Make the genetic booth show who added the mutations

[Frank_Stein]

I mean, the guy went through the trouble of getting the ability so they can use it to get out of a fight, that seems fair to me. You can just get a hypospray with mutadone to remove it if you know they have it.
But I do concede that it would be very annoying to try to brig them, seeing as they could just use it once you take your eyes off them and you would not know how they escaped, so you wouldn't know that you need to mutadone them next time.

Making the name of the geneticist who put the mutation into the gene booth apparent would not really fix that issue though, would it? A criminal can still just get the mutation before you lock/clear the gene booth, or they could get it from genetics directly.
And arresting the geneticist who just wanted people to have a useful mutation won't solve the problem of the teleporting criminal at all.


So to me this seems much more like a balance issue with that specific mutation.
Presumably the geneticists would want to synchronize it for the gene booth so that it does not leave all the clothing/ID/other stuff behind, which would mean the person using it has at least a 5% chance of losing an organ, but that doesn't seem like a great way to balance it to me, way too rng.

What if biomass manipulation additionally had a passive visual effect on the person so you can tell who has it, similarly to things like telekinesis/hulk/heat/cold resistance. That seems consistent, since those are also abilities where it is important that people know when someone has them, so they can take measures to counteract them.


As for other mutations, I don't think any of those would be that problematic? The only other one I can think of that would let you escape prison is hulk, and that already has a visual effect, so you know if a person has it.

My main point is: Don't put the onus on geneticists here, put it on the people who use their mutations for crime. Not being allowed to give any of the crew mutations that could potentially be used for crime is just not fun at all.

Gotta agree with this POV. Part of the fun of the sandbox nature of stuff is
A. Having prepared for it ahead of time and it not being an issue
B. Coming up with an ad hoc solution to it (More fun imo)

Which isn't to say there aren't issues with the power in and of itself, but that's more about balance and tweaking things.
I do think if you're playing a round as Sec and genetics powers are giving you a headache, you can still in turn give the Geneticists a headache as well. Tell AI to shut off their equipment or something, and pull rank if they complain. Try to build off of it in a way that gets them involved in the whole mess