Various Crew Content Ideas

[TheMythicGhost]

Since the antag freeze happened, I had began brainstorming ideas for more crew content, and the obvious first stop tends to be security. So here are a few ideas I've come up with for additional crew content, which will be updated as I have more ideas for either the same department or different ones.

Security
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Useless/Spice of Life Ideas:
Badges
More jumpsuit color variants

Early Game/Round:

Mid Game/Round:

Sync Gear - An experimental, security based variant of the lightweight reactive armor that forms a copy of itself when an anomaly core is slotted in the shell. This copy provides a bonus/boon to both armors if they are in range of each other depending on the anomaly core inserted upon creation. Both users must be alive and have an active ckey. Each of these armors are linked to their copy. This armor cannot form another copy if it has already made a copy, so inserting additional cores in the armor doesn’t do jack shit. (Should require the Anomaly Research and some combat related gear research). [WIP] core power ideas for this to come.

Beam Modifiers (Compatible with Laser Guns and Disablers) (Attached via screwdrivers, can only be removed on a fully charged gun.) (Fully willing to do these if people think they're a good idea) -

Phasing - The projectile pierces through multiple dense objects or turfs, but loses more energy each turf it has pierced. (Bootleg wave beam)

Penetrative - The projectile pierces through multiple targets, but costs twice (or more?) the energy per shot, the projectile loses energy the more it pierces.

Rebounding - The projectile can bounce off both a target (while dealing the effect of the beam) and walls up to (x) times.

Shielded - Experimental lens that projects a small shield when fired in the direction the user points that lasts for a short while. This costs 1/4th of the maximum charge of a weapon per shot. The shield reflects projectiles of the same type.

Concentrated - The user of the gun can use the gun in their hand to initiate a charging sequence. After the sequence completes, the projectile fired has the damage (of it’s respective type) boosted. This can be done up to (x) times in a row, but there is a slight time increase per charge level. The projectile’s appearance is larger the higher the charge level. The charge dissipates when it is not in your hand.

Charging - Passively empowers the projectile in the gun, the damage of the projectile is based on how long it had charged before firing. The lowest charge of the disabler/laser is weaker than a normal disabler/laser, but the highest charge is 2-2.5 times as strong as the normal disabler/laser. The charge dissipates when it is not in your hand.

Volatile - The projectile is one of the previous modifiers at random excluding the charging variants. The user has no control over what the projectile’s modifier is.

Ballistics Modifiers

Rebounding - Same as above, it works with ballistics as well.

Luminescent - Bullet is coated with a special bio-luminescent chemical that reduces it's damage (if the bullet type even has damage), but makes humanoids hit by it glow a specific color and leak chemicals similar to blood of that color. The rate of the chemical leaking depends on the amount of limbs hit by the projectiles. The user can choose the color of the chemical before inserting the gun mod.

Brittle - Micro-fractures in the bullet cause it to splinter upon impact, evenly distributing the damage over all the limbs on a target. If the bullet were to do less damage than the available amount of limbs, will instead splinter off into 2-6 weaker variants (by weaker, it means any effects the bullet were to have effectively gets split up to the amount of splinters, e.g. 2 splinters halve the duration of effects the bullet would inflict) of the bullet from the point of impact.

Volatile - Same as above, but for the ballistic mods instead.

Late Game/Round:

Stinger Grenades - A grenade that releases rubber pellets into the area it is thrown, these should ideally deal stamina damage in an area around it to anyone hit by the pellets (similar to rubbershot), and the pellets that don’t hit anything should rebound at least once or disappear after (X) time. They’re an AOE rubbershot for all intents and purposes. Should be less effective on people with thick armor (like space suits, firesuits or anything that can’t be syringe pierced).

[Calomel]

i don't understand this "badges" idea, aren't there already medlas that the Heads (And QM) can give?

The laser upgrades are interesting, but seems difficult to code. You could also screw with damage types too
(Lasers that deal mutations and radiation, for example), that would probably be easier to code.

I lvoe the idea of a non-lethal, non-eye burning alternative for sec to use. it cudl also beocme another use for plastic
so CHemists actually have another reason to use plastic.

[Farquaar]

I, for one, would like to see content promoting defensive strategies. Right now we have collapsible barriers and wooden barricades, but those serve the purpose of cutting off escapees more than actual fortification. Perhaps makeshift metal/wooden barricades could be used as cover, allowing ranged weapons and thrown items to pass only if fired from directly adjacent to the barricade. This, used in conjunction with metal poles serving as makeshift abatis, would mean that some thought would be required to defeat an entrenched opponent (explosives or flanking, for instance),

[TheMythicGhost]

i don't understand this "badges" idea, aren't there already medlas that the Heads (And QM) can give?

The laser upgrades are interesting, but seems difficult to code. You could also screw with damage types too
(Lasers that deal mutations and radiation, for example), that would probably be easier to code.

I lvoe the idea of a non-lethal, non-eye burning alternative for sec to use. it cudl also beocme another use for plastic
so CHemists actually have another reason to use plastic.

Badges are/would be just spice of life costume enhancement, like how the lawyer has a badge, the badge would be something the officer could attach to their uniform.
Also, the laser upgrades aren't actually all that difficult to code, the only one that will be a slight challenge is the shielded one.

[PKPenguin321]

I expected cool things from the thread OP but all I got was "badges" and 20 new guns for sec

[TheMythicGhost]

I expected cool things from the thread OP but all I got was "badges" and 20 new guns for sec

This isn't the hut, so please don't shitpost.

Also, I don't know what you didn't read regarding "the obvious first stop tends to be security" or "So here are a few ideas I've come up with for additional crew content, which will be updated as I have more ideas for either the same department or different ones."

Holy fuck, the more I read into that quote the more I believe it to be bait. You should know better.

[4dplanner]

It's a harsh way of putting it, but giving more guns isn't really an interesting change in gameplay. This game really needs more non-combat content.

looking forward to the other departments, though

[Anonmare]

I sat down for 10 mintues and stream of concioussnessed this

Security:-
Hard to make things for, weapons and armour they never get to use is not paticularly interesting or will lead them to be too aggressive as an excuse to use gamer gear. Preferable to give them things that either improve utility or grant prestige. Weapons and armour are okay to suggest but they should be interesting rather than "better" or a direct upgrade.

• Energy cuffer - Use on a subject to cuff them with energy zipties, similar to abductor cuffs but less effective. E-zipties are very weak and take around 10 seconds to resist out of, but are effectively infinite. Don't leave perps alone.
• Mode-selectable armour vest - A programmable vest that can grant near-total protection vs a specific type of damage (laser, bullet, explosive, melee, energy) at the expense of being ineffective vs everything else.
• High-mobility suit - Increases manevourability at the expense of less armour, potentially negative armour for certain damage types. Good for rapid response, bad for sustained fighting.
• Death alarms - Implant that can be implanted into a subject. Will send an alert on user death to security channel several seconds after they expire, stating their location. People near the corpse will hear a buzzing emit from the body before it sends the alert to indicate the existence of a death alarm and will fail to go off if EMP'd during this alarm period, allowing antagonists to either get clear or destroy the implant.
• Motion tracker - Picks up the presence of mobs within a 25-tile radius and gives a vague indication of how close or far away mobs are when examined (Example: There are 10 lifeforms in the "far" range, there are 2 lifeforms in the "medium" range and 1 lifeform in the "close" range) and pings when something moves between the range bands, the ping being higher-pitch if it's closer and lower if it moves farther. Won't pick-up dead bodies or anything that hasn't moved for a while. effective for maint hunting.

Medical:-
Medical's another hard one. Giving things for medical to do typically means making things harder for everyone else (such as via injury). Really needs things unique to them that other people can't or is very inconvenient to do themselves. Diagnosis and treatment methods would probably be the best call.

• Viruses no longer appear on medical HUDs and health analyzers can only detect the presence of a virus, not its cure or stage or transmission until it has been scanned/catalogued in a PANDEMIC. Certain viruses, like Fungal TB, GBS and so on are already considered to be "in-memory". Viruses that have been catalogued will show on HUDs and analyzers will give the information they normally already do.
• Applicators (Pills, patches and injections) are made different in regards to medication. Pills allow a large amount of reagent to be imbibed in one go but don't have instant effect, taking time to work their way through your system. Also affects food and drinks, allowing poisonings to be sneakier. Patches have their capacity reduced but now inject their reagents over time and can no longer be placed through syringe-proof clothing. Bottles from chemmasters are granted extra capacity from 30u to 50u (the hoochmaster already does this what the hell) and syringes can be injected through syringe-proof clothes, but have double the interaction time (syringe guns will stail fail to pierce through syringe-proof clothes while piercing syringes are unaffected in all ways).
• Add a stationary diagnosis machine that gives a complete and total readout of health when someone stands in front of it. Information includes: Damage values+locations, brain activity, blood level, mental traumas, active mutations, virus(es), nanomachine presence (defeated by stealth), organ/cybernetic health values and presence of subdermal implants (syndicate implants remain non-visible).
• Passive grabbing and using help intent on someone will allow you to put pressure on their bleeding. Aggressive grabbing followed by clicking on help intent allows you to determine somebody else's health, as though you examined yourself, with the same level of vagueness (bruised, battered, mangled, etc.). Having the self-aware trait will modify this inspection accordingly.

[Super Aggro Crag]

assistants should be able to headbutt people by passive grabbing then harm intenting

if they're wearing a helmet it knocks you out unless you also have a helmet

[Calomel]

assistants should be able to headbutt people by passive grabbing then harm intenting

if they're wearing a helmet it knocks you out unless you also have a helmet

Alternatively headbutting with the birthday hat that cause the person to take burn and eye damage.
Let us embrace the cake hat meme to its maximum potential.

[Reyn]

assistants should be able to headbutt people by passive grabbing then harm intenting

if they're wearing a helmet it knocks you out unless you also have a helmet

Alternatively headbutting with the birthday that cause the person to take burn and eye damage.
Let us embrace the cake hat meme to its maximum potential.

[quote="Calomel"]With The Birthday[/quote]
What

[PKPenguin321]

I expected cool things from the thread OP but all I got was "badges" and 20 new guns for sec

This isn't the hut, so please don't shitpost.

Also, I don't know what you didn't read regarding "the obvious first stop tends to be security" or "So here are a few ideas I've come up with for additional crew content, which will be updated as I have more ideas for either the same department or different ones."

Holy fuck, the more I read into that quote the more I believe it to be bait. You should know better.

Posts that make you angry are not automatically bait

Anyways you should make some ideas for other departments while you're at it, I'd like to see more cargo stuff personally since that department has always seemed pretty lacking

[Super Aggro Crag]

cargo doesn't really lack anything because once they figure out how to ooga booga crates open they can become any department they want tho

[TheMythicGhost]

Cargo already has plans to become factorio lite according to Quistinnus, so there's zero need for me to expand on it as well.
The kitchen and bar are already getting more and more content by either Kryson or Fikou, so no need for me to touch that department either.
Science has a fuckload of toys, so there is literally zero reason to expand on it further.
Medical is getting all sorts of changes (both bad and good) so I don't need to expand on that.
Botany is a weird powerful area that I don't think I should touch on at all.
That said:

• - Security needs more content to keep up with the sheer level of content that antagonists get, and making a few ideas (as listed above) for them that aren't too powerful but flavor up the experience is in my opinion a good thing.
  - HOP could use more content for their very very dry job.
  - Clown and Mime jobs could use more content.
  - Engineering could use more features to be honest.
  - Curator could be overhauled, perhaps some arcane researching system that could require relics from places (such as lavaland) or maybe as an addition to it require relics but also have puzzles locking the knowledge too. This could be either a researching system that unlocks additional abilities on magical relics that others wouldn't be able to unlock (requiring them to see the curator to research their relic), or a system that uncovers lesser abilities for the curator to use themselves from arcane texts. Perhaps some spice of life fossil building too.
  - I'm not sure how one could add more content to the janitor, so that's out of my plans for right now.
  - Lawyers could use more shit to make them not only a meme RP role, but something vital (perhaps a system related to bureaucracy that the crew benefits from if it is done, perhaps with the people spawning or joining as the role being granted the ability to understand extremely monotonous paperwork).
  - Chaplain could instead of more null rods have different small boons or abilities granted to them based on predefined gods that their religion centers around, how many people their faith spreads to, and how many of those people spread their faith further. i.e. a faith based miracle system as wrongly suggested on the shitty ideas subforum.

[Dr_bee]

Clowns and mimes could use juggling, or more gag items. for example, invisable items that only the mime can see but can use, such as invisible tables and chairs.

[TheMythicGhost]

Clowns and mimes could use juggling, or more gag items. for example, invisable items that only the mime can see but can use, such as invisible tables and chairs.

Invisible chair already exists.

[Super Aggro Crag]

Invisible jumpsuit. Worn previously by an emperor.

[Sandshark808]

Invisible jumpsuit. Worn previously by an emperor.

already exists too, because some genius ruined the file pathing for a default jumpsuit sprite.

[Krusvik]

Badges

Sync Gear - An experimental, security based variant of the lightweight reactive armor that forms a copy of itself when an anomaly core is slotted in the shell. This copy provides a bonus/boon to both armors if they are in range of each other depending on the anomaly core inserted upon creation. Both users must be alive and have an active ckey. Each of these armors are linked to their copy. This armor cannot form another copy if it has already made a copy, so inserting additional cores in the armor doesn’t do jack shit. (Should require the Anomaly Research and some combat related gear research). [WIP] core power ideas for this to come.

Shielded - Experimental lens that projects a small shield when fired in the direction the user points that lasts for a short while. This costs 1/4th of the maximum charge of a weapon per shot. The shield reflects projectiles of the same type.

Luminescent - Bullet is coated with a special bio-luminescent chemical that reduces it's damage (if the bullet type even has damage), but makes humanoids hit by it glow a specific color and leak chemicals similar to blood of that color. The rate of the chemical leaking depends on the amount of limbs hit by the projectiles. The user can choose the color of the chemical before inserting the gun mod.

Sounds fun. I'd play with them.

[TheMythicGhost]

New Ballistic Mod:

Brittle - Micro-fractures in the bullet cause it to splinter upon impact, evenly distributing the damage over all the limbs on a target. If the bullet were to do less damage than the available amount of limbs, will instead splinter off into 2-6 weaker variants (by weaker, it means any effects the bullet were to have effectively gets split up to the amount of splinters, e.g. 2 splinters halve the duration of effects the bullet would inflict) of the bullet from the point of impact.