Goonhub
10-29-2024, 06:49 PM
Frankly, my days of coding are well behind me, but if I were ever to come back for something, it would be a big project looking at changelings and crafting a dynamic that this thread and like four other threads this year (and likely a thousand discord conversations and older ones before my time) around what I think is a pretty succinct title: make them more of a monster.
But I'm also here to advocate for the changeling as is: I think you can be plenty monstrous with your current tools and a bit of thinking, I hope on my best days I've managed to do that and I've certainly seen others do so: Mimic voicing over the radio to mock and taunt the crew. Poisoning food and drinks at a big event or party. "Going to pieces" at a wedding or funeral. A lot of my favourite rounds have included changeling gameplay. I personally think they get tarred with a "suspension of disbelief" brush about things being a bit obvious when I could also apply that brush to pretty much any other antagonist the moment they start spraying a wall, walking around in salvage gear, or I hear a sparking nearby. I'm fine with it, and on RP as long as its done with some style that's kind of what I'm here for to begin with.
That's not to say I don't think we could craft something better too, I think the reason this discussion keeps coming up is there is something in the formula of being a changeling right now that does not quite "click" for a lot of players and if there's a way to make that happen then I'm behind it. But I'm also saying that I don't think that comes from one little tweak or change like this, I think it comes from a big ambitious project involving someone who is really, really passionate behind it pushing for it. If ever I'm deranged enough to actually get into coding here: I promise I'll be behind whoever or end up doing it myself (don't hold your breath)
But what I actually think is Changeling is ultimately pretty good if you're lucky to see some good examples of it in play, and that if anything ideas like this might actually be better put towards some kind of new, shiny antagonist dynamic than folded into a current one.
Who says the Thing ripoff has to have all the fun? We could have some kind of Ruina Love Town meat beast horror. We could take the gene fiend meme and turn it up to 11 into some bioshock-esque mutant. You could dump the more physical shifter concept and go a little more ethereal: Some kind of dimension-shifting teleport-related monster from beyond the stars that lurks behind every innocent use of telesci or mechcomp teleport, corrupting or emerging from pod warps, dimensional tears, the shuttle warp corridor...You get the idea. I personally think it's easier to sell people on a "new" concept than tweak a longstanding one sometimes. Just my button and bit of lint I'm substituting for two cents.
But I'm also here to advocate for the changeling as is: I think you can be plenty monstrous with your current tools and a bit of thinking, I hope on my best days I've managed to do that and I've certainly seen others do so: Mimic voicing over the radio to mock and taunt the crew. Poisoning food and drinks at a big event or party. "Going to pieces" at a wedding or funeral. A lot of my favourite rounds have included changeling gameplay. I personally think they get tarred with a "suspension of disbelief" brush about things being a bit obvious when I could also apply that brush to pretty much any other antagonist the moment they start spraying a wall, walking around in salvage gear, or I hear a sparking nearby. I'm fine with it, and on RP as long as its done with some style that's kind of what I'm here for to begin with.
That's not to say I don't think we could craft something better too, I think the reason this discussion keeps coming up is there is something in the formula of being a changeling right now that does not quite "click" for a lot of players and if there's a way to make that happen then I'm behind it. But I'm also saying that I don't think that comes from one little tweak or change like this, I think it comes from a big ambitious project involving someone who is really, really passionate behind it pushing for it. If ever I'm deranged enough to actually get into coding here: I promise I'll be behind whoever or end up doing it myself (don't hold your breath)
But what I actually think is Changeling is ultimately pretty good if you're lucky to see some good examples of it in play, and that if anything ideas like this might actually be better put towards some kind of new, shiny antagonist dynamic than folded into a current one.
Who says the Thing ripoff has to have all the fun? We could have some kind of Ruina Love Town meat beast horror. We could take the gene fiend meme and turn it up to 11 into some bioshock-esque mutant. You could dump the more physical shifter concept and go a little more ethereal: Some kind of dimension-shifting teleport-related monster from beyond the stars that lurks behind every innocent use of telesci or mechcomp teleport, corrupting or emerging from pod warps, dimensional tears, the shuttle warp corridor...You get the idea. I personally think it's easier to sell people on a "new" concept than tweak a longstanding one sometimes. Just my button and bit of lint I'm substituting for two cents.