Remove or reduce spatial tears

[Xaviens]

Spatial tears are exceptionally frustrating at the best of times, and can be downright gamebreaking at others. Recently there was one seconds after a shuttle call, which lasted through the entire call, and departure, and halfway through transit (Roughly 8 minutes).

While historically I have seen amusing things happen with them (Antag caught on one side, horde of angry sec on the other side), they are generally unfun, and cannot be bypassed without a very specific genepower, magic, or teleportation.

I would like to see the duration reduced to a maximum of 3 minutes, with a complete removal at the no-recall point of a shuttle call.

Thoughts?

[UrsulaMejor]

I think the possibility of missing the shuttle can often be super tense; the race to get to a pod and then warp th the other side (or use Return To Station button if there's no appropriate warp point) can be really fun

getting the ai to portasci you across is also a viable option that can lead to some fun mishaps

I agree with cutting down the time, though, 8m seems excessive

[Drago156]

I pretty much agree with this, fuck spatial tears. Although you can get through them with the PTL and I think also loaves.

[polivilas]

Poke AI, or MD, or RD to 'ferry' you over with their tools (port-a-medbay, port-a-sci) - works quite well if other person is cooperative.

[Carbadox]

I think they're fine for as uncommon that they are, they're annoying but that's the point of random events.

[aft2001]

I agree with reducing the duration of the random event for the aforementioned reasons.

Also if the AI is NEX-13 please never hesitate to poke me and ask for a teleport. I am usually utterly bored and want something to do. Hell I even announce that I can teleport people and I rarely have the offer taken.

But in all seriousness, the duration should be reduced. The stress of missing the shuttle should still definitely exist, but it shouldn't be a "well if you don't know what to do you're guaranteed to miss it" situation, rather a "if you don't act fast and smart, you'll maybe miss it" - you could always risk it and just wait it out if it's a shortened duration, provided the duration is somewhat random.

[KikiMofo]

I mean they are suppose to be annoying.

[OMJ]

It is there to inconvenience you

[zjdtmkhzt]

Some people are saying that events are there to be annoying, but shouldn't they really be there to make things more interesting? Stuff like the radiation bursts and wasps at least give you things to do, and the radstorms at least make it exciting to run to maint (even if you gotta stand around doing fuckall for a long time there).

I mean, spatial tears can produce fun situations, but I feel like reducing their average duration would still result in the same amount of funny situations like sec being cutoff or whatever while also cutting down on the parts where you gotta wait forever to continue doing your job.

[KikiMofo]

Ive had many times where either I was detective/HoS and chasing someone or trying to get somewhere that there is a bad guy but then suddenly OH NO A SPACIAL TEAR. Or the reverse happens where Im a bad guy and I get saved by a tear.
What Im saying is it does make things interesting and change stuff during the round. Also people can get to the other side of a tear with alittle bit a of effort via teleporters or the med beds or the portasci. There are ways of getting around it.

[Dickles]

I do like spacial tears, even right when the shuttle arrives. I agree with reducing the time though; their novel appearance can wear off pretty fast when they are really in the way for way too long.

[Frank_Stein]

I think spatial tears could be made more fun if there were several smaller ones and they would open and close randomly

[Wisecrack34]

What if Spatial Tears acted as teleporters with the destination depending on which side you enter from. You would go to some sort of alternate dimension with some light loot and a tear on either side that would spit you back out on the other end of the tear. The time limit could be put in the 5-8 minute range, as you could now traverse it on foot as a staff assistant.

[GORE]

Some people are saying that events are there to be annoying, but shouldn't they really be there to make things more interesting? Stuff like the radiation bursts and wasps at least give you things to do, and the radstorms at least make it exciting to run to maint (even if you gotta stand around doing fuckall for a long time there).

I mean, spatial tears can produce fun situations, but I feel like reducing their average duration would still result in the same amount of funny situations like sec being cutoff or whatever while also cutting down on the parts where you gotta wait forever to continue doing your job.

I think they are quite interesting. Also there are a bunch of ways to pass the barrier - so I think those spatial tears are fine as they are.

[kyle2143]

I once made a patch to change spatial tears before I was an admin that I thought was a good compromise for changing them from being very tedious and boring. It didn't get an overly positive reception iirc so I never merged it as an admin but here's the gist:
Spatial tears can be crossed, but when you enter a spatial tear tile you are spit out on a random tile adjacent to the tear on the opposite side, taking some damage, possibly losing a limb or organ. Making them still quite dangerous to cross, but not if you take preparations. I also made an event that is multiple spatial tears for more chaos.

Here's the patch. https://forum.ss13.co/showthread.php?tid=10517