sec has to try and organize an offensive against wildly different types of threats. + +## Roundflow & Player interaction + + - This antagonist can be either roundstart or mid-round, and is intended to have a direct impact on gameplay for most of the crew at some point in its “growth”/progress towards its goals. Much like heretics or lings it starts off relatively slow, but unlike them has potential for progressing very quickly if played robustly (especially during already chaotic rounds) + +## Administrative & Server Rule Impact (if applicable) + + - This antagonist is mostly limited by its objectives, and in some cases escalation rules; it can be a highly destructive antagonist - with one of the kits having an objective which will likely (though not necessarily) lead to station destruction. + +# Technical Considerations + + - This is a fully new antagonist, not native to SS13 or other servers (to my knowledge; hope I didn’t reinvent the wheel!) and thus would require a significant amount of coding and spriting work to implement. + - Worse still, it’s effectively 3 different antagonists in one; with the player that rolls it getting to choose which type they play in a given round. From 76f848271e33e72f5457b50b9bfa8006b1e27c68 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Dicerson <31220658+Dicerson@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2026 14:20:24 -0700 Subject: [PATCH 2/6] Rename CyberHorror.md to cyber_horror.md --- src/design-proposals/{CyberHorror.md => cyber_horror.md} | 0 1 file changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) rename src/design-proposals/{CyberHorror.md => cyber_horror.md} (100%) diff --git a/src/design-proposals/CyberHorror.md b/src/design-proposals/cyber_horror.md similarity index 100% rename from src/design-proposals/CyberHorror.md rename to src/design-proposals/cyber_horror.md From 9399b1978b407773c0ff52ec5cf67c531a231c68 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Dicerson <31220658+Dicerson@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:04:14 -0700 Subject: [PATCH 3/6] Update cyber_horror.md Trimmed down the proposal to just the one unique kit/idea, as the other two were ill-conceived and bloaty. --- src/design-proposals/cyber_horror.md | 30 +++++++++------------------- 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 21 deletions(-) diff --git a/src/design-proposals/cyber_horror.md b/src/design-proposals/cyber_horror.md index bedf26f0..cf168302 100644 --- a/src/design-proposals/cyber_horror.md +++ b/src/design-proposals/cyber_horror.md @@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ Seeking Coder that actually knows how to code things (assuming the proposal is w ## Overview -This proposal aims to add a new mid-round/primary antagonist type (similar in threat/scale to Changelings or Heretics) that fills a currently more or less vacant thematic niche (Cybernetic Horror/”Terminator”). It aims to fulfill this fantasy via multiple selectable kits/”Classes” which shape not just the tools but also the objectives of the antagonist. These can range from stealth/infiltration centric tools, to more aggressive/hostile tools. +This proposal aims to add a new mid-round/primary antagonist type (similar in threat/scale to Changelings or Heretics) that fills a currently more or less vacant thematic niche (Cybernetic Horror/”Terminator”). It aims to fulfill this fantasy via a heretic/ling-like system of abilities and upgrades that it can purchase through use of points gained by fulfilling its primary objectives. ## Background @@ -17,31 +17,19 @@ This proposal is not made in response to any problematic game states, rather wit ## Features to be added - New type of Antagonist which can be rolled alongside other antagonists (Traitors, Thieves, Heretics, Lings, etc.), as part of a mid-round antagonist roll, or as the primary antagonist of a game mode (likely with other mid-rounds joining them in smaller numbers either at the beginning or truly mid-round) - - This antagonist will have 3 “Kits” it can choose from (flavor pending); each kit has its own goals and tools for pursuing them - - Before selecting a kit, the antagonist exists at arrivals as an invisible camera point similar to the AI or Blob cameras - - The first kit is the “Terminator” type kit, emphasizing stealth, subterfuge, and eventually aggression in order to assassinate targets that threaten its future existence/creation. It will have an ability to take on the appearance of any character that it has studied (requiring a doafter that can be done stealthily from any range and LoS, but which takes quite some time); it begins with the appearance of whichever character was selected when the antagonist was rolled. The only other tools it begins with are a distinct resistance to Heat and Brute damage (but weak to radiation, cold, and is EMP-able) and space/shock immunity. It always begins with one target, but once slain it “identifies” a new threat to its future existence/creation in the form of a random other crew member; each target becoming progressively more important/higher rank (it begins with civilian targets like assistant, boxer, librarian, etc.; then moves up to standard department roles; then a secoff; then a non-sec head of staff; and finally captain). Once it has killed the captain, its new goal becomes making it to CC to await its next assignment. - - Examples of tools it could potentially unlock as it gains new targets; Toggleable super speed, the ability to “liquefy” through doors, grilles, or other obstacles with “gaps”, ability to “create” a liquid metal arm blade, invisibility, glasses-less Huds (med, sec, mesons, thermal, etc.), radio access to unauthorized channels, liquid omnitool - - Special notes on combating it; Fire Extinguishers will deal a relatively small amount of cold damage and slow down this type significantly, it has no blood/does not bleed - which can be a giveaway, EMPs stun it similar to borgs - - - The second kit is a “Mechanical Horror” type, a mecha monstrosity obsessed with achieving “Perfection” through self-modification. This kit emphasizes aggressive and fast-moving play. Rather than posing as a crew member, like the Terminator kit, it instead poses as an arrivals cyborg with only 1 law: “Achieve Divinity”. It will have a button UI for selecting other lawsets, which do not actually constrain its behavior but will allow it to ‘feign’ having laws if it is asked or interrogated. It has no lawboard and cannot be relawed - only destroyed. It otherwise starts with the same model and modules as a normal borg, including the ability to “specialize” - - This antag’s goal is achieved through dismantling other Borgs and using their parts to improve itself, stealing their modules and gaining special “points” it can spend to further unlock unique enhancements and upgrades similar to a Heretic’s knowledge points or a ling’s dna. It starts with 1 such point to select a final low-level tool it can utilize to achieve its first “kill”. - - It can also gain power by “consuming” cyborg modules directly, Roboticists should keep a careful eye on their printer! It can also eat any module slotted into it, if it wants to aim for a more stealthy approach (or there are no other borgs on station); it can also, of course, eat positronic brains or filled MMIs + - This is a mecha monstrosity obsessed with achieving “Perfection” through self-modification. It emphasizes highly aggressive play, and can move quickly if the player is robust. Rather than posing as a crew member, like other antags, it instead poses as an arrivals cyborg with only 1 law: “Achieve Divinity”. It will have a button UI for selecting other lawsets, which do not actually constrain its behavior but will allow it to ‘feign’ having laws if it is asked or interrogated. It has no lawboard and cannot be relawed - only destroyed. It otherwise starts with the same model and modules as a normal borg, including the ability to “specialize” + - This antag’s goal is achieved through dismantling other Borgs and/or advanced machines and using their parts to improve itself, stealing their modules and gaining special “points” it can spend to further unlock unique enhancements and upgrades similar to a Heretic’s knowledge points or a ling’s dna. It starts with 1 such point to select a single low-level tool it can utilize to achieve its first “kill”. + - The Cyber-Horror can also gain points by a similar process performed on any Machine; though any given machine type can only provide points once (You gain no extra points from eating the other 5 tesla coils, or every lathe on the station, etc.); as well as "eating" live positronic brains and occupied MMIs (a savvy horror might kill a crew just to MMI and eat them). - As it progresses, it eventually reaches a point of no return; its sprite changes to reflect its antagonistic nature and it gains a new goal of “Assimilating” the station’s AI Core and achieving Mechanical Godhood. Once it does so it becomes a wholly Digital being with godlike powers and can roam around the station doing whatever it wants for exactly 2 minutes before it ascends to a higher plane of being (with the round continuing on as normal afterwards) - - Examples of things this type can unlock: EMP button (that it is immune to), powerful melee weapons, free and more powerful versions of borg modules (regardless of actual specialization), Hands, personal storage, reflective shield bubble, self-repairing nanobots, etc. - - Notes on combating it; It can of course be outed if it is found to be ignoring obvious laws and someone ends up checking its actual lawset (though only those without a metashield would know what “Achieve Divinity” means). While immune to its own EMP, it is not immune to EMP in general (and becomes flash immune only after achieving its “horror” form). It also shares the same resistances (and weaknesses) as normal borgs. - - - The third and final kit is the one with the potential for round-ending destruction, and is the true “Cyber Horror” type kit. This kit starts as a normal crew member (an Assistant) at arrivals, but with a dangerous cybernetic “heart” replacing their organic one. This heart is an infection which slowly consumes their body and replaces it with eldritch mechanical replacements. The goal of the antagonist begins as Survive at all costs, with the knowledge that they can “slow” the infection by removing and replacing their own limbs before they become fully robotic. Since doing self-surgery is both silly and probably shouldn’t be possible, this is achieved by “spreading” the infection to other members of the crew by rendering them unconscious and performing a doafter which transfers the “corruption” to the crew member. This is, of course, untenable as such infected crewmembers will have to start doing the same lest they succumb. Eventually, someone will fail and become “fully” robotic - turning into a grotesque cybernetic monster of gangly limbs and mechanical constructions that shouldn’t work but somehow do. These monsters are powerful and hellbent on killing all organic life. - - There are no points or progression to this antag, the individual has only whatever tools they can get ahold of until they eventually succumb, becoming a monster creature with a fixed kit - - This kit consists of: A large health pool and resistance to all damage types, the only true weakness is to EMP-type effects which can stun the monster for a short period (long enough to hose it down and potentially kill it); deadly melee weapons that can rapidly eviscerate anything; and of course speed and the ability to destroy walls and pry doors. - - Generally speaking, a single instance of this antag played perfectly can “infect” 2-3 other crew members throughout a shift and safely make it to CC without “turning”; though this is only with perfect timing/spacing between infections. More likely they’ll have to infect 4, maybe 5 others in order to survive a full 2 hour shift, and may run out of viable targets (especially as the ones they infect are themselves infecting others; and you can’t infect someone who is already infected). - - If discovered, those without metashield will know that there is no cure; the individual must be killed and their body entirely destroyed lest it turn into a Horror (which of course the individual wants to avoid). The most common out would be going to medical for Surgery for any reason (med scanners don’t reveal the cybernetic corruption; only directly attempting to remove corrupted limbs or organs). But as the corruption progresses, the sprite’s skin will change color to reflect its progress and new metallic sheen - requiring more covering clothing (or more frequent infections) to fully hide. - - This of course has major snowball/round-ending potential, if there end up being several infections or botched play; though it can also result in very little if the initial antag fails to secure infections for a long period early on (though this won’t stop sec from being paranoid about who it could be; since ordering “investigative” surgeries is turbo-illegal) + - Generally speaking, the number of points required to reach this point is set such that at least 3-4 "kills" are mandatory (or enough unique machines to cripple the station in some way) + - Examples of things this type can unlock: EMP button (that it is immune to), free (but long cooldown) EMAGs, free and more powerful versions of borg modules (regardless of actual specialization), Hands, personal storage, reflective shield bubble, self-repairing nanobots, various weapon-analogs (blades, energy guns, etc.) + - Notes on combating it; It can of course be outed if it is found to be ignoring obvious laws and someone ends up checking its actual lawset (or rather the fact that it appears to have no lawboard). While immune to its own EMP, it is not immune to EMP in general (and becomes flash immune only after achieving its “horror” form). It also shares the same resistances (and weaknesses) as normal borgs. ## Game Design Rationale - This Antagonist mostly fills a similar role to other current mid-rounds, being a dangerous, unpredictable source of chaos, confusion, and/or intrigue; intended to create paranoia or sheer terror in the crew through their pursuit of their ultimate aims. - Cybernetic or Robotic horrors fit very nicely into the general overarching sci-fi theme of any space based game setting, and ss14 is no different! - - This antag has variable objectives depending on the kit that is selected, giving the player a choice between more subterfugey gameplay involving deceit and intrigue akin to lings, or more aggressive murder-y gameplay akin to heretics, or somewhere in-between. This is to add variability and spice to a round, especially when this antag is the primary and different players could each select different kits - creating chaos as sec has to try and organize an offensive against wildly different types of threats. + - This antag can be played a variety of ways, though aggressive borg-on-borg violence is encouraged, thanks to its plethora of possible tools. ## Roundflow & Player interaction @@ -49,7 +37,7 @@ This proposal is not made in response to any problematic game states, rather wit ## Administrative & Server Rule Impact (if applicable) - - This antagonist is mostly limited by its objectives, and in some cases escalation rules; it can be a highly destructive antagonist - with one of the kits having an objective which will likely (though not necessarily) lead to station destruction. + - This antagonist is mostly limited by its objectives, and in some cases escalation rules; it can be a highly destructive antagonist - or it can hyperfocus on its objectives, consume the AI, and otherwise leave the station intact. # Technical Considerations From 5eafc90d6f2905045e7a62f015e69296aee2890b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Dicerson <31220658+Dicerson@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2026 08:32:35 -0700 Subject: [PATCH 4/6] Update cyber_horror.md Added more ideas to possible ability purchases --- src/design-proposals/cyber_horror.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/src/design-proposals/cyber_horror.md b/src/design-proposals/cyber_horror.md index cf168302..6c096311 100644 --- a/src/design-proposals/cyber_horror.md +++ b/src/design-proposals/cyber_horror.md @@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ This proposal is not made in response to any problematic game states, rather wit - The Cyber-Horror can also gain points by a similar process performed on any Machine; though any given machine type can only provide points once (You gain no extra points from eating the other 5 tesla coils, or every lathe on the station, etc.); as well as "eating" live positronic brains and occupied MMIs (a savvy horror might kill a crew just to MMI and eat them). - As it progresses, it eventually reaches a point of no return; its sprite changes to reflect its antagonistic nature and it gains a new goal of “Assimilating” the station’s AI Core and achieving Mechanical Godhood. Once it does so it becomes a wholly Digital being with godlike powers and can roam around the station doing whatever it wants for exactly 2 minutes before it ascends to a higher plane of being (with the round continuing on as normal afterwards) - Generally speaking, the number of points required to reach this point is set such that at least 3-4 "kills" are mandatory (or enough unique machines to cripple the station in some way) - - Examples of things this type can unlock: EMP button (that it is immune to), free (but long cooldown) EMAGs, free and more powerful versions of borg modules (regardless of actual specialization), Hands, personal storage, reflective shield bubble, self-repairing nanobots, various weapon-analogs (blades, energy guns, etc.) + - Examples of things this type can unlock: EMP button (that it is immune to), free (but long cooldown) EMAGs, free and more powerful versions of borg modules (regardless of actual specialization), Hands, personal storage, reflective shield bubble, self-repairing nanobots, various weapon-analogs (blades, energy guns, etc.), ability to change specializations/standard modules, change name, etc. - Notes on combating it; It can of course be outed if it is found to be ignoring obvious laws and someone ends up checking its actual lawset (or rather the fact that it appears to have no lawboard). While immune to its own EMP, it is not immune to EMP in general (and becomes flash immune only after achieving its “horror” form). It also shares the same resistances (and weaknesses) as normal borgs. ## Game Design Rationale From 3290f74d8460ff293fb4efc538efea09e7a71988 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Dicerson <31220658+Dicerson@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2026 16:30:46 -0700 Subject: [PATCH 5/6] Create The Great Re-pace-ening design proposal New design proposal! --- src/design-proposals/The Great Re-pace-ening | 107 +++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 107 insertions(+) create mode 100644 src/design-proposals/The Great Re-pace-ening diff --git a/src/design-proposals/The Great Re-pace-ening b/src/design-proposals/The Great Re-pace-ening new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d1621f1c --- /dev/null +++ b/src/design-proposals/The Great Re-pace-ening @@ -0,0 +1,107 @@ +# The Re-pace-ening (AKA. Speed, Speech, and Identity reworks) + +| Designers | Implemented | GitHub Links | +|---|---|---| +| Dicerson (Writer/Designer) | :x: No | TBD | + +Seeking Coder that actually knows how to code things (assuming the proposal is well-liked enough) and to help with specific numbers or refinements + +## Overview + +This Overhaul will alter three core aspects of the game: Player traversal (and transportation), Speech, and Identity. Generally, player movement will be slower - but there will be more/better tools for transporting materials, speech will become more realistic (no more overhearing the cultists 2 rooms over in maints), and Identity will no longer be the automatic outing generator it currently is. This will make it easier to have natural conversations or RP "run-ins" that don't result in one player saying hi and the other player being offscreen before the first can even hit the enter key. + +## Background + +In a video game about RP, making RP easy to do is merely the first step - the second is creating intentional gameplay flow and downtime moments where RP is the natural recourse. Counteracting meta gameplay by introducing layers of doubt and controlling what information the player actually has - thereby creating room for curiosity, and thereby discussion, interrogation, and thus RP. Currently, funky (and in a large way SS14 in general) struggles with some of this due to a combination of many different factors. This overhaul aims to resolve three such factors, thereby making it easier for people to focus on the RP aspects of the game without having to worry as much about having their fingers on wasd and the mouse - and encouraging more natural "ignorance" of antag behavior and further decreasing player omniscience of the station's general situation. + +## Features to be added + + - All player general movement speeds will have their base values reduced to about 70% of current (Current "Walk" speed is 50% of the base value) + - Holding shift now no longer walks, but instead returns your base speed to its original value at the cost of a minor amount of stamina each second. + -- Borgs will also inherit these changes, with "running" costing them more power (MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE) + - Slowdown effects have their effects dramatically reduced when the character is walking (IE not holding shift), and speed can not be reduced to less than 50% (what would be 35% of current) while walking. If slowdown would be such that run speed is equivalent or worse than walk speed, running is instead disabled. Additional slowdown beyond this floor instead applies a minor stamina cost to walking/moving at all. + -- Generally speaking, walking around in a engi/atmo/eva suit should be slightly faster than current when running and slightly slower when walking (Stop living inside your hardsuit) + -- Heavy Suits now require a doafter to put on, but as a holdable item inflict no slowdown. + - Stamina in general is reworked, strenuous activities (like hopping over obstacles, pulling most heavy objects, holding heavy objects, etc.) inflict stamina drain. All stamina drain also applies a very small amount of "Fatigue", which reduces your maximum stamina (to a minimum of 25% nominal) + - Fatigue slowly recovers over time while stamina is not being drained, and recovers faster when "resting" (sitting in a chair, sleeping in a bed, etc.) and digesting food. Higher quality food or more comfortable furniture can further improve fatigue recovery. + -- Further improvements to food and rest mechanics ought to be done but are out of scope for this proposal (Plates, tables, etc. should matter!) + - Different levels of stamina inflict increasing amounts of slowdown, starting at a very tiny amount at 50%, and a more significant amount at 25%; this is a % of your normal maximum before Fatigue (IE fatigue can "lock" you to low stamina debuffs) + - At 0% stamina, you fall over from exhaustion and suffer a significant amount of fatigue immediately; if you are already at 25% max stamina, then you instead additionally suffer brute damage (to a specific relevant limb once newmed exists) as well as falling over. + - Significant Hunger and Dehydration inflict Fatigue rather than slowdown. + - To compensate for general slowdown, all departments receive ways to transport their materials across station if needed (Cargo gets extra carts and cardboard boxes, Botany gets extra plantbags, medical an extra crashcart for the paramed, engie gets a cart for transporting stacks of material, science gets a "dolly" for transporting machines/machine frames; sec gets a hannibal lector-esque "prisoner dolly" for uncooperative prisoners) + -- A further rework to containers, container security, speed, capacity, etc. is pending a separate document and is out of scope for this proposal (general rework to crates, lockers, carts, boxes, and item mass/carrying and container security) + - Initiating a pull on a character that is running will force them to stop running and cancel their movement input, requiring them to re-press the keys in order to continue moving (and they cannot start running again until they are out of the pull for at least half a second); doing this costs a very large amount of stamina from the puller, and if they do not have enough stamina to afford this will instead fail to pull and "trip" the puller as they get dragged like a tiny person trying to walk three great danes. + - While being pulled, you can click on the hud icon to try and "push" off of the puller and run away, similar to struggling out of handcuffs. This will temporarily disable pulling for the puller, and push you directly away from them one tile; if you hit a wall or other collidable object you will trip and take a tiny amount of brute. This requires the same heavy stamina amount as stopping a runner by pulling. If you are cuffed, you can still push off, but it requires a short doafter (IE you must not be moving/being moved). (Secoffs gotta really make sure the prisoner is secure if they're liable to run! Pick up and carry them or put them on the lecter dolly, or in true dystopia secoff beat cop fashion, beat them until they're crit and drag them unconscious - just don't kill them or there'll be charges for excessive force!) + + + - The second major overhaul is to Sound/Speech. Now, speech/textbox will respect sound barriers such as walls, doors, and windows - altering what the client sees based on the distance to and thickness of barriers and introducing more granular control over speech volume. + - As a mirror to the whisper chat function, text is bolded when typed in allcaps as well as when multiple exclamation points are used; and bolded text will now have a higher volume than normal speech (and whispering will have a lower volume) + - All speech now uses volume to determine visibility (IE the size/color of the font) and garbling (the randomizations or replacement of characters, words, phrases, etc.) in a manner similar to how whisper garbling works. + - This is done similar to radiation: when a client receives speech within a fixed radius (screen width on the wide axis, so within a 22 tile diameter) it will attempt to pathfind from the source to the listener using special rules that treat barriers/collidables as slowdown rather than hard obstacles (so a wall only slows down rather than blocks entirely) + - When the "shortest"/Fastest path is found, it will generate the text with font/coloring/garbling based on the actual volume of the message after being reduced by all slowdown along the path (with unobstructed tiles being a tiny amount of slowdown only). Rather than appearing over the head of the speaker, the floating in-world text will appear at the closest LoS visible point to the receiver (so listening through a wall will produce the text on the closest visible wall tile) + -- This also accounts for screen rotation, appearing at the edge of the screen if the visible tile is not on-screen + -- If the "speed"/volume of the message ever hits 0, it fails and will not appear for the listener at all. + - Additionally, tile pressure also affects slowdown on unobstructed tiles. When pressure is at the "minor" warning stage it significantly increases garbling and slowdown for the soundpathfinding, when it is at the major stage it significantly decreases volume and further worsens slowdown, and at 0kpa or lethally high KPA it deafens the message entirely. + -- This means that in space, noone can hear you scream. Nor in a 9000kpa hyperbaric chamber. + -- Certain types of things will have "telepathic" speech that works the same across any distance regardless of barriers, such as Space/Mini Dragons (otherwise space dragon rp would be literally nonexistant as opposed to practically) + - All headset radios now work like handheld radios and must be tuned to the channel you wish to receive from/send to, except the floating text appearing over your character's head will always be rendered as an ungarbled whisper font (and the textbox text appears as normal); other listeners can hear the radio but only if they are close enough to hear whispers + -- Additionally, radio messages will have a special flag so if another radio picks up a message sent by a radio, rather than duplicating the message a dozen times, the receiving radio will instead send only one "dupe" of the message and increase its garbling slightly (worse for each additional dupe that would be made of the same message). + - Furthermore, floating text speech bubbles now have their hang time adjusted based on the length of the message; and characters cannot speak again until half of that duration has elapsed (if they hit enter to send a message, it will "queue up" to be sent at that time) + - Lastly, Nanochat is updated to work more like modern text messaging; you can create public or private groupchats to send messages to. Sending a nanochat creates a UI similar to the blood cult's Commune, except others can see the contents of a message you are currently typing as well as the last message you sent or received by closely inspecting your PDA (requires very close proximity and bringing up the strip menu and inspecting the PDA in their hand with a short invisible doafter to "carefully glance over their shoulder"), the PDA must and will occupy a handslot while in use (IE the UI is toggled) in addition to the PDA slot, and if it drops out of your hands for whatever reason (tripped, fell, etc.) or you are hit or pulled or otherwise physically interrupted, the UI disappears and the partial message is not sent (unlike speech, which shows the partial message in these cases - often with a comical GLORF or GACK). + - Partially written messages are saved, as well as message histories, to the ID that is inside the PDA and can be examined by anyone that picks it up and interacts with the PDA UI and has access to do so (IE you are the person on the inserted ID/"know the password/unlock method"; or you are the Detective who has special "methods" for accessing anyone's PDA) + + - The third and final major overhaul is to Identity. Now, the identities of individuals are not always 100% guaranteed - characters do not immediately recognize the faces or voices of all other characters + - A new "Familiarity" system will be implemented, whereby only characters with which a specific character is "familiar" will have their names displayed on inspection or via textboxes + - When unfamiliar, character speech (in person or on a radio) or visual inspection will only show as [apparent age-range] [apparent gender] [apparent species] + -- Suits with helmet on or having "concealing" clothes in all of the head, face, and uniform slots can conceal age/gender, leaving only apparent species on visual inspect, but not speech text. + - By default, characters have familiarity with only a specific selection of other characters, generally: + -- All characters are familiar with the captain (whether they want to be or not, thanks to NT "briefing" before assignment to station) + -- All characters are familiar with their department's head of staff (or HoP for the service department) + -- All characters that are part of a normal department are familiar with other normal members of that department (Secoffs know secoffs, engis know engis, service knows service, etc.) + -- Assistants of any kind (general or department specific) are not familiar with anyone other than their department head/captain, and are likewise not known by anyone else within the department. + -- The HoP is familiar with all characters on the crew Manifest (it's literally their entire job to be) + -- The Warden automatically gains familiarity with any character that has or gains a prisoner ID. + -- Silicons ignore the Familiarity system, instead seeing and hearing all characters as exactly who their ID says they are. + -- SecHuds will also show persons with whom the user is unfamiliar as who their ID says they are, but only on visual inspect and visible speech floating text (not radios or the textbox); If they have familiarity, familiarity takes precedence but the SecHud can result in confusion (described further down). + - Character can additionally become familiar with one another through several means: + -- The names on character IDs are also displayed on PDAs, but the text showing the name does not appear for at least 2 seconds after clicking to inspect, requires the character to be facing towards you and within 3 tiles, and cancels if they turn away or move out of range. Successfully seeing this name/inspection begins a slow process of familiarization, tying that name to that sprite. + --- From then on, being in physical proximity (IE being on screen) to a character builds up a very slow progression, which eventually results in familiarity; if that character speaks it will progress twice as fast for 1 minute (refreshing if they speak again, rather than stacking in any way) + --- Generally speaking, 10 minutes of silent proximity (or 5 of active conversation) is all that's required. + --- If the initial inspection is repeated, you will be given temporary familiarity (IE, name appears on inspect and speech) for 1 minute; but if the name on the ID is different, the process stops entirely as your character becomes confused - wondering if they truly are who they say. + --- Inspecting the id a third time after 1 minute of this confusion can re-start familiarization, but only if the ID at the third inspection matches either the original ID or the new one (if it is a third, yet different ID, you become again confused for another minute). This only cares about the ID slotted into the PDA (or the PDA slot). If there exists some amount of familiarity already, this familiarity will slowly decay during the confusion at the same rate as it normally builds. + --- While confused, there will be an additional line on inspect text saying "You are not sure who they truly are" + -- Two characters can choose to become mutually familiar by adding each other as "friends" on their PDA's nanochat which requires a somewhat long doafter (wherein your characters verbally exchange names and numbers; which could enable others to learn their identities as players or send anonymous one-sided messages via nanochat, or speed up any ongoing familiarizations) + - Notably this does not prevent players from simply knowing the physical appearances and names of other player characters; this information will unfortunately need to be metashielded so that antagonists can still attempt impersonations even without a disguise. Thankfully you can still use the friending feature to get around this at any time (or even use it against them if you are the antag...) + - Familiarity is tied to the sprite of the character but is remembered/stored only by the one who has familiarity, which can be "inherited" by those utilizing special impersonation tools such as Ling transformations, paradox clones, and special syndicate disguise kits. + -- This means that someone can be known by two different names, if they are already known by someone else as one name but build up familiarity with a different person by another name. + -- Lastly, if a character is already familiar with another character but inspects their ID/PDA and sees a different name, they will become confused as if with someone they are not familiar but you will still see the "old" name on inspect/speech as well as the "You are not sure who they truly are" inspect text. The next re-inspection with wrong ID will then remove all familiarity from that sprite, and require re-familiarization. + +## Game Design Rationale + + - All of these changes are aimed at one specific thing: Slow down the pace of the game and directly incentivize/encourage more RP involvement. + - Speed changes literally slow down the game pace, making it easier for players to call out to passersby to attempt to initiate RP instead of relying on people noticing and stopping for every tiny speech bubble that appears on their screen. + - Pulling changes also make it possible for players to aggressively force RP, which can create interesting moments of conflict and/or enable antagonists/secoffs to single out individuals for certain actions without having to rely on people being willing to RP (gathering entropy when half the station is NITRP running or ADHD fidget moving every half second is a pain, and secoffs should be able to "Tackle" down running suspects if they manage to get in range) + - Stamina changes create natural points of "rest" for player/character activity, which creates natural RP while players wait for stamina or fatigue to recover; as well as encourages more heavily involved visits to the bar/kitchen (rather than raiding vending machines/sinks or inhaling the nutribrick) for faster fatigue recovery and thus another natural point of contact for RP + - Adding delivery carts/mechanisms to all departments softens the "blow" of the general pace slowdown by reducing the number of trips required for projects to pretty much always 1 (mayyybe 2 if you underestimated something), and encourages more heavy involvement in the logistics of travel + -- Re-stating that there definitely should be a more heavily involved overhaul to draggable containers that is out of scope of this proposal due to being almost entirely cargo-exclusive and not really affecting game pace + - Making Speech depend more heavily on line of sight, and caring about audible barriers, makes it easier to have private conversations and makes it more important to have physical proximity when you are talking to someone + - Changing how speech bubbles are displayed (and having received radio do speech bubbles) also heavily reduces reliance on the external/overlaid textbox which makes it much easier for players to actually notice when they are being spoken to, even while focusing on whatever activity they are doing + - Speech bubbles being able to appear "through walls" also makes it possible, if difficult, to eavesdrop on conversations and opens the possibility of specialized tools (possible syndie tools?) that are specifically designed to make this easier to do. + - Yelling affecting volume also allows for funny moments as well as lets people calling for help have an actual mechanical reason to be panicked or "loud" + - The Pressure effects on volume also helps to cement the inherent danger/isolation of space, discouraging people from having casual conversations in the cold void of death and loneliness (though radios obviously will still work) + - Adjusting how floating text works and adding a buffered cooldown to speech creates a more natural way for people to emphasize actually well thought out and intentioned messages and discourages/prevents the kind LRP copy-paste spamming which can make it difficult or even impossible to actually parse through the text of a very busy environment. + - The new Identity system makes it ever more important to actually use the inspect mechanic and makes knowing someone's identity an actual part of the gameplay rather than a free and automatic gimme courtesy of the textbox. It makes disguises and impersonations both possible and powerful to pull off successfully, potentially allowing for some crazy shenanigans (and making paradox clones especially a far more interesting antagonist in general) + - A large part of the Identity system isn't just the mechanical changes, but the psychological changes they create; when Identity is no longer a given, people will ironically become both more and less trusting of others. They'll be inclined to doubt identities, while also wanting more strongly to trust the names given to them or those with whom they are already "familiar" out of a need for that kind of connection. Departments will naturally become more tight-knit, and players will also be encouraged to go out onto the station to find people to friend on nanochat. + - The changes to radio and nanochat also make communication across distances more difficult in some ways but easier in others, as well as more involved across the board and makes actual usage of the pda relevant. + +## Roundflow & Player interaction + + - As changes to roundflow and player interaction are the explicit rationale of this overhaul, please see the above. + +## Administrative & Server Rule Impact (if applicable) + + - The primary administrative impact would be the addition of a new metashield; IE you cannot use metafriending to get around being unfamiliar with other characters in a round. You can't use the fact that you know who Suri is out of game to bust an antag attempting to impersonate them (or any similar such instance); you must treat people as being who they seem to be on inspect/speech. If you really really want to be friends with a character you know out of game, it is recommended that you try and get them to add you on nanochat via the in-game mechanic for doing so; and if they refuse, you cannot use their refusal as an excuse to out or bust them as an imposter. + +# Technical Considerations + + - As I am not an extremely well versed programmer, I am not sure what technical issues will arise; though I feel there definitely will be at least some. In particular, the sound pathfinding strikes me as possibly problematic; though the lack of actual "hard" barriers to sound could be a huge help to that (and the fact that its not a calculation it needs to be doing dozens of times a second) From c766148a869d0c87b5515a905039ec4870cbefb1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Dicerson <31220658+Dicerson@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2026 18:58:28 -0700 Subject: [PATCH 6/6] Delete src/design-proposals/The Great Re-pace-ening Whoopsie! need a dif branch for this! --- src/design-proposals/The Great Re-pace-ening | 107 ------------------- 1 file changed, 107 deletions(-) delete mode 100644 src/design-proposals/The Great Re-pace-ening diff --git a/src/design-proposals/The Great Re-pace-ening b/src/design-proposals/The Great Re-pace-ening deleted file mode 100644 index d1621f1c..00000000 --- a/src/design-proposals/The Great Re-pace-ening +++ /dev/null @@ -1,107 +0,0 @@ -# The Re-pace-ening (AKA. Speed, Speech, and Identity reworks) - -| Designers | Implemented | GitHub Links | -|---|---|---| -| Dicerson (Writer/Designer) | :x: No | TBD | - -Seeking Coder that actually knows how to code things (assuming the proposal is well-liked enough) and to help with specific numbers or refinements - -## Overview - -This Overhaul will alter three core aspects of the game: Player traversal (and transportation), Speech, and Identity. Generally, player movement will be slower - but there will be more/better tools for transporting materials, speech will become more realistic (no more overhearing the cultists 2 rooms over in maints), and Identity will no longer be the automatic outing generator it currently is. This will make it easier to have natural conversations or RP "run-ins" that don't result in one player saying hi and the other player being offscreen before the first can even hit the enter key. - -## Background - -In a video game about RP, making RP easy to do is merely the first step - the second is creating intentional gameplay flow and downtime moments where RP is the natural recourse. Counteracting meta gameplay by introducing layers of doubt and controlling what information the player actually has - thereby creating room for curiosity, and thereby discussion, interrogation, and thus RP. Currently, funky (and in a large way SS14 in general) struggles with some of this due to a combination of many different factors. This overhaul aims to resolve three such factors, thereby making it easier for people to focus on the RP aspects of the game without having to worry as much about having their fingers on wasd and the mouse - and encouraging more natural "ignorance" of antag behavior and further decreasing player omniscience of the station's general situation. - -## Features to be added - - - All player general movement speeds will have their base values reduced to about 70% of current (Current "Walk" speed is 50% of the base value) - - Holding shift now no longer walks, but instead returns your base speed to its original value at the cost of a minor amount of stamina each second. - -- Borgs will also inherit these changes, with "running" costing them more power (MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE) - - Slowdown effects have their effects dramatically reduced when the character is walking (IE not holding shift), and speed can not be reduced to less than 50% (what would be 35% of current) while walking. If slowdown would be such that run speed is equivalent or worse than walk speed, running is instead disabled. Additional slowdown beyond this floor instead applies a minor stamina cost to walking/moving at all. - -- Generally speaking, walking around in a engi/atmo/eva suit should be slightly faster than current when running and slightly slower when walking (Stop living inside your hardsuit) - -- Heavy Suits now require a doafter to put on, but as a holdable item inflict no slowdown. - - Stamina in general is reworked, strenuous activities (like hopping over obstacles, pulling most heavy objects, holding heavy objects, etc.) inflict stamina drain. All stamina drain also applies a very small amount of "Fatigue", which reduces your maximum stamina (to a minimum of 25% nominal) - - Fatigue slowly recovers over time while stamina is not being drained, and recovers faster when "resting" (sitting in a chair, sleeping in a bed, etc.) and digesting food. Higher quality food or more comfortable furniture can further improve fatigue recovery. - -- Further improvements to food and rest mechanics ought to be done but are out of scope for this proposal (Plates, tables, etc. should matter!) - - Different levels of stamina inflict increasing amounts of slowdown, starting at a very tiny amount at 50%, and a more significant amount at 25%; this is a % of your normal maximum before Fatigue (IE fatigue can "lock" you to low stamina debuffs) - - At 0% stamina, you fall over from exhaustion and suffer a significant amount of fatigue immediately; if you are already at 25% max stamina, then you instead additionally suffer brute damage (to a specific relevant limb once newmed exists) as well as falling over. - - Significant Hunger and Dehydration inflict Fatigue rather than slowdown. - - To compensate for general slowdown, all departments receive ways to transport their materials across station if needed (Cargo gets extra carts and cardboard boxes, Botany gets extra plantbags, medical an extra crashcart for the paramed, engie gets a cart for transporting stacks of material, science gets a "dolly" for transporting machines/machine frames; sec gets a hannibal lector-esque "prisoner dolly" for uncooperative prisoners) - -- A further rework to containers, container security, speed, capacity, etc. is pending a separate document and is out of scope for this proposal (general rework to crates, lockers, carts, boxes, and item mass/carrying and container security) - - Initiating a pull on a character that is running will force them to stop running and cancel their movement input, requiring them to re-press the keys in order to continue moving (and they cannot start running again until they are out of the pull for at least half a second); doing this costs a very large amount of stamina from the puller, and if they do not have enough stamina to afford this will instead fail to pull and "trip" the puller as they get dragged like a tiny person trying to walk three great danes. - - While being pulled, you can click on the hud icon to try and "push" off of the puller and run away, similar to struggling out of handcuffs. This will temporarily disable pulling for the puller, and push you directly away from them one tile; if you hit a wall or other collidable object you will trip and take a tiny amount of brute. This requires the same heavy stamina amount as stopping a runner by pulling. If you are cuffed, you can still push off, but it requires a short doafter (IE you must not be moving/being moved). (Secoffs gotta really make sure the prisoner is secure if they're liable to run! Pick up and carry them or put them on the lecter dolly, or in true dystopia secoff beat cop fashion, beat them until they're crit and drag them unconscious - just don't kill them or there'll be charges for excessive force!) - - - - The second major overhaul is to Sound/Speech. Now, speech/textbox will respect sound barriers such as walls, doors, and windows - altering what the client sees based on the distance to and thickness of barriers and introducing more granular control over speech volume. - - As a mirror to the whisper chat function, text is bolded when typed in allcaps as well as when multiple exclamation points are used; and bolded text will now have a higher volume than normal speech (and whispering will have a lower volume) - - All speech now uses volume to determine visibility (IE the size/color of the font) and garbling (the randomizations or replacement of characters, words, phrases, etc.) in a manner similar to how whisper garbling works. - - This is done similar to radiation: when a client receives speech within a fixed radius (screen width on the wide axis, so within a 22 tile diameter) it will attempt to pathfind from the source to the listener using special rules that treat barriers/collidables as slowdown rather than hard obstacles (so a wall only slows down rather than blocks entirely) - - When the "shortest"/Fastest path is found, it will generate the text with font/coloring/garbling based on the actual volume of the message after being reduced by all slowdown along the path (with unobstructed tiles being a tiny amount of slowdown only). Rather than appearing over the head of the speaker, the floating in-world text will appear at the closest LoS visible point to the receiver (so listening through a wall will produce the text on the closest visible wall tile) - -- This also accounts for screen rotation, appearing at the edge of the screen if the visible tile is not on-screen - -- If the "speed"/volume of the message ever hits 0, it fails and will not appear for the listener at all. - - Additionally, tile pressure also affects slowdown on unobstructed tiles. When pressure is at the "minor" warning stage it significantly increases garbling and slowdown for the soundpathfinding, when it is at the major stage it significantly decreases volume and further worsens slowdown, and at 0kpa or lethally high KPA it deafens the message entirely. - -- This means that in space, noone can hear you scream. Nor in a 9000kpa hyperbaric chamber. - -- Certain types of things will have "telepathic" speech that works the same across any distance regardless of barriers, such as Space/Mini Dragons (otherwise space dragon rp would be literally nonexistant as opposed to practically) - - All headset radios now work like handheld radios and must be tuned to the channel you wish to receive from/send to, except the floating text appearing over your character's head will always be rendered as an ungarbled whisper font (and the textbox text appears as normal); other listeners can hear the radio but only if they are close enough to hear whispers - -- Additionally, radio messages will have a special flag so if another radio picks up a message sent by a radio, rather than duplicating the message a dozen times, the receiving radio will instead send only one "dupe" of the message and increase its garbling slightly (worse for each additional dupe that would be made of the same message). - - Furthermore, floating text speech bubbles now have their hang time adjusted based on the length of the message; and characters cannot speak again until half of that duration has elapsed (if they hit enter to send a message, it will "queue up" to be sent at that time) - - Lastly, Nanochat is updated to work more like modern text messaging; you can create public or private groupchats to send messages to. Sending a nanochat creates a UI similar to the blood cult's Commune, except others can see the contents of a message you are currently typing as well as the last message you sent or received by closely inspecting your PDA (requires very close proximity and bringing up the strip menu and inspecting the PDA in their hand with a short invisible doafter to "carefully glance over their shoulder"), the PDA must and will occupy a handslot while in use (IE the UI is toggled) in addition to the PDA slot, and if it drops out of your hands for whatever reason (tripped, fell, etc.) or you are hit or pulled or otherwise physically interrupted, the UI disappears and the partial message is not sent (unlike speech, which shows the partial message in these cases - often with a comical GLORF or GACK). - - Partially written messages are saved, as well as message histories, to the ID that is inside the PDA and can be examined by anyone that picks it up and interacts with the PDA UI and has access to do so (IE you are the person on the inserted ID/"know the password/unlock method"; or you are the Detective who has special "methods" for accessing anyone's PDA) - - - The third and final major overhaul is to Identity. Now, the identities of individuals are not always 100% guaranteed - characters do not immediately recognize the faces or voices of all other characters - - A new "Familiarity" system will be implemented, whereby only characters with which a specific character is "familiar" will have their names displayed on inspection or via textboxes - - When unfamiliar, character speech (in person or on a radio) or visual inspection will only show as [apparent age-range] [apparent gender] [apparent species] - -- Suits with helmet on or having "concealing" clothes in all of the head, face, and uniform slots can conceal age/gender, leaving only apparent species on visual inspect, but not speech text. - - By default, characters have familiarity with only a specific selection of other characters, generally: - -- All characters are familiar with the captain (whether they want to be or not, thanks to NT "briefing" before assignment to station) - -- All characters are familiar with their department's head of staff (or HoP for the service department) - -- All characters that are part of a normal department are familiar with other normal members of that department (Secoffs know secoffs, engis know engis, service knows service, etc.) - -- Assistants of any kind (general or department specific) are not familiar with anyone other than their department head/captain, and are likewise not known by anyone else within the department. - -- The HoP is familiar with all characters on the crew Manifest (it's literally their entire job to be) - -- The Warden automatically gains familiarity with any character that has or gains a prisoner ID. - -- Silicons ignore the Familiarity system, instead seeing and hearing all characters as exactly who their ID says they are. - -- SecHuds will also show persons with whom the user is unfamiliar as who their ID says they are, but only on visual inspect and visible speech floating text (not radios or the textbox); If they have familiarity, familiarity takes precedence but the SecHud can result in confusion (described further down). - - Character can additionally become familiar with one another through several means: - -- The names on character IDs are also displayed on PDAs, but the text showing the name does not appear for at least 2 seconds after clicking to inspect, requires the character to be facing towards you and within 3 tiles, and cancels if they turn away or move out of range. Successfully seeing this name/inspection begins a slow process of familiarization, tying that name to that sprite. - --- From then on, being in physical proximity (IE being on screen) to a character builds up a very slow progression, which eventually results in familiarity; if that character speaks it will progress twice as fast for 1 minute (refreshing if they speak again, rather than stacking in any way) - --- Generally speaking, 10 minutes of silent proximity (or 5 of active conversation) is all that's required. - --- If the initial inspection is repeated, you will be given temporary familiarity (IE, name appears on inspect and speech) for 1 minute; but if the name on the ID is different, the process stops entirely as your character becomes confused - wondering if they truly are who they say. - --- Inspecting the id a third time after 1 minute of this confusion can re-start familiarization, but only if the ID at the third inspection matches either the original ID or the new one (if it is a third, yet different ID, you become again confused for another minute). This only cares about the ID slotted into the PDA (or the PDA slot). If there exists some amount of familiarity already, this familiarity will slowly decay during the confusion at the same rate as it normally builds. - --- While confused, there will be an additional line on inspect text saying "You are not sure who they truly are" - -- Two characters can choose to become mutually familiar by adding each other as "friends" on their PDA's nanochat which requires a somewhat long doafter (wherein your characters verbally exchange names and numbers; which could enable others to learn their identities as players or send anonymous one-sided messages via nanochat, or speed up any ongoing familiarizations) - - Notably this does not prevent players from simply knowing the physical appearances and names of other player characters; this information will unfortunately need to be metashielded so that antagonists can still attempt impersonations even without a disguise. Thankfully you can still use the friending feature to get around this at any time (or even use it against them if you are the antag...) - - Familiarity is tied to the sprite of the character but is remembered/stored only by the one who has familiarity, which can be "inherited" by those utilizing special impersonation tools such as Ling transformations, paradox clones, and special syndicate disguise kits. - -- This means that someone can be known by two different names, if they are already known by someone else as one name but build up familiarity with a different person by another name. - -- Lastly, if a character is already familiar with another character but inspects their ID/PDA and sees a different name, they will become confused as if with someone they are not familiar but you will still see the "old" name on inspect/speech as well as the "You are not sure who they truly are" inspect text. The next re-inspection with wrong ID will then remove all familiarity from that sprite, and require re-familiarization. - -## Game Design Rationale - - - All of these changes are aimed at one specific thing: Slow down the pace of the game and directly incentivize/encourage more RP involvement. - - Speed changes literally slow down the game pace, making it easier for players to call out to passersby to attempt to initiate RP instead of relying on people noticing and stopping for every tiny speech bubble that appears on their screen. - - Pulling changes also make it possible for players to aggressively force RP, which can create interesting moments of conflict and/or enable antagonists/secoffs to single out individuals for certain actions without having to rely on people being willing to RP (gathering entropy when half the station is NITRP running or ADHD fidget moving every half second is a pain, and secoffs should be able to "Tackle" down running suspects if they manage to get in range) - - Stamina changes create natural points of "rest" for player/character activity, which creates natural RP while players wait for stamina or fatigue to recover; as well as encourages more heavily involved visits to the bar/kitchen (rather than raiding vending machines/sinks or inhaling the nutribrick) for faster fatigue recovery and thus another natural point of contact for RP - - Adding delivery carts/mechanisms to all departments softens the "blow" of the general pace slowdown by reducing the number of trips required for projects to pretty much always 1 (mayyybe 2 if you underestimated something), and encourages more heavy involvement in the logistics of travel - -- Re-stating that there definitely should be a more heavily involved overhaul to draggable containers that is out of scope of this proposal due to being almost entirely cargo-exclusive and not really affecting game pace - - Making Speech depend more heavily on line of sight, and caring about audible barriers, makes it easier to have private conversations and makes it more important to have physical proximity when you are talking to someone - - Changing how speech bubbles are displayed (and having received radio do speech bubbles) also heavily reduces reliance on the external/overlaid textbox which makes it much easier for players to actually notice when they are being spoken to, even while focusing on whatever activity they are doing - - Speech bubbles being able to appear "through walls" also makes it possible, if difficult, to eavesdrop on conversations and opens the possibility of specialized tools (possible syndie tools?) that are specifically designed to make this easier to do. - - Yelling affecting volume also allows for funny moments as well as lets people calling for help have an actual mechanical reason to be panicked or "loud" - - The Pressure effects on volume also helps to cement the inherent danger/isolation of space, discouraging people from having casual conversations in the cold void of death and loneliness (though radios obviously will still work) - - Adjusting how floating text works and adding a buffered cooldown to speech creates a more natural way for people to emphasize actually well thought out and intentioned messages and discourages/prevents the kind LRP copy-paste spamming which can make it difficult or even impossible to actually parse through the text of a very busy environment. - - The new Identity system makes it ever more important to actually use the inspect mechanic and makes knowing someone's identity an actual part of the gameplay rather than a free and automatic gimme courtesy of the textbox. It makes disguises and impersonations both possible and powerful to pull off successfully, potentially allowing for some crazy shenanigans (and making paradox clones especially a far more interesting antagonist in general) - - A large part of the Identity system isn't just the mechanical changes, but the psychological changes they create; when Identity is no longer a given, people will ironically become both more and less trusting of others. They'll be inclined to doubt identities, while also wanting more strongly to trust the names given to them or those with whom they are already "familiar" out of a need for that kind of connection. Departments will naturally become more tight-knit, and players will also be encouraged to go out onto the station to find people to friend on nanochat. - - The changes to radio and nanochat also make communication across distances more difficult in some ways but easier in others, as well as more involved across the board and makes actual usage of the pda relevant. - -## Roundflow & Player interaction - - - As changes to roundflow and player interaction are the explicit rationale of this overhaul, please see the above. - -## Administrative & Server Rule Impact (if applicable) - - - The primary administrative impact would be the addition of a new metashield; IE you cannot use metafriending to get around being unfamiliar with other characters in a round. You can't use the fact that you know who Suri is out of game to bust an antag attempting to impersonate them (or any similar such instance); you must treat people as being who they seem to be on inspect/speech. If you really really want to be friends with a character you know out of game, it is recommended that you try and get them to add you on nanochat via the in-game mechanic for doing so; and if they refuse, you cannot use their refusal as an excuse to out or bust them as an imposter. - -# Technical Considerations - - - As I am not an extremely well versed programmer, I am not sure what technical issues will arise; though I feel there definitely will be at least some. In particular, the sound pathfinding strikes me as possibly problematic; though the lack of actual "hard" barriers to sound could be a huge help to that (and the fact that its not a calculation it needs to be doing dozens of times a second)