Goonhub
11-15-2012, 10:33 PM
WARNING. LONG POST AHEAD.
PROCEED WITH CAUTION.
Apart from Goonstation, there are only a few other builds of SS13 out there that can really be comparable in terms of game features, player populations, and continuing updates/support from coders. I've played long enough on some of these non-goon builds enough to compile some info on them: Who plays on them, what is played on them, where they're from, and how things generally crack down.
But first, let's take a look at ourselves, shall we?
Build #1: Goonstation
Description: The purest, most original iteration of Space Station 13. Survival and hijinks galore.
Unique Features: artifact research, vampire, electrician occupation, fartsdeepfryerowlryVRcluwne
Summary: Goonstation. Supposedly the one that started it all, or at least the one that was around first when it really took off. And since then, it's come along greatly and had its share of updates that keep improving the feel of the game. Goons later gave the original code to others to build on and develop but it has remained closed ever since.
That said, Goonstation is not for the faint of heart - rounds are quick, the crew quicker, and your death possibly the quickest. Paranoia is the name of the game - Trust no one! Your co-workers may turn out to be mass-murderers or some inhuman asshole who has to suck everyone dry of either DNA or blood. In truth, no one is any worse off than anyone else - you're just as awful as the next guy, only that the real bad guys get to have bombs, laser weapons, and sometimes bullshit powers that you'll succumb to.
Everyone's a bit of an ass, but within means. You won't get beaten to death unless you totally deserved it (or not), but you will be beaten down and farted upon repeatedly. If you're an assistant, this is practically your job. If someone is being nice to you, they're either a traitor or the first to die - it's good to take note of them in case of either happening so you know who to trip over. The AI is almost always against you (or will be), the admins hate you with a Macho-Man/Elmo-shaped passion, and the Captain's a comdom.
And because of this, goonstation is perhaps the most 'fun' of all the other SS13 builds/servers. Not to mention all the weird stuff they have that other places don't as a result of their closed code and less-serious attitude. If you're used to goonstation, you'll probably hate the slower pace and lesser atmosphere of other SS13 builds. While it may not update as regularly or as often as other builds of the game, it still remains one of the most popular and freshest of the Space Station 13 servers.
Other Information: Popularity - High (30+ player average), Roleplaying - None except for metafriends, Code - gooncode (closed source), Playerbase - SomethingAwful Goons and some BYOND pubbies, Avg. Duration - Short (<30-60 minutes)
Build #2: /tg/station
Description: The leading alternative to Goonstation. Has its own feel for mild roleplaying and zany stuff. Unlisted.
Unique Features: Xenobiology, mechs, clown/mime occupation, people pods, library and librarian job
Summary: Tgstation. This is probably the one that most non-goons are familiar with, since just about every other station build out there uses their code now as a result of it being not only open-source, but also being very well put-together. For one, they have working atmospherics, their security forces are actually *secure*, and they still have Xenomorphs invade the station every now and then. They rival goonstation in the magnitude of their features and their popularity and now also with the addition of away missions.
I'll assume away missions are essentially a super secret special admin-triggered event that allows players to do something like going through a wormhole and into another realm where you do *something*. That's the gist of it, but it's one of their newest and more hyped additions. Other than that, they have a bunch of other neat stuff like useful-useless jobs (jobs that aren't needed 95% of the time but aren't assistant), constructable mecha, secborgs, a well-stocked archive of fine literature in their library, and lawyers that never run a successful trial. Don't forget the mime and clown. You do that and there will be hell to pay.
In general, /tg/ is a parallel to goon in many ways, but it's also so different that you couldn't compare them despite being the same game at the end of the day. The players are different in some aspects. The atmosphere is different. The rounds are longer. There's no farting. But there are clowns. And they will honk. Paranoia is still a big factor, but because there is a degree of roleplaying here, you can trust certain individuals to have your back - most of the time. There's lots of power/metagaming, but it hardly ever gets caught or turned out for.
It updates regularly and it's almost always active, making it one of the most played and best-built of the Space Station 13 builds out there. It has a community of sorts as well, if their forums are to be believed. At least, it makes our SS13 discussion board look like a peanut gallery by comparison. In closing, it's one of the fiercest rivals to goonstation, but that doesn't make it bad at all - it's merely a different taste of the same game.
Other Information: Popularity - High (30-40+ player average), Roleplaying - Moderate but not enforced. Code - /tg/code (open source), Playerbase - Denizens of 4chan's /tg/ board along with pubbies who didn't get a feel for Goon, Avg. Duration - Moderately-long (~60-150 minutes)
Build #3: baystation 12
Description: Space Station 13: The Role Playing Game. SPR SRS RP OR BAN HE. Unlisted.
Unique Features: "Realistic" damage model, robust as fuck atmospherics, playable alien races.
Note: They had their own station build layout until a week or two ago when they merged their build with /tg/'s, as part of trying to keep up with them. Before then, they had things like (literal) metroids for xenobiology and tacos for the kitchen, their own whole archive of literature, along with a few other things that they're probably not going to get back unless they switch to a previous build. All of that is beside the point, in any case.
Summary: Bay12games are the ones behind Dwarf Fortress and a handful of other lesser-known titles. Apparently they have their own Space Station 13 server now. And guess what: You have to stay "in character". You have to "BE" your character. If you are even out of character for a moment, or otherwise decide to goof around, you WILL be chewed out by a moderator or an admin.
[Example]They may even go as far as have you eaten by a cyber-grue for throwing a dog in the washing machine, carrying its lifeless corpse around the station for everyone to behold, and then dragging the station nuke around to scare people who are actually trying to "RP". As the Captain (you know who you are.) Hell, one time someone got admingibbed for trying to sign up as a clown. As you can see, no 'fun' is ever allowed. You play your job, you react to whatever happens as you would "in real life" (as if any of that ever happens to you), and basically be bored to tears if you can't or otherwise face banishment.[/Example]
Baycode refers to their unique damage models and atmospherics effects. So when I say something is using baycode, I mean they're using these systems for health and atmospherics, regardless and in spite of any other modifications they may have put into their build of the game. That is to say, you can bleed out, get blood transfusions, have infections from surgery, and overdose on medicine if you get too much at once. And also, exposure to the vacuum of space (typically hull breaches) will kill you extremely fast. You will die from decompression, oxygen loss, and freezing damage before you can even pull out internals.
That aside, it's a lot like /tg/ now, but with a heavy dose of SUPER CEREAL ARR-PEE thrown in for good measure. It's enforced and you must adhere to that rule. If you are ever planning on playing on BS12, you need a character. You need to play that character. And that character has to stay consistent. And you have to be willing to play rounds that may go for up to five hours in length with NOTHING INTERESTING HAPPENING AT ALL. Because "extended" mode is fairly common, popular, and typically the default mode of play.
Paranoia is still there, but there's a huge stigma against outright killing people, or rather, going on murderous killing sprees as a traitor/changeling/wizard/whatever. There's also a stigma against "knowing something your character shouldn't know", such as a bartender (with no knowledge of genetics) dragging a dead body to a cloner, pushing the clone button, and cloning the guy. Because a bartender untrained in genetics shouldn't know how to to do that, even if in-game it just consists of throwing a body into a pod, scanning their DNA, and hitting clone. So you can't even do stuff like that to save players.
In fact, i'd say that because of this enforcement of having to play a character, being in character, and doing so for hours on end, that it is perhaps the most 'serious' of the active servers around that are quite popular. Believe it or not, it's not uncommon to have several players in the same server at once - and have at least half of them not playing because of how long the round tend to be. In closing, if you ever wanted SS13 to be a roleplaying game, then Bay12 is for you. Otherwise, don't bother.
Other Information: Popularity - High (30-40+ player average), Roleplaying - Enforced. Stay in character or don't bother. Code - baycode (open source, modified /tg/code), Playerbase - Mostly of bay12games forums or /tg/ or some combination of that sort, Avg. Duration - Long (~180-300+ minutes)
Other stations...
>D2K5 - Jerk off on everyone and poo on their face. Offshoot of goon and possibly /tg/. Shit-ton of unique (read: stupid) features. Moderately popular. Despite it based on /tg/ code, it's unique from other stations in this category in that D2Station has an original layout. Build #4, really...
>LLA - Liberty's Last Army. Arguably the most popular server overall. Popular with pubbies and other-station rejects. Uses an old /tg/build, possibly using baycode. Nothing new or special, but they have tourists for some reason. Avoid unless you have nowhere or nothing better to play.
>Icarus - No idea. Probably uses one of the two other non-goon builds. Semi-serious RP. Abandoned for the most part. Probably the origin of prosthetic limbs and alternate job titles? Seemingly disappeared from the main public server list. No one really played it, anyway.
>Athena - The most 'serious' RP SS13 server, from what I can gather. Disappeared from the public server list months ago. Private - by invite only. Baycode and original bay12 build, I think - I was only there once, and as an observer (ghost). Probably dead now, no reason to have ever played to begin with.
>Punchstation - Possibly the Facepunch Studios SS13 server. Knowing their history, possibly related to D2K5. Uses a build of /tg/ with baycode. Moderately popular.
>Anything not listed here - Abandoned, mostly - you'll hardly ever get more than 10-20 players on at any one time. Almost all of them use /tg/ builds from what I understand. Such is the consequence of having open-source code. No reason to play on any of these, really.
PROCEED WITH CAUTION.
Apart from Goonstation, there are only a few other builds of SS13 out there that can really be comparable in terms of game features, player populations, and continuing updates/support from coders. I've played long enough on some of these non-goon builds enough to compile some info on them: Who plays on them, what is played on them, where they're from, and how things generally crack down.
But first, let's take a look at ourselves, shall we?
Build #1: Goonstation
Description: The purest, most original iteration of Space Station 13. Survival and hijinks galore.
Unique Features: artifact research, vampire, electrician occupation, fartsdeepfryerowlryVRcluwne
Summary: Goonstation. Supposedly the one that started it all, or at least the one that was around first when it really took off. And since then, it's come along greatly and had its share of updates that keep improving the feel of the game. Goons later gave the original code to others to build on and develop but it has remained closed ever since.
That said, Goonstation is not for the faint of heart - rounds are quick, the crew quicker, and your death possibly the quickest. Paranoia is the name of the game - Trust no one! Your co-workers may turn out to be mass-murderers or some inhuman asshole who has to suck everyone dry of either DNA or blood. In truth, no one is any worse off than anyone else - you're just as awful as the next guy, only that the real bad guys get to have bombs, laser weapons, and sometimes bullshit powers that you'll succumb to.
Everyone's a bit of an ass, but within means. You won't get beaten to death unless you totally deserved it (or not), but you will be beaten down and farted upon repeatedly. If you're an assistant, this is practically your job. If someone is being nice to you, they're either a traitor or the first to die - it's good to take note of them in case of either happening so you know who to trip over. The AI is almost always against you (or will be), the admins hate you with a Macho-Man/Elmo-shaped passion, and the Captain's a comdom.
And because of this, goonstation is perhaps the most 'fun' of all the other SS13 builds/servers. Not to mention all the weird stuff they have that other places don't as a result of their closed code and less-serious attitude. If you're used to goonstation, you'll probably hate the slower pace and lesser atmosphere of other SS13 builds. While it may not update as regularly or as often as other builds of the game, it still remains one of the most popular and freshest of the Space Station 13 servers.
Other Information: Popularity - High (30+ player average), Roleplaying - None except for metafriends, Code - gooncode (closed source), Playerbase - SomethingAwful Goons and some BYOND pubbies, Avg. Duration - Short (<30-60 minutes)
Build #2: /tg/station
Description: The leading alternative to Goonstation. Has its own feel for mild roleplaying and zany stuff. Unlisted.
Unique Features: Xenobiology, mechs, clown/mime occupation, people pods, library and librarian job
Summary: Tgstation. This is probably the one that most non-goons are familiar with, since just about every other station build out there uses their code now as a result of it being not only open-source, but also being very well put-together. For one, they have working atmospherics, their security forces are actually *secure*, and they still have Xenomorphs invade the station every now and then. They rival goonstation in the magnitude of their features and their popularity and now also with the addition of away missions.
I'll assume away missions are essentially a super secret special admin-triggered event that allows players to do something like going through a wormhole and into another realm where you do *something*. That's the gist of it, but it's one of their newest and more hyped additions. Other than that, they have a bunch of other neat stuff like useful-useless jobs (jobs that aren't needed 95% of the time but aren't assistant), constructable mecha, secborgs, a well-stocked archive of fine literature in their library, and lawyers that never run a successful trial. Don't forget the mime and clown. You do that and there will be hell to pay.
In general, /tg/ is a parallel to goon in many ways, but it's also so different that you couldn't compare them despite being the same game at the end of the day. The players are different in some aspects. The atmosphere is different. The rounds are longer. There's no farting. But there are clowns. And they will honk. Paranoia is still a big factor, but because there is a degree of roleplaying here, you can trust certain individuals to have your back - most of the time. There's lots of power/metagaming, but it hardly ever gets caught or turned out for.
It updates regularly and it's almost always active, making it one of the most played and best-built of the Space Station 13 builds out there. It has a community of sorts as well, if their forums are to be believed. At least, it makes our SS13 discussion board look like a peanut gallery by comparison. In closing, it's one of the fiercest rivals to goonstation, but that doesn't make it bad at all - it's merely a different taste of the same game.
Other Information: Popularity - High (30-40+ player average), Roleplaying - Moderate but not enforced. Code - /tg/code (open source), Playerbase - Denizens of 4chan's /tg/ board along with pubbies who didn't get a feel for Goon, Avg. Duration - Moderately-long (~60-150 minutes)
Build #3: baystation 12
Description: Space Station 13: The Role Playing Game. SPR SRS RP OR BAN HE. Unlisted.
Unique Features: "Realistic" damage model, robust as fuck atmospherics, playable alien races.
Note: They had their own station build layout until a week or two ago when they merged their build with /tg/'s, as part of trying to keep up with them. Before then, they had things like (literal) metroids for xenobiology and tacos for the kitchen, their own whole archive of literature, along with a few other things that they're probably not going to get back unless they switch to a previous build. All of that is beside the point, in any case.
Summary: Bay12games are the ones behind Dwarf Fortress and a handful of other lesser-known titles. Apparently they have their own Space Station 13 server now. And guess what: You have to stay "in character". You have to "BE" your character. If you are even out of character for a moment, or otherwise decide to goof around, you WILL be chewed out by a moderator or an admin.
[Example]They may even go as far as have you eaten by a cyber-grue for throwing a dog in the washing machine, carrying its lifeless corpse around the station for everyone to behold, and then dragging the station nuke around to scare people who are actually trying to "RP". As the Captain (you know who you are.) Hell, one time someone got admingibbed for trying to sign up as a clown. As you can see, no 'fun' is ever allowed. You play your job, you react to whatever happens as you would "in real life" (as if any of that ever happens to you), and basically be bored to tears if you can't or otherwise face banishment.[/Example]
Baycode refers to their unique damage models and atmospherics effects. So when I say something is using baycode, I mean they're using these systems for health and atmospherics, regardless and in spite of any other modifications they may have put into their build of the game. That is to say, you can bleed out, get blood transfusions, have infections from surgery, and overdose on medicine if you get too much at once. And also, exposure to the vacuum of space (typically hull breaches) will kill you extremely fast. You will die from decompression, oxygen loss, and freezing damage before you can even pull out internals.
That aside, it's a lot like /tg/ now, but with a heavy dose of SUPER CEREAL ARR-PEE thrown in for good measure. It's enforced and you must adhere to that rule. If you are ever planning on playing on BS12, you need a character. You need to play that character. And that character has to stay consistent. And you have to be willing to play rounds that may go for up to five hours in length with NOTHING INTERESTING HAPPENING AT ALL. Because "extended" mode is fairly common, popular, and typically the default mode of play.
Paranoia is still there, but there's a huge stigma against outright killing people, or rather, going on murderous killing sprees as a traitor/changeling/wizard/whatever. There's also a stigma against "knowing something your character shouldn't know", such as a bartender (with no knowledge of genetics) dragging a dead body to a cloner, pushing the clone button, and cloning the guy. Because a bartender untrained in genetics shouldn't know how to to do that, even if in-game it just consists of throwing a body into a pod, scanning their DNA, and hitting clone. So you can't even do stuff like that to save players.
In fact, i'd say that because of this enforcement of having to play a character, being in character, and doing so for hours on end, that it is perhaps the most 'serious' of the active servers around that are quite popular. Believe it or not, it's not uncommon to have several players in the same server at once - and have at least half of them not playing because of how long the round tend to be. In closing, if you ever wanted SS13 to be a roleplaying game, then Bay12 is for you. Otherwise, don't bother.
Other Information: Popularity - High (30-40+ player average), Roleplaying - Enforced. Stay in character or don't bother. Code - baycode (open source, modified /tg/code), Playerbase - Mostly of bay12games forums or /tg/ or some combination of that sort, Avg. Duration - Long (~180-300+ minutes)
Other stations...
>D2K5 - Jerk off on everyone and poo on their face. Offshoot of goon and possibly /tg/. Shit-ton of unique (read: stupid) features. Moderately popular. Despite it based on /tg/ code, it's unique from other stations in this category in that D2Station has an original layout. Build #4, really...
>LLA - Liberty's Last Army. Arguably the most popular server overall. Popular with pubbies and other-station rejects. Uses an old /tg/build, possibly using baycode. Nothing new or special, but they have tourists for some reason. Avoid unless you have nowhere or nothing better to play.
>Icarus - No idea. Probably uses one of the two other non-goon builds. Semi-serious RP. Abandoned for the most part. Probably the origin of prosthetic limbs and alternate job titles? Seemingly disappeared from the main public server list. No one really played it, anyway.
>Athena - The most 'serious' RP SS13 server, from what I can gather. Disappeared from the public server list months ago. Private - by invite only. Baycode and original bay12 build, I think - I was only there once, and as an observer (ghost). Probably dead now, no reason to have ever played to begin with.
>Punchstation - Possibly the Facepunch Studios SS13 server. Knowing their history, possibly related to D2K5. Uses a build of /tg/ with baycode. Moderately popular.
>Anything not listed here - Abandoned, mostly - you'll hardly ever get more than 10-20 players on at any one time. Almost all of them use /tg/ builds from what I understand. Such is the consequence of having open-source code. No reason to play on any of these, really.
