Nerf blob rates, remove blob buttons, no fun allowed

[Spy_Guy]

I don't really have an issue with the admins testing blob, but if you're gonna test a thing that impacts other people, announcing it probably wouldn't be a terrible idea. At the very least it wouldn't be immediately taken as bad luck or admin abuse.

Blob is a pretty hard game mode but it's really fun to watch people throw bombs or use flamethrowers in the battle to kill a thing consuming the station.

This normally makes sense, but if you announce you're gonna blob up to test it then you kind of invalidate your data. Normally blobs appear all sneaky-like, so if you test against a prepared crew they will come across as more powerful than they might otherwise be.

[Roomba]

I don't personally mind blobs appearing more often for the time being (round antag, event, admin spawned, etc). There's a huge deficit of people who can play a blob effectively enough to challenge the crew, and this would help bring people up to speed somewhat through trial and error.

The reverse is also true though, for every one dude that gets to try out blob there's several crewmembers who learn the best blob-fighting techniques (and promptly get tired of having to do it every round and make threads complaining about it, ad infinitum).

Also the element of surprise thing is kind of ruined for late-game blobs by a) the giant centcomm message that announces it, often too early for the blob to get a proper foothold, and b) blobs becoming so commonplace that the general reaction isn't 'fuck a blob' and more 'not this shit again, whip out the flamethrowers and/or call the shuttle'.

[BaneOfGiygas]

Also the element of surprise thing is kind of ruined for late-game blobs by a) the giant centcomm message that announces it, often too early for the blob to get a proper foothold

This is a point worth noting, and it might be worthwhile to tweak the delay between the blob spawning and the message appearing. The idea is that the blob should already be a considerable threat by the time the message is sent out, and as Roomba says, this is rarely the case.