Gas Mask Debuff Discussion

[RelentlessGarbage]

you know you can always just splash acid on them to melt it off, right? there's counterplay but you never see people melt people's clothes or belongings anymore

Acid doesn't get used because it isn't effective compared to other ways of handling troublesome people. I won't drag the discussion of the "stun meta" into this thread, but if you have someone doing crimes in a gas mask, your priority will probably not be to remove their gas mask first - it'll be to immobilize, subdue, or kill them. Then, once they're down, you'll pry their gas mask off and use it yourself. Yes, acid can be used to remove people's gear, but there are more accessible and more effective ways of dealing with threats wearing gasmasks. It would have to be a pretty exceptional situation for someone to prioritize attacking someone's mask with acid over shooting them with a taser or slipping them with space lube or a banana peel and chain-stunning them by throwing them into vending machines and glass tables.

In short, the counterplay exists, but it doesn't really address the problem, since it isn't nearly as easy to apply compared to the many other more effective options. And acid existing doesn't stop gas masks from being easily-accessible and powerful equipment with very limited downsides; it doesn't change the fact that there's no reason why you wouldn't want to wear a gas mask at nearly all times, barring things like delivering CPR (as if CPR is useful) or for meta concerns of being identified as an antag when you aren't one.

(Also, regarding people wanting to have purely decorative gas masks for the sake of the aesthetic, I'm all for that. New clothing booth item? It'd have to be really obvious that it's not a real gas mask, though.)