Too many god damn antags
Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2025 8:30 pm
The antag to crew ratio is way off from where I what I think is healthy for the game. Rounds feel like those custom games of Town of Salem where the host puts in one of every different bad guy and only leaving room for about 5 town roles.
Like on a medium amount of threat there are substantially more antagonists than the crew could be expected to handle unless the antagonists intentionally pull their punches (cheapening their struggle) or side with the crew (gag).
Frankly it kind of breaks the verisimilitude of the game when over 25% of the crew happen to be enemy implanted agents. And its not like that ratio is even a particularly rare occurrence, high or low pop. Like in over half the round, 1 in 4 people you meet are antags. And given that security can't be antagonists, anyone who isn't security is even more likely to be evil secretly. It kind of breaks the fiction doesn't it? Not to mention the balancing implications. Theft objectives become trival once the station descends into chaos, which will happen sooner or later with that many antagonists, even on the MRP ruleset. If there are many antagonists, being an antagonist is less fun because everything become much easier and you are less important because there are so many other antagonists fighting for attention. Playing against this many antagonists isn't fun either, which I think is part of the reason we have this odd culture of antagonists slipping into friendliness. Its not fun to fight like a cornered animal if you are 10 times the size of the thing that is cornering you and also the thing cornering you is meek and pathetic and you can knock it over with a single kick.
Whats the number I would aim for? Probably about 8-10% on a standard round, and I'd like it to not fluctuate very much from that. Very rare extremes are also obviously fine.
Like on a medium amount of threat there are substantially more antagonists than the crew could be expected to handle unless the antagonists intentionally pull their punches (cheapening their struggle) or side with the crew (gag).
Frankly it kind of breaks the verisimilitude of the game when over 25% of the crew happen to be enemy implanted agents. And its not like that ratio is even a particularly rare occurrence, high or low pop. Like in over half the round, 1 in 4 people you meet are antags. And given that security can't be antagonists, anyone who isn't security is even more likely to be evil secretly. It kind of breaks the fiction doesn't it? Not to mention the balancing implications. Theft objectives become trival once the station descends into chaos, which will happen sooner or later with that many antagonists, even on the MRP ruleset. If there are many antagonists, being an antagonist is less fun because everything become much easier and you are less important because there are so many other antagonists fighting for attention. Playing against this many antagonists isn't fun either, which I think is part of the reason we have this odd culture of antagonists slipping into friendliness. Its not fun to fight like a cornered animal if you are 10 times the size of the thing that is cornering you and also the thing cornering you is meek and pathetic and you can knock it over with a single kick.
Whats the number I would aim for? Probably about 8-10% on a standard round, and I'd like it to not fluctuate very much from that. Very rare extremes are also obviously fine.