Fixing Prayer:Demanding Sacrifice

[Helios]

A lot of admins don't seem to like prayer as it currently exists. One way to resolve this would be be sacrifice. Gods can react to prayer either by demanding the sacrifice of an object on their person, like their ID or traitor PDA. Others can be special objects which are an unreasonable demand for an unreasonable request, like sacrificing the nuclear authentication disc (randomly respawning it somewhere on the station), or the cap's laser gun.
Basically it would force players to put their money where their mouth is with prayer, and by treating it like this we can get some more role playing, or a gamification of object collection to unlock prayer trades.
And yes, if it's not clear demanding sacrifice would give the player a sacrifice verb which would consume/destroy the object. Whether it would be better to only allow them to sacrifice the selected object, or any object and anger the God would be to coder discretion, and playtesting,

[RedBaronFlyer]

Sounds interesting, the only eh part is ID destruction. Even on a good day getting a new ID can take 15+ minutes if the HOP is a lazy bastard. I feel like admins can already do an item removal via sacrifice via drop pods taking objects off the station. I feel like admins could just do the "you hear a voice in your head" function and use it to demand some sort of sacrifice.

I already tend to do sacrifices anyways. Sometimes it's monkeys, sometimes it's hearts, sometimes it's 20 space twinkies, sometimes it's credits, etc.

Some prayer stories:

Spoiler:

For instance, here are some prayers that I've done in the past that got answered:

"Divines, I humbly request to be cured of this vile affliction, I offer these candles as offering. May your grace return me to my human form." - after getting turned into a felinid via some maint pills

"May this poor unfortunate butchered cat be returned to life" - the remains of a dead cat that got picked up by a drop pod and replaced with a living cat via another drop pod

"My sloth needs more sloths" - on lavaland with the cargo sloth while a cult destroyed the station.

[Cheshify]

A lot of admins don't seem to like prayer as it currently exists. One way to resolve this would be be sacrifice. Gods can react to prayer either by demanding the sacrifice of an object on their person, like their ID or traitor PDA. Others can be special objects which are an unreasonable demand for an unreasonable request, like sacrificing the nuclear authentication disc (randomly respawning it somewhere on the station), or the cap's laser gun.
Basically it would force players to put their money where their mouth is with prayer, and by treating it like this we can get some more role playing, or a gamification of object collection to unlock prayer trades.
And yes, if it's not clear demanding sacrifice would give the player a sacrifice verb which would consume/destroy the object. Whether it would be better to only allow them to sacrifice the selected object, or any object and anger the God would be to coder discretion, and playtesting,

Personally, prayers are a rarity to answer because the more consistently I answer them the less exciting they are for a player. Also there's the matter of me usually running an event, handling tickets, or just not wanting to answer people asking for dumb stuff. I don't think the system is necessarily bad or that admins don't like prayers, just a variety of the aforementioned points.

[massa]

this feels quite video gamey

praying in my experience has, as it should, resulted in 95% nothing, 4% chance of cookie spawned manifesting under my dying body, 1% monkey paw. The only time I've seen prayers really get any particular credence is when they're off-station or on mining. There's nothing really to fix with prayer I don't think because it's just a 1/20 cookie spawner button. Your prayers should mostly die unheard, just like in real life! Divine intervention is best done unheard, unseen, unknown, and with such room for doubt that it's like it never happened at all - because it probably didn't. We spessmen can't really be getting help, and if it's a bug, I'd ahelp that bitch.

[Helios]

Sounds interesting, the only eh part is ID destruction. Even on a good day getting a new ID can take 15+ minutes if the HOP is a lazy bastard.

That's the point. A new ID being a pain in the ass to get is what makes it a real sacrifice

this feels quite video gamey

praying in my experience has, as it should, resulted in 95% nothing, 4% chance of cookie spawned manifesting under my dying body, 1% monkey paw. The only time I've seen prayers really get any particular credence is when they're off-station or on mining. There's nothing really to fix with prayer I don't think because it's just a 1/20 cookie spawner button. Your prayers should mostly die unheard, just like in real life! Divine intervention is best done unheard, unseen, unknown, and with such room for doubt that it's like it never happened at all - because it probably didn't. We spessmen can't really be getting help, and if it's a bug, I'd ahelp that bitch.

This puts the ball back in the players court. Unreasonable requests being met by unreasonable demands. As an example if a player is in deep space and wants to get back home, player prays for him to go home. Instead of the 95% nothing, he gets a demand back saying if he sacrifices his suit, he can return to the station. So destroy the thing that is keeping him alive in deep space and have faith the Gods in time will teleport him back to the station. And because the player is worried that he will only get teleported back after he expires and he doesn't have any faith in someone finding his corpse+ medbay doing their job to revive him, he turns down the sacrifice option.
I am suggesting replacing 95% nothing with Faustian bargains that players don't really want

[RedBaronFlyer]

The thing is admins can already do all of this. Prayers are a Hail Mary (haha funni joke) but you’re wanting to turn it into a game mechanic. Some admins don’t answer prayers, some do, some add twists, some don’t feel like answering that specific prayer. Your turning a treat into a game mechanic.

Also that suit example would 100% be admin complaint material.

[Helios]

On further reflection, this would probably be a better fit for the abandoned Hand of God game mode. 2 Gods, 2 teams, and a bunch of neutral players. This version of praying would be for a heal, for arms and armor, and for "guidance" (1 on 1 communication, asking God what you should do). The gods would be answering the prayers of their own followers where the sacrifice would be trivial (that mask in your box has got to go), the prayers of their enemies followers where the sacrifices would be grave (You need to destroy your gun HoS if you want to get that heal prayer you wanted answered), or to the unconverted crew where the requirements could fit a middle ground.
This could also be converted into an offensive as well as defensive tool (anyone who "sacrifices" this enemy pylon will get full armor and a sword, so rush in ye foolhardy assistants)

[TheRex9001]

I enjoy prayers in their current form, just something you can do if you have a funny idea and an admin MIGHT pick up on it

[JusticeGoat]

Not sure why we need a code solution, i can just ask the player to drop stuff and take it without a dedicated feature, otherwise its really up to each individual admin on how they deal with the prayers.

[dendydoom]

i often do this anyway. for me personally, getting a response to a prayer directly correlates to how much effort you put in and how IC it is. using it as a polite alternative to an ahelp just asking for an item like "hey can i have a toolbelt? :3" will probably get ignored.

if you make the prayer IC, and i look over and you're emoting that you're kneeling by an altar or (as a player did once and it made me so happy) made a big ritual site with candles and runes in the dark to try to summon a pet cat, i will try to engage with you and at the very least give you a flavourful IC response and at most send you on some kind of quest with the divine favour of the gods at your back.

people who spam it and demand things get lightning struck.

of course, it also depends entirely on how chaotic the round is - i'm not going to step away from something important to answer a prayer.