/tg/Station 13

Posted: **Sat Jul 27, 2024 12:58 am**

I kinda miss that old rustbucket Ratvar, and was wondering what ideas people had if they were to bring Clock Cult back.
It can be improving them as they were pre removal, with the weird base defense mode, or come up with a new idea to bring them in line with other conversion antags like Blood Cult. I think the latter would be fun because you could have Cult vs Cult (maybe with a heretic thrown in too) rounds where they would fight over territory, or a mutual sacrifice target, but also staying hidden from normal crew. I would try to keep it similar to Blood Cult, but maybe focusing on playing more defensively, and setting up traps. Like a different flavor of cult that can stand on its own, or do war with each other.

Posted: **Sat Jul 27, 2024 1:26 am**

Yeah it would for sure be funny to go full circle and make it a blood cult reskin again

Posted: **Sat Jul 27, 2024 2:42 am**

For the purposes of this exercise it may be worth knowing that we have a standing requirement for conversion antagonists to have any hope of being merged into the game

No more conversion antagonists unless your antagonist:
…is easily understandable by a convertee who is new to the antagonist, and especially new to the game
…somehow fits criteria 1 without just being revs

This imposes one of the following restrictions (not necessarily all at once):

- Don't make a conversion gamemode at all
- Have the cult leaders (who opted into the antagonist at roundstart) be significantly complex with much simpler convertees
- Converted players are transformed into mobs with a simple purpose and an immediately understandable, limited set of abilities
- All players regardless of whether they were converted or part of the mode from the game start have both simple aims and simple mechanics

Posted: **Sat Jul 27, 2024 4:37 am**

I wasn't aware of the conversion antag stuff when I made this thread. It does make sense though, just makes the problem a bit more complicated.

Posted: **Sat Jul 27, 2024 2:19 pm**

God damn that is a tough one.

Honestly, have only round start clockies be actual cultists, that play like a blend of aductor and wizard, but actually get weaker the when it's time to fight. The rest get converted into special clockwork golems that specialise into a few roles.

Stuff like a builder, a ranged type, a tank, a brawler etc. super simple stuff with the builder being most important for the actual game mode.

Instead of having random portals everywhere that people lemming into, I'd just portal everyone in at once after a timer rounds out. Let everyone attack together.

Posted: **Wed Aug 07, 2024 7:27 pm**

Hmm how abaut cult that is more power based its 6 starting members they can't convert the crew but instead
they got a ton more options to drain power form the station not only hacked apcs
(1 plant minicogs that drain power form vending machines
2 ability to convert stolen power cells into power at there home base
3 megacog placed in the power storage units
4 very risky ability to cog SM engine itself making it so its gives half of it power to Clock cult
5 mini power sinks places all over maints that crew gota deal with
) Also incresse the max cappacity of stored power
Add new power based ability
(1 Very costly abbility that summons a addtional cult member
2 low cost diffrent types of traps
3 medium cost steam musket that uses main power to shoot
4 other fun stuff that i cant think abaut now
)
and also i would balance this by having war for ark happen 25 minutes into the shift
so the coggers could not steal infinite power and scale up
(round only ends when coggers win)
if crew wins they get lot of diffrent rewards form killing the ark
and the round continues as normal due to fact that coggers did not converted crew itself and so it wont end up deadpop
this is just quick idea i just had

Posted: **Wed Aug 07, 2024 7:28 pm**

Hmm how abaut cult that is more power based its 6 starting members they can't convert the crew but instead
they got a ton more options to drain power form the station not only hacked apcs
(1 plant minicogs that drain power form vending machines
2 ability to convert stolen power cells into power at there home base
3 megacog placed in the power storage units
4 very risky ability to cog SM engine itself making it so its gives half of it power to Clock cult
5 mini power sinks places all over maints that crew gota deal with
) Also incresse the max cappacity of stored power
Add new power based ability
(1 Very costly abbility that summons a addtional cult member
2 low cost diffrent types of traps
3 medium cost steam musket that uses main power to shoot
4 other fun stuff that i cant think abaut now
)
and also i would balance this by having war for ark happen 25 minutes into the shift
so the coggers could not steal infinite power and scale up
(round only ends when coggers win)
if crew wins they get lot of diffrent rewards form killing the ark
and the round continues as normal due to fact that coggers did not converted crew itself and so it wont end up deadpop
this is just quick idea i just had

Posted: **Wed Aug 07, 2024 8:27 pm**

Doesn't not being able to convert the crew defeat the point of a conversion antag?

Posted: **Wed Aug 07, 2024 8:33 pm**

Jacquerel wrote: ↑Sat Jul 27, 2024 2:42 am For the purposes of this exercise it may be worth knowing that we have a standing requirement for conversion antagonists to have any hope of being merged into the game
No more conversion antagonists unless your antagonist:
…is easily understandable by a convertee who is new to the antagonist, and especially new to the game
…somehow fits criteria 1 without just being revs
This imposes one of the following restrictions (not necessarily all at once):

- Don't make a conversion gamemode at all
- Have the cult leaders (who opted into the antagonist at roundstart) be significantly complex with much simpler convertees
- Converted players are transformed into mobs with a simple purpose and an immediately understandable, limited set of abilities
- All players regardless of whether they were converted or part of the mode from the game start have both simple aims and simple mechanics

Would blood cult not meet these standards if it was proposed today?
And also, a new player can hardly play the game normally before they get their bearings, wouldn't ANY addition to the antagonist whatsoever count as not easily understandable (unless it was some sort of passive effect that did not require understanding?)

Posted: **Wed Aug 07, 2024 8:57 pm**

Itseasytosee2me wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2024 8:33 pm Would blood cult not meet these standards if it was proposed today?
And also, a new player can hardly play the game normally before they get their bearings, wouldn't ANY addition to the antagonist whatsoever count as not easily understandable (unless it was some sort of passive effect that did not require understanding?)

The chances that we'd merge blood cult if it wasn't already in the game with its many many years of total reworks and iteration are extremely slim yes.
As for the latter, it's fine to assume some base level of competence. I think the real aim is "if you need to read a wiki (or a wiki page transplanted into the game) it's too much".

Posted: **Wed Aug 07, 2024 9:39 pm**

idk why but i was thinking about this while driving not too long ago and it went something like this:
ratvar is dead (you can find him on lavaland) but there's a possibility he can be brought back
the lavaland ruin is modified to spawn all the time when indecipheres is the mining zone, he does not spawn on icebox (cult can still roll, though. i'll get to that later)
it also has a bronze beacon thing set up, which cannot be destroyed at the moment
on the station, three crewmembers are the initial cultists, they get some magic or whatever
they must construct something similar to a powersink, which very slowly sends power to the bronze beacon
after some amount of power is siphoned (half of the required amount, perhaps), an automated announcement is made about a strange load on the powernet, along with a general area the powersink is in
after it collects all the power it needs, it changes shape, and anyone in the cult can interact with it to be teleported to the lavaland ruin
another announcement is made and the beacon on lavaland gets a gps signal
the cultists must defend the beacon while it sends its energy into ratvar, until all the power is used up
then a SUPER COOL ANIMATION where ratvar pulls himself out of the ground as he regains his power plays, but not a cinematic. it's just his corpse playing the animation so you have to be there to see it. why? it's cooler. ratvar then leaps up from lavaland and spawns at the edge of the station (round has ended at this point, cinematic would show his arrival) and does his thing destroying shit
on icebox, the cultists must defend a relay which is actually just the beacon but changed so its description is more of sending power off of the moon rather than receiving power from the station. no cool animation for planetary stations, though
that's basically the gameplay loop i thought up

Posted: **Thu Aug 08, 2024 7:55 pm**

I actually had a similar idea about something involving the remains of ratvar but not nearly as in depth as yours, and I like your powersink idea a lot, but I can see the issue for ice box. I enjoy the idea of a dead cult getting revived by some cultists that hide in plain sight and integrate back in to NT after ratvar was killed, waiting for a good opportunity to resurrect their dead god and enact their revenge for killing him in the first place (Canonically Ratvar was killed by a BSA strike from an NT station). Very cool and eldritch vibes that are thematic with SS13 and not just ripping something else off. I want more antags that are actual facets of the SS13 universe like Syndicate and Blood Cults not just some already established idea or concept but in SS13.

Posted: **Thu Aug 08, 2024 10:52 pm**

I like norsvenska's idea

Posted: **Sat Aug 10, 2024 6:01 am**

as someone who wasnt around for og clock cult, i think neo clockcult could go one of two ways

option a: make it essentially a slightly tweaked alternative to blood cult. same mechanics for the most part, with a few differences (replace the items they can make at altars, change blood runes to little constructed altars, one or two spell replacements) so that learning one more or less onboards you for the other. this would also make doublecult (cult vs cult) possible which i think is a fun idea

option b: start from scratch entirely with the flavorings of old clock cult but simpler mechanics. probably the more likely one to happen

if you asked me to design the latter, id say the easiest way to try and fulfill the modern requirement of 'easy to understand' would be to lean super hard into the angle of being an item and equipment-focused team antag, with every item and building having a very clear and defined purpose

ideasguy document, all names/numbers pulled out of my ass:

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/tg/Station 13

How would you revive Clock Cult?

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