Changeling Suggestion Thread!

[Sundance]

Spend 15 points to have a limb pop off and become a hostile critter would be neat.

That would be really neat.

This idea is cool. Make this replace the monkey ability (which is awful) so this becomes both a form of attack and a form escape, i.e: Breaks cuffs.

i've always wanted the ability for the ling to have like a mind-slave ability

except it'd end up being a brain-feasting parasite that kills its host horribly after a while

I'd personally love an ability that basically revives a husked player for x amount of ling points and turns them into a decaying maniac with massive claws that constantly screeches. Code it like a werewolf in that it viciously mauls players and resists stuns, but decays similar to a revenent but at a much faster speed. Would fit into the whole The Thing theme, in turning your trusted allies into things that are monstrous and violent.

[APARTHEID]

I'd personally love an ability that basically revives a husked player for x amount of ling points and turns them into a decaying maniac with massive claws that constantly screeches. Code it like a werewolf in that it viciously mauls players and resists stuns, but decays similar to a revenent but at a much faster speed. Would fit into the whole The Thing theme, in turning your trusted allies into things that are monstrous and violent.

Anything that gets the station into the spirit of embalming or disposing of bodies is good by me!

[Dauntasa]

Hmm
While I don't disagree with the spirit of the acid spit nerf

I disagree with the spirit of the acid spit nerf. The fact that it made a fuck you homing projectile that was guaranteed to hit you unless you managed to shut a door in front of it was fucking stupid. The fact that something called "Acid Spit" had nothing to do with acid and very little to do with spit was fucking stupid.The fact that the changeling had a way to knock people out without letting them announce his presence to the entire station was not fucking stupid, at all. Changeling needs a way to take someone down immediately without letting them cry for help, because there is absolutely nothing that will summon a brigade of heavily armed assholes faster than the word "changeling".

[Frank_Stein]

I agree that the changeling needs a way to protect their identity and location when taking people out, but a homing stun attack was too powerful for that. Acid spit always seemed to me like it was supposed to be a secondary ability to stealth sting. Sting the dude, grab him when he passes out and absorb. Save acid spit for if you're caught, or they realize what happened/start to fight back.
Instead it was more like stand by door, acid spit someone walking by, sting them to keep them down, pull em into the maintenance tunnel/space and absorb.

One of those ways gives the crew some kinda chance to do something, the other doesn't. Which means a skilled player could wipe out most of the station without anyone being the wiser, which is just kinda boring for everyone else. Changeling is much more interesting when they actually have to change their appearance and identity from time to time.

Changeling needs a way to take someone down immediately without letting them cry for help, because there is absolutely nothing that will summon a brigade of heavily armed assholes faster than the word "changeling".

I do think have an idea to help remedy this problem with the neurotoxin sting. Include some speech affecting chems in the sting. Alcohol comes to mind. So by the time the person realizes they have been stung, any warnings they try to shout out are going to be horribly slurred.

[Grek]

Why not just make the acid spit melt headsets?

[Frank_Stein]

Why not just make the acid spit melt headsets?

Also a good idea

[Marquesas]

There will be further changeling ability additions, but at this point there are no plans to bring the instant KO back. To clear it up, it literally acts as a fluoro splash. Any headgear will be melted or if there is no headgear, the victim takes damage along with identity removal.

The melting headsets bit, however, is not out of the question. I'll leave it on the table in case balancing is required.
I'm also considering upping the damage (= the acid volume in the spit) and making it not homing. You could effectively grind someone to a slow limp with a single spit.

On the other hand I'd like to note that my stance on instant, free stuns is that it's detrimental to the gameplay. This doesn't mean I'm going to remove stun batons per se, but an effortless homing KO is really, really something that isn't fun to fight.

That being said I need to go nuke wizard from orbit because it goes against everything I just said.

[Marquesas]

To respond to all the ideas that popped up in this thread:
Chemical absorption -- Don't necessarily see the point. Doesn't make sense with fire chems.
Changeling Claw -- Sensible since you already can claw at grilles effortlessly so why not people. 1 point / sec may be a bit too high of a drain.
Harden Skin -- Don't like it, this is basically poor man's abomination.
Adrenaline Rush -- Has merit but I don't think it really fits well with the whole changeling deal.
Paralysis Sting -- The steep cost is the only reason I'm considering this. I'm more leaning towards no but it stays on the able.
Silence sting -- Strongly disagree with this. If paralysis sting becomes a thing, it'd make sense to just merge this into that one. Definitely not going to happen without a cost.
Injection sting -- This has some interesting prospects, I'm leaning towards yes. Cost might be a bit high -- without chem absorption the changeling will suffer the same effects as the victim, but it's a fun "it's either you or both of us" thing.
Monkey sting -- I have some ideas which would deprecate this one. I don't really want specialized genetics stings, only relatively general ones.
Genetic sting -- Pointless, since absorbed identities retain their defects.
Critter limb -- Surprisingly sane idea, I might experiment with this one just for laughs.
Changeling mindslaves -- No.

[Sundance]

There will be further changeling ability additions, but at this point there are no plans to bring the instant KO back. To clear it up, it literally acts as a fluoro splash. Any headgear will be melted or if there is no headgear, the victim takes damage along with identity removal.

The melting headsets bit, however, is not out of the question. I'll leave it on the table in case balancing is required.
I'm also considering upping the damage (= the acid volume in the spit) and making it not homing. You could effectively grind someone to a slow limp with a single spit.

On the other hand I'd like to note that my stance on instant, free stuns is that it's detrimental to the gameplay. This doesn't mean I'm going to remove stun batons per se, but an effortless homing KO is really, really something that isn't fun to fight.

That being said I need to go nuke wizard from orbit because it goes against everything I just said.

I agree with your whole stance on stunning but consider this:
With changling and wizard it wasn't a case of "stunning" but rather very powerful attacks.
For changling, it'd be better if he had a higher amount of powers, but powerful attacks cost DNA. Rather than the previous set up of two powerful attacks, spit and sting, the latter only costing points. It'd be better if the ling had more powers of escape, and obscurity, and that is powerful attacks were split up into various attacks. This encourages people to play TACTICALLY. Spamming all the powers will only result in diminished DNA but will also scream to everyone that you're an evil alien. You'll also have to know what power to use when, and keep an eye on the cool downs.

And for wizard, it should be exactly the same. The current (hopefully soon previous) set up of wizard is spells that are particularly powerful. I'm just going to use fireball as an example here because it's godawful and anti-fun. People groan when a traitor is using HE rounds but really a wizard with fireball is no different. I'd argue it's worse. What wizard SHOULD be is instead of having 4 spells, he should have 6. Those 6 spells are weaker than what he has now, but like changling he has to balance the spells and use them tactically. And maybe those 6 "spells" don't have to be spells. Adding in new staffs and enchantments, for which the current wizard only has 1 of each would diversify what's currently a very boring antagonist.

[BaneOfGiygas]

I'll admit that I haven't been playing very much (thanks, school) lately, but the main reason why I've always disagreed with the homing fuck you acid spit isn't necessarily the fact that it's a no-effort homing KO, though that definitely doesn't have anything to do with it. It's that it's completely and wholly unstealthy but was also the main go-to for changelings, if only by necessity. I was always of the impression that changelings were supposed to be the sneaky antagonist with a few panic buttons in case things get really hairy, but the thrice-damned homing KO loogies turned the changeling from sneaky saboteur to one-alien death machine which totally goes against the thematic element of the antagonist. Furthermore, all of the changeling's good abilities are purely offensive ones, your stings and spits. All of the "utility" or "defense" abilities range from highly situational (regenerative stasis) to borderline counterproductive (monkey) and that needs to change. The only really GOOD non-offensive ability the changeling has is voice mimic, and that goes tragically unused in almost all cases.

More things that confuse and terrify the hell out of the station and help the changeling avoid suspicion/detection are what we need. I absolutely love the critter-limb idea for that exact reason, and the acid spit's change from instant knockout to heavy brute damage prevents it from being an easy "fuck this guy" button that the changeling can press to get a free meal. Really, Sundance's comparison to the problems of wizards isn't too far off, and it's all the more egregious in the changeling's case when you realize that the changeling more than likely isn't even SUPPOSED to be the all-guns-blazing no-hold-barred antagonist but that what it's turned into as a result of its repertoire.

And for the love of god, someone please fix the headspiders. They've gotten a bit better but they're still buggy as hell last time I checked.

[BaneOfGiygas]

the main reason why I've always disagreed with the homing fuck you acid spit isn't necessarily the fact that it's a no-effort homing KO, though that definitely has something to do with it.

whoops this is what I meant to say

[Mageziya]

The big thing with the ling is dealing with prey's ability to scream over the radio. With the current set-up, the only ways to avoid someone screaming "ling" over the radio is to use neurotoxin, feed on collaterally dead bodies, or perform traditional murder. With only one ling ability existing to actually stealthily do this and the remaining to deal with screwing up a stealthy take-down, it doesn't really seem to promote the desired subterfuge. The abilities currently now only promote tactics for very-noisily dealing with said screw-ups.

With stealth tactics, the tactics involving bringing people to ling-dens almost unaltered, with the only difference being that there's one less option than before. The ling seems to have been originally designed to be a stealth assassin, which completely conflicts with the new mentality of every fight being a "fair" fight or a flee-able fight.

The point is, lings just need multiple ways to make it so people can't scream about them over the radio if they've carefully planned ahead.

[atomic1fire]

Entrapment: Changeling leaves a puddle of goo on the floor that costs dna points. Someone who walks into it gets stuck. Basically Fly paper for the ling. Since lings are not friendly to fire, heating the goo should work as a removal method. Or smacking it with a fire extinguisher until it loosens up, but fire or heat should work faster.

Instead of goo it could just be ling blood, though you'd still have to use the ability.

The reason I say this is because blood would be less obvious looking, though perhaps give it an examine option to find out the truth.
Also because Changeling blood, if going by "The Thing" rules, is living, and it would make sense for living blood to just grab your feet as you step in it and hold you in place.

Sounds like a good way to do it.

Also it would give janitor something to do as a lingmine clearer.

[Dr_Bee]

maybe give lings super choke strength to help with silent takedowns. acid spit to remove headgear/blind slightly and then normal grab for stopping screaming. it would be an easy change, just remove the chance of failure on increasing grab stages. it would be hard to pull off but worth it for a skilled ling, it would also mean boxing in your target would be more important.

[Frank_Stein]

Feign Injured: Ling looks like a bloody and gross human, but is otherwise fine. Good for getting people to open medbay and then stinging them.

Make it fake crit condition, with also an option to advance it to feign death.

Then add the ability to turn your chest into a mouth and bite the arms off someone trying to CPR/defib/loot you.