Little things you learned that are game changing

[XDTM]

Bottom post of the previous page:

Today I learned that xenobiologists are surprised you can command slimes and that nobody appreciates the value of hand feeding slimes


You kids these days. The xeniob console have spoiled you

Feeding by console gives loyalty as well. There is literally no reason to feed slimes by hand unless the consoles have been vaporized.

Wait, are you the one responsible for the plague of hand feeding xenobiologists who get nothing done before two hours?
The ones who recycle monkeys manually are bad enough but god i hate people who take the job i want to do and don't know how to do it

[Anonmare]

You kids these days...

[tacolizard]

Xenobiology is the only job other than genetics that I can't do. Every time I try to learn someone more experienced yells at me and I feel guilty and let them take over.

[Anonmare]

Genetics is just get the first number of a DNA block 8 or over, see if it's a disability or a power then rinse and repeat.

It can be hard to tell if something's a disability so I self-experiment with SE injectors and both a bottle of toxins pills and a clean SE injector on standby. Tourettes is the most annoying disability since it kicks in randomly and paralyses you when it happens

[FantasticFwoosh]

Xenobiology is the only job other than genetics that I can't do. Every time I try to learn someone more experienced yells at me and I feel guilty and let them take over.

I don't bother with genetics either, the powers end up being abusable and mutadone can fix most problems just across the hall in chemistry or via upgraded medbay sleepers.

Xenobio is actually really really easy and simplistic when you have a setup, are you doing it manually, part manually or fully from the console? It only really needs one person.

[XDTM]

Genetics is just get the first number of a DNA block 8 or over, see if it's a disability or a power then rinse and repeat.

It can be hard to tell if something's a disability so I self-experiment with SE injectors and both a bottle of toxins pills and a clean SE injector on standby. Tourettes is the most annoying disability since it kicks in randomly and paralyses you when it happens

There's no need to waste time with injectors, just use the Delay function to use the scanner on yourself - open door, hit Occupant - Delayed on your SE of choice, enter, close door, open door, then do it again with a clean SE if it's a bad mutation. That way there's no cooldown and you spend half a second with the disability.

CosmicScientist, the wiki is still correct in its information. Blocks above 800 will always trigger disabilities, and if it's below that while still having the disability it might be due to a Strangeness mutation fucking up another block you didn't see. Although if you want to undo the last changes you're better off using saved SEs to avoid these cases.
Powers have the RNG, and have a chance to manifest on any change in DNA while they're above C00. This means that if block 1 is TK and above C00, fiddling with block 6 enough will manifest the power eventually. My advice is to not worry about manifesting, since it'll usually happen on its own while you research the other blocks. Get them above 800, self-apply, if it's nothing it's a power and get it above C00, save and continue, otherwise reset to last state and continue.

[Anonmare]

Injectors are temporary and mutadone is a lot more finite than toxin treatment is. The last thing you want is to be stuck a blind, deaf, profanity-spewing giant when a power sink kicks in. That way, if power goes out and all the mutadone is gone, you can at least be assured you won't be stuck with the disabilities.

[Gun Hog]

Injectors are temporary and mutadone is a lot more finite than toxin treatment is. The last thing you want is to be stuck a blind, deaf, profanity-spewing giant when a power sink kicks in. That way, if power goes out and all the mutadone is gone, you can at least be assured you won't be stuck with the disabilities.

are your best friends. Beg the robo for one if Sci is too slow to give you upgrades.

[XDTM]

Injectors are temporary and mutadone is a lot more finite than toxin treatment is. The last thing you want is to be stuck a blind, deaf, profanity-spewing giant when a power sink kicks in. That way, if power goes out and all the mutadone is gone, you can at least be assured you won't be stuck with the disabilities.

It makes more sense to carry a pill in your pocket in the rare case of a powersink (where you'd be stuck with one disability at most, not many) than using a method that is far slower.

[CandyClown]

It should also be noted that injectors have a 100% chance of manifesting, assuming that the block is either above 800 for a disability or C00 for a power. This makes it superior to using the DNA scanner for finding out powers. Irradiating yourself multiple times to find out what a block is just isn't ideal. And since most disabilities are just minor nuisances there's no need for clearing your SE. Just make sure you're not stuck with Tourette's or strangeness.

[Alipheese]

Since when did injectors have a 100% chance?

Always?

[XDTM]

It should also be noted that injectors have a 100% chance of manifesting, assuming that the block is either above 800 for a disability or C00 for a power. This makes it superior to using the DNA scanner for finding out powers. Irradiating yourself multiple times to find out what a block is just isn't ideal. And since most disabilities are just minor nuisances there's no need for clearing your SE. Just make sure you're not stuck with Tourette's or strangeness.

While that is true, if your goal is to get all six powers then having the block above C00 is enough, and the manifesting can be done at due time. If you don't want a specific power at the end, removing them one by one and resetting is pretty quick and easy.



Also injectors having 100% manifest chance was not always there, they used to be permanent but chance based.

[Limski]

When fighting in medbay, you can use cryo to your advantage: drag their sprite to cryo, turn it on then wait until they're unconscious for a guaranteed kill

[PKPenguin321]

Since when did injectors have a 100% chance?

Since they were changed to be temporary iirc

[AnonymousNow]

This isn't recent, and is fairly well known, but due to seeing some doctors who really should know better having no idea in recent times it's worth saying.

If your cloning machine is upgraded to the point of autocloning (specifically scanning) being enabled, and you've got it toggled on, then the cloner will work on people you put into the scanner even if the console's screen is smashed, because the internals of the computer are still working fine.

[Jazaen]

Injectors being temporary is, in a pinch, a good way to get some greyshit begging for hulk out of the way for a while.
Also, unless you get unlucky, most of the time two bottles of antitox you get in genetics locker should last you long enough to get all powers, even if using injectors on yourself.
Another fun genetics fact: If you get yourself turned into a monkey, you can still open the mutadone pillbox and revert yourself to human.
Also, does anyone still have that UI block-by-block explaination?

[RandomMarine]

Also, does anyone still have that UI block-by-block explaination?

Block 1 - Hair color
Block 2 - Beard color
Block 3 - Skin tone
Block 4 - Eye color
Block 5 - Gender
Block 6 - Beard style
Block 7 - Hair style

Color blocks are handled in RGB, for example, F00 is red, FF0 is yellow, 963 is brown.
The rest (including skin tone) are determined in a list. The range for each skin tone/hairstyle is divided among the choices available and put in order from the topmost starting at 000 and the bottom being at FFF. For example, in the skin tone choice list, the topmost is albino (000-???) and the bottom is african2 (???-FFF).

With work someone could make a list of what value gets each option for those blocks, but they'll just change as hair/beard styles are added and removed.

[DemonFiren]

sex, not gender

reeeeeeeeeeeee

[Remie Richards]

Byond has no "sex" variable, the block literally alters the mob's gender.
Your political leaning has nothing to do with it.

[DemonFiren]

exactly, my political leaning has nothing to do with it
sex is a biological fact, gender is a social construct and a term borrowed from linguistics

[FantasticFwoosh]

Unless you're a leaf and your children get repossessed by the law for you having non-aligned views in which then its a lawful reprimand.

But really im astounded that only block 8 matters, so the rest is just fluff, who knew? I might actually try it again sometime if the UI wasn't so intimidating.

[Anonmare]

Unless you're a leaf and your children get repossessed by the law for you having non-aligned views in which then its a lawful reprimand.

But really im astounded that only block 8 matters, so the rest is just fluff, who knew? I might actually try it again sometime if the UI wasn't so intimidating.

The UI seperates out DNA into UE blocks and SE blocks.
UE is responsible for appearance and is the top most row, separate from the SE blocks.
SE is where the powers and disabilities reside, as well as the species block. You can identify a species block by putting a monkey in the scanner and searching for the only block that is above 800 in value

UI (Universal Indicator) can't be messed with by the machine, though you can steal someone else's UI if you scan them into your machine. UI is what gives someone their name

[Jazaen]

Unless you're a leaf and your children get repossessed by the law for you having non-aligned views in which then its a lawful reprimand.

But really im astounded that only block 8 matters, so the rest is just fluff, who knew? I might actually try it again sometime if the UI wasn't so intimidating.

The UI separates out DNA into UE blocks and SE blocks.
UE is responsible for appearance and is the top most row, separate from the SE blocks.
SE is where the powers and disabilities reside, as well as the species block. You can identify a species block by putting a monkey in the scanner and searching for the only block that is above 800 in value

UI (Universal Indicator) can't be messed with by the machine, though you can steal someone else's UI if you scan them into your machine. UI is what gives someone their name

UI gives you: Name, but not appearance. You can use injector to, for arbitrary but always-too-short amount of time, be listed as them (voice).
UE gives you: Appearance, but not name. Without UI useful if genetics messes your hair and there are no mirrors nearby, or for fun. Bugged on lizards - can swap eye colour, kind of, but skin colour cannot be changed by the DNA machine.
UI+UE gives you: Appearance and name. You pretty much become the person whose blocks you used. It sometimes doesn't handle skin colour correctly for some reason and cannot change species.
SE: Superpowers. Another thing to note is that power overlays (I think) are sometimes bugged, and thus can show you as having a power even if it's deactivated. This applies to powers that make you glow (TK and Cold Res). In theory, if you use enough injectors, random rads could theoretically probe them enough to make them permanent, but tis an extreme measure.

The fastest method is:
1# Create a monkeyman
2# Grab 2 or 3 antitox bottles, along with crew monitor.
3# Save monkeyman to buffer one
4# Probe a block until it's above 800 or, if lucky, above C00.
5# Save the monkeyman to buffer two
6# Grab injector, inject self.
7# If above 800 and no power AND no disability manifests OR if above C00 and power manifests override buffer one.
8# If a disability manifests, apply SE from buffer one, and move on. IF the disability in question is something irritating (tourettes, seizures), use injector from buffer one.
9# Periodically look at crew monitor for impersonation opportu... I mean, chances to rescue fellow crew members.
10# Rinse and repeat.
EDIT: 11# Chug from your antitox bottle, so that rads won't kill you. You are still going to be stunned from time to time, unless you bug chem for anti-rad chems. will keep you alive so, if you have one, this step won't be necessary.
12# DO NOT GIVE ASSISTANTS HULK DAMMIT.

[tacolizard]

It sometimes doesn't handle skin colour correctly for some reason and cannot change species.
SE: Superpowers. Another thing to note is that power overlays (I think) are sometimes bugged, and thus can show you as having a power even if it's deactivated.

please report bugs.




pls

[Anonmare]

I did a Genetics-type murder thing where I broke into Genetics as the mime, critted the geneticist, shoved him in the scanner, stole his UI+UE, dressed myself up as him and hid the body.
Then, I waited for the CMO to come then did the same to him. After that, I waited for a member of security to die and come to medbay, detective shows up, clone him, wait until I'd get a clone that was stable enough to scan in Genetics but not stable enough to wake up, early-eject him, stole his UI+UE and then hid his body. Dressed myself up as him, headed to security, got my loyalty implant then used my newfound position to frame my target (I forget who it was) and had him incarcerated on the shuttle and then murdered him on it.

Ironically, I almost got caught because the CMO suddenly became competent at his job when I stole his face and it made people suspicious

[DemonFiren]

as a cmo only ever feign competence then crumble when faced with real problems

[NikNakFlak]

The real trick to genetics is to get so good at you can rush all powers in 5-10 minutes. Then get all the good powers you want permanently to yourself. I usually would carry around a fair amount of emergency hulk syringes in my internals box and heavily used disks to save progress, isolate powers 1 at a time in case someone wanted something specific and also have a master disk and then wipe my console. Nothing more annoying than leaving to grab something while working in genetics and having your coworker that hasnt said shit all round going through your console when you get back.

I was a genetics main for awhile!

[Anonmare]

When I bothered with genetics, I tried to create disks with power sets for specific jobs and give them to people who would get actual use out of them. Assistants get jack and shit unless they have something to offer me but an engineer would easily get cold resistance and x-ray and security were free to have x-ray vision and telekinesis.
I also made sure to keep these powers on disks and wipe the console after giving a person their powers.

Hulk I kept secret on a master disk with every power whilst the disk itself was labelled something like "disability trash - do not use" and it was off limits to everyone, except during a crisis.

Can't stand people running around with hulk, if I had my way I'd shoot hulks on sight out of principle. Also midget hulk is a type of cancer that no amount of chemotherapy can fix

[TribeOfBeavers]

When is cold resist useful? Does it also do heat resist?

Since freon stopped being an every round meme, I can't think of temperature being a problem outside of plasma fires and space has pressure problems that will half kill you, cold resist just means you can go between airlocks before collapsing, probably.

Breaches on the way to or at escape are also rare so it's easier to just grab five robust coffees on demand and sanic there. (not that anyone remembers coffee exists outside of freeze stings that 'lings never use)

Cold resist also means you don't take damage from the lack of pressure in space, so you can spacewalk with just internals.

It doesn't make you resistant to heat afaik.

[Anonmare]

Cold resistance also makes you immune to low pressure damage

[PKPenguin321]

Back in the day of oldchem you could make a mutagen smoke grenade and instantly get all the disabilities. If you did this and knew the monkey block you could learn all the power blocks in about a minute.

I think you can still do this but it's not nearly as fast since mutagen was nerfed heavily.

[XDTM]

Coldres also gives you low pressure immunity, effectively making you spaceproof (breathing aside, but you have internals). It's one of the most valuable mutations, in my opinion.

Also,

For the love of god there's an Occupant - Delayed button in the genetics scanner whose sole bloody function is to allow genetics testing without waiting for injector cooldown! YOU DON'T NEED INJECTORS TO TEST

[Jazaen]

Coldres also gives you low pressure immunity, effectively making you spaceproof (breathing aside, but you have internals). It's one of the most valuable mutations, in my opinion.

Also,

For the love of god there's an Occupant - Delayed button in the genetics scanner whose sole bloody function is to allow genetics testing without waiting for injector cooldown! YOU DON'T NEED INJECTORS TO TEST

YES YOU DO.

Occupant - Delayed doesn't give you 100% chance of manifesting the mutation in question, and each bloody time you get in you have to displace the monkey that is already there. It does allow you to identify positive mutations, but it doesn't tell you which positive mutation it is, unless you spam that button and irradiate yourself into 10 minutes of stuns in the process.

BESIDES, THE INJECTOR COOLDOWN IS ALMOST NONEXISTENT, UNLESS YOU CAN'T WAIT, WHAT, 5 BLOODY SECONDS? Too lazy to look at code and see what it actually is.

ALSO, the Occupant - Delayed allows you to give yourself powers by spamming it, but it requires you to have enough charcoal in your system to survive rapid spamming of it.

[Grazyn]

It's good genetics practice to identify each power instead of just unlocking the block and moving on to the next, because you'll get customers who will demand only specific powers

[XDTM]

All you have to do, once you have all powers, is just reroll one power block at a time and see what the monkeyman loses, which takes little to no time.

Also, self testing pretty much removes the need to spam occupant - delayed at the end, because you already manifested powers permanently while testing.
Injectors, instead, mean that once you're done, you have to wait for the injector to tick down before you even start trying to manifest the powers with the scanner, because once the effect is over you lose the powers granted anyway. Which means sitting on your hands for several minutes.

[Professor Hangar]

Not quite a game changer, but as a clown, your starter backpack banana has great stats, and put in a seed extractor, can easily grow a lot of really big bananas for whatever you choose.

[bandit]

For admins:

If you Get Mob or Get Key to a square with a slippery item, such as a clown PDA or banana peel, that slips the person.

[Remie Richards]

those procs call forceMove, which calls all the necessary procs as if the mob had walked into the turf.
so it does all the things, as far as the game is concerned they DID walk to the turf.

[XDTM]

Which is also why opening a locker with a person and a banana in will slip them and why there should be a check if the turf is the same from start to end.

[The Clowns Pocket]

You can rename food with a pen

[Thundercoot]

Airlocks have an 'ID Scan' wire. If that wire is cut, you can pulse the 'Open' wire to open the airlock. You can use it to lock people out even if they have access.
It's slower than pulsing the power and prying the door, but it feels more flexible, since you can reopen via multitool as long as the ID Scan is cut, and you can mend the wire when you want to restore the door to normal.

[XDTM]

You can also attach devices to it to do stuff like saying a password to open the door, setting up a sensor further back so it's open by the time you reach it, tie it to a wall button, and so on.

[One Seven One]

You can also attach devices to it to do stuff like saying a password to open the door, setting up a sensor further back so it's open by the time you reach it, tie it to a wall button, and so on.

You can tie those to walls?
Do you just use them on the wall or something else?

[Anonmare]

Also to find the ID scan wire, it'll behave in one of two ways when pulsed. If the door has access requirments, it will sound the buzz for access denied. In an all access door, pulsing it will open it.

[DemonFiren]

I was wondering if pulsing ID scan opens all doors now, not just all-access ones.

[Anonmare]

I was wondering if pulsing ID scan opens all doors now, not just all-access ones.

Only if the ID scan is cut.

You can make your own password protected autism space (better put some plasteel or metal on the doors so memelords have to put some effort in instead of just pulsing the thing the VA is attached to)

[Armhulen]

well too bad doors can be destroyed by a spear LOL

[Anonmare]

>A double e-sword is all you need to break-in into anywhere, including the AI sat

This meme's gone too far

[Armhulen]

make a spear in 30 seconds

you now have all access!

[Dr_bee]

The janitors janicart can hold any chem. So one of the best ways to prank or sabotage it is to drop plasma into it. every time they mop from that point on causes a minor plasma leak! It is a much better prank than just stealing the cart.

[Professor Hangar]

What happens when you put potassium into it?