I’ve noticed that the more I play SS14, the more meta-gaming becomes inevitable as a result of basic game knowledge. And I think a large part of this is because there are ONLY antag game modes.
It means that every single round devolves into a pvp-fest, which can get very exhausting when the main appeal of the game is roleplay. It’s quite difficult to type out a roleplay when you’re running away from someone with a rainbow death swords. (an auto walk function could really help with this actually. I know theres wasd + t but that feels bad, like a glitch not a feature)
You’re basically on a timer where you know eventually you’ll have to fight someone, so you logically want to gravitate more towards preparation for that expected future.
Zombies is extremely rare, but is probably the most interesting and centralising gamemode for roleplay purposes, mainly because you don’t WANT to fight them. Once you have a zombie outbreak, you have to play hide and seek until the shuttle arrives, because you at least know that’s safe. (probably)
My suggestion is have rounds where there aren’t any actual antags, besides critters and dangerous random events, that just get more and more frequent until departments get overwhelmed and need to evac.
Now yes, it’d be difficult to actually determine when it’s too much, so maybe some sort of timer needs to be added, or something external that makes it clear its only going to get worse from here on.
I actually want this, but I feel the problem with non antag rounds is you don’t really have round end condition goals to work towards.
I’ve seen non antag rounds last upwards to 3 hours (!!!) with no end in sight on servers that have 40 minute average shifts.
So while non antag rounds being a thing is not a bad idea, I do think all departments need some form of long term goal that they need to work towards to end the shift naturally that should take no longer than an hour and 30 minutes to work towards. For example, QMs reaching a certain budget to purchase and install some expensive mechanism, which would rely on engineering to help, while science department would need to research a certain component for that mechanism. Something like that.
Yeah I also agree with this, I think departments should have objectives just like antags do, maybe even individuals if they opt in (like they didn’t already have a goal in mind when they click ready).
Would you be opposed to there just being an actual round end timer. Like end of shift at 2h 30m, where it’s not an evac shuttle, it’s just that the actual arrivals shuttle starts letting people on?
And yes, people will say “but what about the antags”. idk dude, if they haven’t gotten all their objectives done by 2 and a half hours, that’s a them problem.
I myself would be in favor of this as long as it’s got half the weight of Revs for random selection on Secret.
I would recommend having a set of station goals that can be randomly drawn from and automatically communicated to one or more heads to give each department something to do, like constructing a museum (sci+cargo+engi), or something, then any admin can just override it and make an admeme like “You are now a diplo station for the war, you must make all these visitors have fun and give good Yelp! reviews or you’re fired” if they feel like it. It would be even better if the gamemode vote came back, so the sever can vote for this kinda round and whoever doesn’t want it can bounce.
I would maybe not make it just Survival (increasing events till evac), but have some storysetting events that only explode into Survival if they end too quick. Learn from the problems that Extended had in SS13.
Just my 2 cents. And I am not sure I like hard round end timers, but if a lot of the staff and players like that, then sure. Maybe at 4 hours so it’s kind of like DBD’s 60 minute server shutdown fallback.
i see where you’re coming from, but strongly disagree with some of this. people can readily vote for evac if they want to leave - heck, these days they can just cryo if they need to go and the rest of the server disagrees. if the crew wants to go for three hours, let 'em.
i think 3+ hour antagless rounds on servers that usually have short rounds isn’t necessarily an indicator that a lack of an end condition is a problem, but is instead just a result of the crew not getting exhausted as fast and the station remaining broadly habitable for longer, since no antags means nobody’s blowing holes in the station, round-removing people, etc.
i think having larger goals to work towards wouldn’t hurt, but i don’t think the lack of that means that extended isn’t a viable gamemode. maybe that’s the HRP enjoyer in me talking, though.
You have Kessler Syndrome(1%) filling this role for engineers right now, and Survival (9%) also admins do sometimes use Secret Extended giving a chill shift normally towards late night so about 10% baseline shifts are not straight PVP other than Syni kill targets.
if you dislike meta, i advise playing on MRP where Meta-gaming is banned.
Id also say that after about 90 minutes an automatic shift change happens, and if folks are getting overwelmed they can call evac anytime.
I think you could have votes to extend shift or stuff like that, but there should be an actual timeframe that the shift happens within.
This is just my opinion but I think any game that a person sits down to play should have an upper limit expectation, where after that it’s expected people will leave and go and do stuff in their real life.
I definitely agree with an idea of longer, non antag rounds particularly on servers dedicated towards learning the game and bringing in new players. For example, I almost already qualify for RD despite not knowing any of science because everything goes to hell before I can get any training.
Maybe weight it a bit higher on a new player server? There should absolutely still be long term goals for all departments and an upper limit though (or just go to cryo if you have to leave).
My main issue is how GAME ending the antags can be.
Zombies are just a snowball effect that round removes you on contact. Straight up.
Nukies round remove en masse too, and if they win, the station is deleted.
Blob…
RP is just not an option when the game will literally end if you don’t do something MECHANICAL fast. People just loose the motivation most of the time because the round is essentially over. Either because antags will win or they will cause too much damage to continue.
If anything, rounds should have more, low risk antags and less massive threats. Both to keep ghost roles populated and to reduce the NEED to stop all RP and fight the threat.
Either that or easier ways to recover from damage. Maybe ERTs to help rebuild or something. (which would also fill ghost roles at the same time)
It would ALSO make each antag more valuable by virtue of removing the major ones. Nobody cares about ninja when nukies or giant slimes are roaming around. Nobody cares about heretics if there are zombies or a blob.