/tg/Station 13

Maybe this is a personal problem, but I've been finding the game pretty boring lately. It seems there's always something killing the entire station, usually the unbalanced newer stuff, sometimes some of the older stuff (which may have been buffed - not sure) which leads to either jobs interrupted by combat/medical assistance, a lot of running away or a lot of observing.

We seem to have gone from one extreme to another over an uncertain period of time, the past few months maybe? We used to have repetitive 'job simulator' rounds with nothing happening, now we have endless series of rounds where the station turns to shit before people even get the chance to do their job.

It's ostensibly a game about paranoia and a structurally dangerous space station, but (and not to sound like an alarmist hack) we seem to have moved away from that fun to PvP, which the respawn mechanisms aren't really designed around (and it'd be a shame to make death less punishing, though more ways into the round in non-gimped roles would be good IMO)

How are you finding the game personally?

I think it's fun it's just you famaroonie

I'm at 5000 connections and I still find it fun and interesting

Just enjoy the game for what it is and don't get caught up with what's "supposed to be" fun in theory. If you're not finding it fun, don't force yourself to play it cause that's just gonna make you bitter and resent the game even more

Yeah I took a brief break with some other games and it's more fun when you come back

Well, you three have more "options" than the rest of us.

Take a break. It's a good thing.

I did for ages actually, only really started playing again this month. So much new content to catch up on.

the life of a spaceman

1. join game for first time. this is the era of figuring out how to switch hands, how to drop and pull things, how to put on a shirt and mask, the works.
2. getting a grip/early discovery phase. this is the era where you try out your first real job, learn new things about the game, run from beepsky because you assume he knows every sin you've ever committed. you're still fumbling with the controls a bit, but you know how they work. you die a lot to the environment by accident.
3. learn it all phase. you've gotten a hang of the controls and are relatively self-sustaining. this is where the game is really, REALLY fun. you start learning all the jobs that look cool, discovering new features around every corner. despite your understanding of the game, there still seems to be an endless amount of things to do. you also begin to learn the glorious art of robust combat.
4. the powergaming phase. you've learned most things in the game, namely how to do pretty much every job. the only really interesting thing left to explore is the art of combat. you roll for traitor every round and can't wait to get into your next fight to see how far your knowledge has come. it is at this point that the spaceman's innocence truly begins to fade.
5. the break. you're burned out. you've learned pretty much all there is, and combat's gotten stale. why bother even playing..?
6. the return. you've reminisced about all the good, hilarious, and incredibly fun times you've had. despite your efforts, you find your way back to this game. things are still a bit boring, but you can't just not play the game. it's too good to not play. you've probably participated in the forums at least a little bit. AMNESTIC, you are here.
7. a strange transformation takes place. something is wrong.
8. the autism phase. the spaceman has become so nihilistic by realizing that dying is meaningless in this game, that he has resorted to absurd humor and whacky antics to keep the game fun. there are lots of memes.
9. the stockholme syndrome phase. you play on and off, but frequent the forums. the game is just a constant in your life that doesn't seem to change. you're now a part of the community. how horrible!
10a. the exadev phase. you're done with the game. you've grown out of it, but it never ceases to amaze you. you look back on it fondly, and even interact with the community on rare occasion. you're always welcome back.
10b. the An0n3 phase. you're done with the game, but you're still a part of the community. despite being seemingly normal, you'll never outgrown your autism. it is a permanent part of you. you are tainted.
10c. the errorage phase. your autism evolved farther than the others and you somehow got yourself in a position of power, then managed to piss EVERYBODY off. even if you want to remain in the community, you cannot. you are shunned by all.

SS13 has a lot of replayability, but it isn't infinite. Eventually you run into the situation where you've experienced everything you want to experience. The same applies to most games, but while people are happy if they get 10 hours off of some Steam game, they get sad or upset when that happens in a game they played for 1500 hours.

In short, perhaps you've simply experienced everything the game has to offer. It may very well be time to find something else to play, as scary as that thought is.

LiamLime wrote:SS13 has a lot of replayability, but it isn't infinite. Eventually you run into the situation where you've experienced everything you want to experience. The same applies to most games, but while people are happy if they get 10 hours off of some Steam game, they get sad or upset when that happens in a game they played for 1500 hours.

In short, perhaps you've simply experienced everything the game has to offer. It may very well be time to find something else to play, as scary as that thought is.

This, take a break, come back later.

I am not playing SS13 nearly as often as I used too and when it is boring me I just quit the round.

I feel like there could be more oldschool traitor or traitor+ling rounds, and less team modes.

Give basil a try. We now regularly get decent player counts but shit devolves into chaos a little slower. You might like it

It's best when you have no idea whether the next round is going to be fifteen minutes or an hour long. If every round is short, then some content is invalidated. Some of the funnest gimmicks are only able to occur in a longer game, and often you don't even need antags to do them.

Long rounds should be uncommon (because if we had a 50/50 split between long rounds and short rounds, we'd spend more time overall in the long rounds) but they shouldn't be extraordinarily rare.

I had an idea once to delay giving out antags, or informing chosen antags that they are antags until 10-15 minutes into the game.

Lumbermancer wrote:I had an idea once to delay giving out antags, or informing chosen antags that they are antags until 10-15 minutes into the game.

Good idea, but would only work with a subset of antagonist types.

PKPenguin321 wrote:the life of a spaceman

1. join game for first time. this is the era of figuring out how to switch hands, how to drop and pull things, how to put on a shirt and mask, the works.
2. getting a grip/early discovery phase. this is the era where you try out your first real job, learn new things about the game, run from beepsky because you assume he knows every sin you've ever committed. you're still fumbling with the controls a bit, but you know how they work. you die a lot to the environment by accident.
3. learn it all phase. you've gotten a hang of the controls and are relatively self-sustaining. this is where the game is really, REALLY fun. you start learning all the jobs that look cool, discovering new features around every corner. despite your understanding of the game, there still seems to be an endless amount of things to do. you also begin to learn the glorious art of robust combat.
4. the powergaming phase. you've learned most things in the game, namely how to do pretty much every job. the only really interesting thing left to explore is the art of combat. you roll for traitor every round and can't wait to get into your next fight to see how far your knowledge has come. it is at this point that the spaceman's innocence truly begins to fade.
5. the break. you're burned out. you've learned pretty much all there is, and combat's gotten stale. why bother even playing..?
6. the return. you've reminisced about all the good, hilarious, and incredibly fun times you've had. despite your efforts, you find your way back to this game. things are still a bit boring, but you can't just not play the game. it's too good to not play. you've probably participated in the forums at least a little bit. AMNESTIC, you are here.
7. a strange transformation takes place. something is wrong.
8. the autism phase. the spaceman has become so nihilistic by realizing that dying is meaningless in this game, that he has resorted to absurd humor and whacky antics to keep the game fun. there are lots of memes.
9. the stockholme syndrome phase. you play on and off, but frequent the forums. the game is just a constant in your life that doesn't seem to change. you're now a part of the community. how horrible!
10a. the exadev phase. you're done with the game. you've grown out of it, but it never ceases to amaze you. you look back on it fondly, and even interact with the community on rare occasion. you're always welcome back.
10b. the An0n3 phase. you're done with the game, but you're still a part of the community. despite being seemingly normal, you'll never outgrown your autism. it is a permanent part of you. you are tainted.
10c. the errorage phase. your autism evolved farther than the others and you somehow got yourself in a position of power, then managed to piss EVERYBODY off. even if you want to remain in the community, you cannot. you are shunned by all.

You forgot 10d. shitpost on the forums about how the game is ruined but not play in the last 6 months.

Unsurprisingly it makes up a large number of us.