Goonhub
08-12-2020, 01:19 PM
UNSTRUCTURED CHANGELING RAMBLINGS INCOMING
I'm going to go on a slight ramble about the feel and atmospher of Changelings and how I really think they are in a poor place currently. Now every Antag in my opinion has it's little "Place" in the theming of things. Traitors are normal crew but secretly bad. Werewolves are rampage machines, Blobs are whatever the hell, and Revs drive the theme of their rounds as well. In practice I find Changelings are not only unfun ooc'ly, but they overlap far too much with Traitor. In practice, Changeling does not feel like a horror movie monster theme, it feels like a normal dude with superpowers.
A good changeling is almost identical to a traitor except instead of gadgets it has Neuro (Sleepy pen), stealth identities (dna scrambler/voice changer), a heal, and shambler. Shambler is the only thing that gets slightly close to a more unique feel, and if you ask me I think Changeling should be entirely reworked. Critters are thematically interesting but far too weak in practice for their cost. I have some ideas for that, I may structure this more in it's own spreadsheet or a forum post but i'm going to spitball a few of the ideas I have here.
Problem: Changelings feel like traitors with a small twist, and fighting against them isn't really that fun. It feels like a human with powers, not a scary monster pretending to be a human. If every antag has a theme it tries to go for, i'd argue Changeling should shoot for "Spooky/Horror/Paranoia" Disregarding balance here's a few basic ideas. Up the body horror, less stun baton sec man with stings. Ideally people should know there's a ling without knowing who it is.
1. Rework it's abilities and how absorbing works. A current idea I am a fan of is that Ling would have two forms it can switch between. Stealth Form and Assimilation Form. It's stealth form is similar to normal humans, with a few more stealthy sneaky abilities, a nerfed neurotoxin sting. The interesting thing I would like is if it's human form was actually weaker than normal baseline humans. This is just a disguise - if it gets caught out it would have to transform and go spook mode.
The Assimilation Form wouldn't be a full shambler, but it'd be an interesting body horror creature with tentacles and other such. A sort of inbetween, with entirely different abilities - as well it would be completely anonymous and perhaps the Lings clothes could stay on underneath the flesh. You would have to transform into this form in order to assimilate people. Strong enough to 1v1 people and eat them, more fun abilities akin to Vampire and a louder approach. So ideally the ling would sting someone for a short stun, get them alone, go spook mode - if it's called out, it can escape and nobody knows who it is still. I also think Husked people should be glued to the floor as a permanent horror movie murder scene so you know "SOMEBODY DIED"
2. Hivemind and Absorbed people. Critters are neat, but I feel we can take the paranoia further. I think an ideal situation is for lings to feel like a spreading paranoia and people distrusting eachother instead of just a single person. So I think an ability should allow Lings to inject one of its husked areas for a cost or high tier ability - to put someone from its hivemind into it. It would gestate as a fleshy spooky coccoon before "hatching" back into the person eaten. Essentially as a doppelganger. They aren't very strong, and can turn into a form that looks identical to the lings assimilation form, but can't assimilate and is nerfed a bit. This would result in more paranoia as "Anyone could be it" instead of just the ling having to vomit out limbs that keep dying.
tl;dr - Changeling should be more body horror and have more spooky horror movie shit to add to the round. It might be a much more "intense" antag than it currently is, more along the line of rev rounds, but it would be fucking fun like a horror movie. Also this is just ideas, obviously not super balanced out well.
I'm going to go on a slight ramble about the feel and atmospher of Changelings and how I really think they are in a poor place currently. Now every Antag in my opinion has it's little "Place" in the theming of things. Traitors are normal crew but secretly bad. Werewolves are rampage machines, Blobs are whatever the hell, and Revs drive the theme of their rounds as well. In practice I find Changelings are not only unfun ooc'ly, but they overlap far too much with Traitor. In practice, Changeling does not feel like a horror movie monster theme, it feels like a normal dude with superpowers.
A good changeling is almost identical to a traitor except instead of gadgets it has Neuro (Sleepy pen), stealth identities (dna scrambler/voice changer), a heal, and shambler. Shambler is the only thing that gets slightly close to a more unique feel, and if you ask me I think Changeling should be entirely reworked. Critters are thematically interesting but far too weak in practice for their cost. I have some ideas for that, I may structure this more in it's own spreadsheet or a forum post but i'm going to spitball a few of the ideas I have here.
Problem: Changelings feel like traitors with a small twist, and fighting against them isn't really that fun. It feels like a human with powers, not a scary monster pretending to be a human. If every antag has a theme it tries to go for, i'd argue Changeling should shoot for "Spooky/Horror/Paranoia" Disregarding balance here's a few basic ideas. Up the body horror, less stun baton sec man with stings. Ideally people should know there's a ling without knowing who it is.
1. Rework it's abilities and how absorbing works. A current idea I am a fan of is that Ling would have two forms it can switch between. Stealth Form and Assimilation Form. It's stealth form is similar to normal humans, with a few more stealthy sneaky abilities, a nerfed neurotoxin sting. The interesting thing I would like is if it's human form was actually weaker than normal baseline humans. This is just a disguise - if it gets caught out it would have to transform and go spook mode.
The Assimilation Form wouldn't be a full shambler, but it'd be an interesting body horror creature with tentacles and other such. A sort of inbetween, with entirely different abilities - as well it would be completely anonymous and perhaps the Lings clothes could stay on underneath the flesh. You would have to transform into this form in order to assimilate people. Strong enough to 1v1 people and eat them, more fun abilities akin to Vampire and a louder approach. So ideally the ling would sting someone for a short stun, get them alone, go spook mode - if it's called out, it can escape and nobody knows who it is still. I also think Husked people should be glued to the floor as a permanent horror movie murder scene so you know "SOMEBODY DIED"
2. Hivemind and Absorbed people. Critters are neat, but I feel we can take the paranoia further. I think an ideal situation is for lings to feel like a spreading paranoia and people distrusting eachother instead of just a single person. So I think an ability should allow Lings to inject one of its husked areas for a cost or high tier ability - to put someone from its hivemind into it. It would gestate as a fleshy spooky coccoon before "hatching" back into the person eaten. Essentially as a doppelganger. They aren't very strong, and can turn into a form that looks identical to the lings assimilation form, but can't assimilate and is nerfed a bit. This would result in more paranoia as "Anyone could be it" instead of just the ling having to vomit out limbs that keep dying.
tl;dr - Changeling should be more body horror and have more spooky horror movie shit to add to the round. It might be a much more "intense" antag than it currently is, more along the line of rev rounds, but it would be fucking fun like a horror movie. Also this is just ideas, obviously not super balanced out well.