Goonhub
09-18-2020, 11:42 PM
After watching some movies and playing Carrion recently, I've got this idea in my head about a new antag.
It has some similar concepts to Changeling, so maybe it's not a fully realized idea yet, but let's see if we can go somewhere with it.
BODY SNATCHERS
The concept of the body snatcher-type monster has been around for about 70 years, spanning novels, films, games, and more. The idea is that there is some kind of alien race that "duplicates" people, usually consuming the original person in the process to produce a perfect copy replication of the original, with knowledge of memories and past events, but still sort of "wrong": they don't act right or talk right, or they act cold or odd in ways they normally wouldn't act.
Depending on the work, the duplication process changes, but generally there's some kind of condition the person has to be in (asleep is the original one) and they generally gestate in a pod of some kind. Commonly, the Body Snatchers are shown to be based on some kind of plant-based life, and the pods are leafy or green.
In some works, the Body Snatchers have strange abilities that let them work together as a group.
PUTTING IT INTO SS13 TERMS
The concept that I am coming up with is a biomass based antagonist (sort of like the player creature in Carrion). The antag has to eat carbon based stuff (so basically any food) to build up a biomass core that they can then regurgitate into a locker or crate to build a cocoon or chrysalis. This pod functions sort of like the borg-prison artifact, in that the person throw into the locker is slowly dissolved and then rebuilt back into themselves as a Body Snatcher.
I did a quick sprite of what the basic locker "pod" might look like. I did a planty version and a meaty version.
![[Image: cjSzVJF.gif]](https://i.imgur.com/cjSzVJF.gif)
![[Image: 6Rs1Twx.gif]](https://i.imgur.com/6Rs1Twx.gif)
Once a pod is created and used, it enters a remissive state where more biomass has to be added into the pod to grow another person. Once a pod is used, it can only make copies of the first person that got put in there. There is a cooldown per pod, but any dead pod players can keep respawning in a functional and stocked pod as long as the pod is functional.
BODY SNATCHER PROPERTIES
I would imagine the copied body snatcher players should have a lower total HP pool in order to make up for their mass numbers. The theme of a sort of station infection comes to mind: they are essentially cloning rapidly and need to be pushed back and their nests destroyed.
In medbay, body snatchers that have a pod ready to regurgitate have a "foreign object" detected within them. Weed killer splashed on a body snatcher eventually causes them to vomit writhing, planty vomit as parts of their weird alien systems die off.
Snatchers have a screech that lets them mark out a specific target for all body snatchers to see (this might need some work, but I feel a screech of some kind should be beneficial.
I think, as the pod people grow in number and start to become numerous, they should be able to spread some kind of biomass infection into machines like the cloning pod, gene pods, and vehicles to further expand their abilities. Sort of like claiming buildings to gain new abilities or further their spread.
I created some sprites a long time ago about growing people as a clone substitute concept for botany that I think could be useful here, despite this becoming an antag concept.
![[Image: PpEW2uC.gif]](https://i.imgur.com/PpEW2uC.gif)
![[Image: eXgKgnj.png]](https://i.imgur.com/eXgKgnj.png)
Thoughts? Ideas?
It has some similar concepts to Changeling, so maybe it's not a fully realized idea yet, but let's see if we can go somewhere with it.
BODY SNATCHERS
The concept of the body snatcher-type monster has been around for about 70 years, spanning novels, films, games, and more. The idea is that there is some kind of alien race that "duplicates" people, usually consuming the original person in the process to produce a perfect copy replication of the original, with knowledge of memories and past events, but still sort of "wrong": they don't act right or talk right, or they act cold or odd in ways they normally wouldn't act.
Depending on the work, the duplication process changes, but generally there's some kind of condition the person has to be in (asleep is the original one) and they generally gestate in a pod of some kind. Commonly, the Body Snatchers are shown to be based on some kind of plant-based life, and the pods are leafy or green.
In some works, the Body Snatchers have strange abilities that let them work together as a group.
PUTTING IT INTO SS13 TERMS
The concept that I am coming up with is a biomass based antagonist (sort of like the player creature in Carrion). The antag has to eat carbon based stuff (so basically any food) to build up a biomass core that they can then regurgitate into a locker or crate to build a cocoon or chrysalis. This pod functions sort of like the borg-prison artifact, in that the person throw into the locker is slowly dissolved and then rebuilt back into themselves as a Body Snatcher.
I did a quick sprite of what the basic locker "pod" might look like. I did a planty version and a meaty version.
Once a pod is created and used, it enters a remissive state where more biomass has to be added into the pod to grow another person. Once a pod is used, it can only make copies of the first person that got put in there. There is a cooldown per pod, but any dead pod players can keep respawning in a functional and stocked pod as long as the pod is functional.
BODY SNATCHER PROPERTIES
I would imagine the copied body snatcher players should have a lower total HP pool in order to make up for their mass numbers. The theme of a sort of station infection comes to mind: they are essentially cloning rapidly and need to be pushed back and their nests destroyed.
In medbay, body snatchers that have a pod ready to regurgitate have a "foreign object" detected within them. Weed killer splashed on a body snatcher eventually causes them to vomit writhing, planty vomit as parts of their weird alien systems die off.
Snatchers have a screech that lets them mark out a specific target for all body snatchers to see (this might need some work, but I feel a screech of some kind should be beneficial.
I think, as the pod people grow in number and start to become numerous, they should be able to spread some kind of biomass infection into machines like the cloning pod, gene pods, and vehicles to further expand their abilities. Sort of like claiming buildings to gain new abilities or further their spread.
I created some sprites a long time ago about growing people as a clone substitute concept for botany that I think could be useful here, despite this becoming an antag concept.
Thoughts? Ideas?