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Vampire Overhaul (ver. 2, OP updated!) - locusts - 01-14-2017
This is version 2 of the OP, revised to add and include ideas that were suggested in the thread. To see version 1, click this amazing hyperlink to surf your web browser towards it!
Vampires are cool but are in desperate need of some buffs, especially in light of how some other antagonists (coughchangelingcough) are getting new additions and toys to play with. Not only that, but Vampires already exist as basically a changeling but worse; both drag people out of sight and murder them in the dark.
The goal here is to both differentiate vampires from changelings, and also provide some much needed buffs, and you may see a lot of comparisons to changeling throughout. Though this takes some ideas from how Vampire currently operates, it is essentially a complete overhaul for this antagonist.
Design Goal
As an antagonist, the vampire should, at the start of the round, be comparatively weaker than most other antagonists. However, with skillful play, it accumulates power until it is the most powerful of all antagonists. This is complimented by a skill set that helps with stealth early on, but later on provides abilities focused on power.
In addition to this, a new, optional round-ending goal has been provided for the Vampire, further differentiating it from other antagonists.
Blood Tracking
This is a basic thing but I thought I should make it clear at the start: my intention is that how the Vampire uses blood is to be changed. At the moment, the game keeps track of two things: the total amount of blood you have accumulated, and how much blood you currently have. The blood you currently have can be spent on abilities, but you must seek out more if you wish to continue using them.
My intention is to change this so that the vampire's current blood can regenerate to a certain level, so that more powerful vampires can use abilities without fear of running dry. My current opinion is that a Vampire should be able to regenerate blood up to half the total amount of blood they've accumulated over the round; so if you have so far accumulated 1000 BP in total, you can regenerate your usable pool to 500 BP simply by waiting.
Vampire Objectives
Vampires get to keep the standard "Accumulate X amount of blood" and "Kill this guy" and "Survive to the end" goals that are relatively standard. However, on top of this, Vampires get a new, optional goal that they can only perform when they have performed above and beyond the call of duty: corrupting the chapel in order to dominate the station.
How exactly this will work is currently open for debate; my idea is that once a Vampire has achieved the Vampire Lord/Lady status and can walk the chapel freely, they can place a mark inside the chapel that grows until the chapel has been tainted. Once they have achieved this, something similar to a disaster round begins.
Ideas for how the vampire's mark can grow:
- It grows over time.
- The vampire can feed blood into it to get it to grow.
- The vampire can throw dead bodies into it to get it to grow.
Ideas for how the crew can combat it:
- Crew members can sacrifice themselves to it to get it to shrink. If a Chaplain does this, it instantly removes the mark.
- Throw stuff like holy water or the bible in there.
- If the vampire is killed, the mark disappears.
At this point, several things occur: all animals on the station become hostile to the crew, all robots act like they have been emagged, the AI and all borgs are all automatically enthralled to the Vampire, an antagonist chance is triggered for dead players to spawn a Wraith, portals around the station begin to open and summon various monsters that are allied with the Vampire, and the station receives a name change to reflect the fact it is now the Vampire's domain. After a minute or two of this, the shuttle is automatically called (if it hasn't been already) as power is drained from the station, and the crew's goal is simply to survive until the end of the round.
The Vampire now enjoys immortality thanks to their new space station. Within the walls of the Dark Chapel, their health regenerates and their blood pool can regenerate to maximum. The crew take damage from stepping inside the Dark Chapel. If the Vampire is killed, then they can simply respawn inside the chapel, albeit with their blood pool drained to zero.
Finally, if the Vampire is successful in tainting the chapel and taking over the station, this is the music the plays at the round end.
Weaknesses
At the start of the game, the Vampire has more weaknesses than most. They can eventually become immune to some of these, or gain tools that let them overcome them.
The Chaplain - The Chaplain remains as a hard counter for the Vampire, and does so for most of the Vampire's run. Drinking the Chaplain's blood is still a Bad Idea. The Vampire can eventually drink the Chaplain's blood when they become a Vampire Lord/Lady.
The Chapel - You will still take damage in here until you become a Vampire Lord/Lady.
Holy Water - Early on, holy water sets a Vampire on fire if it comes into contact with their skin. This is quickly downgraded to an unpleasant burn, before being removed as a weakness altogether. Holy water can also no longer be made (because let's face it the station would become a holy water swimming pool), but is instead available for order from the QM. Blessed by the real space pope!
The Bible - Being hit with a bible hurts Vampires instead of healing them, and if a Vampire picks up a Bible or walks over a tile with a Bible on it, they scream and take some burn damage. This is also removed as a weakness later on.
Fire - Being set on fire hurts more for the Vampire than normal. Later on it doesn't hurt as much but it's still not great.
Starlight - The light! It burns! Even in a space suit this is not something you truly get over. Avoid going into space if you can help it. Can be overcome using a coffin.
Syrillene - Weapons crafted out of this space silver do more damage to Vampires. This is a weakness the vampire doesn't overcome other than simply becoming more adept at combat.
Stakes - If an enterprising crew member fashions a wooden stake and manages to stake the Vampire through the heart, said Vampire is paralysed until the stake is removed. Vampires later overcome this weakness.
Psuedonecrosis - Not strictly a weakness but kind of a give away early on if you're trying to be a stealthy Vamp.
No Image - Another give away, Vampires don't show up in photos.
Abilities
Passive
Anaerobic Metabolism - Being dead, Vampires don't really need to breathe.
Cold Resistance - And they don't really care about needing to keep warm either.
Poison Immunity - Without a heartbeat, any poisons injected into you do not circulate around your system and harm you. This cuts both ways, so beneficial drugs are of no help either. This means that Vamp/Ling fights are no longer ridiculously weighted in favour of the Ling, as they are now both immune to each other's modus operandi.
Blood Pressure Immunity - Bleeding out is for the living.
Heart Attack Immunity - Your heart doesn't beat in the first place. Eat as many Monsters as you want!
The Power of Dominance - Even a fledgling Vampire can exert their power. Creatures and animals that are normally hostile, such as skeletons, zombies, science ghosts, space bears, yetis, those floating eyeballs, etc., will not be hostile towards vampires. This also extends to the Wraith antagonist; their attacks cannot harm a Vampire, and they are encouraged to act as a symbiotic unit with each other.
Blood Regeneration - You regain 1 BP per server tick up to half your total accumulated BP.
Active
Bite Victim - Cannot be used if the victim is wearing headgear.
Glare - Briefly stuns the target from up to two tiles away. Blocked by eye protection (sunglasses etc.). Cooldown reduced to 30 seconds.
Obfuscate - An ability that causes you to become an unrecognisable shadow for a short time (20 - 30 seconds). Use this for hit and run tactics while protecting your identity. You'll get warnings when it's about to run out. Has a 60 second cooldown.
Toggle
Blood Tracking - Toggles blood gain/loss messages on or off.
100 Blood
Active
Cancel stuns - Removes the effects of being stunned, replenishes stamina. 60 Second cooldown.
Hypnotise (25 BP) - This spell requires 2 seconds to take effect, but KOs the victim for a long time. 2 minute cooldown.
200 Blood
Passive
Vampiric Vision - Permanent thermal vision.
Resurrect - Death is not necessarily the end. Now when you die, instead of leaving a body behind, you leave behind a pile of ash. If blood is applied to this ash, for example by a bleeding person walking over it, you return from the dead, with your total BP reset to zero and also naked. Human blood must be used for this, and it cannot be dried.
300 Blood
Passive
Escape Handcuffs - One weird trick to escape handcuffs: turn your hands to mist and let them drop to the floor! Sec hates it!
Holy Resistance - Holy water no longer sets you on fire, though it still hurts, and you can walk over Bibles unharmed, though you still don't want to be hit by them.
Active
Mist form (75 BP) - Allows you to walk through walls, but only works when you aren't within visual range of somebody else. 60 second cooldown.
Diseased touch (50 BP) - Infect someone with grave fever. Transmission mimics the help intent shake. 3 minute cooldown.
Radio Interference (50 BP) - Stealth ability that mimics the effect of a signal jammer. Disrupts almost all radio communication (minus machine talk) in a six tile radius for 30 seconds. Cooldown reduced to two minutes.
Designate Coffin (Free the first time, after that 250 BP) - The vampire is able to designate a coffin as being owned by them, and they can only have one owned coffin at a time. This coffin cannot be sealed by means of a welder, and can only be opened quickly by the vampire and the station's chaplain, for anyone else it takes some time for it to work. Additionally, while inside with the lid closed, the vampire slowly regenerates health and BP up to their total accumulated BP. Make sure to hide the coffin well, because if the crew realise what you're up to they're liable to send all coffins on the station to the crusher.
400 Blood
Passive
Fire Resistance - The vampire's fire weakness is removed, bringing them in line with normal crew members.
Freezing Touch - A passive ability that gives you a 25% chance of freezing someone in an ice cube when you block a melee attack using the disarm intent.
Active
Chiropteran Speech (60 BP) - Crowd control spell which confuses the movement of all nearby humans. It also shatters nearby windows and light fixtures. Blocked by ear protection (earmuffs etc.). 2 minute cooldown.
Summon Bats (150 BP) - Turns you into a bat for a short time and summons three angry bats that attack mortals. 2 minute cooldown.
500 Blood
Passive
Blood Regeneration Mk. II - You regain 2 BP per server tick up to half your total accumulated BP. You also regenerate health from drinking blood.
Improved Blood Drain - You drain blood from your victims 50% faster.
Toggle
Glide - This allows you to harmlessly float over floor hazards that would cause you to slip or cause harm, such as banana peels or mousetraps.
600 Blood
Active
Cancel Stuns Mk. II - Restores 40 HP in addition to removing stuns. 60 Second cooldown.
Soul Rend - A vampire is able to pluck victims even from beyond death. By consuming a soul's essence, the vampire restores 50 BP, though it doesn't contribute to the total BP. The ghost itself is reduced to the basic ghost sprite and loses its name along with it, becoming "Lost Soul". A lost soul cannot be consumed by the vampire.
Toggle
Ghost Vision Toggle - The vampire becomes more finely attuned to the dead and becomes able to see ghosts floating around the station, this can be turned on and off so that the vampire isn't blinded by ghosts.
Cloak of Darkness - Automatically cloaks you in dark areas.
800 Blood
Passive
Holy Resistance Mk. II - Holy water? Use it as a refreshing drink. The bible? You could take it or leave it. Neither have a negative effect on you any more.
Staking Immunity - It's just a piece of wood. How were you ever so weak that it could paralyse you?
Active
Enthrall (600 BP) - Turns your victim into a loyal mindslave. Note that, unlike an implanter, this spell doesn't work instantly! Synthetics, i.e. the AI and cyborgs, can also be enthralled. A couple of changes: thralls enjoy shared immunity to monster attacks. They also gain an ability to know their master's location. This persists beyond the death of the Vampire, and if the Vampire dies their thralls get a pop up objective telling them to resurrect them at all costs. 3 minute cooldown.
Resurrect Ghoul (250 BP) - Returns a freshly dead body to life, acting essentially the same as a zombie, with the exception that there is no zombie contagion being spread. Can be player controlled if that player is still available! 3 minute cooldown.
Toggle
Leech - Standing in blood gives you BP and health, depending on how much blood there is.
1000 Blood
Passive
Greater Blood Drain - You now drink blood from your victims twice as fast as when you started.
Vampiric Vision Mk.II - Permanent X-Ray vision.
Tomb of the Damned - Your coffin gets an upgrade. First off, recovery bonuses inside are now doubled, and you can regrow limbs and shed bullets in there now too. Second, your coffin becomes a vehicle! It levitates from the ground and can even protect you from the horror of starlight. You can also summon it from afar in order to pull you out of a tricky situation.
Active
Designate Coffin Home (100 BP) - This marks a tile as your coffin's home point that it teleports to and from. Initial tile is where you left it, this is for changing that.
Summon/Recall Coffin - Like the porta-sci remote, but for your coffin, basically. 60 second cooldown.
1500 Blood
Passive
Vampire Lord/Lady - You are now a full-blooded vampire. Attacks with your fists hit harder and you now have a chance to cause bleeding with them, and your maximum health increases.
Blood Regeneration Mk. III - You now regenerate 4 BP per server tick up to half your total accumulated BP.
Holy Immunity - You now walk the chapel freely.
Active
Place Mark (1000 BP) - Place the Vampire's Mark inside the chapel in order to begin tainting it, thus gaining dominance over the station and achieving total victory! 5 minute cooldown.
Blood Shield (500 BP) - Grants you ten seconds of immunity from all damage. 3 minute cooldown.
Mist Form Mk. II (75 BP) - You can now use this while people are watching. Cooldown reduced to 30 seconds.
Toggle
The Beast - Like the changeling, the vampire can transform into a horrifying monster, gaining a huge increase to health and strength. It requires 1000 BP in the bank in order to activate it, and though it doesn't consume those BP straight away, it drains them while active. All vampire abilities cost no BP while in this state, and all cooldowns are halved. The Beast's punches always cause bleeding in order to facilitate a last-ditch return from the ashes in case it's slain. Additionally, some abilities are augmented while beasting out. Please look forward to Beast/Shambler battles in upcoming shuttle rides.
THE BEAST -
![[Image: cfTB2ah.gif]](http://i.imgur.com/cfTB2ah.gif)
Passive
Siphon Blood - Drains five times faster than the base vampire speed, and the vampire can consume chaplain blood without being burned.
Fire Immunity - The Beast is a creature of hell! It laughs at your puny fires.
Active
Chiropteran Speech Mk. II - Knocks people back and causes them to fall down in addition to the standard deafen and window break. 20 second cooldown.
Summon Monsters - Summons five random vampire-allied monsters, replaces Summon Bats. 60 second cooldown
Hellfire - A Beast exclusive move, throws a fireball that acts similarly to an incendiary grenade. 60 second cooldown.
Jugulate - Slash someone's throat, instantly inflicting massive amounts of bleeding and causing them to bleed out in seconds. 30 second cooldown.
Consume Heart - Eat your heart out! Can only be performed by grabbing someone into the Kill intent. Eats their heart, gives you 200 BP and leaves them with not long to live. 90 second cooldown.
That's all folks! Fangs for reading!
RE: Vampire Overhaul - Ines - 01-14-2017
Yes this is good. Maybe we'd have a reason to increase the frequency of vampire rounds with all this!
RE: Vampire Overhaul - HydroFloric - 01-14-2017
This all looks great, just another suggestion the Ai not be able to see them on cams. Though borgs and shells should be able too.
RE: Vampire Overhaul - locusts - 01-14-2017
Not being seen by the AI is kind of a huge advantage, but I like the idea of not showing up on the station cameras. Maybe a halfway house where the AI can still automatically track a suspected vamp but not be able to see where on each screen they are, so that they can give a generalised location.
RE: Vampire Overhaul - HydroFloric - 01-14-2017
That seems good
RE: Vampire Overhaul - medsal15 - 01-14-2017
Good idea misto locusts
RE: Vampire Overhaul - Cirrial - 01-14-2017
This is amazing, holy shit.
RE: Vampire Overhaul - Wraithcraft - 01-14-2017
I love this. Before, max vamp was even then, pretty weak.
RE: Vampire Overhaul - locusts - 01-14-2017
Other ideas I was toying with - immunity from slipping on blood, a later stage ability to passively regenerate health and BP when standing in blood, and the chaplain being able to turn the pool into holy water for vampire dunkings.
RE: Vampire Overhaul - medsal15 - 01-14-2017
(01-14-2017, 08:50 AM)locusts Wrote: the chaplain being able to turn the pool into holy water for vampire dunkings.
Yes. Get the vampire on the plank.
RE: Vampire Overhaul - Frank_Stein - 01-14-2017
Silver as a ore that you can get from mining would be nice. Just recolor gold.
I'd love for some more traditional vampire countermeasures too. In place of a crucifix, maybe the Bible could act as a kind of warding object? Like, a vampire starts to take damage by being within proximity to it?
Staking vampires would be fun too. Maybe instead of physical harm, stakes slow their movement down since traditionally they served a binding purpose.
Another suggestion. Thralls would be a lot more important in this situation since vampires can be resurrected. Being psychically linked with a special chat channel would be nice. Maybe have a remote viewing ability where they could observe each other.
RE: Vampire Overhaul - HydroFloric - 01-14-2017
Allow stakes to be put into the zip gun to act as a stake gun
RE: Vampire Overhaul - Mordent - 01-14-2017
(01-14-2017, 11:52 AM)Frank_Stein Wrote: Silver as a ore that you can get from mining would be nice. Just recolor gold.
Already exists. Cobryl is "space silver".
RE: Vampire Overhaul - Tom Clancy's Gay Ghost - 01-14-2017
Yes please. All very good ideas that stop the vamp from just being a shitty ling.
RE: Vampire Overhaul - locusts - 01-14-2017
(01-14-2017, 11:52 AM)Frank_Stein Wrote: Silver as a ore that you can get from mining would be nice. Just recolor gold.
I'd love for some more traditional vampire countermeasures too. In place of a crucifix, maybe the Bible could act as a kind of warding object? Like, a vampire starts to take damage by being within proximity to it?
Staking vampires would be fun too. Maybe instead of physical harm, stakes slow their movement down since traditionally they served a binding purpose.
Another suggestion. Thralls would be a lot more important in this situation since vampires can be resurrected. Being psychically linked with a special chat channel would be nice. Maybe have a remote viewing ability where they could observe each other.
I think holy symbols have a place, and I like the idea of the bible being a proximity damage object, though I think it should only extend to one tile next to it. Biblethumping should hurt a vampire too. Stakes are an interesting idea, I didn't include them because I felt that silver weaponry kind of covered it, but them being a slowing tool is interesting, however I don't think they should be readily available. Crucifixes would be a fun mask slot item and could provide defence against vampire bites.
Perhaps there should be an Anti-Supernatural Emergency Defence Crate that contains a bible, a crucifix, two stakes and the silver bullets for the detective's revolver, at a hugely expensive price so that people fight over who gets to wear the crucifix.