/tg/Station 13

So I was thinking of a way to make changeling hivemind more worthwhile. A little teamwork now and again is useful as-is, but it's definitely not useful enough to be worth the point you spend on it.

I propose instead that we change its name to "ascended communication", where being able to hear and speak in the hivemind is JUST one of its many effects. It could also expand your ability to hear all languages (monkey chimpers, xeno chitters, any other examples), whispers at a distance, possibly speech through walls (I don't know how feasible this is), and even hearing/speaking in the xeno hivemind (those already use different keys to talk in anyway).

You might think this is suddenly too powerful, but remember that these are all very minor conveniences. It's rare that a changeling will actually speak to a xeno or a monkey, it's rare that you'll see anyone use whispers, and ones that you'll want to peak on. The best you'll probably get out of it is hearing people through walls and a hivemind chat. I still think this would be worth only 1 point to spend on, and it'd have some increased uses.

If you want to make it REALLY powerful however, you'd probably make it so you can hear all telecomms chatter at all times, including PDAs, department chat, and even private channels to the AI done with wall intercoms. Possibly even cyborg speak? That might warrant an increase in cost to 2.

Make it the "really powerful" option, make the cost one. Changelings that actually have enough information to impersonate people would be awesome.

So you could understand and speak to monkeys, aliens, 2 hiveminds, be able to hear all comms without a headset, department chat, private radios, PDA messages, cyborg chat, whispers at a distance, and hearing through walls?

For one point?

I thought hivemind communication was made free again. When was it re-nerfed to cost a point again?

WJohnston wrote:So you could understand and speak to monkeys, aliens, 2 hiveminds, be able to hear all comms without a headset, department chat, private radios, PDA messages, cyborg chat, whispers at a distance, and hearing through walls?

For one point?

It would still be worse than Lesser Form.

Don't give lings binary hearing for 1 point

Don't give lings binary hearing at all, ideally.

Yeah, binary hearing might be a bit much, but all normal comms channels would be good.

Gun Hog wrote:I thought hivemind communication was made free again. When was it re-nerfed to cost a point again?

yeah i'm pretty sure it's still free and you have it by default unless there was a PR i missed

I guess I should expand this to be a poll. I'll let you pick several options.

Where is the option for the old free hivemind

Kor wrote:Where is the option for the old free hivemind

Hivemind is still free. Last time i played a ling I automatically had it

The only really interesting part would be binary speech. Which is,yet another duplicated traitor item as a changeling ability.

As everyone else has already stated, ling chat hasn't had a cost for quite a while.

Binary chat is potentially rather strong, as silicons are a big threat to lings, since they're non human.
The other chats though, no one would pay for them, or it would be niche as fuck, at best.

I would personally not purchase that power, it is not that useful. Being able to hear whispers and remote speech makes sense, due to acute hearing, but it does not make sense for an organic being to hear electronic radio signals, much less understand pure binary signals. Being able to understand other Xenos is fine.

Also, since these things are called *changelings*, maybe they need more forms. If a Changeling absorbs (NOT sting, it must ABSORB) a Xeno, why not let it transform into a Xeno? (minus the egg-laying) Let changelings become any simple mob they absorb! We have some sort of organic traitor thing going now. The name "Changeling" should mean a creature that can take on any form it wants!

>absorb and replace ian, nom the HoP when he closes the shutters

Just imagine absorbing a Basilisk or Golly.

DemonFiren wrote:Just imagine absorbing a Basilisk or Golly.

>mining lings are now gods

Even better if you absorb your fellow miner's pet...