Deadchat Plays Spaceman (Antag idea)

[Isaacs Alter Ego]

My idea is simple, though if its possible coding-wise, who can say. The idea is an antagonist known as the Amalgalm.
The Amalgam only appears in a random event that can trigger once there are at least 10+ dead players. It is a normal human with average staff-assistant gear and access, and always starts with an active Telekinesis mutation. It requires no oxygen or spacesuit, and is somewhat resistant (but not immune) to stuns. The main visual difference from the regular crew would be constant ectoplasm leaking behind it in a trail wherever it moves.

But it has a serious drawback: It is inhabited and controlled by every single person in deadchat that so chooses. Upon the start of the event, every ghost player would receive a prompt to begin controlling the Amalgalm, and once a short period has passed, each player will be plopped into the body. Every player will have full control over the body and thus the convulsing pile of ghosts must fight over every single decision, from moving a single block south, to whether or not they should finish psychically choking out the captain from across the hall.  All the fun of Twitch Plays Pokemon, but in 2D Spaceman form. Every soul in the amalgalm could communicate with each other, and every player killed by the Amalgalm will be absorbed into the fold as one of the new spirits fighting for control. Because of this, the suicide and succumb commands would have to be disabled by default, and possibly the ability target yourself for attacks as well.

The potential to get completely destroyed by the first person to come across it is fairly high, but such is life on space station 13. I think it would be a curiosity and a fun distraction for the crew more than a real threat, but every so often if a group of cooperative players decide to work together, it could wreak some real havoc.

Thoughts? Comments?

[Erik]

Interesting idea.

[atamusvaleo]

Interesting indeed. I had a similar idea for the changeling, in that everyone he absorbed was truly absorbed. Essentially, a forced observe. The people absorbed can communicate only with the ling and each other giving the ling all of the knowledge of the people he/she's absorbed. Seems to make perfect sense to me...

Back to your idea though. Sounds like an imbroglio in the making and I'm all for it!

[TheNewTeddy]

I.... actually like this. Unsure of if it would work due to lag problems, but if it can be made to work, this would be amazing.

[misto]

sounds like a weak and easy to spot antag. what would its objectives be?

[ZeWaka]

MORE ANTAGS YES

But seriously, a really cool idea. It's very unique as well!

[Frank_Stein]

You know, I really like this idea, but we already have a ghost antag. How about if the theme was changed from "spectral" to "glitch" and instead of ectoplasm it left a trail of data corruption?

[medsal15]

I want this.

You know, I really like this idea, but we already have a ghost antag. How about if the theme was changed from "spectral" to "glitch" and instead of ectoplasm it left a trail of data corruption?

And this too.

[Mageziya]

I really think there's potential here for something great.

[atomic1fire]

I feel like this poses obvious meta issues, unless it's so glitched out no one knows what it's saying like the transposed scientist.

Then again, deadchat hating one person so much they'd join forces to murder that fool would be hilarious.

Another take on it would be to just make them a sanitarium escapee with multiple personalities. 

CENTCOM ANNOUNCEMENT

We have reason to believe a schizophrenic escapee from Space Asylum Zeta has gone aboard the station and may be hiding amongst the crew. While some of their personalities may be docile, this patient is prone to rapid changes in personality that make them a threat. This person also suffers severe delusions and may believe anything ranging from "they were murdered" to "they are in fact a cow". If the escapee attacks then handle with extreme caution. Lethal force is optional but may be necessary. This Escapee suffers psychotic episodes but is extremely manipulative and may do anything to "prove" they are someone or something else. 

[Mageziya]

Maybe, as was slightly suggested earlier, don't have it be organic. Make it some sort of multi-dimensional thingy, with weird artifact effects, changing colors, chromatic aberration, ect.

EDIT: I decided to try and make some quick mock-ups.




While this does look cool, it's probably be harder to make than the actual code. Sort of a sketchy thing with lots of frames, and it also sorta physically hurts to look at after a while while spriting.

[Erik]

The code could be quite simple, just give other ghosts control over the body after a timer runs out.

[Nnystyxx]

I like the 'supernatural glitch' idea. Seems like a thrilling antag/wonky thing to have happen.

[Isaacs Alter Ego]

For objectives, I think they would mostly just be a generic "Escape on the shuttle without getting destroyed" or "Reach a mass of 15 souls", something pretty simple since even without complex orders, they would rarely be reached anyway.

For theme: I'll admit the flavor came secondary to the idea. My idea was literally just Ermac from Mortal Kombat (a mass of souls put together in a single human body) so I'll do some thinking about an alternate style idea that doesn't step on the Wraith's toes so much. I like the alternate dimension/glitch area idea, I'd just want something that still clearly communicates the "tons of people wrestling over control" idea. The escaped prisoner one is a good one, too, since it does cover that, but I'm not sure how you'd make it visually distinct from regular crew.

[Mageziya]

For some reason I really like this idea and the scrappy thing I made earlier, so I spent time making this:



It took me two hours, I'm missing lots of details, it doesn't look erratic enough to me, and I have to burning desire to stare at literally nothing for a few minutes.

Even though I don't have the time, skill, or dedication to make an full blown thing if this suggestion ever hits the coders. Also, looking at it, I completely forgot to put any form of distortion on the body itself, which would be present if this thing ever happened. This would probably take an sprite wizard like gannets to actually look like the intentions. In the end, this adds jack shit to the discussion.

As for objectives, it is an antag, so it could probably kill people. It's objective might be to hunt specific people, or just to do weird shit to the station, like a wraith, but in a more physical manner.

In terms of physical features, it should definitely be space proof, maybe even space-motile. This will prevent the ghost antics from causing it to immediately perish or being lost to the void.