Posts: 19
Threads: 7
Joined: Nov 2014
The changeling's hallucinogenic sting is pretty much worthless. I propose replacing it with a new sting:
DNA Sting
Cost: 10 DNA points, one absorbed crewmember identity
Prepare this sting by selecting one of the victims you've absorbed from a list, like when you use the Transform verb. After this, your sting is ready to use. You may swap whichever identity you've selected at any time until you use the sting.
When you sting a crewmember with this sting, you're essentially injecting them with stable mutagen that will turn them into the crewmember you selected after a few seconds.
This sting would play more to the changeling's ability to trick the crew and induce paranoia. Combine with mimic voice for best effects. Of course, something this powerful comes with a downside: you essentially lose one absorption, which gives you fewer options for transforming later. If possible this should also affect the victim count for the purposes of objectives, requiring you to absorb one more person in order to make up for the one you've used if you want to fulfill your objective.
Posts: 1,032
Threads: 310
Joined: Oct 2013
Why would you ever want to use this? It'd basically be an even bigger "oh god a changeling" sign than usual.
Posts: 19
Threads: 7
Joined: Nov 2014
Berrik Wrote:Why would you ever want to use this? It'd basically be an even bigger "oh god a changeling" sign than usual.
Misdirect other people. Sting the same dude multiple times, let him try to explain why he's seen with the same ID but his voice keeps changing (use mimic voice to help encourage the crew form a mob to go after them). If you get outed, transform and then sting someone else with your outed identity, and let the crew murder them instead of you.
Just a few uses I thought of right now, I'm sure you can think of more.
Posts: 757
Threads: 28
Joined: Sep 2012
it's a funny idea but making it cost an entire dude worth of DNA is insane, no one will ever use it
Posts: 577
Threads: 72
Joined: Dec 2013
BYOND Username: Erev
The trouble is that they'd then just offer themselves for a blood test and you are back at square one (unless you swap back). Might be (more) useful if it also contaminated their blood somehow giving off false positives.
Posts: 2,064
Threads: 42
Joined: Feb 2013
BYOND Username: Ed Venture
I don't think I would ever use this. I rather not waste DNA to get a easy kill when changelings can already get a easy kills just by walking up to a dude and spitting acid in his face and dragging him away.
Posts: 5,710
Threads: 303
Joined: May 2014
Personally, I think acid spit should be nerfed to just a stun, and then make hallucinogenic sting into an instant knockout one but with red text.
Posts: 2,064
Threads: 42
Joined: Feb 2013
BYOND Username: Ed Venture
I think a longer cool down on acid spit would be enough.
Posts: 2,556
Threads: 120
Joined: Sep 2012
Why not make the sting work like space madness instead.
Sting some security officer and all the sudden they're tasering someone who they thought they saw put a cylume saber into a backpack.
Posts: 562
Threads: 69
Joined: Oct 2013
This is a pretty useless idea. Other servers used to have this exact same thing for lings and it was always unused as it was just... bad. It's a dead giveaway and pointless.
As for the topic of lings needing nerfs, I personally feel they are fine right now. Since they can't regenerate from death anymore and they aren't invulnerable to damage they are finally able to die without being too weak. Acid spit could use a rework to be more fluid and so could the rest of their powers since it's archaic and using an old spell/ability menu.
Posts: 427
Threads: 42
Joined: Nov 2014
Simple suggestion. Make LSD a harmless good trip Psychedelic. Give the changeling a deleriant like datura. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura#Eff ... _ingestion
Posts: 143
Threads: 15
Joined: Oct 2012
You people are dumb, this is a super good idea. Eat John Smith, turn into John Smith, murder a shitload of people, frame some random asshole for it, eat the bodies in peace while the new John Smith gets lynched by the crew.
Posts: 757
Threads: 28
Joined: Sep 2012
MollyMillions Wrote:You people are dumb, this is a super good idea. Eat John Smith, turn into John Smith, murder a shitload of people, frame some random asshole for it, eat the bodies in peace while the new John Smith gets lynched by the crew. Yeah but the cost he's proposing for it is crazy high
Like yeah, frame an asshole for something, but at the cost of an entire dude of DNA? If you're in a situation where you can frame someone and potentially get away with it, you can also, you know, eat them. Which is far more useful. Plus you can no longer disguise yourself as that person, meaning that in order to use it correctly you need to first: Get caught doing Changeling Stuff as Joe Blow, and successfully escape security and the frothing lynch mob that forms in order to even be in a situation in which it could be useful. Then you need to jump a dude who is by himself and, instead of eating that dude and turning into him in order to completely clear your suspicions, instead frame that dude and hope he both A: Fails to convince security that he is not a changeling(which he could probably do just by surrendering peacefully and submitting himself to the test since people will know this ability exists) AND B: Successfully evades/fights off security for a significant period of time. You also have to change into yet another identity and successfully make your escape, while your victim is either screaming bloody murder about being attacked by changelings or drooling in a brain-damaged heap(meaning he's either clear of suspicion or if security is stupid immediately killed, buying you no time whatsoever).
And it costs a shitload of points.
Posts: 143
Threads: 15
Joined: Oct 2012
Dauntasa Wrote:MollyMillions Wrote:You people are dumb, this is a super good idea. Eat John Smith, turn into John Smith, murder a shitload of people, frame some random asshole for it, eat the bodies in peace while the new John Smith gets lynched by the crew. Yeah but the cost he's proposing for it is crazy high
Like yeah, frame an asshole for something, but at the cost of an entire dude of DNA? If you're in a situation where you can frame someone and potentially get away with it, you can also, you know, eat them. Which is far more useful. Plus you can no longer disguise yourself as that person, meaning that in order to use it correctly you need to first: Get caught doing Changeling Stuff as Joe Blow, and successfully escape security and the frothing lynch mob that forms in order to even be in a situation in which it could be useful. Then you need to jump a dude who is by himself and, instead of eating that dude and turning into him in order to completely clear your suspicions, instead frame that dude and hope he both A: Fails to convince security that he is not a changeling(which he could probably do just by surrendering peacefully and submitting himself to the test since people will know this ability exists) AND B: Successfully evades/fights off security for a significant period of time. You also have to change into yet another identity and successfully make your escape, while your victim is either screaming bloody murder about being attacked by changelings or drooling in a brain-damaged heap(meaning he's either clear of suspicion or if security is stupid immediately killed, buying you no time whatsoever).
And it costs a shitload of points.
Changeling stuff should cost more in general. Any round where I don't get murdered due to random chance early on, I'm usually stepping onto the shuttle with nine or ten more DNA profiles than I was asked to collect.
Posts: 2,612
Threads: 147
Joined: Oct 2012
atomic1fire Wrote:Why not make the sting work like space madness instead.
Sting some security officer and all the sudden they're tasering someone who they thought they saw put a cylume saber into a backpack.
Counter-suggestion:
Make a madness sting inject like a very small amount of rajijijah. I'm being totally serious, this would actually be super useful. Make it something very small as i'm aware the poison depletes very slowly, so enough for around 20-40 seconds of madness.
Why? Because lings are all about attacking groups of people (or at least, it's a bad idea to go 1vs1), you're meant to handle situations like that unless there's fire involved, in which case you bolt the other direction.
If a ling had a madness sting, he could spit at one target, and either madness sting that target and escape, only for that target to attack the very people that came to rescue him or he could spit at one target, and madness sting another so that target would start killing the one he spat at. There's a ton of situations where you could even the playing field with the sting.
And at the same time, there's some reasons where using the madness sting is a bad idea. The maddened person may very well attack you, so it'd be a gamble sting, meant for hit and run and to cause panic, exactly what the hallucinating sting was MEANT to do, but fails because hallucinating does jack shit.
|