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New Race: Parasite (?)


Keroman

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Right off the bat I'm going to admit that this is a ripoff of the cortical borer antag (which I honestly have yet to see in my month or so of playing?) plus a touch of the Trill from Star Trek and the Goa'uld from Stargate.

 

I think it would be interesting to have a race that functions only when paired with another race. Hosts would have to be organic, of course, but could potentially be of any race that falls into that category. I mean, I can think of several pairs of players who spend all their time with each other anyways (kek)

 

I figure it would work in a similar manner to the borers where the parasite can provide certain benefits to the host, but at the same time the host may have to make accommodations for the parasite as well, possibly working off of the nutrition system.

 

Potential benefits:

- Parasite can quickly heal the host's most injured body part. I imagine this functioning similar to a changeling's Regenerative Stasis ability but on a limited scale. (DOES NOT REGROW LOST LIMBS)

- Parasite can remove toxin damage from the host and apply that damage to itself. This could keep the host stable long enough to get to medbay, or to have a doctor meet them somewhere with the appropriate remedy for said toxin damage.

- Parasite and host have separate nutrition values. Host needs to provide nutrition in some way then the parasite draws off of that. If the host is in need of nutrition the parasite could then return some of that nutrition to, for instance, get them out of 'red' hunger status so they aren't moving super slowly.

 

Potential drawbacks:

- Once a player is host to a parasite they can no longer survive without a parasite. If the parasite is removed and placed in a new host the original host dies after X number of minutes. Likewise if the host has their parasite removed and another parasite implanted then the original parasite dies unless they are placed into a new host.

- Parasite takes double toxin damage.

- Parasite cannot be revived by normal means. Cloning works on a host but not on a parasite.

- Cannot receive genetic enhancements. The parasite is bonded to the host at the DNA level. If the host's DNA is significantly altered in any way the bond is broken.

- Viral infections - including those with beneficial effects - cause toxin damage to the parasite over time until the virus is cured. Can be mitigated with regular doses of antitoxins.

- A parasite outside of a host moves extremely slowly, cannot enter a new host without assistance.

 

Other notable game mechanics:

- Parasite can take control of the host at any time. Parasite can speak at any time whether in control of the host or not. When the parasite speaks it shows up in the text log as coming from the host, but in a different style (bolded or something to otherwise differentiate the parasite from the host when speaking.) Would be funny to see someone walking down the hall having a conversation with themselves.

- Parasite who are to be brigged could potentially be placed in monkeys. This opens up the whole can of worms regarding whether or not the host is responsible for what the parasite does and vice versa. Of course I think it would mostly end up with the host serving time alongside the parasite regardless of his or her complicity in committing a crime.

- Parasites cannot be borged.

- Potentially Robotics could construct something like the pAI mobile chassis which could support a parasite until a host could be found? Would also grant some measure of independence.

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I'm honestly just spitballing here, but I think there could be a niche for a non-humanoid races that can still function as crew. It might be neat for antagonist parasites to carry over their objective from one host to the next, so if one outlives it's usefulness it could kill off the original host and then pretend the host got attacked by a vampire or something so that they can be transferred to a new host.

 

This would likely take a lot of extra code to function, although I imagine a little could be modified from the cortical borer antag.

 

Go ahead and start up the usual rants about balance and such.

 

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Ha, I didn't even realize that was a thing, Spaceman. If we could implement that it would probably fill the role of my idea pretty much how I was expecting.

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Well lore-wise I was thinking along the lines of Stargate. The main bad guys have the Goa'uld parasites in them, but then there's the Tok'ra who are helpful Goa'uld who actively resist the machinations of the bad guys.

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I'd enjoy the hell outta this honestly.

I -like- being a pAI and being a helpful asset to someone, being glued to them does not much bother me.

Just.... the problem is, pAI's can't do all THAT much for people, at least actively.

 

It'd be kinda nice to have something a step up from a pAI, but not as... drop in an drop out I guess would the term to fit. A Little more involved.

 

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I think this has potential, and as stated above the main problem i see is joining a round late game, would you just be placed inside of a person, would you spawn inside an ssd person on the shuttle that is you, and say you just randomly pop into someone with bluespace magic or "awakening" if that person had genetic problems? If they didnt want a parasyte in them, would it be an option to disable or enable for someone, and how would you choose a job, or can you not? if we can solve these I'd feel a bit more confident, im noticing an increase of race suggestions, and this and the resomi ones i think may be onto something, just me typing off the top of my head, so sorry if it seems a tad disjointed.

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