[Antagonist] Parasite

[misto]

i guess the parasite might be able to like, squeeze the lungs or restrict bloodflow in order to incapacitate a host, but if they can do that, thered be no reason for them not to do it at the first opportunity, turning them into just another fast k.o. -> youredead antag akin to vamps and lings, but with reproduction advantage

we need to think up a good twist, a good hook, a good gimmick

maybe the parasite could get access to like, voice changer ability, but only for their host? and audio hallucinations? then they can try to trick the host and put them on a wild goose chase while they eat/mindcontrol them?

[Noah Buttes]

Weren't all 'infestation' game modes removed for explicit reasons?

You mean alien mode?

Yeah, it was complete and utter shit. Plus, we supposedly got slapped with a cease and desist from FOX or whoever it was.

[BurntCornMuffin]

Can't wait until they find Colonial Marines if that's the case.

[magic mountain]

the problem with alien was that everyone would just bumrush the aliens to die stupidly so they could turn into more aliens so they could rampage, hardly anyone would actually try to legitimately fight them.

that could have maybe been fixed but nobody wants to fuck with lawyers

[misto]

finding decent weapons was also more of a pain back then. flamethrowers were quite unimpressive at the time, and getting your mitts on a phaser or laser gun was nearly out of the question.

enough factors have changed that it could be worthwhile to try experimenting with a similar concept again, with homemade parasite sprites rather than movie aliens

what do you imagine these creatures looking like, youkcat? slugs, you said?

[YoukCat]

In my Idea Book, I drew a thing with a mouse head in a triangle shape, a thick line of thur seperating the two sections of body, and a weird sluggish thing behind it that slowly got smaller.

I'm not a great pixel artist, but if you show me how to get a picture onto this site I can try to draw a rough image of one.


Also, about the cooperations, perhaps the Parasite, instead of Modify, can purchase another power which is Genetic Modification.

It will give the parasite several powers, but he can only use one of them every 5 minutes.
Modify, as we all know,
Squeeze, which will stop oxygen from heading to the Host for 30 seconds,
Adrenaline Rush but without the Brain Damage,
and one-minute immunity to Oxy and Cold damage.

[Noah Buttes]

In my Idea Book, I drew a thing with a mouse head in a triangle shape, a thick line of thur seperating the two sections of body, and a weird sluggish thing behind it that slowly got smaller.

Something like this?

[YoukCat]

Yes. The Eye is on the head and the arms aren't there, and it'll be pretty much exact. Good job putting my words into a picture like that.

[Noah Buttes]

Yes. The Eye is on the head and the arms aren't there, and it'll be pretty much exact. Good job putting my words into a picture like that.

Oh god, that was supposed to be slime.

Now I'm stuck imagining a slug that is normal in absolutely every way except it has two buff sailor arms sticking out from the side.

[YoukCat]

WHY DiD YOU HAVE TO SPREAD THE IMAGE TO ME, OH DEAR GOD WHY

[Arborinus]

How about a more Symbiotic relationship? I think it would be more interesting than "kill person move on and kill next person"

What I'm imagining is during the initial infection period, the parasite would be almost undetectable. In order to grow the Parasite would give the Host things like a small stamina boost, slight health regen, etc. in subtle ways so that the Host never even notices.

Once the Parasite begins taking root, it will gain more and more control over the Host. At first the Parasite will need things to eat, so the Host will get messages about how hungry they are, and if they don't eat food fast they'll start wasting away (if the Host chooses to kill their parasite by starving themselves to death, then so be it.). After that the parasite will get an ability to briefly take complete control of the host, which lowers in cool down and increases in duration until a "Full Conversion" is made (a choice by the parasite), in which the Parasite takes over the brain/body and the Host is killed.

As time goes on the infected person will notice there's some sort of change, they're faster, stronger, better. The Parasite would begin choosing what parts of the person to replace, with increasing costs based on the power. Things like stronger skin, better organs, all the way up to claws, wings, exoskeletons and the like. Once the parasite is removed, however, all these systems completely fail, which means once the parasite has gotten too far the Host would need a heart replaced or something.

I think this would create some very interesting interactions between players:
Imagine a mutated assistant shoveling all the food in the bar in their mouth to the horror of bystanders.

A patient bursts into medbay with huge bone claws and begs for help from the doctors because he has no idea what's happening to him. But it's too late, the parasite takes over momentarily and slashes everyone to ribbons to the horror of the Host, who can do nothing to stop it.

A power-gamey player lets their Parasite grow to full strength after they realize they are infected, only to have his brain replaced by the Parasite and effectively die.

The parasite at some point should be able to send messages to the Host. Imagine a host and parasite that are forced to work as one and become friends by using their powers to take down changelings, wizards, traitors together.

[Noah Buttes]

words about symbiotic things

I like these ideas a lot.

We need more antagonists with subtlety.

[YoukCat]

Perhaps something like that could happen, but exclusive to the Queen and if she spent an extra 3 FP in order to choose a "King" as a host. One-use. Doing this she can begin to better her host, who would know due to having her burrowed into them. It would be best coupled with a Mind Slave.

But those are only my biased ideas for the Parasite.

[Nnystyxx]

words about symbiotic things

This is actually super cool.

I would love to see a parasite putting weird wavy messages in your brain a la the obsidian crown.

[ZeWaka]

Problem with the original idea is people won't try to defend themselves from the buggers since it can give them antagonist status. Same thing with aliens of old.

With the symbiotic (is it really symbiosis if you are killing the dude?) it seems much more like an antagonist that can't spread antag status which is nicer.