/tg/Station 13

You know, that virology symptom that gives you random superpowers.

What is your opinion on it?

I hate it.

It's neat. But when the whole station ends up with it, things quickly spiral out of hand as everyone runs about smashing walls with their 10 seconds of hulk.

Since virology isn't really a reliable way to create and spread effective death plagues I guess they need to settle for inducing super powered chaos. Neat and gives a way to end the round other than poncy engineering.

Your meaty finger is too big for the trigger guard!
Your meaty finger is too big for the trigger guard!
Your meaty finger is too big for the trigger guard!

It's shit.

It appears once every 15 rounds average, unless you get a good virologist like me.
Then it's hulks all the way down.

You could remove hulk and have it gradually give and let you keep the 3 other powers, that'd be good.

Eh, its interesting but it tends to make the station descend into the depths of hell once its unleashed, and people DO go to great lengths to steal good viruses from the Viro (Engineer stunning me and stealing my blood).

I tend to ignore the DNA Aide virus when I'm in Viro.

I hate it also. What is it supposed to achieve when the superpower changes every 10 seconds? It's like it made for griffing.

Made a poll

Here's my honest feedback.

I like the intention for the creation of this symptom, but I don't like its current implementation. Its nothing more than a Griffing enabler due to it cycling between the "good" genetic powers on a 10ish second basis. Unlike any other Virology Symptoms this one provides little actual good benefit to the host except to enable shitty behaviour.

Then again I would say the same for most of the powers Genetics can bring to the table.

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A alternative suggestion I would put forward is to rework the DNA Aid and DNA Sabotage.

Rename it "Genetic DNA Cycler" and make it a very low chance to occur Plasma based symptom.

The next part is up to debate, but basically once you have the DNA Cycler symptom you then have to work it to get a specific Genetic Ability. The catch is the virus in its starting state has all 13 Genetic Powers, good and bad. At this point you have to eliminate 12 of the 13 power blocks until you get a single genetic power. To figure out what power a single block is using can be done via several methods.

Method 1: For a roll of the dice you can destroy one power block to reveal what power another block is using.

Method 2: Select a power block, and the machine will dispense a single use injector, inject into a living test subject (Monkey) with the syringe then return the Syringe to the machine to reveal whats in that power block. The catch is that the test subject will die instantly (If its a monkey) or receive a hefty radiation dosage and negative genetic power (If a human).

Method 3: Place a holder full of liquid plasma, this will let you reveal one power block for 5 units of liquid plasma.

Once you've got the DNA Cycler down to a single Genetic Power, you can then produce "Temp Injection Sprays". These Injections will, when you inject yourself with them, give you the stated Genetic power for 30 seconds.

How does this change the Symptom? It means only the Viro or CMO (Under normal circumstances) can maintain a Genetic power for the long term and prevents people running around with infinite cycling genetic powers for ever. So even if you stun and steal the Viros "Hulk Injection" you'll only have Hulk status for under 30 seconds.
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That will literally never be done.

As Virologist, do not spread the powers virus to the crew. Give it to the Geneticist's monkey and use it to capture the power blocks. That allows the isolation of powers - You can give the triple-play set (cold resistance, telekinesis, x-ray) to Security, and hulk to anyone else you deem worthy. Working WITH the genetics staff instead of against them will make this symptom 1000% more useful.

>go to shoot gun
>lol hulk
>go beat the faggot instead
>lol tk

That and it spams the message box like no fucking tomorrow, I hate it. The only time I ever release it when I'm a rev.

Remove Hulk from the Superpowers virus and then it's probably fine.
Or alternatively make it so that the powers you have don't change every few seconds.
Durkel nailed everything I hate about it.

It's very silly. It breaks genetics, it is helpful for everyone BUT security (cannot fire tasers), it creates hulks which are kind of a problem by themselves judging by how admins want genetics NOT to give out hulks, it also doesn't make sense OOC or IC. Like how the fuck does the virus find the exact gens with superpowers and then randomly switch between them? Why?

It should either modify DNA randomly (but at much slower pace, for example, and give big penalties to stats of the virus) or be removed, in my opinion.

i couldn't perma brig people and opted to kill them because of this virus, and yes i tried feeding them and the virus STILL didn't go away after I hit the "you cannot forcefeed this person anymore!" limit.

remove hulk from DNA Aide so its still useful for genetics and crew, but allows sec to do their job as well.

Make it consistent - One power or powerset, not cycling through all. Remove Hulk from it.

What they said, Hulk simply forces Security to either let the perp go or to execute them. You can't arrest a guy who will turn into a Hulk at any second, and has constant healing and can breath in space.

It's only really useful for people that want to break into places once hulk comes around. Apart from that, it ends up just spamming up the message feed, the individual powers (excepting hulk) never last long enough to be useful or to be relied upon in any way, it's useless for anyone that wants to use guns, it makes security's job a hell of a lot harder (you can't detain people who'll hulk out regularly, and it's harder to arrest them too), and last of all it doesn't really make sense.

Genetic powers should be the geneticist's. Virology has its own set of exceptionally useful powers. When you cross them over, it just creates a mess.

looping wrote:Remove Hulk from the Superpowers virus and then it's probably fine.
Or alternatively make it so that the powers you have don't change every few seconds.
Durkel nailed everything I hate about it.

Steelpoint wrote:What they said, Hulk simply forces Security to either let the perp go or to execute them. You can't arrest a guy who will turn into a Hulk at any second, and has constant healing and can breath in space.

Psyentific wrote:Make it consistent - One power or powerset, not cycling through all. Remove Hulk from it.

there you go, fixed.

An idea: Merge DNA Aide and DNA Saboteur into one DNA Scrambler symptom. Make it easy to spread. The result: A harmful virus, and one that creates mass amounts of chaos, but one that can have fringe benefits for crew. Like the viro's version of Summon Guns.

I'll remove hulk from it after the freeze.

Maybe it could instead cure you of all disabilities, without touching superpowers?

I like the idea of viro working together with geneticists to contain super powers.

It makes people hulk against their will usually because chucklefucks pair it with the flu or a cold so everyone gets it and turn into hulks and can't shoot their tasers if they're sec and it should make you valid to release viruses that aren't exclusively blood transfer because that's just retarded.

Of course if a viro that releases dna aide is valid, guess what happens? His legions of grey tiders who have hulk come to defend him because he 'did nothing wrong' or he beats you to crit with his hulk power.

its even more annoying then a geneticist.

because you can simply laser to crit and their hulk is gone then ointment them once / twice and problem solved.

but most DNA aide viruses are paired up with tox comp and tox detox (or whatever its called), so you have people coming out of crit then turning hulk and attacking / breaking out of brig, you name it.

Well since less than 20% think it's fine as is, I hope something gets done.

Steelpoint wrote:A alternative suggestion I would put forward is to rework the DNA Aid and DNA Sabotage...

Terrible idea. Basically, not only would you have to get an appropriate set of symptoms (viro's job) along with DNAide, you'd have to do a much harder version of genetics' job in order to acquire what you would get from genetics ordinarily. To make things worse, rounds are short as balls these days, so it's substantially likely by the time your powers are even useble (let alone any other viruses), you'd either die horribly, or the shuttle would already be there. Fuck that.

Just make the disease have a chance every tick to enable (and not disable) any superpower except hulk. Essentially, make it so that it's statistically unlikely for a viro to run around with 2, or even 3 powers early-midgame, but is still fair, and lucrative for the virologist to bother with. The disease might not even manifest a power at all, and so would be ultimately unreliable compared to genetics, but could prove useful with the time investment. The same would be done for DNA Sab, but with enhanced dicerolls (as to not make it unused by traitors).

That way, you get rid of the hulk griffsquad problem (genetics should still be able to hand 'em out though, which is fine since it's smaller-scale), but still reward dedicated virologists.

Or maybe, and I know this will sound crazy, but why don't we keep Genetics powers and Virologys powers seperate?

Steelpoint wrote:Or maybe, and I know this will sound crazy, but why don't we keep Genetics powers and Virologys powers seperate?

This

Who the fuck thought and still thinks it's a good idea to make a symptom that basically does geneticist's job for them?

The real question is why isn't it called "DNAide".

it sucks remove it please. I hate it when i finally get hulk/tk and i get infected with a disease with fucking dna aide and i lose my tk/hulk for some other shit.

Just lost set of three powers because of it. Nearly died in space (lost temp res).

It is literally the only symptom in virology that doesn't suck.
Remove hulk from it by all means, just don't remove anything else.

Bluespace wrote:It is literally the only symptom in virology that doesn't suck.
Remove hulk from it by all means, just don't remove anything else.

With right ccombination of viruses, you can regenerate around 1 brute and 1 burn damage per tick per body part, move at sanic speeds, do not breathe, be basically immune to toxins, and do not eat.

Bluespace wrote:It is literally the only symptom in virology that doesn't suck.
Remove hulk from it by all means, just don't remove anything else.

It's literally the single worst symptom in virology

It is literally hitler.

To expand on why I dislike DNA Aide/Sabotage.

It runs completely contrary to what Virology does, not only does it attempt to make Genetics somewhat irrelevant since a Virologist can get DNA Aide within 5 minutes of round start (If RNG is on their side), but that it does not even fit the archetype of a Virologist power.

Genetics works on adding entirely unique and overt ability's to its subject, the powers Genetics gets are very obvious and noticeable and give a very unique advantage to its user, ranging from turning the subject into a monster or giving them physic powers.

Virology works on enhancing the subjects natural ability's in often subtle ways, these powers range from being able to produce oxygen, heal wounds rapidly and moving faster.

The way I see it, Genetics grants overt powers that are noticeable and provide a immediant active benefit, Virology grants subtle powers that are easily hidden and provide a long-term passive benefit.

Kelenius wrote:

Bluespace wrote:It is literally the only symptom in virology that doesn't suck.
Remove hulk from it by all means, just don't remove anything else.

With right ccombination of viruses, you can regenerate around 1 brute and 1 burn damage per tick per body part, move at sanic speeds, do not breathe, be basically immune to toxins, and do not eat.

And considering that most of the best viruses are cured by food, not needing to eat is often more of a side requirement than a benefit in and of itself.

Bluespace wrote:It is literally the only symptom in virology that doesn't suck.

How to tell that someone hasn't played viro before

I dunno Pap, getting hulked while trying to shoot at Nuke Ops with a beanbag shotgun is pretty irritating.

RG4 wrote:I dunno Pap, getting hulked while trying to shoot at Nuke Ops with a beanbag shotgun is pretty irritating.

Not to put words in their mouth, but I'm pretty sure they meant that viro has a lot of symptoms that are pretty kickass and don't involve randomly turning into a hulk.

I hate the hulk part of DNA aide especially since most people spread it by way of sneezing so EVERYONE GETS IT WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT.

I did mean what the post above said, DNA aide is one of the less good symptoms actually. Stim and a good healing mix can seriously make you into something MUCH better than a hulk. I edited the quote in my post for clarity.

this virus is so good now that i know how to harness it.

every super power ever in 5-10-15 mins depending on your virology RNG

but yeah hulk still needs removal

Make it cycle too quick to be of significant use?

AnonymousNow wrote:Make it cycle too quick to be of significant use?

THEN WHATS THE POINT OF THE VIRUS? For genetics to quickly find all the superpowers?

DAN Aide should be removed, its a obnoxious griff virus that tries to invalidate Genetics.

Bombadil wrote:

AnonymousNow wrote:Make it cycle too quick to be of significant use?

THEN WHATS THE POINT OF THE VIRUS? For genetics to quickly find all the superpowers?

Niche use as a variable in battle.

It's pretty simple, dnaide has two major issues.
1: It literally just invalidates genetics. It cleans the SE and randomised your power, so geneticists are not only useless, but they literally CAN'T stack powers if they get this shitty virus.
2: "Holy fuck man eat a dong you fucking ass wank from the depths of shit." This is me every time I play sec and the bloody fucking viro releases a dnaide virus, and suddenly we have 50 assistants who are randomly getting hulk and just smashing every fucking wall down.

Can we just ban viro's for unauthorised airborn release of dnaide, same as non antag release of deadly viruses? It's literally just as, if not even more fucking awful.