/tg/Station 13

Just as it says, vote whether or not you enjoy being the crew in a blob round.

The same thing happens every blob round. The portion of the crew willing to put in the effort grabs welding tools, Sec pulls out the armory, doctors stand by, and you weld/shoot/heal, to varying success.

As a player who is more interested in player-to-player interaction beyond combat, Blob doesn't appeal to me at all. I'd be one of those crewmembers who don't actively participate in combating it because there's no value in it for me.

And blob random events often interrupt things that actually ARE dynamic and interesting to me. But I can't ignore them because if I do my interests will eventually get eaten.

Personally I've generally had a positive experience playing as the crew during Blob rounds.

Its unique from the standard antag line up, gives a clear objective to the crew and encourages cooperation between the station to defeat the blob. I can understand people may dislike how a blob disrupts the flow of things, however considering that a blob round has a low chance to occur and that blob rounds generally only last for 10 to 30 minutes, I would say its not a huge deal.

The only time I see Blob being annoying is when the blob bursts in a area where its easy to kill off the atmo and/or people using flamethrowers or something else similar.

I actually would not entirely be against encouraging a blob to not spread into airless tiles. Maybe have it where any part of the blob that is exposed to space hardens up to prevent oxy loss and the blob can't spread in space.

Yeah, a blob opening an area to space is super annoying. Most of the time it totally defeats having it scale to population because it limits those who can actively participate to the number of available space suits.

My biggest issue with blob is how repetitive it is. Generally they go to the same area to pop, and once they do all there is to do is weld the green goop.

It happens too often to be fun.

Yes, I find incompetent flashbangers, people who push you down because you have a laser gun and they want it, people who get in the way when you're lasering the blob and you laser them, people who bring welding tanks too close to the blob and it either gets shot, blob'd, or some idiot with a welder turned on touches it very, VERY fun to play in.

Worst gamemode for me just because I can't ignore it and do my own thing, but I dislike having to handle the blob.

Well being blob is just so satisfying and fun. Being crew is also fine if you ask me. It's not brilliant because of all the incompetency, but still.

I'd say I have the most fun during blob when I'm AI. As a person I'll admit it's tedious even if I love Newblob and love seeing the crew usually work together in some small measure, but AI's great because you can't do anything at all to it. Thus, you just open almost every door on the station, spam VOX saying where the blob is, and sit back while other people have to handle it.

Never played as Blob, but it would probably be too HIGH PRESSURE GOTTA WIN to be enjoyable, like Nuke Ops. I love the round and it's cool, I just don't like actually playing it myself. Although I like being crew in Nuke Ops kinda, but not here.

Frankly, I enjoy combat-heavy rounds like Nuke Ops or Blob a lot more than three hours of thrilling character interaction, but everybody's tastes will vary on that.

I love being crew when they're competent. It's the most "the gang coming together" feeling you can have in the game.

I fucking loathe being crew with a goddamned passion when the crew is incompetent, i.e. most times. Even most blob victories end up being due to one dude in a loltotalbrutedefense security jumpsuit/riot gear/1000 tricord powergaming getup that the blob can't touch.

Generally, I like playing against the blob. However there are times when it can feel tedious, like you're just bashing against this wall with no impact for the whole round.

I wish there was a greater give-and-take with the blob. Say, if the blobs were weaker but cheaper to make and faster to expand, and the Move Core action being much cheaper. The blob would be more mobile, and there'd be a greater emphasis on the blob expanding over one front, and the crew trying to strategically trying to cut it off. The blob would have to decide to try and fight through, or maybe try a different path for expansion where there is less resistance.

One of my first blob rounds the crew was actually working together. They would attack the blob at the main front, scoot back out of sight where Medical Doctors were waiting to patch them up, and be back fighting in under a minute. When someone was chased by a spore or spore zombie, people would assist them in smashing that thing so they could get back to fighting. It was very efficient and fun. More commonly, I see no medical near the front lines and people making suicide runs at the blob so that the poor geneticist has more work than the rest of medbay because people are being brought in as corpses and not wounded, resulting in more people in deadchat bitching about how unfun blob is. So in the early and mid-blob round, until science has those x-ray guns they've been working on all shift, medical staff is a crucial part of the blob round.

So CMOs, please manage your medbay staff during blob rounds. You're important. Make sure your Medical Doctors are waiting just outside the front lines to immediately treat people retreating from the blob. Make sure your chemists are working on medicines for front line treatment, and getting them to the MDs. Make sure your geneticists are using the hypercloning technique, and pray your chemists are decent and set up a proper cryomix before getting started. If not, put together a mix of Cryoxadone/Clonexadone/Alkysine and stick them in the machines. If your virologist can throw something together to benefit the crew, make sure they're doing that and not creating the plague.

Also use riot suits. They are a huge fucking pain for blob to bust through. Worst-case scenario - you are still down, but blob spent hundreds of resources spamming expand on you.

I haven't seen a miner with goliath plates attack the blob so I'm curious to think if he can 1 man it.
But I find blob rounds more tedious than anything because if you're RD you have to suddenly blitz the RD tiers so you can laser cannons and x-rays guns otherwise the crew yells at you. Past few rounds as RD during blob rounds I've made upgraded sleepers nearby to prevent long trips to the medbay, and the utter success rate for having them nearby is fucking outstanding when you have someone in crit get pumped full of sleeper tricord and runs back to fight. Now since the Ore rate update has mining useful again x-ray guns and laser cannons ARE DEFINATELY game changers during blob rounds, especially with the material turn out you can field around 5-6 x-rays guns and 10ish laser cannons if you upgraded your machines. Give those guns to the people wearing space suits and RIGS and you end up with a ded bleb. Though if you wanna be x100000 more loved you construct upgraded sleepers a little ways near the blob, for those who don't know exactly the upgraded sleepers can and WILL pull you out of crit and give out tricord, so start using them if you seem 3-7 of them near a blob.

Or you can telesci team with welders on top of the core. Bombs don't work any more.

Lo6a4evskiy wrote:Or you can telesci team with welders on top of the core. Bombs don't work any more.

People complain about the lack of spess suits in bleb. But every time I've been in telescience pulling every possible space suit and hard suit on the other z levels to the station, nobody bats an eye. Its like people enjoy dying in the cold embrace of space.

People with space suits should be raiding from space, not fighting among others. And use riot suits, they're incredibly powerful against blob attacks AND offer some decent space protection.

Playing as the crew is sorta meh. Playing as the blob, on the other hand, is a fucking blast. Single handedly one of the best experiences I've ever had on SS13.

Blob is fun when the blob is new or playing to make it fun for the crew, and not powergaming at one of the safest and most commonly used pop locations.

We have more Newfriends than ever before, which means the crew's ability to combat the blob is usually very limited, and we are addled with people using flamethrowers/ignoring the blob and continuing to play niche roles like Botany and Chef/Bartender, and Engineers not knowing how to set up emitters.

This, in combination with a blob that keeps getting upgraded(no longer threatened by bombs, can grow in space), has made it not very fun at all. Should be a lot less common as a game mode.

No, it's a boring round. Slowly peeling off blob layer after layer with welders or lasers. A mindless and repetitive endeavour. And every blob round proceeds the same way, there's less variety and dynamic to it compared to wizard or nuke round.

Blob could work well as a random event, when round drags longer than usual, to spice shit up. Now blob with traitor or lings would be chaotic as hell, but also more fun. I'd like to see a Xenomorph round replacing Blob, made in the same vein.

Blobs should lose their ability to grow on tiles without oxygen. That is the best balancing factor here, especially when they detonate on the AI sat and stuff.

I do hope that was a joke because I have literally never read a worse balance idea. The new blob originally could not expand into space and that had to be changed after rampant abuse.

I really don't see any mechanic on the blob's part ruining the day the biggest problems seem to be people attacking the blob in ways that kill or otherwise screw over the rest of the team. Guess non antags being the round wreckers is irrelevant to the drowning a kitten school of antag redesign.

Blob creates tiles without oxygen. If they lost the ability to grow on tiles without oxygen, blob would be sabotaging itself by growing.

Wow it is even worse than I thought.

Self annihilating antags: The Next Step!

Incomptinence wrote:Wow it is even worse than I thought.

Self annihilating antags: The Next Step!

Psshh, I've been a self annihilating Antag since before y'all was born.

I personally feel blob is too short as a gamemode and the win condition should be increased. I forgot how many tiles of blob you need but I think it should be bigger.

I dunno, I feel like when the size is achieved the blob is unstoppable anyway.

Lo6a4evskiy wrote:I dunno, I feel like when the size is achieved the blob is unstoppable anyway.

Pretty much.

The only way to increase the Blob size victory conditions is to somehow nerf the blob without making it a pushover.

When the blob reaches win size, I would say we change it such that instead of instant win, the nuke code is sent to communications consoles and the AI is given a law to allow the self destruct to happen. The Blob gets a Major Victory if it manages to survive a certain amount of time after Central Command sends the code OR grows to reach the second size threshold after reaching the first one. The blob gets a Minor Victory if the crew manages to blow the station. I say "Minor Victory" instead of "Neutral Outcome" because it should still feel as if the crew lost and the blob ultimately won.

Simply put, it would work like this: Blob reaches 100* ( * means an arbitrary number) total blob pieces. Central sends the nuke code, and the crew has 5* minutes to detonate the nuke. If the crew manages to nuke the station in time, it is a Minor Victory for the blob. If the blob reaches 150* total blob pieces OR survives for 5* minutes, it is a blob Major Victory. If at any time the blob is killed, even after the nuke is armed, it is a Crew Victory.

Blob being too effective made NPC blobs way overpowered and hard to kill without cheesing, I hate it.

Gun Hog wrote:When the blob reaches win size, I would say we change it such that instead of instant win, the nuke code is sent to communications consoles and the AI is given a law to allow the self destruct to happen. The Blob gets a Major Victory if it manages to survive a certain amount of time after Central Command sends the code OR grows to reach the second size threshold after reaching the first one. The blob gets a Minor Victory if the crew manages to blow the station. I say "Minor Victory" instead of "Neutral Outcome" because it should still feel as if the crew lost and the blob ultimately won.

Simply put, it would work like this: Blob reaches 100* ( * means an arbitrary number) total blob pieces. Central sends the nuke code, and the crew has 5* minutes to detonate the nuke. If the crew manages to nuke the station in time, it is a Minor Victory for the blob. If the blob reaches 150* total blob pieces OR survives for 5* minutes, it is a blob Major Victory. If at any time the blob is killed, even after the nuke is armed, it is a Crew Victory.

Seems like blob has no real influence over minor/major victory.

paprika wrote:Blob being too effective made NPC blobs way overpowered and hard to kill without cheesing, I hate it.

There's no such thing as an NPC blob?

Um, yes there is. The thing that is produced by factory blob. It's called blob and it's NPC.

Gun Hog wrote:When the blob reaches win size, I would say we change it such that instead of instant win, the nuke code is sent to communications consoles and the AI is given a law to allow the self destruct to happen. The Blob gets a Major Victory if it manages to survive a certain amount of time after Central Command sends the code OR grows to reach the second size threshold after reaching the first one. The blob gets a Minor Victory if the crew manages to blow the station. I say "Minor Victory" instead of "Neutral Outcome" because it should still feel as if the crew lost and the blob ultimately won.

Simply put, it would work like this: Blob reaches 100* ( * means an arbitrary number) total blob pieces. Central sends the nuke code, and the crew has 5* minutes to detonate the nuke. If the crew manages to nuke the station in time, it is a Minor Victory for the blob. If the blob reaches 150* total blob pieces OR survives for 5* minutes, it is a blob Major Victory. If at any time the blob is killed, even after the nuke is armed, it is a Crew Victory.

I like this idea in theory, but what if the blob eats the nuke early on? If you want to get cynical this will just mean every blob will either burst near the vault or mass drive the nuke while they're still human.

NPC blob is the random event blob. They're mega robust and can instagib borgs and eat their mmis, it sucks.

bandit wrote:

Gun Hog wrote:When the blob reaches win size, I would say we change it such that instead of instant win, the nuke code is sent to communications consoles and the AI is given a law to allow the self destruct to happen. The Blob gets a Major Victory if it manages to survive a certain amount of time after Central Command sends the code OR grows to reach the second size threshold after reaching the first one. The blob gets a Minor Victory if the crew manages to blow the station. I say "Minor Victory" instead of "Neutral Outcome" because it should still feel as if the crew lost and the blob ultimately won.

Simply put, it would work like this: Blob reaches 100* ( * means an arbitrary number) total blob pieces. Central sends the nuke code, and the crew has 5* minutes to detonate the nuke. If the crew manages to nuke the station in time, it is a Minor Victory for the blob. If the blob reaches 150* total blob pieces OR survives for 5* minutes, it is a blob Major Victory. If at any time the blob is killed, even after the nuke is armed, it is a Crew Victory.

I like this idea in theory, but what if the blob eats the nuke early on? If you want to get cynical this will just mean every blob will either burst near the vault or mass drive the nuke while they're still human.

It is a valid and smart strategy - but that comes at the risk of the crew going "WTF WHY ARE YOU SPACING THE NUKE!?". If you can get away with spacing the nuke or securing the disk beforehand, you deserve your Major Victory.

Gun Hog wrote:

bandit wrote:

Gun Hog wrote:When the blob reaches win size, I would say we change it such that instead of instant win, the nuke code is sent to communications consoles and the AI is given a law to allow the self destruct to happen. The Blob gets a Major Victory if it manages to survive a certain amount of time after Central Command sends the code OR grows to reach the second size threshold after reaching the first one. The blob gets a Minor Victory if the crew manages to blow the station. I say "Minor Victory" instead of "Neutral Outcome" because it should still feel as if the crew lost and the blob ultimately won.

Simply put, it would work like this: Blob reaches 100* ( * means an arbitrary number) total blob pieces. Central sends the nuke code, and the crew has 5* minutes to detonate the nuke. If the crew manages to nuke the station in time, it is a Minor Victory for the blob. If the blob reaches 150* total blob pieces OR survives for 5* minutes, it is a blob Major Victory. If at any time the blob is killed, even after the nuke is armed, it is a Crew Victory.

I like this idea in theory, but what if the blob eats the nuke early on? If you want to get cynical this will just mean every blob will either burst near the vault or mass drive the nuke while they're still human.

It is a valid and smart strategy - but that comes at the risk of the crew going "WTF WHY ARE YOU SPACING THE NUKE!?". If you can get away with spacing the nuke or securing the disk beforehand, you deserve your Major Victory.

Technically you wouldn't even need to space it. You could just drag it to your spawn point (probably breaking in through the back of the vault) and eat it.

I don't think I have ever seen a crew victory since newblob with the one exception of the time the guy blew up in the bar. Blob would be more fun if it didn't feel completely impossible to win. As is, even with multiple emitters, and the full armoury unloading into it, I have seen blob laugh off all that damage and grow to victory. I think one of the biggest problems is that blob can expand in a single tile line to cut off crew or make a zergrush at a single key point/item like an emitter or to wall off a hallway.

iyaerP wrote:I don't think I have ever seen a crew victory since newblob with the one exception of the time the guy blew up in the bar. Blob would be more fun if it didn't feel completely impossible to win. As is, even with multiple emitters, and the full armoury unloading into it, I have seen blob laugh off all that damage and grow to victory. I think one of the biggest problems is that blob can expand in a single tile line to cut off crew or make a zergrush at a single key point/item like an emitter or to wall off a hallway.

I participated in dunking 5 blobs in one 6 hour session. Blob is very beatable when the crew doesn't spend the whole shift drinking paint.

Exactly. Now that people understand how to fight it and how to be blobs in a general sort of seeping-into-collective-consciousness level, it seems almost like a... fair fight? Blob's super powerful, but you can beat it if you're smart, lucky, or you just have more people than it can react to.

Hibbles wrote:Exactly. Now that people understand how to fight it and how to be blobs in a general sort of seeping-into-collective-consciousness level, it seems almost like a... fair fight? Blob's super powerful, but you can beat it if you're smart, lucky, or you just have more people than it can react to.

But we have more newfriends than ever. Blob seems to win more often than it ever has before.

Geez there's way too much complaining about one bloody PvE mode, especially since it's one of the few events where nearly every department can have a discernible, positive effect on the round if played correctly.

For every bleb round you've got 20 other rounds to jerk off and ERP. Blob has produced far more interesting rounds than something like Malf AI where it's the same concept but this time only 4-5 crew can do jack shit and most of the game is just a door/wall hacking simulator.

Conclusion: Yes, it's the only game mode that requires co-operation and teamwork between several departments and can't be beaten by just 3-4 dudes.

Somewhat on Oldman's post.

I think the reason some people may dislike something like Blob is because it requires a massive team effort on the entire crew in order to win. Meaning its less about the skill of the individual players and more on the reliability of the entire crew. People have a tendency to dislike having to rely on other players in SS13 and much prefer having all the needed power in their own hands.

Somewhat why many people hate most forms of a Wizard except when they use a Summon Magic/Guns spell that gives each player power.

Steelpoint wrote:I think the reason some people may dislike something like Blob is because it requires a massive team effort on the entire crew in order to win.

Ironically, its one of the few rounds where the crew actually behaves like a crew. In theory at the very least. Also, the yells of "blob blob" tend to put a little extra spring in some steps. Miners hit those rocks a little faster to get things to RnD to get those xrays and adv eguns/laser cannons going, RnD hits the levels that much quicker to get things going. Chemistry actually has to give departments the stuff they need to get things going in a reasonable time period (acid to robotics/RnD, cryomix, etc). Cargo gets to decide if they're ordering all the guns or if they're going to bring in more emitters or both. Engineering gets to do something other than wire solars and forget to set up the singulo properly. The service jobs mostly get molded into the welder brigades. There's a lot of interesting and creative things that can and do come out of cooperation in blob rounds. People complain because its not the sort of >apply esword "action" they're expecting round after round.

That's fine and all, but it gets repetitive. It should be a rare game mode to preserve the fun.

paprika wrote:Blobs should lose their ability to grow on tiles without oxygen. That is the best balancing factor here, especially when they detonate on the AI sat and stuff.

I had an admin pass blob status to me once after he blew on the AI sat and had to go. It was hopeless. It will cost you 1,000+ blob bux to cross a significant gap of open space. The AI called out my location and I spent the next 30 minutes just sending groups of bloblets into space while I was slowly surrounded by emitters and laser fire. Even with 6 resource nodes and control of the entire AI sat. I had no chance of crossing space.


A few easy changes would be make to "station-wide emergency" automatic once the level 5 biohazard is detected. If the AI/head doesn't do it and the blob is in maint, it becomes a massive headache waiting around for someone to open maint. for you. Losing to a blob because people keep getting stuck outside/inside maintenance is silly. You could also accelerate the warning by up to 30 seconds so the blob doesn't have a guaranteed free node before the crew even know it exists, which means you'll probably have 2-3 nodes+resource before the crew even finds you and 4-5 before people start welding your ass.

TL;DR Blob is fine. Xrays are fun but just spam plasma cutters at first, handing out 10+ plasma cutters will do a lot more than just jerking off until you unlock 1-2 xrays. Also medbots. Get 4-5 on the front line and things will go a LOT better when you don't have to crawl to medbay every time you get glomp'd.

Oldman Robustin wrote:A few easy changes would be make to "station-wide emergency" automatic once the level 5 biohazard is detected. If the AI/head doesn't do it and the blob is in maint, it becomes a massive headache waiting around for someone to open maint. for you. Losing to a blob because people keep getting stuck outside/inside maintenance is silly.

No, it's not silly. It's poor management from heads and AI who are supposed to be competent leaders and managers and make sure everything is done to eliminate the threat. Besides, all it takes is ";AI declare emergency open maint law 2" and bam. I don't think I've ever seen a round where there is enough people for blob and neither heads nor AI are present.

Oldman Robustin wrote:You could also accelerate the warning by up to 30 seconds so the blob doesn't have a guaranteed free node before the crew even know it exists, which means you'll probably have 2-3 nodes+resource before the crew even finds you and 4-5 before people start welding your ass.

Do nodes produce resources?