MAJOR Feature Request - movement and item use while downed

[SL the Pyro]

Hello.

There has been some discussion in the IRC about how easy it is to kill people. Most people would agree that there are so, so, so many ways to knock a person down and proceed to horribly murder them while they can't defend themselves. They think these methods are too powerful.

I (mostly) disagree.

All of these murder implements are working as intended and in ways that make sense, so nerfing them would be hard and pointless and pretty much remove the myriad threats in the game entirely, which is unacceptable for the kind of game SS13 is. What I believe needs to happen instead is that spessmen should stop losing all ability to think and function the second their back lands on a solid surface. Let people move and act while downed. People aren't without any means of mobility while on the floor, they can crawl. People aren't completely useless when knocked down, they still have hands and feet to do things with. Falling down isn't an excuse to just randomly drop all their possessions, they can hold onto these things and try to ward aggressors away with them.

I'm aware that this would be a fundamental change in the combat system that would takes some getting use to, but I feel that it's necessary. And besides, is anyone really satisfied with how knockdowns work currently? The process now is quite simply: knock someone down, they're screwed. It's great if you're trying to kill someone, but utter shit if you're the victim, since you get knocked on your ass in less than a second and are left completely and utterly at the attacker's mercy. This is why all those aforementioned fast-kill methods are so much stronger than they have any right to be.

Now, I'm not saying people should be incapable of dropping their items at all. Sometimes people can keep their grip when flung around, sometimes they can't; it depends on how hard they get belted. Sufficiently high-power knockdowns can cause a person to be rendered helpless. Being knocked unconscious is also okay for rendering people helpless, because that's the whole point of knocking people unconscious in the first place. Tasers, shocks and other less-nasty stuns shouldn't make you fall down or drop your items, but they should make you unable to act for a moment, because it's the aggressor's own fault if they can't disarm them before they recover and lodge a toolbox into their skull.

Just because you're knocked on your ass doesn't mean you should lose all ability to react and adapt to the situation. Let downed people keep some of their fucking teeth. It's a more satisfying victory for the aggressor, and it gives the victim an actual chance to save themselves.

[Marquesas]

The rest of the posts is still floating around. I don't want to bury the idea nor do I want to deal with some people anymore so here you go.

[Frank_Stein]

So anyway, I like this idea and it's implications for combat.

For when someone manually goes prone, how should that effect them defensively? I know some projectiles go over people on the ground unless aimed point blank/on their tile.

I'd love if you could go prone as a bystander during a gunfight and try to crawl to safety. Even neater would be going prone during a gunfight for a defensive advantage. The question is if you fire from this position, do you pop up and then back down, or do you fire from prone? Does the latter effect the accuracy of your shots?

Space Station Cover Shooter.

[Frank_Stein]

Also, what are the chances things like lying down and removing vents with a screwdriver and then crawling through air ducts for breaking and entering/hiding purposes would be added eventually if crawling was a thing?

[69andahalf]

One thing I've found to be a real pain in the ass with the current system is healing yourself. Once you get far enough into crit, you get stun locked and can't do anything. Half the time this seems to happen right in front of a medkit, it'd be grand if you could actually grab an emergency injector even when on the ground and use it. On top of that, being able to slowly move towards that medkit would also be nice, even if you are in the crit lock, nothing worse than dying with a medkit one tile away.

[BaneOfGiygas]

One thing I've found to be a real pain in the ass with the current system is healing yourself. Once you get far enough into crit, you get stun locked and can't do anything. Half the time this seems to happen right in front of a medkit, it'd be grand if you could actually grab an emergency injector even when on the ground and use it. On top of that, being able to slowly move towards that medkit would also be nice, even if you are in the crit lock, nothing worse than dying with a medkit one tile away.

While this would definitely be a convenience, the more self-sufficient spacemen become in regards to healing themselves, the less of a use the station medics end up having. There need to be some scenarios in which you're pretty much fucked and require outside assistance, because if there weren't, the only thing medics would ever be called on for is surgery, and even that can be done by oneself with a sufficient amount of booze.

[Kaet]

This would just give more options on how some things work.
Like slipping on a wet floor would let you scramble around on the floor for a bit, the clown could stumble around more, losing both your legs let you crawl around, crawl and hide under non-reinforced tables etc.
It wouldn't have to change how any weapons that stun people work. Since some weapons job is to stun people, not knock them prone.
Some weapons could be designed to knock people down but not stun them so that could be a new and fun thing.
Being stunned from bad health could still be a thing, just separate from falling to the ground from bad health. You could feel weak and fall without being stunned, and you could be dazed without falling. Or both could happen.
Separating stun from being downed doesn't mean you can only have one or the other, so really I see no downside to this. Only fun upsides.

I'd love if you could go prone as a bystander during a gunfight and try to crawl to safety. Even neater would be going prone during a gunfight for a defensive advantage. The question is if you fire from this position, do you pop up and then back down, or do you fire from prone? Does the latter effect the accuracy of your shots?

I like this. Shooting while prone would give you more defense from ranged attacks, but leave you vulnerable to close combat attacks. A neat tradeoff.

I can literally only see fun things come from this. Sure some things might need to be worked out as the system is implemented, but it would not be a broken system.