Syndicate Infiltrators, Version 2

[Zonespace]

I previously posted a version of the Syndicate Infiltrator gamemode I've been working on, and took the feedback from there to make some pretty big adjustments and additions to the gamemode. 

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The core of the gamemode is untouched, being an RP-Only gamemode where up to 5 Syndicate Infiltrators spawn on the Cairngorm, with multiple objectives to complete on the station, all of which are fairly high risk. They are equipped with a requisition token, like the Nukeops, but have slightly different choices available compared to their more loud counterparts. Infiltrators get one Utility, and one "Assistant" token, where the meat of the loadouts are. The contents of which, are detailed in a lower section. Now, the objectives that are assigned to the operatives follow the same structure, as follows:

1. Assassinate either the Captain, or Head of Security.
   
2. Steal 3 randomly picked high-value-items, which is the standard theft list that traitors get, with the "easier" items removed.
   
3. One big objective, that is intended to make the Infiltrators more of a station threat, such as forcefully attempting to convert the crew into silicons, or to kidnap and ransom off the command staff.
   

As their names suggest, the Syndicates are encouraged to stay stealthy as long as possible, as they don't have the resources to fight off the crew in an extended engagement. However, this will most likely not be possible, as the "big" objective requires exposingIn addition, while every Infiltrator starts off with an Agent ID, not all of the loadouts have perfect disguises, some only having a voice changer, meanwhile some have a holographic disguiser or DNA scrambler.

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Next up, the loadouts have been partially reworked since last seen, and I went ahead and created several new items unique to this gamemode.
There are four primary loadouts, in addition to the standard uplink, which is unchanged from the Nuclear Operative's one, with the highly lethal weapons (SPES, Revolver, Katana, C-Saber) all removed.

The stealth agent is the first loadout, featuring what you'd expect out of a standard stealthy operative, with a new Welrod added. Contents:

• Chameleon Jumpsuit
  
• Welrod Box (Welrod, one extra standard magazine, and two chemical thiopental magazines) (New)
  
• Radio Jammer
  
• Stealth Storage (Normal sized one)
  
• DNA Scrambler
  
• Wiretap Upgrade
  

The next is the diverter, who excels at drawing attention away from key areas. Contents:

• Syndicate PDA (Same one NukeOps use, except I added the SoundreamS PRO cart into it as well) (Updated)
  
• Derringer
  
• Voice Changer
  
• Kudzu Seed (I am very iffy about the balance of this)
  
• Knockout Grenade (Smoke-Powder based grenade that contains 60 Sodium Thiopental, meant to be a less-lethal sarin grenade) (New)
  
• Small Stealth Storage (Every loadout has this, only has 3 slots however) (New)
  

The third loadout is the saboteur, who is great at breaking things and getting into places. Contents:

• Power Sink Teleporter (No longer do you have to haul the power sink in a crate, in a pod, to the station!) (New)
  
• EMAG
  
• Emp Grenade Box
  
• Holographic Disguiser
  
• Syndicate Dagger (Too much utility to have a valid weapon, but they need some self-defense)
  
• Small Stealth Storage (Read diverter's description) (New)
  

The fourth and final loadout is the wetwork agent, who is great for taking out targets. Contents:

• .22 Silenced Pistol AP Box (.22 Pistol, 2 .22 HP mags, 2 .22 AP mags, which the latter do only 18 damage, but do more than the other .22s versus armor) (New)
  
• Radio Jammer
  
• Cloaking Device
  
• Voice Changer
  
• ID Sunglasses (Allows you to identify a person's real name by inspecting them, even if they don't have an ID, or have a different one) (New)
  
• Tuxedo Jacket (Nothing unique about the jacket, just gives a much more hitman-esque feel to it all)
  
• Small Stealth Storage (Read diverter's description) (New)
  

And that's all the loadouts, with the exception of the previously mentioned custom uplink loadout.

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I took all the feedback that I got, both in discord, and on the forums, into account while making these changes, and here's what I did to accommodate some of my feedback:

I feel like this will run into the same issue other game modes on RP have in which the antagonists are set to "sneak in the background" causing nobody to really interact with the antags until the shuttle where there is a surprise bomb. [snip] This here seems like it is an antag that will get to interact with sec and pretty much nobody else.

I tried to change this by adding a "big" objective to the Infiltrators, along with giving them some form of crowd control in the form of the knockout grenade, allowing them to be seen and still work around it.

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I'm more interested to see/understand how this works in practice.

1.) Given we have problems/concerns with teamwork on conspiracy and nukies already (both on Classic and on RP, both in antag-antag relationships and crew-antag relationships), what on this would ensure good cooperation and teamwork between players granted that this is a playstyle where teamwork is pretty mandatory?

Teamwork is an issue, I'd say, primarily with conspiracy, as everyone has their already-existing job and priorities that come with doing that job. Meanwhile, the Infiltrators are given their own area, completely isolated from everything, right from when they spawn to get a plan set up and coordinate. While you may, as an infiltrator, get a job from the HoP, or use an agent card to fake one, you will still primarily be an Infiltrator, as you went into getting the job, knowing that you're an antagonist.

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2.) What prevents this from being "a better version of conspirators" that might eventually replace that gamemode? Does this necessarily mean that the trending of RP server antags will have to be forced to "faster-paced" stuff when people could go play on Classic for pace changes instead?

I should certainly hope that this doesn't replace conspirators. I would say that conspiracy allows for more errant, mostly-harmless plans created out of improvisation and thin air. Meanwhile, the Infiltrators are intended to be more coordinated and planned, with special gear to boot. In addition, I don't believe the pacing will be too drastic of a change, as RP server traitor gimmicks can ramp up in the last quarter-area of the shift, similar to the Infiltrators.

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3.) How does a strictly objective-based gamemode interact with the RP server gamemodes where, though antags have objectives, they are not obligated to follow them and greentext is not mandatory? This seems counter to that since greentext is the primary driving force here.

This, I admit, is a tough one, since the gamemode this was originally based off of, also is in pursuit of the greentext. However, I attempted to counter this by giving them the aforementioned "big" objective, none of which are tracked, which lets the Infiltrators get a bit more loose. Or, if the antags wish, they could abandon their objectives altogether and make new ones, or run some other gimmick.

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4.) Does this lose the intrigue of Goon Nukies by using other traitor gear from normal uplinks and mimicking other codebases's style of nukies too much? To some extent, Dim is right, the appeal of Goon Nukies is that it's a teamfight mode and is in fact consistently developed to push players on either team towards that when those rounds do occur. Does this really satisfy the requests RP players had after getting rare admin-event nukies, granted that?

I can't speak to other codebases' style of nukies, having never done it, but I do get what's being said about purely using traitor gear, so I added new items exclusive to Infiltrators, like the Welrod and ID sunglasses. Sentence two, I should hope the "teamfight" part is at least somewhat fulfilled by the "big" objective given to the Syndicates, assuming they follow through with it. Finally, I can't be too sure about this, I haven't gotten too many good answers, and my experience with RP Nukies hasn't been massive.

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5.) Other people brought it up already, so I won't harp on too much here; but rounds on RP usually go the full 2 hours; our nukies rounds on the admin events Bill would run were closer to 40-60 minutes. Does this account for that in order to help alleviate some of the pacing concerns RP players might have? Truthfully, 60-minute rounds are really almost kind of outliers for when something egregious happens. What happens once the syndicate completes their objectives? Fighting back for the remaining 60 minutes doesn't sound terribly fun to me.

First off, while not asked in the quote, no, the round doesn't end when the Infiltrators finish their objectives. Second, I should hope the difficulty and length of the objectives give the Infiltrators a tough time to complete them in under an hour. In addition, the Infiltrators can simply think of new objectives, or try and cause some chaos, it's all up to the players.

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A few small things that don't fit in the rest of my rambling:

• The Syndicate PDA (The one that is in the Nukeop's gear closet and the diversion agent starts with) now has the SoundreamS PRO ringtone app installed on the cartridge.
  
• The MRPT-7 and its ammo now are landmarked, and only appear during Nukeop rounds.
  
• The frag grenades (not stingers) are now landmarked, and only appear during Nukeop rounds.
  
• The Welrod is a new gun added, chambered in .32 ACP and featuring an 8 round capacity. The standard rounds do 30 damage to unarmored opponents, 15 to an armor vest, and 7.5 to a heavy armor vest. In addition, it needs to be manually chambered, like a shotgun, and takes 1 second, from when the chambering starts, to fire again. It also features a mild spread, preventing sniping, and representing the Welrod's below-average muzzle velocity. Finally, it has a second type of ammo, .32 Chemical. It deals 10 damage, unarmored, and gives the target 12 units of sodium thiopental, which keeps them down for around 20 seconds at most. Keep in mind, the amount of thiopental delivered is entirely dependent on armor, with a standard vest reducing the damage to 5, and the amount of thiopental to 6. (It currently has the shotgun rechambering sound, I need to get a new one)
  
• The ID sunglasses look like regular sunglasses, except upon examination of someone while wearing the glasses, their real name is identified.
  
• The Cairngorm memorial at the rear end of the battlecruiser are still reserved for the wins and losses of Nukies.
  
• The current "big" objectives are as follows: Kidnap and ransom of a head of staff, fortify and annex a randomly chosen area in the name of the Syndicate, forcefully attempt to convert as much of the crew as possible to silicons, and to attempt to impersonate as many heads of staff as possible.
  

Thanks for reading this, and if you'd like to play around with this, you can see my fork here!

[DimWhat]

A few of my issues have remained in this iteration of the game mode. In efforts to try and "involve the rest of the crew" the changes you made is to "convert them forcefully into robots" which has LOTS of problems already tied to it and to "annex an area" which seems like again it would have a large amount of problems due to the operatives being able to extremely easily being able to take down a few people yet would struggle incredibly when security appears. This objective is trying to be both loud and quiet but cannot do either.

The gear is another issue. I see myself not wanting to use any of these. Two of the classes have the two actual worst items in RP. Kudzu, which isn't bad on it's own, but when paired with the powersink it's the actual worst experience anyone can have in SS13. The weaponry that is designed to stun people completely ignores the fact that being unconscious is not roleplaying nor does it remember that magdumping is a common occurrence from all antagonists. Another concern is how only one person can "talk" to anyone without giving the entire team away due to lack of voice changers.

This doesn't seem like the right way to do what you intend to have a "roleplay nukies." I apologize if this seems rude and harsh, but as it stands I do not see myself having fun in this proposed game mode.