One of Us - Changelings and You

[atamusvaleo]

Hi.

I've had this idea for a while now and think it's solid enough to bring to the forums.

Changelings absorb someone's DNA and can transform into them. The victim is becoming one with the ling essentially, no? So, why would the ling not also gain their knowledge?

My proposal is that absorbed people don't enter dead chat and ghost form; instead, they automatically observe the ling and are able to talk to the ling and other absorbed players, sharing information they've gleaned throughout the round.

Wat'cha think?!

[Mordent]

Only if the changeling can toggle specific people of their off, because while needless salt can be adminhelped it could be incredibly annoying.

Otherwise, I quite like the idea, but how would it interact with, say, someone who's already been clonescanned and is later cloned?

[Roomba]

To be honest it just sounds kind of boring for the absorbed people. They have no incentive to help the person who absorbed them, no way to ghost and look at interesting things, and since they're stuck observing the ling they don't offer the ling any new information that the ling is unable to learn simply by looking around.

[atomic1fire]

To be honest it just sounds kind of boring for the absorbed people. They have no incentive to help the person who absorbed them, no way to ghost and look at interesting things, and since they're stuck observing the ling they don't offer the ling any new information that the ling is unable to learn simply by looking around.

I feel like the only way this works is if Changeling acts like a twitch livestream.

Or there's some beneficial power that can draw on the ling's personalities.

[atamusvaleo]

My thoughts were that it becomes a group effort, with everyone who is absorbed getting to talk into the ling's ear with information they already had on the round or tips for how to do something or just pointing things out. A second (third, fourth, fifth...) set of eyes is always helpful. It could lead to creepy situations where the ling is talking out loud or whispering to the voices "inside" of it about what they should do next.

Part of what makes it interesting to me is how people you absorb will act and interact with you: maybe they were working on a secret lair that you now have exclusive access to and wouldn't have known about otherwise, maybe they were the clown and only honk incessantly? The potential is boundless.

I get that it might not be everyone's idea of fun.. maybe you could choose to leave and ghost but then you couldn't reenter the ling? As far as cloned people, they just get cloned as usual and it's no skin off the ling's back. It would be the same as a person opting out of being one of the absorbed.

[Roomba]

In my experience all people ever want to talk about after being absorbed by a changeling is how changeling is the worst gamemode/antag and how it should be removed. I for one have never thought to myself "You know what would really improve ling play? A greek chorus going 'oh, hooray for silent ling rampages, how fucking original' every time I did anything."

[atamusvaleo]

Maybe it would get the player to start interacting and trying dofferent things? BE THE CHANGEling YOU WANT

[Vitatroll]

It's actually an idea that's been brought up a couple times before. The consensus IIRC is that "it's a really neat concept" that "makes sense" but it wouldn't work well in practice.

Ghosts that can ghost about have meta knowledge. Ghosts that are forced to observe the ling, and forced to hear and observe only what the ling hears and observe, are effectively being punished for normal gameplay.

[atamusvaleo]

See, I feel it would be more participatory than just foating around or the normal observe as a ghost. I'm sure I'm not the only person who, upon being killed, spends the rest of the round observing whomever killed me.

Giving folks the option to opt out and just be a regular ghost (with no ability to communicate with the ling) would eliminate anyone who wouldn't want to be a part of it from being forced to do so. 

Besides why shouldn't the ling be forced to hear the screams of the damned echoing in its mind for eternity.

[atomic1fire]

That said, I think it would be cool if Ling could make it's own "drones" that could talk to it and hide in vents and disposal units. But that might be too derivative of an idea.

Imagine having a drone hide in brig and serve as the ling's eyes and ears though, occasionally knocking out sec officers for the ling to eat. Or maybe leave them as blobs of flesh that serve as snitches.

[Noah Buttes]

See, I feel it would be more participatory than just foating around or the normal observe as a ghost. I'm sure I'm not the only person who, upon being killed, spends the rest of the round observing whomever killed me.

Giving folks the option to opt out and just be a regular ghost (with no ability to communicate with the ling) would eliminate anyone who wouldn't want to be a part of it from being forced to do so. 

Besides why shouldn't the ling be forced to hear the screams of the damned echoing in its mind for eternity.

This resolves the only issue I had with this idea.

[atamusvaleo]

That said, I think it would be cool if Ling could make it's own "drones" that could talk to it and hide in vents and disposal units. But that might be too derivative of an idea.

Imagine having a drone hide in brig and serve as the ling's eyes and ears though, occasionally knocking out sec officers for the ling to eat. Or maybe leave them as blobs of flesh that serve as snitches.

Is it headcrab or headspider? I'm going with headspider...

Headspider 2.0, dispatch absorbed dna (and corresponding player) into a headspider or random limb spider that can spread out and potentially attach itself to another player becoming a second ling. It would give away that there's a ling on station, the ling would lose an identity and eyes/ears, and adds a little excitement. 

Ling: "Doctor plese help. I need a new arm. I lost it in a skateboarding accident."
Poor Assistant Over Radio: "A disembodied arm just crawled past me in the maintenence tunnels. It's cute... I think it wants to play. Aaaah!"
Doctor: "...." 
Doctor: "Security!"

Or in typical ss13 fashion the doctor wouldn't read what the assistant said and gives the ling bear arms.

[Nnystyxx]

See, I feel it would be more participatory than just foating around or the normal observe as a ghost. I'm sure I'm not the only person who, upon being killed, spends the rest of the round observing whomever killed me.

Giving folks the option to opt out and just be a regular ghost (with no ability to communicate with the ling) would eliminate anyone who wouldn't want to be a part of it from being forced to do so. 

Besides why shouldn't the ling be forced to hear the screams of the damned echoing in its mind for eternity.

This resolves the only issue I had with this idea.

likewise, I enjoy this idea

[atomic1fire]

That said, I think it would be cool if Ling could make it's own "drones" that could talk to it and hide in vents and disposal units. But that might be too derivative of an idea.

Imagine having a drone hide in brig and serve as the ling's eyes and ears though, occasionally knocking out sec officers for the ling to eat. Or maybe leave them as blobs of flesh that serve as snitches.

Is it headcrab or headspider? I'm going with headspider...

Headspider 2.0, dispatch absorbed dna (and corresponding player) into a headspider or random limb spider that can spread out and potentially attach itself to another player becoming a second ling. It would give away that there's a ling on station, the ling would lose an identity and eyes/ears, and adds a little excitement. 

Ling: "Doctor plese help. I need a new arm. I lost it in a skateboarding accident."
Poor Assistant Over Radio: "A disembodied arm just crawled past me in the maintenence tunnels. It's cute... I think it wants to play. Aaaah!"
Doctor: "...." 
Doctor: "Security!"

Or in typical ss13 fashion the doctor wouldn't read what the assistant said and gives the ling bear arms.

I know it may never happen, but I have this image of security hastly trying to catch a leg hopping around the station. Or a buttspider.


As for the original idea of changeling having a group of voices in his head I'm okay with that.

[babayetu83]

i like it

it sure would beat dying 3 minutes into the round from a changeling and being forced to go do something else for the next hour