Make RP Changelings Scary Monsters and Not Poison Mixers

[Guv Guvington]

I still stand with it; changelings would be way more fun and scarier in rp if instead of stinging, you could turn into a toggleable mini-shambler.
Said mini-shambler could easily win a 1v1 fight in seconds, but fails miserably against groups.
The mini-shambler also should be more agile and keep its gear (but not use weapons).
Maybe only the arms and head become mutated, while the torso remains normal to keep all clothes on.


Obviously such a change would never happen as it would be a nightmare to implement and it would be a major difference in balancing and require lots of testing...
But god, imagine watching The Thing and its just a guy who makes everyone fall asleep for 90 minutes straight.

[Kotlol]

Will it cost DNA or something? If not.. then this is a huge balance shift for changelings I do not agree with.

Also if it costs DNA it's pointless.. since now you rather use it for an abomination arm.

[valtsu0]

It could be that like 5 or so seconds after tranforming your would gain an attack similar to slasher special attack or force jugging when that was a thing. So it would be a much less flexible and less stealthy sting, but a bit faster

[Egregorious]

imagine watching The Thing and its just a guy who makes everyone fall asleep for 90 minutes straight.

At the risk of being off-topically pendantic, that's kind of how the Thing operated in the movie. It never becomes an abomination unless cornered, and all the stealth kills might as well have been done through sleepy-stings.

Ingame though stealth kills could do with being a bit more visually interesting, all the victim gets other than being knocked out is a little line of text about a probiscus. It would be cool being grabbed by the abomination arm as part of a regular stealth kill, but I assume it costs as much as it does for a reason.

[Silent Majority]

I would like ling in general to have more morphs. Suggestion examples;

Thorasic Maw:.cage splits and opens. Chest replacee with a gaping mouth. Had a chance to automatically block melee and bite back for 20 with high bleed, timy chance to sever limb, 7 dna 90 seconds.

Unnerving Undulations: can move at regular speed when on the back, auto escape grabs, fits under doors, 6 dna for 30 seconds.

Digestige Enzymatic Vomit: 2 dna to vomit out a small pool of hydrochloric acid that can target a corpse, wiping all dnanand prints on it. Cool down shared with sting.

Secondary Head: 10 dna to replace one of their hands with a mutated and horrible head. Bites for damage +2 dna to thenchangling. Lasts 120 seconds. Can be hanf spidered to make a "false" head spider to throw off suspiscion and terrify

Pinneial Enhancement; gives 90 seconds to use 2 charges of adrenline surge. 5 dna.

Induced Deltic Giganricism: causes one arm to swell massively. Allows a short range tackle like the football uniform which auto shatters glass and windows. Perfeft for qn escspe. 7 for 60.


Just a few off the dome

[Chasu]

[...]
Unnerving Undulations: can move at regular speed when on the back, auto escape grabs, fits under doors, 6 dna for  30 seconds.
[...]

Gosh, I love the idea of a changeling crawling on its back and under doors. Hilarous and disturbing at the same time.

[Lefinch]

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.

[Outie]

Weren't there technically like 3 different Things in The Thing? Maybe buff or make limbspiders able to get stronger as they collect DNA points, to the point of almost becoming another fully-powered ling or something. Imagine an abom army late into the round? Gives victims something to have fun with.

[ju45he]

What if instead of instantly popping limbcritters off your body, you choose which hivemind member to assign to a limb so they get the ability to split off when they need to.

Imagine the ling you're beating to shit yells "Limbs, assemble!!" and all of their limbs pop off and start beating you up.


After typing this I realized it may have been inspired from my watching of some dark souls video where some guys are glitched to look like individual limbs and they all emote to get into the same position and look like a single person, just to split apart and beat people up.

[Glamurio]

Yeah honestly, the changeling should morph more. I love the suggestions of Silent. Just more things that make it more of a horror creature and less of a "guy but with stinging powers".

[Kotlol]

Well if we want to change a few things.. here are some others.

"increase paranoia"
And by doing that is...
More ways to frame others.

Right now I think the changeling's way of "Framing others" is too weak.
You have to kill someone, absorb them, remove the body and then you can finally frame someone for your "next" murder by changing them into a previous victim.
The problem is your framed victim will obiviously know you were nearby to sting em and now you wasted precious DNA to frame someone.
Probably changlings worst abillity in my opinion...Fun for gimmicks but worst one.

So I suggest a different sting. "Take a sample" from a victim.
YOU HEARD ME! Take a sample from a victim.
A sting that takes a simple sample from someone (no cost, no dna obtained) and now you can freely morph your hands into that person's hands or back to frame someone for your crimes.

But how will the victim know they got hit? They take 1% brute damage. Unnoticable at 1st.. but when a doctor notices it you will know you are stung.
This alone can have the changeling commit a crime (or deploy a handspider with the WRONG DNA profile ) to frame them as a changeling... temporarely throwing security for a loop.

I just think using the investigative tools against security is also a fun way of interacting with them as a changeling. Insted of: "I guess i am wearing gloves and dumping the body into space or down the garbage chute"
Now that body can be used to have security be distracted on the wrong guy!

[Guv Guvington]

imagine watching The Thing and its just a guy who makes everyone fall asleep for 90 minutes straight.

At the risk of being off-topically pendantic, that's kind of how the Thing operated in the movie. It never becomes an abomination unless cornered, and all the stealth kills might as well have been done through sleepy-stings.

Ingame though stealth kills could do with being a bit more visually interesting, all the victim gets other than being knocked out is a little line of text about a probiscus. It would be cool being grabbed by the abomination arm as part of a regular stealth kill, but I assume it costs as much as it does for a reason.

I agree with the last bit.
Imagine while doing the DNA succ, the ling's head becomes this large tryptophobic mutated flesh face that slowly envelops its victim to suck its juices, and turns back normal once the deed is done.
Im specifically thinking of the body horror in Fear and Hunger, LISA or even analog horror.
I feel like there are so many missed opertunities when it comes to body horror and beeing fucked up and terrifying, besides the obligatory escape shuttle shambler.
This is why I wish there was something like a weak shambler state rather than the sting; imagine your in maints and this guy walks up to you and instead of you falling asleep, he turns into this horrific flesh thing and assaults you.

[TDHooligan]

werewolf already takes the design space up for 'thing that transforms into murder thing and consumes corpses'

but i agree that stings have always been a "guess my round's over" kinda beat. new utilities would be nice, and a move away from the "end someone's round if they play nice" button.

a minor combat aug and some better tools to stop people screaming "LING MAINT" would be good