/tg/Station 13

Over the years there have been many new syndie items both overpowered and garbage. But what item in the traitor uplink, if any, should be considered the most excellent and well-balanced traitor item that all other items should seek to imitate?

1 Telecrystal is by far the most balanced item in the entire traitor uplink.

In terms of things that aren't telecrystals, I like the syndicate encryption key. Cheap, gives you intelligence, great for stealth or planning, ideal for both acts of subversion and intelligence gathering in the event of trying to go loud while evading your hunters. Low price means it doesn't take up a large amount of space in a build and it's a decent buy if you've got spare crystals left over. Not particularly overpowered (I sadly passed the emag over because of a history of it being strong) and not completely useless. A nice part of a good stealth kit.

The powersink is an antagonist's device. Not a murder boner's weapon, not a cuban's bomb. When you plop down a sink, you are pissing off the entire crew(with a delay inversely proportional to their normal access level). You will be thought of as the scumbag who is holding up mining research/killed the stasis beds/stopped the kitchen's/botany's/ect equipment. An esword or emag can be abused by normal crew, but nobody can use a power sink except to be a total piss magnet
Placement of the sink is a game of chess; what tile on the station would be the last to be checked? Would it be better hidden if a ring of walls were constructed around it or should you defend it after its planted like some sort of misplaced CS terrorist?

Outside of devices I'd go with dehydrated carp. 10/10 classic item

Radio jammer. Useful to prevent your murdering from being called out, great for running gimmicks like kidnapping people or hypnoflashes. Requires you to activate and deactivate, because it affects you too, preventing brain dead turn it on and forget about it.

The syndicate bomb is a load of fun, in my opinion. Nothing's more terrifying (or satisfying) than hearing that subtle beeping noise, yelling over the radio, and running like a bat out of hell.

Hypno flash, one of the best items in my opinion. Upload ai laws to humans, 8tc well worth it. I love ss13

The chameleon kit. A flexible disguise in a box, or the ultimate way of screaming "I AM A TRAITOR"? Your choice. Simple, balanced, easy to use, but not flawless. Combines well with other traitor items, like the agent ID card, but also a non-combo with things like the EMP kit(unless you want a really flashy outfit).

Cryptographic Sequencer is my favorite.
I wish it had interaction with every computer and terminal in the game

Emag is for sure a fun one, It lets you use your departmental equipment in nefarious ways that a normal crewman could not.

Farquaar wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 3:06 am The syndicate bomb is a load of fun, in my opinion. Nothing's more terrifying (or satisfying) than hearing that subtle beeping noise, yelling over the radio, and running like a bat out of hell.

They're far too easy to disarm to be worth using. The fuse needs to be less than 90 seconds.

cacogen wrote: ↑Wed Oct 20, 2021 3:06 am They're far too easy to disarm to be worth using. The fuse needs to be less than 90 seconds.

Attaching a C4 to the syndie bomb blows it as soon as the C4 goes off.

cacogen wrote: ↑Wed Oct 20, 2021 3:06 am

Farquaar wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 3:06 am The syndicate bomb is a load of fun, in my opinion. Nothing's more terrifying (or satisfying) than hearing that subtle beeping noise, yelling over the radio, and running like a bat out of hell.

They're far too easy to disarm to be worth using. The fuse needs to be less than 90 seconds.

Nobody’s successfully disarmed any of the bombs I’ve planted in my time here.

ardentarclight wrote: ↑Wed Oct 20, 2021 4:06 am Attaching a C4 to the syndie bomb blows it as soon as the C4 goes off.

man i'd forgotten about that thanks for reminding me

Farquaar wrote: ↑Wed Oct 20, 2021 10:39 am Nobody’s successfully disarmed any of the bombs I’ve planted in my time here.

My experience is that unless it's lowpop or the bomb is in an obscure (read: irrelevant) place people are reliably able to disarm it every single time. Maybe your experience is different, I dunno.

cacogen wrote: ↑Wed Oct 20, 2021 12:14 pm

Farquaar wrote: ↑Wed Oct 20, 2021 10:39 am Nobody’s successfully disarmed any of the bombs I’ve planted in my time here.

My experience is that unless it's lowpop or the bomb is in an obscure (read: irrelevant) place people are reliably able to disarm it every single time. Maybe your experience is different, I dunno.

You'd be surprised how easy it is to syndibomb the brig on highpop. Even with a lot of people, maps have a low population density because they're just too big.

Honestly if you're dumping 11tc in a syndicate bomb just go the extra 1tc for the C4
pry the core out of the bomb, slap a signaller onto the C4, and the C4 onto the bomb core, pop that core into a backpack, leave the backpack somewhere you don't like, trigger the signaller. No stupid timer, no beeping, just an immediate explosion.

If you wanna be really funny, stick another signaller attached to a mousetrap in the same backpack. Tell the HoS you found traitor gear in the bag and are turning it in as you're a good little citizen. It's not a lie either, that's 12tc of traitor gear.

Omega_DarkPotato wrote: ↑Wed Oct 20, 2021 5:25 pm snip

You don't even need a c4, a water potas 'nade will do it.

revs

detomatix is really fun in my opinion, clear counterplay with turning messages off, can obviously be comboed with other traitor weapons by using it to soften up a target before you go in for a kill and can also be used in clever ways such as using pdas as makeshift hand grenades.

I really like the charm projector, handy way to escape the law once you round a few dark maint hallways.

The C-4 tip changed my life and enabled me to bomb the shuttle twice in one round when the syndicate bomb was discounted to 5 TC