Ling Hive Chat, nerf, or change?

[Fatal]

Now, nobody really likes ling rounds, right?

But the hive chat, is what really kills it for me

Everytime you have any encounter where you end up fighting a ling, they shout over ling chat for help and their buddies come running, and in high pop rounds where there are a lot of lings, this can be pretty rough

Now, I'm sure this sounds like a "I DED PLS NERF", and honestly, that's not far from the truth, everytime I die to a ling, it's never a 1v1 fight, it is where their buddies have come running to save their skin

But honestly, was ling ever designed to be a TEAM game mode? We have rev, cult, nuke op, blob, and malf already

So, either completely remove the ling hive chat, or make it cost a point from their pool of powers, because the ability to ask (and of course, not ALWAYS recieve), for that help silently, is quite a power indeed

[Lovecraft]

Well, I certainly wouldn't mind making Hive Chat a purchase instead of a round start given.
It would keep the Lings who just want to kill other Lings (like me for example) from having the power to just eavesdrop for free on the Lings who want to work together.
Making the teamwork optional like that would be good. I can imagine more and more Changelings killing other Lings just because they didn't swap names because of this change.

[Stickymayhem]

I'd like a lot more in-fighting and backstabbing, with greater rewards for absorbing fellow lings to offset the detriment of losing a team member.

Maybe an ability that identifies other lings via a pheromone detection? So a ling can choose to hunt his fellows, causing them to either group up and destroy him or go into hiding as he tracks them. Meanwhile the crew become pawns in this game being targeted for delicious genomes in the power struggle between lings. Include objectives targeting other lings on occasion and I think this could go some way to fixing the issues of extendling.

[Kelenius]

Ling have no reason to absorb anyone.

At all.

It literally does absolutely nothing except being a dead giveaway there are lings on station.

[Stickymayhem]

Ling have no reason to absorb anyone.

At all.

It literally does absolutely nothing except being a dead giveaway there are lings on station.

Well you then let's give them a reason.

Maybe introduce new abilities and tier them so a ling has to go loud to get the good shit.

Woah what if implants are worth more on this tree. Hear me out.

Lings need a reason not to grind assistants for these abilities which is long and boring for everyone. Meanwhile we desperately need a reason not to implant people. Lings have nothing to do with implants at the moment but if we finally have something to make security think twice and also something to for lings to take on riskier, high profile murders then the round could be even more interesting.

There are so many ways to fix ling I'm astonished no one has tried.

[Perakp]

There are so many ways to fix ling I'm astonished no one has tried.

- There is a pull request to add a new power, just waiting for a spriter to step up.
- There are a few bugs that need to be sorted out before any bigger changes can be made (regenerative stasis and stinging from a range are bugged)

[Stickymayhem]

There are so many ways to fix ling I'm astonished no one has tried.

- There is a pull request to add a new power, just waiting for a spriter to step up.
- There are a few bugs that need to be sorted out before any bigger changes can be made (regenerative stasis and stinging from a range are bugged)

Fair enough. Thanks for the info. What's the new power?

[Perakp]

What's the new power?

Miauw finishing the mutations with an organic shield + chitin armor.

https://github.com/tgstation/-tg-station/pull/3363

[Stickymayhem]

Interesting and fun but now it's just making them into organic nuke OPs. I think more fundamental changes need to be made the gamemode before it will really be considered interesting and fun for anyone but the changelings.

[AseaHeru]

You mean like the "absorbed people can talk to the absorber" idea we had that noone decided to code totally?

[bandit]

Ling have no reason to absorb anyone.

At all.

It literally does absolutely nothing except being a dead giveaway there are lings on station.

Reasons to absorb:

- A fast(er) death for someone you want dead
- Making it more difficult to identify/clone a target
- A FREE REASSIGNMENT OF POWERS, THIS IS HUGE
- At one point if you absorbed someone with notes, you received those notes, but I think that's gone.

[Kelenius]

- A fast(er) death for someone you want dead

It's hard to imagine a slower way of killing than absorbing. Strangling comes to mind.

- Making it more difficult to identify/clone a target

Identify? Yes. How does that help you? If someone finds it, they will clone it. If they won't, they won't. Plus, the coldness of space works just as well. Clone? No. They can be cloned just fine.

- A FREE REASSIGNMENT OF POWERS, THIS IS HUGE

If you need to reassign them, you have already made something wrong. Plus, they don't stack. You either have one or don't. Kiiiiiiinda the reason but a very weak one.

- At one point if you absorbed someone with notes, you received those notes, but I think that's gone.

It's gone.

[AseaHeru]

Who removed that?

[kosmos]

Remove lingchat altogether, add purchasable pheromone ling identification.

And add an absorption chat, so lings will hear the voices of their absorptions in their head forever! The absorbed people inside the ling's head would just see what the ling sees, hear what the ling hears (so they can't meta), and could ghost whenever they want if they get bored.
No one else would be able to hear the voices. This could give the people killed early in the round something fun to do, haunt your killer forever or help him out by keeping notes or giving advice.

[Stickymayhem]

Remove lingchat altogether, add purchasable pheromone ling identification.

And add an absorption chat, so lings will hear the voices of their absorptions in their head forever! The absorbed people inside the ling's head would just see what the ling sees, hear what the ling hears (so they can't meta), and could ghost whenever they want if they get bored.
No one else would be able to hear the voices. This could give the people killed early in the round something fun to do, haunt your killer forever or help him out by keeping notes or giving advice.

>Absorb scientist
>Voice teaches you how to make bombs

>Absorb warden
>Voice gives you the password they set up earlier

>Absorb Geneticist
>Tells you which injectors are which.

Yep this rocks. Especially since the ling has to convince someone they just killed to help out.

[Neerti]

If you make a power that you need to buy to communicate, nobody would get it since, 1. you waste a power on something that nobody else might buy, 2. lings aren't required to help you anyways, 3. talking is a weakness.

For ling-to-absorbee communication, it'd only really work out if the person absorbed -had- to help you.

[paprika]

>wanting ling to be traitors with super powers instead of uplink

No, the option for teamwork has always been there and always should be, plus there is a large downside to teamwork as it can end in ling on ling backstabbing a lot of the time.

Also, maybe when that greyshirt in a gas mask shows up mysteriously when you're beating a ling to shit, you should stun him?

[Incomptinence]

Yeah let's nerf lings even more. When 0 lings ever win our mission will be accomplished.

Lings can have each other as assassination targets many of them are very reluctant to actually use ling chat in the first place. Spending a point to interact with your potential killer? No one will buy that.

[Pybro]

Leave lingchat as it is.

Add in absorbed people talking. To prevent abuse, make it so the ling can mute a specific voice.

If possible, when the ling poops spiders, the absorbed players get control of their own spider. Muted playera don't get a spider~

[paprika]

Leave lingchat as it is.

Add in absorbed people talking. To prevent abuse, make it so the ling can mute a specific voice.

If possible, when the ling poops spiders, the absorbed players get control of their own spider. Muted playera don't get a spider~

THIS IS BYOND PERFECT. CODE THIS. I WANT TO BE THE SPIDERBRO AND SKITTER AROUND.

[leibniz]

I think dumpdavidson made an "internal hivemind" thing (it was a pull request with finished code), it sounded wonderful but wasnt implemented for some reason.
It could be the thing that makes newling worth playing, or almost worth playing.