Mimic's Gimmicks

[MimicFaux]

Latest Addition: Shuttles
I have a handful of side events I run with varying frequency. Overall the reception to them has been rather positive, but I'd like to make an official 'document' of shenanigans and see what you guys the players think of them.
Comments and criticisms are encouraged.

The Syndicate Trader(Traitor) - No refunds or trade-ins. Cash Only.
Concept: The Syndicate is an amalgamation of businesses, sometimes they just want to turn a profit.
Execution: Tucked away somewhere on the station, usually in maintenance, a small store will open up with all sorts of delicious syndicate contraband. Cheesy advertisements are delivered to the crew via syndicate PDA + lawyer cartridge. Has an amusing variant, The Nervous Syndicate Trader. All of the above, but has the genetic stammer, and is more likely to self-detonate if things look even a little bit sketchy.
Who it's for: Everyone but security.
Rules:
-Only accepts space cash for wares. letterman jackets, empty syndie dufflebags, and omnizine cigarettes run for a few hundred credits each. Tools and devices like encryption keys, chameleon projectors, and thermals can run anywhere between 500-1200 credits. Entry level weapons are things like power fist and energy dagger. Properly dangerous weapons are thousands of credits.
-Emags are never for sale.
-Items not on display can be 'ordered in' at additional cost. These will usually appear via telepad.
-While explosives are not sold, the shopkeeper is equipped with an explosive implant and stetchkin to deter looters.
-A bomb marked 'clearance sale' is provided to the shopkeeper if would-be looters are adamant to being shitty.
-Actual traitors get an 'employee discount' (verified with code phrases)

Spoiler:

The Omen - Something wicked this way comes...
Concept: Life in space is full of unexpected perils. A deadly premonition made manifest.
Execution: 3x3 lava grid on a common intersection of the station, with a little bit of extra lava around it. Obstructing, but never fully blocking paths. A signpost nearby keeps track of how often someone catches fire(accidents).
Who it's for: Anyone who runs down hallways at full speeds. Chaplains with a fetish for fire. Clowns with a penchant for lube.
Rules:
-As long as the statue is intact, the lava won't be allowed to be built over (RCDs)
-At 25 accidents, a greentext appears, anchored beneath the statue. Description of statue updated to reflect that it's holding the book in place.
-At 50 accidents, the shuttle is retooled to be a fiery maze with another Omen in the middle.
-If the statue is destroyed, all the lava is turned to basalt, if there is a greentext, it's unanchored and free to be taken, and the event ends.

Spoiler:

Post-round maze - *Bonetrousle intensifies*
Concept: An obstacle course for the crew with a prize at the end.
Execution: Varying wildly in size, shape and construction; these can have anything from emitters firing through modified glass walls, disguised chasm pits, to a drone in a cow mask with a tiny knife and specialized laws named 'The Minitaur'. More often than not, all of the above.
Who it's for: Everyone but changelings, mech pilots, and jerks who bomb the shuttle.
Rules:
-First one to survive to the end of the maze, wins.
-Prize is usually a small prize awarded in the following round based on job. (Power tools for an assistant, implant for roboticist, bottle of adminrozine for doctor, etc)

Spoiler:

Honk Ops - Welcome to the clown planet!
Concept: Like nuke ops, but funnier
Execution: Given the Infiltrator a new coat of bananium paint, remove the turrets. Spawn in five humans, equip them in a mixture of clown suits and nuke op gear. Piles of bananium ore around the shuttle, bluespace banana peels with plant satchels, and a couple of clown bombs. Replace hardsuits with carpsuits.
Who it's for: Ghosts and observers
Rules:
-Honk Ops all have the clumsy gene. They are not told this when they sign up. But five clumsy mutation DNA injectors will be in front of everyone.
-Honk Ops all have Pierrot's Throat. Making coordination hilariously awkward.
-Honk Ops are not told the nuke code. It is however helpfully 'written in crayon' on the nuke itself via a rename.
-Honk Ops will not be given a staff of the honk mother.
-Honk ops may purchase a mech, and swap it for a HONK.
-Bets are taken amongst remaining ghosts which operative will shoot themself in the foot first.

Spoiler:

[MimicFaux]

*Reserving space for additional gimmicks*

The Syndicate Coordinator - :t Anyone reading me on this frequency?
Concept: A handler that encourages role play and gives traitors who buy the encryption key something to do other than murderbone.
Execution: Tucked away somewhere on the station, or perhaps adjacent to it in a tiny satellite. Base is equipped with a sleeper, security camera console, security records, and crew monitoring computers. A stetchkin with some spare ammo for self defense.
Who it's for: Traitors.
Rules:
-Does not leave his base.
-Gives advice to traitors, offers possible plans. tracking security's movements, potential targets; an overall tactical advisor.
-Does not disclose identity of other traitors.
-Can assign additional objectives, and award small amounts of bonus TC to agents who come visit him for debriefing once their initial objectives are done.

Spoiler:

Prisoner Transport - Central Command Update
Concept: High risk prisoner is given over to security to take care of and deliver alive to Central Command
Execution: Convert an area in security wing to a telepad and create a prisoner tasked with escaping alive and out of custody. Alert station of the impending transport, on their signal use fancy teleporter effects before dropping the prisoner off.
Who it's for: Security / warden
Rules:
- Make sure Security understands that the prisoner must be alive and able to stand trial at CentComm to avoid them locking the prisoner in a box until they go catatonic.
-Someone on the station will be tasked with breaking them out of jail.

Spoiler:

Forgot to take a picture last time I did it. Oops!

Shuttle Redesign - The emergency shuttle has been recalled.
Concept: ADMIN LOG: MimicFaux/(Hadrian Melik) has entered build mode.
Execution: No rhyme or reason to them, they can vary wildly in design, shape and construction. Abductor style shuttle complete, complete with elaborate operating rooms, a complicated looking engine, and of course, alloy walls. Or maybe an industrial styled transport train, with boxcars full of cargo 'chained' together and being pulled. Or perhaps an excavation site! Pictured below is the 'Twin shuttle'.
Who it's for: Survivors of the round looking to get home.
Rules:
- Have a shuttle console somewhere.
- Pressurized.

Spoiler:

Name -
Concept:
Execution:
Who it's for:
Rules:

[kevinz000]

Remind me to make map templates for this stuff so admins can one click upload and load in.

[Anonmare]

There's actually a clown hardsuit in the code already. I think it's called a cosmohonk suit. Just look for hardsuit/clown in the pathing.

[cedarbridge]

There's actually a clown hardsuit in the code already. I think it's called a cosmohonk suit. Just look for hardsuit/clown in the pathing.

They'd need to be var-edited back and forth though. They're about as bad as EVA suits.

[imblyings]

i did it once and I'll do it again

If you spawn lava in the hallways again while I'm on, I will buildmode over it. Gimmicks aren't an excuse to kill players as an admin. Don't make a forum thread to normalize /tg/ admins spawning lava for little reason. Don't do gimmicks that are 'haha I spawned lava in a busy intersection and you walked over it but its ok because I'm counting the accidents' unless the round genuinely needs admin button pressing to that extent.

[Qbopper]

The Omen - Something wicked this way comes...
Concept: Life in space is full of unexpected perils. A deadly premonition made manifest.
Execution: 3x3 lava grid on a common intersection of the station, with a little bit of extra lava around it. Obstructing, but never fully blocking paths. A signpost nearby keeps track of how often someone catches fire(accidents).
Who it's for: Anyone who runs down hallways at full speeds. Chaplains with a fetish for fire. Clowns with a penchant for lube.
Rules:
-As long as the statue is intact, the lava won't be allowed to be built over (RCDs)
-At 25 accidents, a greentext appears, anchored beneath the statue. Description of statue updated to reflect that it's holding the book in place.
-At 50 accidents, the shuttle is retooled to be a fiery maze with another Omen in the middle.
-If the statue is destroyed, all the lava is turned to basalt, if there is a greentext, it's unanchored and free to be taken, and the event ends.

Spoiler:

Do players actually like this? I'm not trying to be rude but this seems like a sodium generator

[AnonymousNow]

Glad to see gimmicks & events, we need them more often.

[MimicFaux]

...

Every time I've done the omen, it's been a rallying point for the crew. The chaplain renounces his god and brings toolboxes and scraps of this and that to toss in. Security comes out to investigate and tells everyone to 'move along, nothing to see here'. Engineers put up walls, and make directional windows for safety rails. In one case they put up grilled windows and installed a disposal/incinerator system. Roboticists get clever and make firefighter Ripleys to wade across and drill the statue. Overall, the impact was always positive, it's why I kept doing it.

...

I'm not trying to normalize it, but it is because of how quickly you reacted to it that prompted me to make this thread. The goal here is to get feedback on what players want to see with custom events. If there had been a huge outcry of badmins the first time I did it, I would have scrapped the idea. People seemed to like it though, but I haven't run it again from when you said how awful it was. I wanted to hear everyone's opinion and review my other gimmicks while I was at it.

[Screemonster]

It's kinda not great to have a public admin cockwaving contest over who can override each other's buttonpushing because one doesn't like the particular way the round was moved out of its neat little box.

[Qbopper]

I was just curious about the reception, I'm glad to hear that it goes over well - I was thinking it could be fun, but didn't know what it would be in reality.

I'm not sure where the hostility is coming from

[Bob Dobbington]

Please don't shit on Mimic for having the audacity to run creative, high-effort events. This is exemplary work and we need more admins doing work like this to provide more depth and more options for admin events. This community has a real problem with rewarding any attempt to rise above the mean with salt, negativity, and aggressive criticsim. It's resulted in the departure of many good admins and players and will continue to result in that until we get it under control.

Thank you for doing this, Mimic, it's great work and I hope to incorporate some elements into my own events. The templates Mekhi was talking about would also be very helpful in doing that.

[PKPenguin321]

I really like the lava one, having been playing when it was run at one point. I remember a traitor clown was slipping people into the lava and got me, but I was eventually cloned and got him back. Good stuff

[imblyings]

It's a post done with prior incidents in mind, including one where I handled something internally involving Mimic and then regretted doing so. I support responsible admins doing events, not admins who should be extremely careful of their conduct doing events which kill players. A majority of players also never read this forum and may never understand the gimmick. They might enjoy the fact that /tg/ admins usually don't kill their players for little reason from their point of view. They might not be jaded people who've gone through thousands of rounds and for whom lava in the hallways is fun and exciting. If we ban players for misusing the lava staff and killing other players, then what has changed when an admin does it?

Most of the posters here are admins who should know better.

[PKPenguin321]

It's a post done with prior incidents in mind, including one where I handled something internally involving Mimic and then regretted doing so. I support responsible admins doing events, not admins who should be extremely careful of their conduct doing events which kill players. A majority of players also never read this forum and may never understand the gimmick. They might enjoy the fact that /tg/ admins usually don't kill their players for little reason from their point of view. They might not be jaded people who've gone through thousands of rounds and for whom lava in the hallways is fun and exciting. If we ban players for misusing the lava staff and killing other players, then what has changed when an admin does it?

Most of the posters here are admins who should know better.

As somebody who was a player at the time when I died to the lava event, I like the lava event (as long as it's not a common thing and actually an event)

Show me on this doll where the lava touched you

[MimicFaux]

These are all really cool.

Really really cool.

Really really really cool.

Any in particular that jump out for you?

[lollerderby]

i'm pretty sure i saw the lava event once during a blob round or something, found it pretty meh but it was blob so no one wanted to be alive anyway

[MimicFaux]

It's really heartening to see so much support for my tinkering. A few players (Coiax comes to mind) have actually gotten a little mad at me that I don't use the mapmaker to preserve anything. But that's kind of the creative process for me. I like the tinkering and tweaking. That said, I may shelf the Omen for now, no sense rocking the boat when I have half a dozen other ideas that don't cause argument. The other lethal event I ran once was inspired by a captain's requested gimmick for a hunger games -esque arena, but there wasn't enough time in the round to fulfill it.
That one I wired the gateway to an off station arena, scattered weapons, land mines and spell traps. That one however i would do in a mapmaker if I was ever to repeat it because it took myself and another admin working together to finish it within a reasonable amount of time. (And even then I kept tinkering while people were inside)

- The trader has a few scripted responses to security. If they reply to his adverts on the PDA I send half baked responses of 'wrong number' or 'Sorry, this is Space Papa Johns'. WHICH REMINDS ME. I once had the warden order a pizza when I told him that. Had an assistant deliver a pizza bomb with the instructions 'keep it closed so it stays warm' My sides ascended into orbit when I heard security mention the warden exploded.
The Nervous Trader just freaks out and tries to stuff as much merch into dufflebags and flee into space if sec shows up.
-Everyone loves the Minitaur! The idea came about when I noticed that drone laws were just a variable I could rewrite. Give him a little knife for shin stabbing, and a cow mask to complete the Minotaur in the maze trope. Bam! Instant fun. - Yes the carpsuits still have a negative modifier, no I'm not interested in improving them, if they want a better suit they can damn well pay for one. )
-I haven't run the Coordinator of late since building APCs got broken somewhere along the way, so my options for a base are limited to existing rooms, which can get dicey. Hopefully it's fixed soon and we can see more of him.

[cedarbridge]

While I'm sure the honk ops are fun to watch, I'm not sure that having a gimmick built around "this role has to do a job that's already exceptionally hard for normal operatives except now its extra frustrating" is a good move. Seems like it would just discourage participation from the would-be clowns.

[Haevacht]

While I'm sure the honk ops are fun to watch, I'm not sure that having a gimmick built around "this role has to do a job that's already exceptionally hard for normal operatives except now its extra frustrating" is a good move. Seems like it would just discourage participation from the would-be clowns.

YOu get to be a fucking honk op and you're not expected to really succeed, I prefer it over actual op anyday.