Gamemode idea - Assassination

[tkdrg]

Like traitor but with more paranoia.

Here's how it would work:
* One player is picked as an Assassin.
* He is tasked with murdering a crewmember within 20 minutes without getting caught.
* He is given a red button that, once pressed, turns comms off for the rest of the round.
* The Assassin is given a two-minutes grace period to hide the body, tamper with evidence, run away, etc.
* After these two minutes, an announcement is made that X has been murdered in Y.
* Once the announcement is made, the Assassin loses his antag status and can no longer do antag actions.
* The crew is given five minutes to investigate the murder scene.
* After this time is up, the crew is given two minutes to get to the courtroom, where they will be locked.
* If the Assassin isn't in the courtroom, he will be given red text.
* The crewmembers in the courtroom will have eight minutes to argue over who is the Assassin.
* Once the time is up, every single crewmember in the courtroom will have a minute to cast a vote.
* After the ballot is over, the round will end. If the Assassin was not uncovered, didn't win the vote, didn't die, and is in the courtroom, he gets greentext.

This really wouldn't work on high-pop, so I would limit it to, say, rounds between 5 and 15 players. Another issue is that the AI would be overpowered against the Assassin and unable to investigate/vote, maybe I could force no AI in Assassin rounds but that's really not the best solution.

Any feedback is welcome. I can (probably) code this but I'd rather not waste my time if it's stupid/dumb/unwanted.

[Lo6a4evskiy]

Um, well, for low-pop rounds maaaay be? But it's really flawed. What if you don't kill a person? Why a button to turn off tcomms? What if I watch suit sensors vigilantly? What evidence? Space the body, completely change your outfit and hair, done, impossible to investigate. Or just find evidence that points to the assassin. There's no point in arguing unless you just don't know who the killer is and then it's clown.

[tkdrg]

Why a button to turn off tcomms?

1. More paranoia 2. "HELP GEORGE MELONS IS THE ASSASSIN"

What if you don't kill a person?

Good question. This could probably roll another assassin and give him 20 more minutes and a button.

What if I watch suit sensors vigilantly?

I didn't think about that. Perhaps the button could also trigger a temporary sensor blackout. It's supposed to be the thing you use to silence the target when you go for the throat. Perhaps I could let the Assassin have their pick between a silenced stechkin, a tcomms blackout or a sensors blackout.

What evidence? Space the body, completely change your outfit and hair, done, impossible to investigate. Or just find evidence that points to the assassin. There's no point in arguing unless you just don't know who the killer is and then it's clown.

Fingerprints, bloodstains, witnesses, murder weapon, the works. If somebody saw an unknown engineer walking near hydroponics and the announcement is that a botanist got murdered, chances are this guy will have some explaining to do. I think spacing the body is fair, because you probably won't have time to clean up the trails and stuff unless you have a cleaner bottle, but if it's really an issue I could shorten the grace period to 1 minute or even 30 seconds, so unless you killed somebody in escape you wouldn't be able to space the body in time.

[Remie Richards]

This seems very Cluedo inspired, which is nice, not 100% sure it'd work as a gamemode however.

[Lo6a4evskiy]

1. More meta

Oh

"HELP GEORGE MELONS IS THE ASSASSIN"

So instead of using existing tools and something like local jammer you want disable-tcomms button? Nice.

Good question. This could probably roll another assassin and give him 20 more minutes and a button.

Meanwhile nothing at all happens and last assassin just gets rekt.

I didn't think about that. Perhaps the button could also trigger a temporary sensor blackout. It's supposed to be the thing you use to silence the target when you go for the throat. Perhaps I could let the Assassin have their pick between a silenced stechkin, a tcomms blackout or a sensors blackout.

That's... even more ridiculous and you missed the point. What, you want a camera blackout button as well? Perhaps make everyone blind and deaf button?

Fingerprints

lol

Even if assassin is stupid enough to leave them, that's automatic win for the crew. 20 minutes of nothingness.

bloodstains

At best you get the trail which the body was dragged at, ending at airlock.

witnesses

Autowin

murder weapon

Only if assassin was stupid enough to leave not very common weapon around instead of, you know, spacing, backpacking, hiding...

Play some detective and you'll learn that absolute most crimes either are solved instantly or never.

How would crew be locked in courtroom? Why would they not just wait until assassin comes inside first or gets redtext? What if someone just physically cannot get there in time?

[tkdrg]

1. More meta

That's not an issue, because by the time you hit the button you should be about to kill your target anyway, and after you do it the murder announcement reveals the gamemode. Besides, it's pretty hard to meta a comms blackout, could be rogue AI, ion storm, nuke ops, double agent, traitor...

Meanwhile nothing at all happens and last assassin just gets rekt.

In that sense it's no different from a wizard getting murdered within five minutes or blobs that burst in terrible places.

That's... even more ridiculous and you missed the point. What, you want a camera blackout button as well? Perhaps make everyone blind and deaf button?

Cameras are fair. There would be no AI, and if some officer manages to find the assassin by chance while browsing the cameras, well, lucky him, but that's probably not going to happen often. On second thought, sensors are probably fair, too. At most, they'd give you info that would already be broadcasted in a minute anyway.

The complaints about the forensics subsystem are fair, but I do play detective somewhat often and I do solve murders sometimes, which is why I proposed this gamemode in the first place: I'd like to see more mysteries getting solved. If the forensics system is not good enough to sustain a gamemode, it could be improved, stuff like autopsies, luminol, bloody footsteps and blood splatters, could all be implemented. As for the specific complaints, bloodstains can be very useful when they don't belong to the victim, and by witnesses I don't mean 'I SAW EVERYTHING', more like 'I spent the whole time in the science security post and I only saw the scientists, roboticists, and RD'.

How would crew be locked in courtroom? Why would they not just wait until assassin comes inside first or gets redtext? What if someone just physically cannot get there in time?

Spawning shutters all around the courtroom would be a way. I could also drop the realism premise entirely and just teleport everyone to a locked room in a different Z-level if missing the time is an issue. I like the idea of making the courtroom actually matter, though.

[Lo6a4evskiy]

In that sense it's no different from a wizard getting murdered within five minutes or blobs that burst in terrible places.

Wizard? Sure, then why do you want to repeat the mistakes? Blob? Not really, it's fun to fight it even early. Also it would last 20, 40, 60 minutes since you want to spawn a new assassin every 20 minutes.

Anyway, I gave my feedback.

[tkdrg]

In that sense it's no different from a wizard getting murdered within five minutes or blobs that burst in terrible places.

Wizard? Sure, then why do you want to repeat the mistakes? Blob? Not really, it's fun to fight it even early. Also it would last 20, 40, 60 minutes since you want to spawn a new assassin every 20 minutes.

Anyway, I gave my feedback.

Your feedback is welcome and very helpful. I'll probably improve the forensics system before I try to code this as a gamemode. Also, if you have any ideas how to deal with disappearing/shitty assassins, I'd be happy to hear them.

[cedarbridge]

* He is given a red button that, once pressed, turns comms off for the rest of the round.

This is called "a bomb"

[callanrockslol]

This would be an awful gamemode, just go play mafia if you want that

[Reimoo]

Our detective system isn't in-depth enough for this type of gamemode. We don't even have an autopsy system like the other servers do.

Whodunnit cases would be extremely one sided because as someone said earlier, murderers either leave a very visible trail or none at all.

[Psyentific]

Might be a cool one-off event, otherwise no.

[Miauw]

>auto-redtext if not in courtroom
>hos waits in courtroom, tells nobody to come
>kills anybody who enters

GG

seriously this is way too railroady. you're basically sapping the crew of all free action. GL being creative in this mode.

[QuartzCrystal]

I've been wanting to try something similar to this as an admin event.