/tg/Station 13

Bottom post of the previous page:

Revive Runes are op in the current medical system. Have the rune over time revive instead of instant heal.
Maybe make a new UI to better explain what is going on to new players, This can be done with making the book and ritual knife have menus or something.
Have cult spawn more often. I don't see it very much.

If you have to read a wiki page to know how to do things you're going to get people who don't know what they're doing. I know a lot of roles rely on the wiki but I don't think cultist should be one of them. Being AFK reading as a team antagonist is not good.

cacogen wrote:If you have to read a wiki page to know how to do things you're going to get people who don't know what they're doing. I know a lot of roles rely on the wiki but I don't think cultist should be one of them. Being AFK reading as a team antagonist is not good.

agreed.

Bit late to this end, but I like the ideas posited about smaller, non-conversion cult with normal, if more difficult objectives. Currently, TG has three "limited team" antagonists, only two of which really count and only two of which ever show up. We have Fugitives/Hunters, Nuke Ops and Abductors. Abductors don't count because a team of two is teeny-tiny-itty-bitty, but that's up to your personal opinion. Fugitives/Hunters shows up only once in a blue moon and is almost always Waldo (or Wally for those of you across the pond), which basically takes them out of the category as well. Thus, we have exactly one (1) regularly-appearing limited team antagonist. As a result, I'm very much in favor of adding a new one to the pool, especially one that isn't always a round-ender the same way Nuke Ops is. Maybe we can reflavor it to be some kind of clock cult thing or make it a variant of cult with lower weight and difficult objectives rather than just summoning.

P.S.: Changelings only sort of count as team antags.

Sorry for being a bit late, and for not contributing much, but I like cults as a way for us unrobust, generally peaceful people (i.e. people who play in medical and service and aren't tiders) to get into a position where we can help an antag do their job with a different set of goals, it adds some chaos and spice to being a normal crew worker. If anything, I'd make it so cult converts have a more limited but simpler role, and then some cultsists can choose to take on more responsibility and abilities similar to how the cult master is chosen (i.e. tiers inside the cult). Cults favor wise can be all about bizantine hierarchies and such.

I like cult. It provides the best opportunities to use late game items and WMDs as a non-antag. It gives chaplains a good excuse to bring out their inner crusader. Cult also gives security a reason to be the ungas they always wanted to be.

I propose:
Reducing or eliminating conversion
As has been pointed out, conversion pulls people from their usual station jobs, requires the entire station to arm up as an effective counter and forces new players to read through a wiki. Let's limit the complex roles to those who actively want them.

Making the early game cultist toolset mostly focused on stealth and evasion
Providing every cultist a robe that fully obstructs attempts at visual identification.
It only takes one mistake for a cult to reveal themselves. In practice, a mistake usually reveals the cult early in the round and forces them to wage all out war to survive. Let's provide cultists with less lethal ways to survive and eliminate the round disruption that a lot of people hate.

Increasing the capacity of cultists to summon and construct relatively weak allies
These allies would focus on direct combat but be weak at it. The artificer would be focused on support as before. The juggernaut would be geared towards running interference. The wraith, I'll get to later. As pointed out before, constructs are easier for inexperienced players to understand.

Allowing animal sacrifices
Stealing head of staff's pets at roundstart is a lot more funny for everyone than stealing people out of their station jobs. The job of purloining would be the purview of the wraith.

These changes limit the number of new mechanics that need coding. This new cult would be more in line with the traditional depiction of cults, namely, a small group of people that remain spooky nuisances if kept in check, but a significant threat later on if not.