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Small Changeling Adjustment Ideas - Body Horror Time
#1
I originally was thinking about this a lot in another Changeling related idea thread. I figured it would be a better idea to put it in it's own thread instead of hijacking the other concept. I have a lot of changeling ideas, but baby steps. This should be relatively simple to code I believe. Currently Changeling is my favorite antagonist, and it has a lot of potential, but also a lot of problems. 

Currently I understand the need for neurotoxin, but I also think it's role as a Lings "Main/Basic" ability is flawed, and just results in the Ling haphazardly stinging anyone they walk past if it's off cooldown. Rounds may result in good Lings never even being known to the station at all, and interaction with it being a stun -> succ.

Primary Suggestion 
(What this is all about in the first place.)
-> Neurotoxin now costs DNA points. I'm thinking 4-6. Otherwise it's unchanged. This will require lings to save Neurotoxin for strategic targets, instead of just spamming it everytime its off cooldown on anyone within range. Neurotoxin will still exist, it will still be used, it should just no longer be spammed on every baldie in the hallway just for walking past them. They'll have to think before they act.

-> In exchange, Arm Claw (Not the tendril) is now free, this is now the Lings "Basic" self defense ability instead of sting. A claw arm+acid spit is more than enough to solo someone you lured into maintenance, but not robust enough to take on the rest of the crew, obviously. Changelings will have to be clever still. It also is a bit more engaging for the victim to actually fight someone, and gives some body horror spooks. This will result in Ling encounters occasionally being more "Loud" which I think is a good thing, they will still be stealthy, but the crew may be engaged a bit more, the Ling will be forced to wash clothes/change identities more.

-> Tldr: Neurotoxin gets a cost. Arm Claw is free. Swap.

EDIT ADJUSTMENT
Alternative Neurotoxin Adjustment
(Incase you think the first option is stinky.)
-> Have neurotoxin inject less than usual. 30u instead of 50u, but change acid spit so that it covers your mouth and causes some suffocation damage instead. Now for a Ling to fully stun someone for long enough, they'll have to combine it with acid spit. Ideally this would result in moving some of Neurotoxins power and redistributing it into Acid spit, which is argurably slightly weak at the moment. Either way it means Changelings can combo the two to properly keep someone down.
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Potential Suggestions?
(This needs more thought put into it, and this might not be the best way to implement it.)
-> Give Lings a way to gather DNA points besides perma-kill succ'ing. A way to get (Less) DNA points, but it doesn't require a full kill. With the other changes, Changeling will be "Slightly" more loud, (Which is a good thing, they're still stealthy, but there's room for being smart about it.) They may not always be able to get a full succ off, and with a bit of body horror spookage, could add another small ability. I had a few ideas for how it could work.

Option A: I'm thinking an ability as a chomp to the neck. "Bob Jones' face splits open into a serrated jaw and bites down on Sally Smithers neck!" A quick little ability that does damage, silences their voice so they can't use a radio for 30 seconds (It restricted airflow), and gives them 2-3 DNA. You can't harvest DNA points from the same victim more than once every 5 minutes, to prevent "Farming". You can only use this ability if you have at least an aggressive grab.

Option B: Absorbing someone no longer gives a full 10 DNA points for finishing it, but instead slowly gathers the points. Same amount of time for a full suck, but perhaps make the proboscis stab a little earlier, and tweak it so it does damage over time as the ling does some juicy sucking. So they can get some partial DNA suckage.

Option C: You know how handspider can gnaw on people for a little bit of DNA points? Let's just have that with the normal claw arm. I don't favor this idea as much since it might be "too easy" to get DNA points and you'll result in Changelings with 100 points in permanent shambler form.
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Ideal Result due to Change:
Changeling is now slightly more loud and has to be clever about it's targets and what it does, less it be caught early. Changeling is slightly more robust in single combat now, a single claw won't allow them to take on many people, but should result in more interesting engagements. Neurotoxin still exists, it will still be used, it should just be used with more thought behind it, and not on anyone all the time. Peoples experience with Changeling should be less about "I didn't know there was a ling all round until I got stung". and more "We're dealing with some spooky monster that keeps changing forms, we don't know who it is."

The goal of Antagonists is to create a fun round, at the moment, a good Changeling will be unknown to 90% of the crew besides "There is a changeling around." Any individual interactions with it are being stung because someone walked past you, and then sucked. I think these changes are simple enough little tweaks, but will have a resounding effect on the feel of the gamemode as a whole. Ideally for the better. I already feel this would work well as some of my most fun changeling rounds are ones in which I nerf myself by not using Neurotoxin, and going into a point for being slightly more loud.

Tl;dr - Make arm claw free, give neuro a dna cost = lings have to be slightly more clever + less salt + cool points for body horror

Feedback and Critique is welcome, thanks for your time. If this is accepted, I do not expect every single one of these little ideas to be implimented perfectly exactly. The main core of this suggestion that I want is the simple swap of Claw/Neuro. The rest is just other relatively simple tweaks.

                                                                                        - Sincerely, Someone Obsessed with The Thing. (Prepare for more Changeling suggestions later.)

Bonus Suggestion: Let Changelings use Regenerative Stasis even while stunned so they can fake their death easier, thanks.
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#2
Quick Addition. I was talking in Discord about this suggestion with others, and they brought up a few concerns, as well as MBC mentioining an idea that I was also a rather fan of, so i'm adding that as an alternative to the Primary suggestion.

Alternative Neurotoxin Adjustment
(Incase you think the first option is stinky.)
-> Have neurotoxin inject less than usual. 30u instead of 50u, but change acid spit so that it covers your mouth and causes some suffocation damage instead. Now for a Ling to fully stun someone for long enough, they'll have to combine it with acid spit. Ideally this would result in moving some of Neurotoxins power and redistributing it into Acid spit, which is argurably slightly weak at the moment. Either way it means Changelings can combo the two to properly keep someone down.

Also just want to clarify, my purpose with these suggestions is just that I feel too much of Changelings power is reliant on one ability, and I would just like to split it up between some of its existing weaker abilities, simply for playstyle variation purposes, and because I think it would be more interesting.

I'd also like to mention that if anyone else has little changeling ideas or tweaks you think might fit the antag, this can be a good place to discuss it!
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#3
Yeah these are all pretty awful ideas, especially making neurosting cost DNA and making the ling "louder" in general.

Ling is fine. Shambler needs some minor to moderate buffs (hive limbs, resistance/immunity to being pushed/disarmed, literally dis-arming people who try to disarm it, etc).
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#4
I’m new and don’t understand anything so my opinion probably sucks but I like it at least, it sounds like it can still be stealthy. A few of the ideas are neat. Terrible is a bit harsh.

I only been in some ling rounds but I didnt like how for a monster all it did was sleep everyone in the hallway.

Maybe i dont understand the role but it wasnt fun or interesting compared to a man with a sword and bombs.

At least a few of these i think can be worth a shot
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#5
The point behind the neurosting is to SILENCE the person you are trying to eat. If you remove that all you will get is lings getting laser guns or other guns and just murdering people first before giving them the SUCC
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#6
I think the sting is good for incapacitating someone that could fight back, but I think if the ling had another ability that was more in line with how fiber wire works: A good ambush grab that prevents them from calling out.

I think making the tendril arm that works, since it  reasonably choke someone out while preventing them from screaming out. This would also buff Shambling Abomination with powerful grabs
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#7
(03-29-2019, 08:09 AM)KikiMofo Wrote: The point behind the neurosting is to SILENCE the person you are trying to eat. If you remove that all you will get is lings getting laser guns or other guns and just murdering people first before giving them the SUCC

I feel like people are misunderstanding me, this suggestion is very far from removing Neurotoxin, just making it less readily available. Adding a small DNA cost to Neurotoxin is not removing it, 4 dna means 2 Neuro Stings per succ. In my opinion this will only result in neurotoxin being used more strategically, instead of being risk-free. Of course, I also have opted to have suggestions to have other abilities be variable to give Lings OTHER options of stunning and silencing people.

Shambling Abomination does need stun resist at the least though. I'll agree on that.

This isn't removing Neurotoxin, this isn't making Lings unable to be stealthy, in my opinion I just feel too much of Changeling "stealth" and "gameplay" is reliant around Neurosting. Which is okay, but I want to perhaps make some other abilities faintly more reliable, while still leaving Neurotoxin useful.

(03-29-2019, 08:55 AM)Frank_Stein Wrote: I think the sting is good for incapacitating someone that could fight back, but I think if the ling had another ability that was more in line with how fiber wire works: A good ambush grab that prevents them from calling out.

I think making the tendril arm that works, since it  reasonably choke someone out while preventing them from screaming out. This would also buff Shambling Abomination with powerful grabs

I think you understand what i'm getting at, and I agree. I'm also not going to claim that the exact manner in which I am going about this is the perfect manner, it's just my goal is to give Ling different options for combat'ing+silencing people. Neurotoxin I believe should be a specialty chem that you use to silence and take down strategic targets, instead of a base-line ability. Things like tentacle arms choking people out to silence them, acid spit melting headsets. Etc etc. Things like that are what I want to see. Neurotoxin is around, has a use, but lets spread the love a bit.

(03-29-2019, 03:20 AM)Berrik Wrote: Yeah these are all pretty awful ideas, especially making neurosting cost DNA and making the ling "louder" in general.

Ling is fine. Shambler needs some minor to moderate buffs (hive limbs, resistance/immunity to being pushed/disarmed, literally dis-arming people who try to disarm it, etc).

All of them are awful? Sorry to hear. My goal is not to have Changeling "Loud" like a murder bone machine. Even with these suggestions it wouldn't be very good in combat against anyone with a stun baton or a group. Though that's fair, I can admit the suggestions aren't amazing. I will agree Shambler needs some decent buffs, it already has hive limbs though that you can spam when you transform. As well I believe disarm attacks literally dis-arm people as Shambler.

(03-29-2019, 06:47 AM)Kira Wrote: I’m new and don’t understand anything so my opinion probably sucks but I like it at least, it sounds like it can still be stealthy. A few of the ideas are neat. Terrible is a bit harsh.

I only been in some ling rounds but I didnt like how for a monster all it did was sleep everyone in the hallway.

Maybe i dont understand the role but it wasnt fun or interesting compared to a man with a sword and bombs.

At least a few of these i think can be worth a shot

The goal isn't really to get rid of the fact that Lings can sleep you, just hopefully to add some variation to the way they go about things by redistributing some of the power from Neuro to some more neglected abilities.


tl;dr - I'm not trying to remove Neurotoxin, just distribute some of its power into other abilities that are never used, I think Changelings should have an option for what playstyle they want to opt for and it would lead to some variation.



EDIT
This has negative reception and I spammed way too many ideas in a single post. Going to potentially think this over more and make new smaller posts that aren't overwhelming.
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