Random bonus trait?

[Renomaki]

 

You know, I was wondering..

 

Besides how all the different races play, everyone is pretty much on the same footing when it comes to things. Every person cleans at the same speed, has the same hunger meter, and OOC wise is able to do any number of jobs without any real trouble (unless they haven't read the wiki before doing the job, that is).

 

It gets to the point that if, say, an experienced player who was chef one round got drafted into security, he would shortly get into the swing of things while his replacement easily takes his job despite being a mere assistant earlier looking for work. Sometime, I do wonder if maybe, just maybe.. We could spice it up a little in between rounds?

 

I was thinking of a system where, upon spawning in (round start or late joiner), a player would have a chance to spawn in with an odd trait that'll affect him for the rest of the shift. Some of them could be positive, others not so good, but whatever they are (and if you even do spawn with one), they'll affect you in a number of ways depending on the situation.

 

A few samples of traits you could spawn in with would be:

 

Clean freak - Cleaning time is reduced by half, allowing the player to clean up messes much faster than others without this trait.

 

Big appetite - Your food meter drops somewhat faster compared to others, meaning more trips to the kitchen/vending machine to keep from starving.

 

Stupid - You struggle to speak like a normal educated adult, and when performing actions (using a rolling pin to flatten dough, mopping a tile, harmbatoning someone), you have a small risk of hitting yourself in the face.

 

Light foot - You move somewhat faster compared to your other spessmen, allowing you to catch up or flee from people or monsters a tad easier.

 

Two left feet - When running, you have a small chance to trip up and fall over, making chases all the more tense.

 

And so on and so on. I could go on and on about my ideas, but I don't want to fill an entire list with them.. Yet, anyways.

 

But again, that is if you get the traits to begin with. Just like with antang, you might get one, or you might be left vanilla. This makes every shift even more unpredictable, where a person would spawn in as a ling with a constant craving for booze, a security officer who hits and take hits like a little girl, or a chef who can't stop sneezing on his food. They are not meant to give a huge boost to people, but rather to mix up the meta and maybe create some amusing stories for players to share.

 

What do you think though? Would it be a bad idea to add in a system that gives a player a chance to spawn in with a random trait for the duration of a shift? What ideas do you have that would not be too game breaking, since again, any positive trait shouldn't be too useful, and any bad trait shouldn't be too crippling to the point of making the game unplayable. They always are rather small overall. Or, at least, they should be.

 

[Tauka Usanake]

Un-fixable mutations that last the whole round? That's basically what everyone else is going to say I'm afraid

[NTSAM]

 

I'd rather not get randomly permanently stuck with retard mutation all round thank you.

 

Maybe just add a traits system like Goon has where you can set your char's stuff but you only have a point to do so and to get more shit you'd have to cripple yourself harder.

 

[Keroman]

 

While I appreciate the sentiment this sounds like it could have a pretty significant impact on the round. A traitor who randomly falls over (even if it's every 1000 steps) is going to get dunked on hard. A player who can run just a little bit faster is going to have an edge against most antagonists. The "clean freak" trait would be completely wasted on someone who doesn't do any cleaning.

 

One of the big draws of this game is that everyone is on more or less equal footing with skill being the deciding factor in most outcomes (although who gets a stun off first is usually a big decider too).

 

[Toroic]

This is a terrible idea fundamentally. No amount of tweaking would fix it to not be objectively worse than what we have now.

[Renomaki]

 

While I appreciate the sentiment this sounds like it could have a pretty significant impact on the round. A traitor who randomly falls over (even if it's every 1000 steps) is going to get dunked on hard. A player who can run just a little bit faster is going to have an edge against most antagonists. The "clean freak" trait would be completely wasted on someone who doesn't do any cleaning.

 

One of the big draws of this game is that everyone is on more or less equal footing with skill being the deciding factor in most outcomes (although who gets a stun off first is usually a big decider too).

 

Yeah... You probably have a point.

 

Honestly, I had a feeling the idea would get shot down, since it would be very hard to balance in a manner that wouldn't be too crippling. But still, it would be nice to have some random modification of sorts to change things up a notch, but eh, I guess you don't know if it is good or not till you test it.

 

[Toroic]

 

While I appreciate the sentiment this sounds like it could have a pretty significant impact on the round. A traitor who randomly falls over (even if it's every 1000 steps) is going to get dunked on hard. A player who can run just a little bit faster is going to have an edge against most antagonists. The "clean freak" trait would be completely wasted on someone who doesn't do any cleaning.

 

One of the big draws of this game is that everyone is on more or less equal footing with skill being the deciding factor in most outcomes (although who gets a stun off first is usually a big decider too).

 

Yeah... You probably have a point.

 

Honestly, I had a feeling the idea would get shot down, since it would be very hard to balance in a manner that wouldn't be too crippling. But still, it would be nice to have some random modification of sorts to change things up a notch, but eh, I guess you don't know if it is good or not till you test it.

 

It would not be nice, and you can tell it's not good after 3 seconds of thinking about it.

 

[Farya]

Adding new negative perks to the character creating screen would be good. So people could make an always hungry for donuts warden or clumsy doctor. But it should not be random and unfixable by genetics.

[necaladun]

 

Very, very, very against these as a random thing. Cursing people with these is not only harsh but can ruin peoples ideas for a character. If I want to play a champion sprinter, it'd be ruined by the two left feet trait, for instance.

 

The idea of a single selectable positive trait I'm interested in though, as long as it's minor (10% faster construction, 1 extra unarmed damage), to give some flavour etc.

 

[Renomaki]

 

Very, very, very against these as a random thing. Cursing people with these is not only harsh but can ruin peoples ideas for a character. If I want to play a champion sprinter, it'd be ruined by the two left feet trait, for instance.

 

The idea of a single selectable positive trait I'm interested in though, as long as it's minor (10% faster construction, 1 extra unarmed damage), to give some flavour etc.

 

Well, we could just do it that way, although if you could select it, I'm just afraid people would try to meta with it or something, hence why I thought about making it random, since the reason I did think this up in the first place was to shake things up a tad, rather than allow people to give their avatar an upgrade that suits their playstyle.. UNLESS that is what you would rather have, though.

 

Again, it is just an idea, so it isn't set in stone. If it ever were to be taken in, a lot of balancing would be needed, but I believe something could be done to make it work.. Somehow, anyways.

 

Adding new negative perks to the character creating screen would be good. So people could make an always hungry for donuts warden or clumsy doctor. But it should not be random and unfixable by genetics.

 

I think it would add a bit of extra personality to any avatar in game methinks, hence why most of the traits aren't designed to be use to powergame, but rather to alter a routine experience. Maybe some of my ideas weren't all that great, but some of them, such as food-cravings and stupidity, would make the average shift somewhat more interesting.

 

I suppose, considering everyone's thoughts, that having it random isn't as good an idea as I thought. So maybe just add a menu for traits instead? Maybe instead have a list of traits and have a player pick one or two of em while making an avatar, just as you can with cybernetics and disabilities.

 

[necaladun]

 

I'm very much in favour of neutral/negative traits as options, I think it would add for some great variety.

 

Positive ones I'm iffy about, but as long as they're minor, I think would be fine to add. I'm not 100% on the exact examples you have, but w/e, I get the idea of it and would love to see something like that.

 

[Toroic]

 

I'm very much in favour of neutral/negative traits as options, I think it would add for some great variety.

 

Positive ones I'm iffy about, but as long as they're minor, I think would be fine to add. I'm not 100% on the exact examples you have, but w/e, I get the idea of it and would love to see something like that.

 

Goon has a trait system that is like this but much better implemented than the examples provided.

 

You can take unlimited traits but positive ones cost 1-2 points, neutral ones 0 points, and negative ones -1 to -2 points.

 

You start with one point, so taking any more than a minor benefiicial trait requires taking negative ones.

 

Of course, people take traits that are beneficial for their role, and many wouldn't work with the different species we have.

 

[Machofish]

 

Of course, the underlying question of all this is:

While selectable traits or quirks could be interesting, are they really needed? Part of SS13 is that it is designed as an environment in which the social constructs carry primary importance: the game mechanics should be there to support the social environment, rather than the social environment being a backdrop for the game mechanics. This not only extends through discussions on these RPG-style 'traits' or 'perks', but also contributes to the generally dubious opinion this server's community holds towards proposals for new species. Considering the sheer volume of coding that would be required to add a trait system in, and to work out the subsequent bugs, etc., I would personally prefer to see greater depth in the jobs and roles available on the station, before we start exploring the idea of adding inherent character traits.

 

That being said, I'd be impartial to the idea if someone stepped up to code it.

 

I'd say if traits were implemented, the bonuses would have to be fairly minor, and very carefully considered, as others have said. Alternatively, I think traits could be presented in the forms of tradeoffs or a 'double-edged sword', in that a relatively minor bonus comes bundled with a severe drawback.

A handful of example traits:

 

Fast Metabolism: Chems in the bloodstream are consumed at an additional +0.5u per tick, and beneficial effects are felt faster; however, harmful effects are also processed faster, and take 15% more damage from harmful chems. Whilst good for medical chems, this also causes painkillers and autoinjectors to wear off faster.

 

Hypovolemic Shock: Blood loss from brute damage occurs 15% slower; however, bleeding causes additional stamina damage.

 

Dependency: All chems have their addiction thresholds set to 'medium'; this includes chems that are not normally addictive. (e.g. "GIVE ME A HIT OF ORANGE JUICE! RIGHT NOW!")

 

Surge Suppressor: Reduces burn damage received from electric shock by 15%; however, being electrocuted results in an extra +10 seconds of being stunned - this includes mild electric shocks that would not normally result in being stunned.

 

Word Salad: Getting stunned or heavily injured while speaking will no longer interrupt your text input with "-ack!" or "-glorf!"; however, speaking while under any temporary IC speech impediments - such as slurring and stammering - causes impaired speech to dissolve past the point of being even remotely intelligible.

 

Uncertain footing: Be 10% less likely to get knocked down with an unarmed punch or a disarm-shove; however, become completely unable to knock others down with punches or disarm-shoves.

 

Thin wrists: Struggling out of zipties, handcuffs, and cablecuffs takes one less tic; however, become unable to struggle free of aggressive grabs or choke-grabs.

 

Flinch: Receive 5% less damage from brute and burn sources; however, pain threshold is lowered by 20% (character collapses/falls unconscious from pain faster).