A newer, more insidious Hivemind...
The crew of Space Station 13 has suddenly and unknowingly become the unwitting hosts of a dangerously intelligent hivemind network.
However, the crew is too small for the three parasites who have chosen the crew to enslave.
All must be for One. Only One Mind must remain...
However, the crew is too small for the three parasites who have chosen the crew to enslave.
All must be for One. Only One Mind must remain...
This is a thread to rework Hivemind from a Main Antagonist into a Medium-Pop Mid-Round Side Antagonist.
Three living, non-antagonist, non-mindshielded crewmembers (with Hivemind preference enabled) are chosen to be Hivemind Hosts.
Their goal is to kill the rival hosts.
They must do so as stealthily as possible - they are powerless against the normal crew, except for what human ingenuity can already achieve.
Their starting skills only affect rival Hivemind Hosts, and they can only gain more powers when no other hosts remain.
Remember: outing yourself as a threat to the station is likely to get you killed - and that's exactly what the other hosts want.
If there is coder interest in making this a reality, I will make a code bounty to fund it.Three living, non-antagonist, non-mindshielded crewmembers (with Hivemind preference enabled) are chosen to be Hivemind Hosts.
Their goal is to kill the rival hosts.
They must do so as stealthily as possible - they are powerless against the normal crew, except for what human ingenuity can already achieve.
Their starting skills only affect rival Hivemind Hosts, and they can only gain more powers when no other hosts remain.
Remember: outing yourself as a threat to the station is likely to get you killed - and that's exactly what the other hosts want.
Design Goals:
-Make Hivemind from a Main Round Type antagonist that feels like Extended most of the time into a Side Antag the crew doesn't have to know about, and may not even ever realize was a threat.
-Remove the importance of Mindshield Implants from dominating the balance of Hivemind. They can still be used against them / to out them, however implanting the entire crew is not likely to be worth the effort or may even make things easier for the Hivemind.
-Getting the other hosts killed is the only goal - and it doesn't matter who and how its done.
-Two end games for Hivemind - They may continue to play as a stealthy free antagonist or go loud and regain the powers well known in its current iteration.
-Has the potential to end rounds, much like other side antagonists, either through sabotage or pure destruction.
Abilities
- Mindshield Immunity
- As before, Hiveminds resist Mindshield implants. A hard tell. However, with Hiveminds no longer being the main antagonists of the round, Security likely has bigger things to worry about than mass implanting. Implanting also does nothing to help except to narrow down who the hosts are, and prevents Mind Control.
- Mind Probe
- Functions the same as current Assimilate Vessel, but Mind Probe lets you, after a short channel, determine whether or not a particular crew member is another Hivemind Host. This does nothing to Non-Hosts (except possibly makes them feel funny for a moment, but not enough of a tell to know it's a Hivemind.)
- Has a very low cooldown. (~5 sec.)
- Mind Flay
- The Hivemind Host emits a telekinetic beam. Invisible and silent, the beam goes through objects until it hits a mob or its maximum range.
- Normal crewmen are not intelligent enough to comprehend the full power of the Mind Flay. They'll get a brief Headache at worst.
- Hivemind Hosts are greatly damaged by Mind Flay, however, and would do well to avoid getting hit by one.
- Has a low cooldown (~10-15 sec)
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Once a Hivemind contains only one Host, they Attune with the crew. They may continue to play as a stealthy antagonist, and gain a minor combat power as well as Mind Control to stealthily fuck with crew. - Attuned Mind Flay
- Once no other Hosts remain, a Hivemind Host is able to Attune with the full network of the minds of the crew.
- The Mind Flay beam becomes visible to the crew, but also dangerous to them.
- Mind Control
- Attuned with the minds of the crew, the Host may now control others to do their bidding.
- You know what this is. Works the same as current, but it can be any non-implanted crewman in LOS of the Host.
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An Attuned Hivemind may choose to Go Loud for whatever reason. This will make them a very disruptive and powerful antag, at the cost of alerting the entire crew and making their presence obvious. One Mind can snowball, so Security will want to change their priorities if one is revealed. - One Mind
- An attuned Hivemind Host may gather the power of the Network to ascend to become One Mind.
- Makes a global sound, reveals the Hivemind with a pink outline. Unlike the normal mode, they start with no Vessels and are not stun immune. They do regain many of the powers from the current Main Antagonist mode, however.
- Has a very long channel time.
- Assimilate Vessel (One Mind)
- The One Mind fully integrates their mind with a crewmember, making him a loyal slave.
- After a lengthy channel, assimilates a crewmember, giving them an obvious outline like the One Mind, and loyal to the One Mind.
- Requires One Mind and the target be still.
- Functions much like current One Mind, but much harder to do since it takes a long time and you have to keep the target stunned. Plays kind of like old Shadowling if you try and do this a lot, except your minions are very obvious.
- Has no additional cooldown.
- Telekenetic Field (One Mind)
- Works the same.
- Brute Force (One Mind)
- Probes the targets mind and destroys a Mindshield Implant, if they have one.
- Replaces Mind Probe. No stun, but keep in mind you still have to channel it, and your appearance as a One Mind is obvious.
- Living Nightmares (One Mind)
- Same as before.
- Circadian Shift (One Mind)
- Same as before.
