New reactive armour/blocking mechanics

[onleavedontatme]

https://github.com/tgstation/-tg-station/pull/13327

tl;dr I have redone blocking mechanics to allow any item in your left hand, right hand, exosuit, or jumpsuit slot to have a customisable on hit effect and block chance.

As quick examples I made a reactive armor subtype that sets everyone on fire when it blocks hits, and the clown jumpsuit now honks when the user is hit (but has 0 block chance).

Armour I am thinking of adding in the future:

-Suicide vest. Hook a TTV to the vest and it will explode when you're hit.

-Ablative plated armour. 100% block chance but the plates are destroyed after each hit.

-Energy shielded armour. Blocks hits until the shield drains, then recharges after a cooldown (Halo)

-Tesla armour that shocks attackers

-Armour of Fate: Made with the die of fate, rolls a d20 when you get hit for a random effect (20 gibs the attacker, 1 gibs you, and everywhere inbetween)

Seeking feedback on these plans and further suggestions.

[DemonFiren]

Kor continues to be not shit.

I wonder if it's possible to make a chemvest, if you get hit it automatically releases a chemical cloud of whatever is stored inside.

[Steelpoint]

Pretty neat overall, something tells me a one hit 'ablative' armour will have limited usability if someone just slaps your ass and suddenly your ass explodes, protecting you from the ass spanking but leaving your vulnerable to that incoming guy with a purple Energy Sword.

[Super Aggro Crag]

we should be able to use trays as ghetto shields

[Ricotez]

-Ablative plated armour. 100% block chance but the plates are destroyed after each hit.

this is how ablative armour should work anyway, ablative literally means the armour vaporizes to protect you

[Gun Hog]

https://github.com/tgstation/-tg-station/pull/13327

-Energy shielded armor. Blocks hits until the shield drains, then recharges after a cooldown (Halo)

-Tesla armor that shocks attackers

Seeking feedback on these plans and further suggestions.

Both these are my ideas! You have made the energy shield armor possible, which is something I have wanted to code for a while! I might do it one day if no one beats me to it!

Tesla armor I got from Goofball's port of the Tesla Engine, the Tesla Armor from the Fallout series and the wizard's lightning bolt spell.

[Steelpoint]

Ablative defence would need to be either very cheap or trigger multiple times considering it will only block a single attack.

[Saegrimr]

-Armour of Fate: Made with the die of fate, rolls a d20 when you get hit for a random effect (20 gibs the attacker, 1 gibs you, and everywhere inbetween)

Best armor idea out of everything here.

[Alex Crimson]

Neat idea and all, but i feel like this will just add a new level of powergaming, and eventually suffer from powercreep. Everything on that list besides the Suicide Vest should be limited to admin-only.

[Helios]

Neat idea and all, but i feel like this will just add a new level of powergaming, and eventually suffer from powercreep. Everything on that list besides the Suicide Vest should be limited to admin-only.

I am going to disagree, just because Heads, especially the captain, need powerful armor. Rev has an 80% winrate. A single stealth op can very easily take down the cap 1 on 1. The HoS's armor used to be a super valuable commodity, until it was nerfed

-Suicide vest. Hook a TTV to the vest and it will explode when you're hit.

We used to have this, but it was remove.
Anyone know why?

[DemonFiren]

I predict a whole lot of fun with suicide vests and hugging, come to think of it.

[Alex Crimson]

Neat idea and all, but i feel like this will just add a new level of powergaming, and eventually suffer from powercreep. Everything on that list besides the Suicide Vest should be limited to admin-only.

I am going to disagree, just because Heads, especially the captain, need powerful armor. Rev has an 80% winrate. A single stealth op can very easily take down the cap 1 on 1. The HoS's armor used to be a super valuable commodity, until it was nerfed

It was nerfed for a reason. No need to make heads night invincible just because they tend to die a lot. If Rev has such a high winrate, nerf the game mode, dont add potentially overpowered armor and make it the standard for head protection.

[onleavedontatme]

we should be able to use trays as ghetto shields

Sure

-Ablative plated armour. 100% block chance but the plates are destroyed after each hit.

this is how ablative armour should work anyway, ablative literally means the armour vaporizes to protect you

I renamed our current "ablative" in the PR shit has bugged me for years

Pretty neat overall, something tells me a one hit 'ablative' armour will have limited usability if someone just slaps your ass and suddenly your ass explodes, protecting you from the ass spanking but leaving your vulnerable to that incoming guy with a purple Energy Sword.

Damage thresholds are always possible

Neat idea and all, but i feel like this will just add a new level of powergaming, and eventually suffer from powercreep. Everything on that list besides the Suicide Vest should be limited to admin-only.

I am going to disagree, just because Heads, especially the captain, need powerful armor. Rev has an 80% winrate. A single stealth op can very easily take down the cap 1 on 1. The HoS's armor used to be a super valuable commodity, until it was nerfed

-Suicide vest. Hook a TTV to the vest and it will explode when you're hit.

We used to have this, but it was remove.
Anyone know why?

Adding power armour just to deal with rev would negatively impact every mode. I would not object to trying out shielded armour that drains very quickly for the captain/hos though.

[invisty]

I hope this turns into better game mechanics for armour in the future instead of the clunky damage reduction system we have now.

If armour were more buffer-style (very big damage reductions and a short life-span before it becomes ineffective) instead of straight up damage reduction, it would make for less opaque game mechanics.

[onleavedontatme]

I hope this turns into better game mechanics for armour in the future instead of the clunky damage reduction system we have now.

If armour were more buffer-style (very big damage reductions and a short life-span before it becomes ineffective) instead of straight up damage reduction, it would make for less opaque game mechanics.

Not sure if I am up to rebalancing combat but having to break the plates before you can stun someone might be interesting.

[Alex Crimson]

Not interesting at all. There would be no visual feedback as to how many plates they have. Not to mention powergamers would just carry spare sets of armor.

[onleavedontatme]

Not interesting at all. There would be no visual feedback as to how many plates they have. Not to mention powergamers would just carry spare sets of armor.

Both of those are easily solvable issues.

[Wyzack]

>Kor renamed ablative

Fucking based, shit has bugged me for ever

[Remie Richards]

Not interesting at all. There would be no visual feedback as to how many plates they have. Not to mention powergamers would just carry spare sets of armor.

my partial rewrite of human overlays allows overlays on overlays, you could easily have 1 overlay per plate on the armour, and remove them per hit.

[DemonFiren]

I thought we were going to ban Remie...

...but I guess this is going to be good.

[Alex Crimson]

Not interesting at all. There would be no visual feedback as to how many plates they have. Not to mention powergamers would just carry spare sets of armor.

my partial rewrite of human overlays allows overlays on overlays, you could easily have 1 overlay per plate on the armour, and remove them per hit.

Which would be nigh impossible to notice during a firefight, and still doesnt change the fact that partial-invulnerability is a terrible mechanic. This will just end with everyone having some special armor, each with a special effect that you will need to remember. I mean, how would you counter a HoS with his riot shield out and armor fully loaded with these plates? For the average traitor it would be raid-boss levels of impossible.

[invisty]

Do you think we're all here to make the game worse or something? Because all you're doing is shooting down constructive ideas with corner cases of where they need fleshing out for better gameplay. Good game design is not bipartisan politics - everyone is out to achieve the same goal here, and if it doesn't work out, it gets removed/reverted. See: Autorifles.

[PKPenguin321]

Suicide vest. Hook a TTV to the vest and it will explode when you're hit.

[ShadowDimentio]

Change the suicide vest to trigger at a set health level or via a custom emote

Give botany a way to grow their own armor, with plant variables tied to it's effectiveness

Have plate armor be constructable with plates and wire or something and be heavy but decent all-around

[Jacough]

Change the suicide vest to trigger at a set health level or via a custom emote

Main issue I see with that would be the suicide vest exploding if the wearer just happens to die from exposure to space or some other dumb shit like that which wouldn't make much sense. Seems like it'd make more sense for hits to the torso while wearing it have a very high chance of triggering it, like 90%. Makes it extremely effective as a last resort but at the same time a lucky taser shot to the head or limbs or an EXTREMELY lucky shot to the torso that doesn't set it off can put you down quickly.

[kevinz000]

>Incendiary reactive armor
>Assistent tries to hug me on the shuttle
>Everyone gets set on fire
>Gets banned for murderboning with armor

[Alex Crimson]

Do you think we're all here to make the game worse or something? Because all you're doing is shooting down constructive ideas with corner cases of where they need fleshing out for better gameplay. Good game design is not bipartisan politics - everyone is out to achieve the same goal here, and if it doesn't work out, it gets removed/reverted. See: Autorifles.

I never expected anyone to listen to me anyways. But hey as long as its a trail run, right?

[Incomptinence]

I would like silly shit like electrified self healing (hardening fluid fills holes) but maybe more elaborate pieces should require a battery pack to work plasma furnace or whatever. Ghetto exosuits/ power armour basically. Do similar for science weapons, with lower grade weapons and armour having chances for hilarious malfunctions or even certainty or malfunction on use, see MIB The Noisy Cricket.

[TechnoAlchemist]

Change the suicide vest to trigger at a set health level or via a custom emote

Give botany a way to grow their own armor, with plant variables tied to it's effectiveness

Have plate armor be constructable with plates and wire or something and be heavy but decent all-around

We have health sensors and voice analyzers. So it's basically already in

[Steelpoint]

A personal shield device for the HoS or Captain would be amusing.

I remember we toyed around with the concept a year or so ago.

The general idea was that this shield generator would have to be equipped in the 'Suit Slot' of their armour in order to work, and that akin to what has been said it would protect from any attack but it drains very quickly when hit. So you'll get a few freebies but it won't last for long.

Its not a terrible idea for the two most important people on station.

Also you can go the Dune route and make it that certain melee weapons can go through the shield, while in Dune only slow attacks go through the shield (and lasers cause a nuclear detonation) but here you could balance certain melee attacks to ignore the shield.

[invisty]

Perhaps a shield device that blocks melee OR ranged attacks?

Of course, its downside would be that it grants you no other protection.

[newfren]

A personal shield device for the HoS or Captain would be amusing.

I remember we toyed around with the concept a year or so ago.

The general idea was that this shield generator would have to be equipped in the 'Suit Slot' of their armour in order to work, and that akin to what has been said it would protect from any attack but it drains very quickly when hit. So you'll get a few freebies but it won't last for long.

Its not a terrible idea for the two most important people on station.

Also you can go the Dune route and make it that certain melee weapons can go through the shield, while in Dune only slow attacks go through the shield (and lasers cause a nuclear detonation) but here you could balance certain melee attacks to ignore the shield.

can we still have the lasers causing nuclear detonations

[Steelpoint]

In the Dune universe Personal Shields are widely used in combat, as Shield block almost any attack imaginable, from bullets to bombs. The only attack that can go through a shield is a slow moving item, so combat revolves around special forms of melee attacks that allow you to pierce through a shield and attack someone.

The exception here however is that if a Laser weapon hits a shield the reaction will cause a Nuclear Detonation, killing both the shield user and the laser gun user at random.

The unique exception also is on the planet Dune, while Shields work the vibrations of it will attract Sand Worms, so this lead to the unique situation of the combat on Dune using more advance weapons like actual gun, and even at one point a very old piece of artillery that scared the crap out of one faction as no one has ever seen artillery before.

[Super Aggro Crag]

wtf is dune

[Steelpoint]

The Dune novel series. Classic science fiction novel, with some good movies made about it, and video games.

[DemonFiren]

It's books consisting entirely of exposition and somehow managing not to suck.

[Zilenan91]

The original author's kids even wrote some books about Dune after he passed too. They were relatively decent form what I remember of them.

[Steelpoint]

The original author's kids even wrote some books about Dune after he passed too. They were relatively decent form what I remember of them.

His books were mostly prequels, one series taking place well in the past during the war between the thinking machines and the remnants of humanity, the later series showing off a younger Duke Leto Atreides and Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, going into depth about the history and origin of many characters from the original novel series as well as exploring more of the conflict between the two great houses, for example it explains why Baron Vladimir is so damn morbidly obease to the point of inhumanity.

[Ricotez]

The personal fields in Dune are also used as a form of deterrence, nobody will use lasguns around people with shields because the resulting detonation would also take them out, as well as the neighbourhood. But in SS13 that obviously wouldn't work because some players actually are stupid enough to try it.

Spoiler:

In the first book, the Atreides actually weaponize this by hiding a field in a cavern under attack which kills a bunch of Harkonnen troops when they accidentally hit it with a laser

[Cheimon]

As a concept it doesn't work that well in Dune. The first book, that is. It seems to have been intended as an excuse to have melee fights, so they could fit everything in with the idea of 'feudal sci-fi'. But the technology is abandoned almost immediately in the plot, seemingly because it's too inconvenient.

[Ricotez]

well, that and the kid didn't exactly have a power outlet to recharge his shield in the desert

[Super Aggro Crag]

Feudalism is fucking gay.

[1g88a]

Feudalism is fucking gay.

Its stupid but badass