Honorbound
While functionally really interesting, there a some oddities with regards to what is a 'honorable' action. Since this is tied so extensively into the click code and particularly the attack chain, honorbound chaplains can't do some interactions that aren't even related to combat, because those interactions are
also tangled up in our attack chain. I'm not sure all of these odd behaviours are even being put up onto the issue tracker, but honorbound has been a source of problems like
this one for some time. This puts an even greater burden on those hoping to use the sect; the inconsistency of how the trauma works.
We can't expect developers to be always conscious of this sect when creating new content, either. To me, this feels like a repetition of some of the issues that has plagued pacifist for some time.
Another oddity is that you usually can't defend yourself from simple mobs with any particular ease, despite most of them not having a mind to begin with. You can't declare mindless mobs evil, so there is no convenient method of getting around this. The mob is regarded as innocent. I'd think a good workaround here is that mindless mobs probably should be exempt from these rules if only for convenience.
On top of this, Honorbound wants you to subject other people to this in order to gain favour. And becoming honorbound doesn't actually impart any tangible reward at all to those who sign up. So there is no incentive for others to willingly subject themselves to these above restrictions and problems.
Overall, honorbound is janky in implementation, has a number of oversights that make actual play of the sect difficult (god forbid medical has become a cult), there are no reasonable methods to gain favour that don't force other people into the crusade, and for all these problems you get absolutely nothing in return. It
desperately needs some advantage and functional workarounds for when the chaplain needs to be able to do to fit the thematics of both the chaplain AND this sect.
One suggestion I would have is granting powers to the chaplain that use favour to tangibly benefit those who are considered just and holy. If this chaplain isn't necessarily meant to be fighting, but supporting these entities, that's an entirely fine thing for them to be. Healing and protection (like temporary magic immunity and making anyone who attacks them during that guilty), targeting medical and security. You'll be exceptionally welcome in those departments. Particularly, I think their bible healing should be the way to facilitate that.
On top of that, some other means of gaining favour beyond conversion. Maybe the destruction of certain unholy items (magical stuff, notably), as well as healing the sick (aka treat wounds maybe). Sure, this could be farmed in some circumstances, but that isn't a terribly big deal, we're expecting chaplains to be doing their little rituals for favour.
I think some methods of increasing the guilty list where it would make thematic sense could also help, along with some better methods of recognizing guilt. My suggestions would be;
- Allowing crusaders the ability to designate someone as their 'charge'. They're not a crusader (and they can't be one), but if they're attacked, the crusader will know, and the attacker will be placed onto the guilty list. This allows the honorbound chaplain to act as a cool bodyguard, and fits fantastically with the knight-errant theme. Maybe they gain favour for hanging around their charge.
- Some kind of book of guilt that is only usable by, like, the lawyer. The lawyer can declare someone guilty. Would be a fun little interaction between these two service members.
- A means for the chaplain to (temporarily?) see the guilty and the just. AKA some kind of hud vision. Would help a lot. On top of this, just having some way to check the list of the guilty would be nice.
Some way to make more crusader armor would be welcome, even if you have to sacrifice body armor/helmets to do it. Maybe make rusty claymores too, like the curator's. I just want to be able to dress up my crusaders!
Greedy God
Chaplains produce absolutely nothing of value besides holy water. And holy water is probably more readily mass produced by botany. Only chemistry meaningfully cares about holy water in normal rounds. And security, if you aren't producing holy water for them during a cult round, will either break you in half for being a cunt, or just overstep you by going to cargo to get holy water. Or just, you know, kill every cultist they capture instead, like they do already because that is more convenient than the dogshit deconversion mechanics of cult.
With absolutely nothing that they can make unique to just them that other people will reasonably want to access, most people are not going to look to the vendors they construct for any goods.
And for all this effort invested, the sect...produces nothing for the favour gained. It just does
nothing. You would think, the richer this chaplain gets, the stronger they become in some fashion. But instead it is just kind of lackluster. On top of that, it actually takes away an option from the chaplain. He has to spend his own money to heal people with his bible, which is something that a normal chaplain can do whenenver they want. It's more reliable, but it is still extremely annoying that you don't gain, say, more powerful healing the richer you are. Or some other tangible benefit for going out and getting all this cash. You've hampered yourself by taking this sect for no good reason.
I just don't know how to resolve this one really, economy is a really fickle thing.
Maintenance God
This one is just kind of obnoxious due to how the light sensitivity works. I think this just needs some convenient way to mitigate the light sensitivity. My best suggestion is allowing gas masks to protect you. They presently block rear vision, so you're still hindered, but it'd at least be both thematically appropriate and push you to look the part. (Maybe your red eyes should glow through the mask, oooh) The other alternative is raising the minimum amount of light to cause you to suffer the negative effects, and maybe ignoring some hues of color, like shades of red (common in maint). You have trouble moving through some parts of maint due to suffering from the light blindness near radiant light sources, such as windows. Kind of pesky.
The sect itself doesn't actually have any real gameplay? You're limited in where you can be, but you don't actually
do anything in the places you're meant to be. And I think the best solution here is maybe a radical suggestion. Give them some interaction or the powers of regal rats. Trash scrounging, rat friendship, that kind of thing. Maybe not summoning a horde of rats, but kinship with regal rats would be kind of cool. They have a lot of the thematic interactions that also fit this sect.
Additional potential solutions would be encouraging the chaplain to use maintenance items like pump-up, spears, the kinds of things you'd expect of tiders. You're some kind of deranged elder assistant, after all. Maybe turning favour into more advanced maint items would be welcome. Or just spawning random trash.
The means to gain favour is also a little haphazard. Organic slurry is spotty to produce at times, and I've had to fix it...twice I think? It would be nice to have some other method of producing favour. Maybe ants. Maybe trash. Maybe cheese. Maybe just moldy stuff. Encourage these guys to go into maint, horde up garbage, and haul it back to a totem.
I think the totems are cool, but I'd love if the totems actively did something more than just be altars. The should be, like, actively degrading the area around them. Think like cult pylons, rusting the walls and molding up the floor tiles. Causing mice to spawn around it. That kind of thing. The janitor should revile the maintenance chaplain for the filth he spreads.
Oh, and for the love of god, this chaplain NEEDS to be given maintenance access. Being stuck in chapel maint is such a letdown thematically, and I don't see why this chaplain should have to go ask the HoP for access when its his domain. Even if it's just a shitty cardboard ID that only opens maintenance doors.
Punished God
I actually think people do enjoy this sect, but in like, moderation. Psyker is extremely disorientating and more than a bit difficult to play. I get mild motion sickness while playing it. I can stand to play it while I'm bitrunning, but I wouldn't be able to go a whole round as a psyker. I know some people get it way worse than me. But if you take this sect, that should be your goal.
I don't think this needs any fixing, it's actually really neat. Just very dysfunctional because of psyker. Psyker itself probably needs some help.
Sparring God
This one gets picked quite often because it allows the chaplain to meaningfully interact with the crew in a unique way; staged fights with a functional framework for victory/loss. It's great, I really adore this sect.
However, it has some quirks of its own. Though I'm not sure how current this list is at the moment.
It otherwise is very playable when it is working.
Festival God
I don't know why people pick this one because it isn't terribly interesting. My only suspicion is because it's mildly griefy. Sleep song is obnoxious, and I've seen people attack chaplains abusing this sect.
I'm a little unimpressed with having to constantly go back to the altar to start up a new song type. I'd honestly prefer to be able to prepare those songs in the field, particularly since we have the means of allowing spells to cost favour.
Overall, it is a largely passive sect that doesn't really bring much to the table in terms of crew interaction. It is kind of griefy, and a little bit unwieldly. It could use some help. I feel a festival chaplain might be better as a role that makes having one around do things more quickly or effectively, so as to justify him being in other peoples departments. Stuff like do_after speedups, a bit like kronkaine. Would really make for a more social chaplain.
I do really adore the thematics of the sect, though. I love the bard sect as a concept.
Pyre God
Literally just burn people to become fire immune. It's exceptionally uninteresting. You get no interactivity with fire, you don't get anything for becoming fire immune. This is honestly valued for specifically one reason, and that is being an ash heretic and needing a quick and convenient method to protect yourself from your own flames (as well as a cover for needing so many corpses). Your healing is also worsened as a consequence of taking this sect, so the fire immunity really is the big selling point here.
Quite lame, needs some actually interesting activities to do, or at least something to justify becoming fire immune.
Mechanical God
This was the first sect, and it shows just because of how basic it is. But I'd argue the rewards are in the right place.
I think this needs a better favour generation method, and I think this needs rites that extend beyond turning people into a powergame race. Being an android is thematically very appropriate for the sect, don't get me wrong. But it could do with some more content beyond this aspect.
Maybe, rather than androidification, it simply augments your limbs. Less powerful, but still a good reward due to to the convenience. You could even have it give you special unique sprites for your augments (or make the limbs advanced limbs, for funsies). On top of that, I think it should encourage augmentation, cybernetic enhancement and borging (radical as that last one might be), possibly even providing favour when someone undergoes these changes in a particular way/with a chaplain present. This is woven tightly with robotics in every way, but I don't find that to be a negative. But these guys should have something to give robotics in return for what they take.
