Non-IPC Synth People?

[HugoLuman]

 

Yeah, I realize this might be a bit pie-in-the-sky, but bear with me

 

What if there was a checkbox in the character screen that, when enabled, made your character an android modeled to look like whatever race you have selected? Some races would be out of course (Plasmamen, IPC, Slimes), but the rest could be mimicked.

 

The androids would play differently from their organic counterparts, but wouldn't just be like IPCs with fleshsuits. I'm not sure about the breathing, but like organics, they'd be vulnerable to to temperature/pressure, and like other Synth's they'd be vulnerable to EMPs. They'd probably need to eat, too, I'm thinking recharging chemical fuel cells by drinking welder fuel/alcohol.

 

However, I think a major balance question comes from their anonymity. Androids who are not obvious as such may face accidental EMPs, or may be saved by enemies trying means against them intended for their organic counterparts. Should they share the protection of IPCs from shadowlings/changelings? If so, what's to prevent everyone picking android to avoid having to deal with such? Perhaps a medihud could out synthetic crew members (as the question of medical being confused by robotic lookalikes also arises)? Perhaps they could bleed some kind of synth blood or coolant that's a different color?

 

Perhaps they could be extremely vulnerable to emags, though that might be overcompensating. Or perhaps a traitor objective might be to identify and capture a synthetic crew member.

 

Edited November 19, 2015 by Guest

[Blackmage199]

 

Thing is, androids are already a thing.

Cyborgs with posibrains.

 

[NTSAM]

 

I dunno how to feel about this.

I'd love more original synthetic crew types, it'd be a nice break from the 2000 other exact racial copies of each other.

I'm just worried about how many people will decide to be Chinese Bootleg Bishop.

 

 

I would, however, be in support for ways to make android-titled borgs look more humanoid somehow, via sprite selection screen or by adding synthflesh to a borg frame. (like Goon's old Replicants?)

 

 

Also, yeah, Androids are a thing.

 

EDIT: To clarify what I meant by "Bootleg Bishops," I mean that badass robot dude from Alien that did that edgy knife trick thing, but in a 2d spessmins sim.

 

Edited November 19, 2015 by Guest

[HugoLuman]

 

Well you could call them something else, like Simulants, or Replicants, or Doppers, or w/e. Though I think the "android" name for borgs is a misnomer, since most of the time borgs aren't designed to look remotely human.

 

I think androids designed to look like normal people could be fun for RP/diversity/gameplay reasons, though.

 

EDIT: Yeah, I know about Bishop. And there'd doubtless be bishop-alikes. But I think people would also be original with it, and there are other hyper-real androids to immitate anyway (blade runner, anyone?)

 

[HereticChurch]

Inb4 Institute Synths.

[Mrs Dobbins]

I want a blade runner mode where a number of antags are replicants, and they have to survive to the end of the round whilst a group of Blade Runners have to hunt them. Bonus points if they have to find them by seeing if they have empathy or not.

[Holyass]

I thinking he was talking about ghost in the shell.

[HugoLuman]

Actually, I did have an idea for a blade-runner-like game mode where a number of antagonists try to identify the synthetic crewmembers and kidnap one of them. Though new gamemodes might be asking a bit much.

[Plotron]

 

Inb4 Institute Synths.

New antag gamemode.

 

Ontopic: I think that's unnecessarily complicated.

 

[TheFlagbearer]

Synth paranoia gamemode pls

[NTSAM]

 

I really don't want more species antags tbh.

 

At least not the kinds that can also be with crew.

 

[Plotron]

 

Synth paranoia gamemode pls

The first time Shadowlings came out and nobody had an idea how to discern thralls.

 

[LightFire53]

 

Ontopic: I think an acceptable idea is different species sprites for IPC to choose from. So, like the Tarjaran IPC spite I have been pushing for, and Vulpkanin, Vox, etc...

 

Off topic: Wut

 

[Plotron]

 

Ontopic: I think an acceptable idea is different species sprites for IPC to choose from. So, like the Tarjaran IPC spite I have been pushing for, and Vulpkanin, Vox, etc...

Furry IPC...

Skrell IPC sexbot...

 

I... I think it's good enough that IPCs do not resemble any of the races. They're just humanoids with a CRT as a head.

 

[NTSAM]

 

I... I think it's good enough that IPCs do not resemble any of the races. They're just humanoids with a CRT as a head.

I'd much rather prefer it stays like this as well.

If you want your special robot catbeast you can set all your limbs and organs to mechanical and then you're pretty much just Robocop.

 

[LightFire53]

But I still won't have the tail! Whats the point of being a cat when you lack a tail!

[Plotron]

 

But I still won't have the tail!

Are kitty ears still available? They grant you a wagging tail.

 

[HugoLuman]

 

Finally back online after some major delays \o/

 

Anyways, I must confess I was thinking of the synths in Aliens when I thought of this idea, but it occurred to me that if people are making androids, they probably wouldn't build them to just resemble humans (and if there was a "kidnap an android" antag, that would make ruling people out pretty easy).

 

I didn't have it in mind as an antag thing, more crew can be replicants/synths rather than "There are robots that are disguised as crew members, they are antagonists."

 

Also, the cloning situation hadn't really occurred to me when I wrote the OP. Do you salvage a posibrain from their gibbed remains and turn them into an IPC?

 

[NTSAM]

 

Or you could just make it so they can be healed by the same methods as IPC, as in welder fixes brute, etc. etc.

 

I'm not so sure how you'd turn them into an IPC without making it a "hurr durr remove u from round for this guy cuz fak u" situation, seeing as how you can't print out their torsos, and I'd rather that not happen seeing as how some people don't like it when they just can't play their chosen race. Plus grief enticement-- "I "accidentally" set off an EMP near this IPC so I can bring my metabuddy back to life."

 

Or they can just be put in the same class as Slimes, Plasmadudes and Voxen and make it so it's really hard to bring them back to life without a defib or a borging.

 

[HugoLuman]

 

Ah that's right, you can't print torsos. And yeah, they'd probably be fixed using the same methods as IPC. Though I'm not sure about bringing them back to life just by bringing their brute/burn down low enough. Maybe they'd need a defib to jump-start them?

 

I suppose, also like IPCs, if gibbed they'd have to choose between going organic by having their posibrain put into a monkey body and cloned, or going into a borg chasis/AI monitor.

 

Or (though this is highly unlikely), we could have an alternative to cloning (similar to the botanist pod people) where a science and/or engineering prints out a synth designed to look like someone, then downloads their personality into it.

 

EDIT:

Also, looks like another sever has essentially this, with some differences in mechanics, so perhaps there is something to port: https://github.com/tgstation/-tg-station/pull/13122

 

What version of the mechanics do you like more?

 

[NTSAM]

 

I myself like /tg/'s ideas.

 

The chunks of IPC-esque chassis revealing itself for their damage overlay (that's what they meant, right? That'd be badass af, some terminator shit right there) looks neat and it should be an OK way to tell whether or not the dude you're messsin' with is organic or not. Could also be a nice little thing to mess around with in their lore, just make them like really uptight synthetics that think they're too good for the shells alone so they got theirself some synth-flesh and became dovahkiin or something.

 

Some dude also wanted a Terminator gamemode, and if we were to take the nice "military" sub-species for adminbooze along with the normal stuff, that would work neatly too. I'm still against more species antagonists, though..

 

EDIT: Just to be clear, I'd personally like any idea as long as they don't replace IPCs or become IPCs back when they had the increased damage threshold.

 

Edited November 24, 2015 by Guest

[Plotron]

 

Could also be a nice little thing to mess around with in their lore, just make them like really uptight synthetics that think they're too good for the shells alone so they got theirself some synth-flesh and became dovahkiin or something.

[/size]

Synths. Some of them think they're actual organics. Some of them were made in their creator's image, to become immortal (figuratively).

Or check some sci-fi books and movies for ideas.

 

[HugoLuman]

 

Yeah, I wouldn't want to replace IPCs. I think there are a number of different race ideas in mechanical/artificial creatures that could be exploited to add to diversity (since a common, though not always justified complaint is that the only new ideas people come up with are "why not [earth animal/bug]-people?") Another idea I'd had for a mechanical race are creatures made of nanobots, who instead of acting like grey goo, they form sapient colonies roughly the size of most intelligent creatures. They start out mimicking the people they meet, but eventually form a personality of their own based on a mish-mash of those. Gamewise, stuff like eating metal sheets to heal.

 

Anyways, as for Synths-Wot-Look-Like-Organics, mechanicswise, I'd just want them to be different enough from IPCs so as not to be "IPCs with Synthflesh" or "IPCs-Wot-Look-Like-Organics."

 

[Tauka Usanake]

 

I like the Synths that /tg/ is working on. It is a little too Five Nights at Freddy's for me and I don't favor that turning into a gamemode for reasons separate from FNaF, but I'm for them as a new species if they can look very much alike other fleshy mobs. I'll say that I rather their flesh bits come off only as a result of burn damage but that could be worked on in the balancing section later.

 

Not betting on any other species until Resomi though!