/tg/Station 13

With the awesome rework of the ventcrawling system, it has added new gameplay mechanics that I think constitute a way for humans to ventcrawl; specifically traitors who order a special syringe filled with structural enzymes that thin the body and allow it to ventcrawl.

The syringe will be expensive, since ventcrawling basically gives you all access without needing an emag or a way to gain illicit access. I would say about 12 TC's, somewhere along that line.

When ordered, a box containing a syringe filled with SE's will be teleported to you. The syringe can be injected into anyone of your choosing. Once injected, the SE's modify the body in such a way that ventcrawling is possible. The modifications include thinning to the body as to allow it to squeeze into a vent. This has the consequence of making the ventcrawler starve more often as the smaller body uses calories more quickly; especially when quickly crawling through the vents. If a ventcrawler is seen without clothes covering his body, people will be able to notice that they seem grotesquely thin for a human being and may catch on to their tricks.

The ventcrawler will also have to be wary, if someone decides to flood plasma onto the station, the ventcrawler will be crawling through vents highly-pressurized with burning plasma. If a hull breach is on the station, the ventcrawler risks shooting himself out of the pipes and into the hullbreach. If a clever pipe engineer tinkers with the pipes, the ventcrawler may crawl into a containment pen full of nitrous oxide.

There may not even be a need for the above events to happen. Simple welding of vents and scrubbers can completely block the ventcrawler out of areas and nullify his ventcrawling completely. This makes it so ventcrawlers can't just escape through perma whenever they want.

There may be a few balance issues that I haven't thought of but I would just love for ventcrawling to be a tool that antagonists can use to be sneaky ninjas and surprise people.

There are already plenty of antags that can ventcrawl. I dont think traitors need to be added to the list, even if it is a very cool feature.

Alex Crimson wrote:plenty of antags that can ventcrawl

let's count them up
changeling's monkey form, in which it can carry no items and is extremely vulnerable
xenos, which don't really count since they're generally admin events, super rare to begin with, and intentionally very powerful
monkeys in monkeymode, which we don't even use..?

that comes out to 3, but only 1 by technicality

Alex Crimson wrote:plenty of antags

Xenos are still antags. The you have the glands from Abductor granting you ventcrawl, Giant Spiders which are never used anymore, and slimes which can be player-controlled. There are plenty of ways to ventcrawl. I dont think we need to add it to traitors just because its a neat mechanic now. Are you going to do the same thing every time some new feature is added?

There are actually two levels of vent crawling:

The first is what monkeys have, where they can vent crawl but can't be wearing/holding anything while they do it.

The second is what everything else has, which is where they can just ventcrawl whenever, even if they have the armory on their back.

It's probably ok to let a human do the monkey version, but the unlimited version is INTENSELY powerful in the hands of someone with... well... hands.

Well it seems kind of silly to disallow carrying all items into a vent. I think a certain size of items should be allowed.

Just the image of a traitor waiting in a vent with nothing but a knife in his hand to ambush someone is a concept I really wanna see.

With instant lol teleport ventcrawling it is kinda shitty game mechanic.

Which we don't have. Anymore.

Don't forget that the default atmos setup crushes people in the vents!

Which we found out when I bullied RR into mass varediting basil's ventcrawl

That's actually not a bad idea (re: last post). Have the enzymes wear off after some amount of time, at which point the tator bursts the pipe if they are in one and takes a great deal of damage. So instead of an instant permanent upgrade, it's more of a quick escape item with the potential to sabotage and/or backfire.

An implant maybe?