Goonhub
03-28-2015, 09:22 PM
To elaborate on Owlrich's point a bit more: Antagonists fall under different types of spheres and playstyles, and the way that the crew is intended to respond can be separated into two modes of operation: Investigation and action. The investigation/action relationship is a sliding scale. Wizards and blobs, for instance, are at the far "action" end: The challenge is not in figuring out who or where the antagonist is, but in figuring out how to kill the bastard. Changelings, meanwhile, are (probably intended to be) on the far "investigation" end. Due to their sneakiness and penchant for misdirection, a lot of the challenge in dealing with a changeling is more about figuring out who the changeling is.
Traitors are a mixed bag, and can go in varying spots on that scale. Your rampaging saberguys are further on the "action" end, your sneaky emaggers are on the "investigation" end. That's because, aside from their already-randomized and not even strictly necessary objectives, it is impossible to determine the motivation of a traitor before their plan is underway, and sometimes not even then. But with the other antagonists, it's easy. Syndies want the fukken disk, wizards want to murder everyone, blobs want to consume the station, wraiths want to cause chaos. You always have a general idea of what you're in for.
Unpredictability is what makes traitors traitors, and it's why they're the most common antagonist type. To bring this back around to the original point: If new antagonist types are to be introduced, they need to stand out from the standard traitor rounds in some manner, typically through a wildly different game pace or overall playstyle. As cool of an idea as this serial killer thing sounds, it just seems like a traitor with some pieces swapped out.
Traitors are a mixed bag, and can go in varying spots on that scale. Your rampaging saberguys are further on the "action" end, your sneaky emaggers are on the "investigation" end. That's because, aside from their already-randomized and not even strictly necessary objectives, it is impossible to determine the motivation of a traitor before their plan is underway, and sometimes not even then. But with the other antagonists, it's easy. Syndies want the fukken disk, wizards want to murder everyone, blobs want to consume the station, wraiths want to cause chaos. You always have a general idea of what you're in for.
Unpredictability is what makes traitors traitors, and it's why they're the most common antagonist type. To bring this back around to the original point: If new antagonist types are to be introduced, they need to stand out from the standard traitor rounds in some manner, typically through a wildly different game pace or overall playstyle. As cool of an idea as this serial killer thing sounds, it just seems like a traitor with some pieces swapped out.