Changeling tweak idea

[Zamujasa]

I've said this in the Discord chat, but I'd like to see a small(ish) change to ling abilities:

* Reverse DNA Sting: Causes no harm to a target and is invisible, but adds their identity to your pool for changing forms.
* DNA Sting: 0 DNA cost but a longer cooldown
* Mimic voice: Some way to fool the AI so it isn't immediately obvious that it's a changeling doing it, since if I remember right it still shows your current ID and jumps to your location. (Perhaps let it use whatever that person has equipped at the time if you put in an actual character name?)

Mostly for RP1 purposes, but the goal of these suggestions is to enable a changeling to cause more paranoia and confusion without necessarily having to resort to outright murder. Currently, getting additional identities is only possible by either consuming someone or doing a very roundabout blood-draw, stable-mutagen injection, which isn't very stealthy either.

I don't think these changes will have much impact on its ability to be deadly, but might make for some interesting changes in higher-pop rounds, especially if there's a way to delay the transformation so it's less obvious who did it.

[HydroFloric]

Seems like a good addition with no real disadvantages. 10/10

[Mordent]

I don't agree that you should be able to take on another crew's identity with effectively zero risk (i.e. standing next to them for a second). The whole point of changeling is that they absorb people to gain their identity (hence them being in your hivemind).

Regarding DNA sting being a 0 DNA point ability, you just know that people would use it to make literally everyone Shitty Bill or whatever, basically being a massive disruption in terms of working out who's talking for the sake of being a massive disruption. It doesn't "add" anything, has minimal risk (the transformation takes a bit to take place), and is flat-out annoying rather than interesting.

I'd be okay with Mimic Voice not allowing the AI to jump to you. I don't think your ID should be masked, else you have the immediate problem of - "AI, open upload and disable turrets" said as the captain followed by them immediately messing with the laws. It's too easy.

[qwertyquerty]

I'm gonna hijack this thread to say I think Neurotoxin Sting or whatever it's called should have a longer cooldown, like maybe 200 seconds instead of 90.

[Flaborized]

I don't agree that you should be able to take on another crew's identity with effectively zero risk (i.e. standing next to them for a second). The whole point of changeling is that they absorb people to gain their identity (hence them being in your hivemind).

I disagree here. I think that for the most part disguising as someone who is alive/you didn't absorb is a fun idea and wouldn't actually be very strong at all. If you transform into the captain it will likely be obvious who the real captain is because they can still talk and have their blood tested to clear them as human, and if you put in the effort to get a believable disguise going (one that would be ruined by a single blood test mind you), you deserve it. 

It gives the changeling more power but not in a "I can now more easily end people's rounds" kind of way, and more in a "I can now provide an interesting situation by pretending to be someone who is still alive" kind of way. Even if the person you're disguising as dies you still need an ID, a jumpsuit, a headset and all sorts of other stuff to complete the look, and if you have that you're very likely in a position to just absorb them anyways.

While there would be zero risk in acquiring a new identity I don't see how this would be particularly bad, I instead feel it would encourage creative players to use this new power in sneaky and smart ways that could be really interesting. Plus it enables a few gimmicks I've always wanted to do as ling.

[Triacontakai]

Being able to stealthily take a crew's identity sounds like it would be good, but I don't agree with making DNA sting cost 0 DNA for the reasons Mordent provided. Also yeah, make it so that AI can't jump to someone mimicking voice, that seems like a borderline bug.

[KikiMofo]

I'm gonna hijack this thread to say I think Neurotoxin Sting or whatever it's called should have a longer cooldown, like maybe 200 seconds instead of 90.

Im going to say no to that because that sting was already nerfed hard and so was the spit. The sting is one of the only actual defenses the ling has.

[Zamujasa]

Regarding DNA sting being a 0 DNA point ability, you just know that people would use it to make literally everyone Shitty Bill or whatever, basically being a massive disruption in terms of working out who's talking for the sake of being a massive disruption. It doesn't "add" anything, has minimal risk (the transformation takes a bit to take place), and is flat-out annoying rather than interesting.

This already happens (in fact, I saw it just a few days ago) -- primarily because the diner crew is a free three meals. That's one goal of giving the DNA copy and 0-cost sting, namely that you can get a much larger pool of identities to sting, so you aren't having constantly reuse the same one.

Personally I find the identity mixup hilarious because it's a massive disruption, and not one that's currently hugely destructive or death-causing.

[Recusor]

Being able to stealthily take a crew's identity sounds like it would be good, but I don't agree with making DNA sting cost 0 DNA for the reasons Mordent provided. Also yeah, make it so that AI can't jump to someone mimicking voice, that seems like a borderline bug.

Yeah, this is a pretty major weakness for Lings if theres an AI thats paying attention.

[TheMaskedMan2]

I very much like this, none of these seem like a straight buff for the most part, and for the most part are creating more interesting scenarios and ways for Changelings to do things besides insta-sting + succ in maint. I like it.

As well, instead of making a new topic i'm just going to add a few of my very small changeling tweak ideas as well and respond to a few other complaints, since you guys were talking about Neurotoxin:

->Give Neurotoxin a small DNA cost, but in exchange give Lings another option to get (Less) DNA points. I was personally thinking an aggressive grab "Chew" and gnaw move where you can just eat someones limbs and gnaw into them quickly in combat to gain some points without killing. Ideally this would result in less meme-spam of Neurosting, and maybe a bit more interactive RP at least for the RP server without perma-killing people.

->Let Lings use "Regenerative Stasis" even while stunned, the entire point of the ability in my opinion is so they can play dead, right? I feel like letting them actually do it before they are stun locked instead of out of the blue might actually allow some more trickery instead of using it to regrow limb critters.

I have some other ideas but they are on a much larger scale and not related to these small tweaks so i'll save for it's own dedicated post. Generally just based around wanting more of a focus on the actual body horror and flesh monstrosity bits. Also limb critters for organs like heart slugs or spine centipedes oof. Anyways I could talk about lings all day.

Back on topic: I like this idea, thanks.

[KikiMofo]

The thing is with ling is that as soon as people call you out on your ling activities you are FUCKED. You are not stronger than a normal person and only thing you can do is go shambler and you can only do that if you already ate a couple people. The sting works as it does because you need to be sneaky as ling otherwise you just get fucked by AI/borgs or nerd chemists or Captain's egun. Anything else the ling can do is useless if they can just scream over the radio "URIST MCSPACEMAN IS A LING AND EATING ME IN TOXINS HELP"

[TheMaskedMan2]

I mean I agree with that, which is why I would like if Ling had a few more innate robust abilities to at least defend itself besides just neurotoxin sting. I'm thinking give Neurotoxin a cost - but maybe make a few other slightly self-defensive abilities a little easier to do, as well with this suggestion of giving them a "Steal your DNA" sting, Lings that get caught out in the open can actually jab someone and run away, even if it's not foolproof, it gives them options especially if other crew aren't particularly paying attention that they just saw the same person twice.

Ideally I think less of a reliance on Neuro sting is a good thing. There's a lot of potential ways to go about it.

[Frank_Stein]

Honestly, make Shambling Abomination a free ability, but it has a long cool down and you need to use it again to turn back. It should be your panic button, not your "Try to kill the whole shuttle but fuck up and die because I tried to solo 10+ people" button

[TheMaskedMan2]

I'm going to be honest, I would honestly love it if Shambling Horror got nerfed -> free ability, with a huge cooldown. Just like in "The Thing" movie, when a ling gets caught out in the open, it should go full horror and try to attack someone or get away, enough to robust 1-2 people but nerfed enough where if they have fire or gang up on you, you'd probably die. Then maybe headspider could pull something.

That OR an alternative to a more body horror related ability. I think I would just enjoy if Changeling was a little more focused on something you could react towards instead of easy meme-ing people alone, more tentacles and claws and shit.

I still like the idea of an end-game high DNA cost ability that could give people a parasite/disease sorta thing to sorta, like halfway towards Vampire enthrall, but with their own body rebelling against them into a sorta... mini shambler, or maybe a gimped monkey-ling slaved to your will. I'm just spitballing.

I'm getting off topic and way too big on scale for this little tweak suggestions, but i'm a bit passionate about Changeling as a whole, lots of potential.

[OMJ]

I'm not a fan of any of these changes