flimflamm

SUGGESTION: Add the ability to lay spider webs and to walk on spider webs as a genetic mutation This is a very simple suggestion which should be downright easy to implement code wise. There are unused blocks and the flags should be easy to port from normal spiders. Balance considerations: This would be a minor power and wouldn't really be all that powerful (creating a small nuisance ), but the more people who have the power the more of a nuisance it can be! Used in combination with xenobio sentient spiders could make this fairly useful. Because terror spiders because terror spiders have their own terror webs, this would not affect the balance of terror spider events.

What we need is a distinction between syndicate/stealth weaponry and regular weaponry (except for explosives, which are always bad) For example, there is something called "Projectile Gun" which is a 10mm pistol like the stetchkin but named differently. Since it's not on the contraband list it cannot be used to declare you as an EoC, but it is still obviously a weapon that should be restricted. (As a side note, simply replace the maintenance stetchkin with the projectile gun to solve the EoC from maint-loot dilemma). So what we need is a separate non-syndicate contraband protocol that classifies non-syndicate weapons and other restricted tech or and some guidelines for dealing with them. Here's what the laws might look like POSSESSION OF EDGED WEAPONRY: Anyone found in possession of metal blades or edged weapons - of any kind which is not related to their occupation or reasonably justifiable to carry - may be subject to incarceration which lasts no longer a number of minutes equivalent to the brute damage level of the most deadly blade or edged weapon they are carrying, presuming it is their first such offense. All unauthorized blades must be confiscated, and second and third offenses result in the doubling and tripling of incarceration times (respectively). Examples of edged weapons include: Hatchets Scythes Kitchen knives Butchers Cleaver Scalpels Surgical Saws Fire-axes Meat-cleavers Spears E-cutlass' Katanas Claymores Chaplain's swords SPECIAL EXEMPTION: Replica Katana POSSESSION OF PROJECTILE/RANGED WEAPONS: Anyone found in possession of a non-syndicate projectile or range based energy weapon - of any kind which is not related to their occupation or reasonably justifiable to carry - may be subject to incarceration for a period of no longer than 40 minutes. It is advised that officers only give the maximum sentence of 40 minutes only if when crew is found in possession of especially deadly or powerful projectile weaponry. Examples of projectile weapons include: Projectile guns Pneumatic cannons Improvised shotguns Shotguns Bluespace wormhole guns Tasers Laser guns Retro laser guns E-guns Advanced E-guns Accelerator laser cannons Plasma pistols Tesla revolvers Rapid fire syringe guns Immolator laser gun Xray laser gun Ion Carbine WT-550 auto gun The severity of being caught with a gun should depend on the gun and the circumstances of it's acquisition and continued posession. A taser evidently found in maintenance and not turned in should result in a 10 minute sentence at most, while an actual laser should warrant a bit more. Accelerator laser cannons, advanced e-guns, and WT-550 auto guns are much stronger and so should warrant even more. Xray laser guns,, immolator laser guns, or a bag full of WT-550 armor piercing rounds, being the overpowered tools of mass murder that they are, should warrant the maximum sentence. Repeat offenses can result in the doubling and tripling of incarceration times, respectively. Currently possession of a weapon not related to your job can get you 5-10 minutes (example you are running around with 5 adv-eguns in your bag , while possession of two stetchkins (contraband) can get you thrown to perma (note: I've found two stetchkins in maintenance before as maint loot)). Having the punishment more appropriately fit the crime for both edged and ranged weapons via these two approaches is much more clear and satisfying from an RP perspective. In order to clarify exactly kind of syndicate weapons should warrant the labeling of EoC, we could compose a master list of extraordinary syndicate weapons which specifically come with that association and leave everything else to the above rubric (incarceration equivalent to brute for meele and up to half an hour for ranged) The main dilemma with space law overall is that generic crime descriptions and generic sentences cannot capture the nuance required to deliver high RP standards of justice because they're just too simplistic. This system for dealing with weapons charges is easy enough to grasp and communicate in-game, and it even encourages appropriate punishments. It would be difficult to concoct similar systems for all aspects of space crime, but were that possible then space law could get a heck of a lot more fair, effective, an justifiable from an RP perspective.

I was going to make a suggestion thread on wizards but this thread will suffice. Old wizards were even more boring, Streaky and Fox are correct. Unless admins spiced things up it was even more lame than the chaos objective. The real problem with wizard rounds though is the volatile nature of how they suddenly end without warning and 4 no. raisin. A single target for the crew to valid hunt isn't particularly entertaining anymore in and of itself. My suggestion for remedying this: Instead of the round ending when a wizard dies, have wizard rounds proc an additional wizard when the existing wizard dies (up to three wizards total, or until the 1 hour mark) and should the third wizard die (or a wizard die after the one hour mark) have a shuttle be automatically called instead of the round suddenly and jarringly ending. In addition to this, the crew needs something more interesting to do than just valid hunt with explosive lances and ranged weapons. To fix this, give the entire crew a written or un-written ("capture the wizard alive") objective and some mechanic of shipping restrained but living wizards to CC (cargo shuttle perhaps?). The result of doing this means the shuttle is called and no more wizards come (total crew victory). If it would be appropriate to incentivize this, "summon magic" could also be triggered upon doing so as a thank you from CC (an incentive to capture rather than kill) with some IC explanation about finding their scroll or experimenting on/extorting the wizard they were sent. Trying to capture a wizard is a whole lot more interesting than trying to kill them. You usually need to remove their clothes but also render them unconscious somehow or else get a muzzle on them (muzzles prevent magic casting right?). The threat of additional wizards as punishment for merely killing it and the reward of summon magic should motivate crew sufficiently, and the 3 wizard/1 hour limit + shuttle call ending should greatly improve how unsatisfying it is when wizard rounds suddenly and unexpectedly end.

The ability to trade specific souls would be really damn epic actually, and would give some great inter devil RP opportunity!

Aye, more contracts is a good idea. I could probably come up with a bunch of Crazylemon was interested. A katana + instant summons spell, shit like that!

This deal should probably be modified indeed

I agree, and maybe incarceration for a period of time is a better penalty than having 15 minutes of fear while a devil hunts you, but since it is genuinely hard to contain a soul seller, the danger period seems like enough justice. No, I just meant in the instance that a devil commits a perma-worthy crime (like trying to get away with murder) and either agrees to be contained or is made to be containable (someone suggested holy handcuffs, but they might be too potent) Being uncontainable doesnt make you valid in and of itself, you need to actually try to escape, and then you're valid. On the one hand there are risks, but on the other hand when things go wrong security gets an excuse to get violent on devils and soul-sellers who use their powers for crime/escape. I'm skeptical that we can keep the captaincy deal as it causes too much confusion and problems for the AI. Any suggestions for a replacement?

REGARDING STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE FOR DEVILS: Let's consider what it is that makes valid antags valid: Wizards are murder boners, killing them means victory. Blobs same thing. Nukies same thing. We kill valid antags because their main purpose is to kill us all, generally. Devil agents are not such an antag, and therefore should not be considered inherently valid (not even vampires and changelings are considered inherently valid as far as I know, and they are more murderous than devil agents). Until a devil agent engages in violence or actual crime, nothing they have done is even vaguely criminal: It's not illegal to be a magic user; it's not illegal to grant magic powers to others; it's not illegal to attempt to buy and sell souls, per se. Basically devil agents should be considered crew until it is determined that they are criminal or violent, at which point the command staff + IAA and librarian can prioritize bringing down that specific devil agent. So basically SoP should bethat devil agents are fancy crew members who when engaged in violence or crime will be subject to the law like everyone else. If a devil agent committed a crime and was sentenced to the perma-brig, and agreed to not escape (and simply offer devil deals from perma), then there would be no IC need to kill them, whatsoever. A peaceful devil (assuming the ascension murder-bone is changed) poses no serious threat to the station. Devil agents are crew with rights seems like the best way to keep the RP elements of the game mode and preventing the valid salad while not limiting the different strategies the devil agents can employ. (If vampires can live peacefully and openly with rights as crew, why not devil agents?) This gives options to the devil agents (do they want to live peacefully and merely achieve their objectives, or do they wish to become all powerful through ascension?) and also leaves them appropriate as a "supporting antag" where a single devil operates among traditional antags...

I think all heads of staff in addition to the IAA/librarian should be able to do it. They need a pretty big core group to work well as an anti-devil tem. The IAA and librarian being given command headsets and the 7-8 of them all collaborating on stopping demons would be great content and RP potential. I suggested giving them something useful other than hellfire for early round escapes, and also that when a devil agent dies and ressurects, they automatically infernal jaunt so they can escape repeated murders while making the IC librarian research much more useful. My suggestion here is that devils and soul-sellers be considered crew. The moment a devil agent or soul seller becomes violent or engages in crime, that's when security is given the nod to go to work. Legally command is permitted to force your soul back onto you, but beyond that they should require a valid IC reason to straight up valid hunt the devil agents or soul-sellers. If we get the 15 minute soul-return timer, and the devil gets a notification that someone is attempting to regain their soul, then the devil attack on the cheating soul-seller will naturally escalate to violence and provide a cause for the librarian, IAA, and (and security too) to valid the devils. Some aspects of grey-tide are permitted on Paradise and since soul-touch provides the RP gimmicks, it might be better to let security deal with such people as appropriate. There are many ways to utterly restrain people (even hulks), and so sec will just have to learn! A dark twist is an interesting idea, but might be difficult to implement. For now, selling your soul should with the risk of having it be forced back upon you by command, and then that 15 minute timer period where you know the devil may come for you. Maybe even a "Hell Hound" (where maybe a ghost is spawned into a 15 minute life-span creature whose sole purpose is to hunt a single target) could be used as a mechanic to go after soul-sellers who renege on their contract. This is agreeable.

This is a lingering concern of mine as well. I really like the idea of offering all access but we may need to change this deal to prevent the inevitable chaos of 20 captains running around.

Devil agents were recently tested and feedback was requested, so I have compiled a list of priority fixes and changes required to make the game mode more playable, and also to suggest some in-depth modifications, and to open a discussion and suggestion thread for others to contribute to. First let me explain and describe just what Devil Agents are for those who don't know: Several crew are secretly devil agents who have the power to offer infernal contracts to crew which grants them certain powers or abilities in exchange for their soul (not having a soul means you cannot be revived which is the only downside). The devil agents seek to acquire many souls in order to become more powerful (with objectives like outdoing fellow devil agents or to acquire certain minimum numbers of souls). Killing a Devil agent is made easy through IC knowledge of various RNG decided facts about each devil agent (such as their secret true name, a specific chemical or materiel weakness, or something they are obligated to always do) that require a lot of IC work to acquire. As devil agents get more souls, they change form and gain more abilities, eventually becoming an ascended shadowling-like god that murders everything while a 3 minute shuttle is called. The main thrust of the round centers around devils offering deals to crew via actual interesting role-play, which is why many of us would love to see the game mode enter the rotation. Here is a list of basic fixes: 1) Solve general ressurection bugs (especially involving IPCs). 2) Replace hellfire with something more useful (non inherently violent escape mechanic preferably). 3) Replace the fireball spell (given in the magic deal) for something less accident prone. 4) Port the "friendship" deal. 5) Alter final ascension from a 3 minute shuttle + murder boning to something non-round ending (make them the ruler of the station, for instance) 6) Modify self-ressurection to force the devil agent automatically into infernal jaunt mode (if they have it) so they may escape repeated killings in the chapel (also makes the RP-IC ways of stopping them more essential). 7) apply a 1-3 minute cooldown to the infernal contract spell to prevent devils spamming contracts to groups (especially where another devil could share in the deals) and to give time for more verbal interaction between devil and the would be contracted. 8) modify the "lust" sin-touch objective to be non-sexual (make it lust for power or something) ---------------------------------------------------------- The main problem with the devil agent round type as a whole is that it lacks formal structure from the perspective of security and those who have sold their soul; security won't need to valid the agents if they no longer ascend into murder-boners, but they still need a clear cut procedure for dealing with devil agents and those who have sold their soul. In general, the round devolves into chaos as people run around selling and re-selling their souls while a dumbstruck security is overwhelmed by confusion. In order to address this issue, I propose the following: 1) Heads of staff are the natural opposition to devil agents (in addition to the IAA and librarian). They should be able to somehow detect people who lacks a soul (if it's not obvious), not be able to sell their own soul (let's say that NT already extracted it for safe keeping!), and essentially have motivation (green-text maybe?) to prevent too many souls from being accumulated by devil agents. Because NT does own all the souls, the heads of staff should have the right to forcefully remind them where their immortal soul truly belongs (force their soul back into their body by hitting them with their employment contract). Not only does this create a core group of people interested in tracking and cataloguing devil agents, their weaknesses, and preventing ascension (which will enable significant interaction and organic RP), but it also makes clear whose job it is to take action against devil activity. Security should be able to sell their souls (save for the HoS), making them inherently neutral toward peaceful devil agents. 2) When being re-soul'd (being struck with your record of employment) you must wait 15 minutes before your soul will be actually pried away from the devil agent who bought it. During this time the devil agent will be notified of what is happening, and so may choose to try and kill you before they lose your soul. This creates a risk for those who choose to sell their soul and a bigger risk for those who want to try and exploit the devils by selling their soul multiple times. It also creates a delay timer for those who wish attempt so sell their soul multiple times, allows devils to retain individual souls longer (giving devils more of a shot to reach new forms), and slows crew power-gaming of the devil-deals overall. Because of this 15 minute delay, if the heads of staff and IAA/Librarian put effort into re-souling everyone they can find, then they can effectively prevent losing the round due to devil ascension by keeping the numbers low. When people do get hit with their RoE, and the devil decides to kill them to retain possession of it, it also provides a natural escalation for the round and legitimate reason for security to hunt and kill them if they become violent. ---------------------------------- Assuming the mass murderbone ending is altered, there's no legitimate reason to kill or incarcerate devil agents unless they are committing crimes or doing harm (same goes for those who have sold their soul, although NT reserves the right to cancel contracts). In the eyes of NT, devils, their magic, and their deals could be silly nonsense that the foolish crew is pretending at (again, assuming a non-violent ending), but if they do become violent may be declared EoC like anyone else. So to restate the above additional suggestions: 1) Give Heads of staff, IAA, Magistrate, the ability and right to force souls back into people and to tell whether or not someone has no soul. 2) have a 15 minute delay timer between being struck with your employment contract and actually regaining your soul (with a notification of what is happening) 3) provide a notification of re-souling to the devil agent who owns the soul, giving them 15 minutes to find and kill the contract breaker in order to retain the soul (should they choose to do so). 4) Give green-text status to heads of staff, IAA, and librarians who successfully prevent devil ascension by keeping soul numbers low enough ----------------- The first set of suggestions would make the round more or less playable but the chaos problem might persist. There is an alternative mode where a single devil exists alongside other antagonists, which is obviously easier to implement into the RNG rotation, but would still require the first set of suggested fixes to be workable. The second set of suggestions adds a new layer to the game mode which I think would make it more coherent, but I would love to hear any opinions and suggestions you might have on how to address that problem! Thoughts?

It alters some blob rounds, but I'd agree to this as well. Anything else?

Indeed, there is currently a very narrow tech path. I was more going for the connotation of arbitrary because there's no sensical rhyme or reason behind the current tech path; to me it's just a list of random objects... Well, some anomalies are dangerous just to be around. The vortex one destroyes floors and exposes you to space, the gravity one knocks you to and fro. With many of the other anomalies if you show up too late (if you have to find an analyzer, generally you wont make it) then the anomaly can blow up in your face and burn you to death. I agree when it comes to xray implants. I hate how badly and consistently they ruin antag activity. That said, I don't know what else would be worth placing behind an anomaly wall that science currently has access to. You're right that science has a lot of stuff, so why not have the cores unlock stuff that isn't for science but rather suited for other departments? This would bring other departments in on the anomaly hunt in hopes of unlocking a relevant reward. Admittedly nothing comes readily to mind as a specific viable example, but I would agree that not arbitrarily giving RnD more stuff for the sake of more stuff would be more ideal. Bluespace 8: Mech mounted teleporter Electromagnetic 8: Xray implants Any ideas for the materials, power, and plasma anomalies?

I have been a dedicated scientist for years on paradise, and it's always felt like it lacks a certain je ne sais quoi... It's changed over the years, but it's always basically been the same old "deconstruct a series of random items to max the research levels". The current iteration of this is working well and many scientists are competent in research rather than a few scientists inevitably doing it all as in the past (this might be thanks to a few very clear guides that are available). Great! but it's still lacking something... It's a little known fact that if you manage to get bluespace level 8, you unlock mech mounted teleporters (which were nerfed, but are still prized to own). The only way of doing this is to deconstruct a blue-space related anomaly core... This creates an entirely new purpose for anomaly cores (bluespace ones anyway), involves RNG, danger, skill, and comes with the decision of whether to deconstruct it for mech teleporters, or to use it to construct a phazon. Being a mech user, I always leap at the chance to deconstruct a bluespace anomaly core, and it gives me a great incentive to not only see that RnD is "maxed", but to also look out for and respond to anomalies in order to get the core. Each anomaly core has a tech value associated with the type of anomaly that it is, and each of them have tech value 7 (enabling you to get 8 if you have 7 when the core is deconstructed)... So my suggestion is simple: add something that gets unlocked for each tech type when level 8 is achieved via anomaly cores. This will encourage scientists to do RnD quicker, to ensure it is thoroughly maxed, and to respond to anomalies. Anomalies are pretty much one trick ponies right now (a scientist who wants a phazon goes for them), and so this will revitalize them into objects of severe interest and intrigue to to the entire science department. This is essentially a new end game for research scientists, and it's one that cannot be easily exploited given the hurtles and RNG involved. It adds variety and flavor! Coding this should be dead simple as it's all in place aside from adding some stuff to tech level 8 in exofabs, circuit imprinters, or prolathes; but the hard part will be figuring out appropriate level 8 unlocks themselves. Xray vision implants could be placed behind electromagnetic level 8 wall (for instance), or additional rewards could be contrived and added to the relevant tech level as unlockable. Suggestions and ideas on what could be unlocked would be appreciated! The "je ne sais quoi" of RnD feels like it would be addressed if each different type of anomaly could act as an end-game tech achievement. The RNG aspect of it (the random spawning of anomalies) will create addicts...

Just a slight technical correction to these new rules: Technically three crimes are punishable by execution: Murder, Mutiny, and escaping permanent imprisonment/exile. You could be perma-brigged for something unrelated to murder or mutiny, (an exceptional crime), and if you then escape prison the rules now say they are to be executed when captured. Just a minor technicality but as a Magistrate player it's an important distinction (Assuming I've not misunderstood anything)