Cult of the Blob

[Podrick Equus]

[Edit: Added a bunch of suggestions to the game mechanics. I suppose you could consider this an alternative game mode, rather than a rework]

Many people I've seen in discussion about the Blob seem to view it unfavorably as an antagonist as it is usually "not very fun" to play against, even when you are winning. I had an idea that might remedy that, and I'm ready for it to be torn to shreds.

As many of you probably know, some other servers have a Blood Cultist as an antagonist. The goal of the cultist is to sacrifice people to summon a dark god to wreak havoc on the station. When I read about it, I had a thought: What if we had something like that, but instead of worshiping a dark god, they worshiped the Blob instead?

The purpose of this "Cult of the Blob" would be simple: Ensure that their gelatinous master grows and devours the entire station.

In regards to how this might actually work as far as game mechanics go, I have the following thoughts.

• There is only One Blob, not two.
  
• The number of Cultists would be proportional to the number of crew members (1 Cultist for every 10 Crew I suppose? Math is hard)
  
• The Cultists start the round like normal crew members, and are indistinguishable from them. As the Blob grows, they start to transform into human shaped blobs, revealing their servitude. They become slower, and actions may take longer to complete. Medicine heals less, or not at all. They become more resistant to brute damage and more vulnerable to fire and certain poisons. Eventually, their heads may take on the shape of a nucleus. (and no headgear can be worn to conceal it)
  
• If a Cultist strays too far from the Blob, they start to slowly lose health. Being near or touching the Blob would slowly restore that lost health. This would not heal Cultists from damage inflicted by other sources.
  
• The Cultists share a hivemind-type chat with the Blob and each other.
  
• The Cultists possess no spells initially, but can gain some (weak spells) as the Blob grows.
  
• The Cultists cannot recruit new members conventionally. Anyone who is absorbed by the Blob can be "revived" as a lesser Blobling(name pending?) with limited ability to interact with the world. If they stray too far from the Blob, they will lose health rapidly. The Blob would need to spend resources and research an upgrade in order to create a Blobling.
  
• The Blob may also revive dead Cultists as Bloblings.
  
• Bloblings and Cultists that have undergone visual transformations are not considered Human by synthetics.
  
• If the Blob's final nucleus dies, a Cultist may perform a ritual (A spell with 30 seconds of self-harm and standing still?) to sacrifice themselves to create a new nucleus. If multiple Cultists try to create Nuclei at a time, only the first once succeeds. The new Nucleus is controlled by the same Blob player that died earlier.
  
• The round does not end until the Blob has been dead for at least 3(?) minutes, or until it consumes 500 tiles' worth of space like the current blob objective.
  

The presence of human servants to the Blob would allow for several weaknesses of the Blob to be remedied, such as being spotted early or being overwhelmed. The Cultists could "prepare" an area by cutting the camera wires so the A.I. can't see, or by bolting and guarding doors to allow the Blob to expand.

The hope behind this idea is that it'd make the Blob more fun and interactive as a whole. I hope that this is interesting enough to warrant discussion.