Howdy! I am new to the forums so excuse me if I do not follow any common guidelines or norms.
Now this is partly a story of my experience to why this should be changed, an encouragement for it to be changed and a topic for it to be discussed as it was quite heated in-game.
TL;DR: I want Hermits to be able to board the station or for their life to continue after Lava Land.
When I first saw the the Hermit ghost. I immediately saw it as a challenge. To survive the impossible and become one with the crew (or at least be transferred back to Cent Comm and then be ghosted)! Iâd probably request for a job I normally play, that being chemist, and continue as normal but this time with an actual character history. It was a fun idea.
This idea today became almost a reality. All of the pieces just fell into place. I spawned close by the outpost, so close I could hear them mining. I didnât die immediately from Goliaths (or as I like to call them Go-Fuck-Yourself-Liaths, haha). And it was a Borg who found me who has the Asimov law set! Everything sort of just worked out. My character wants to escape lava land, borg has to protect humans and the outpost is right there! So what do we do? We see if I can get on the station. Being unsure I ask a mentor for their opinion on this. After being silent I ask an admin too. Still radio silence. So I do what felt right and I suppose broke the rule of Hermits never leaving Lava Land. However, not without any trouble a perhaps more experienced player told the Borg and I that this wasnât allowed. Feeling unsure and being at the mercy of his position at the desk we return to Lava Land mid-flight and try to talk to the higher ups. I walked to the QM, the RD and tried to contact the Acting Captain for any of their or their bossesâ (Captain or Cent Commsâ) opinion on the matter. Nothing. I got nothing. So later on the Borg and I tried it again, this time we got to the station. He took me to Sec and we talked to the HoS who was willing to give me a job as a Security Officer despite knowing I wasnât part of the crew. However, at this point I was notified by an moderator that this was not allowed and that I should head back to Lava Land as soon as possible. After acting so happy to be out of Lava Land I tell the HoS some poor excuse like âI miss Lava Land, I am not meant to be here.â and ask to return. With some trouble (cough cough someone plasma flooding the hallway cough) I eventually got back to Lava Land and as I was told to leave my things on the station they were all lost, including my only gas tank. Trying to take one of the many in the dispenser the miner tells me it is Nanotraser property and disregards my property. Basically, without explicitly say it, tells me to go out into Lava Land with no oxygen tank nor pickaxe. Just my gas mask and clothes. I take back my medkit I left just outside, hoping the Epipen will keep me alive for just long enough to get back. With a good local memory I do make it back in one piece but suddenly feel so sad. Both as a character and in real life. He fought so hard to get away from here. Back to his family and friends. He was probably a Nanotraser employee from a previous station! Perhaps heâll get another job again? How long did he spend on that hell hole called Lava Land? A year perhaps? Many more? And after being rescued and finally got to step on the finest station by Nanotraser he is banished back to the hell hole. And with oxygen being limited and destined to run out. Whatâs the point? With a single deep breath he walked out into the ash and quickly succumb deathsâ sweet embrace.
Actually getting tears in my eyes as I write this. Played on this server for over 400 hours by now and love it dearly. This shift, is on par with my first experience playing SS13. I loved it. It was the most unique and interesting RP situation Iâve been in.
I hope this story of my experience puts a smile on yâall. It was a lot of fun and believe it could be fun for more people to sometimes, just sometimes, have this unique experience.
Lavaland spawners should not be used to be another ticket to go back to the station and continuing what you were previously doing, not to forget that the hermit hates nanotrasen and would much prefer to live in literal hell than work for them again.
There is a reason nearly every single ghost spawner has pretty clear instructions to not go back to the station, itâs because a fair amount of players would just go back to exactly what they were doing after they died, or would meta grudge whoever killed them. The intention of the spawners is to either provide a learning experience, challenge, or to allow players to freely experiment with things without worrying about other tasks.
And if the ghost role is wished to remain then what if you had to get back to the station but would then via the arrival shuttle or another shuttle be sent back to Cent Comm and (promptly ghosted with some victory fire works) You canât use it as a second chance assuming the station is in a somewhat working condition and youâd might be treated as a prisoner just in case.
Wouldnât getting to the station in the first place be challenge enough, usually? Unlike the other spawners, hermits have nothing to âexperimentâ with.
technically not true. There are several hermit types, and one is a medical doctor who escaped NT due to the ethical dubiousness of NT. That specific version should be unable to go to the station. The other potential spawns donât have anything against NT, and donât seem overly thrilled to be stuck on lavaland.
This is also not true. Only 2.3 ghost spawners have rules telling them not to go to the station. (i guess 3.3 if you count hotel staff which technically still exists but is a space ruin so it never actually is available.) The Lavaland Syndicate Base cannot go to the station. The Ash Walkers are not supposed to necessarily go to the station, which is coded in as being unable to use consoles. Ashies can technically go to the station, should they gain the ability to travel to it, such as if they gain a jacobs ladder, or find a quantum pad though using a quantum pad as an ashie is kinda cheese. Ash Lizard rules state that they should not attempt to become friends with the station, though it doesnât actually state that hostilities are necessary. Hotel staff are directly told not to every go to station, and had to be granted antag status for tracking purposes because Hotel staff was the griefer spawner since they had access to a teleport and had a high number of spawns.
Golems can go to station, and nothing is stopping them. Pod people can go to station, though its generally not easy. Most hermits can go to station, and donât actually WANT to be on lavaland. The Medical Doctors from Vet Clinic can go to station, because they donât want to be on lavaland, though I like getting legion corpses and practicing various surgeries. The beach bros can go to the station, though it would be hard to do, and no one can understand them. I donât think they arenât allowed to, but the Beach Bro Bartender and Lifeguard shouldnât go to station because their jobs are in that ruin. Charlie Station Crew can go to station because they can kind of do whatever, and are basically the same as golems but human.
Sounds like I was unlucky to get the wrong flavour test then. lol
Itâd be nice if it was⊠a bit more clear? Perhaps if the people had different gear in some sense to make it more noticeable because I had no idea there was multiple different variations of hermits! Read the flavour test once and that was that.
Perhaps highlighted âtagsâ under the flavour text showing what applies to that specific ghost role such as âCanât board station willinglyâ. Or perhaps simply just very different names between the variations so it isnât easily mistaken.
I gotta be honest that some of the best interactions Iâve had on ss13 and on Beestation usually relate to ashwalkers or hermits.
I had some amazing interactions with ashwalkers were I would convice them to not attack miners or to be intergrated into the station. Weâve had their leaders meet with our captains to decide the fate of their clans/enslaved them for expermients (evil), etc, etc.
Hermits can provide so much roleplay for players so itâs a shame theyâre not really allow to express it normally when stuck in lavaland.
There is good reasons for not having them on the station sure, but I always felt like expections should be allowed if hermits are providing a clear improve to roleplay to all.
In fact, the examples I gave above were all approved by admins with little trouble, I suppose you were just unlucky
This is true too actually, Iâve had good interactions as and with VIP spawns. I kind of think them existing kind of proves the point that thereâs nothing exactly wrong with having off-station personnel though. Like really a hermit and a VIP from exploration arenât that much different at all. They serve the same function.
Didnât you know? Arbitrarily punishing someone for something thatâs functionally the same as something else thatâs acceptable is Jannie mentality 101
By their very nature, they shouldnât want or seek to board the station or even leave really. At least to me the point of the Lavaland hermit is to be a harder challenge compared to the other lavaland spawns that are just survive on lavaland. Nothing is like successfully killing mobs and managing to create a goalith cloak. At most a hermit could try to trade stuff or steal obtain items from the station to allow themselves to continue a solitary existence.
Though this instance is fine (especially since you had fun), but it shouldnât be allowed to happen often. Outliers are fine and change things up, but it shouldnât be a constant thing people are doing.
Then what exactly is the purpose of the vet clinic in lavaland? The ghost spawns it comes with are largely useless for trying to teach people, because you do need people to heal and there isnât anything to keep the doctors from staying there. Miners largely ignore them (except for the shotgun), and only lavaland spawns like the hermit and ashwalkers really have use for it.
I think changing it to be a Medical testing lab instead of a vet clinic would be more useful. Give it genetics, chemâs, medbay, and some way to do research. This would give people who spawn into the ghost role a reason to hang out in lavaland instead of taking the shotgun, air tank, and pickaxe and running straight to the station.
for context the guy who told you off about NT property (arnold prime i think) also just roleplays an absolute dick of a character.
hermit gets to live their life according to how they feel. if youâre a doctor who left a society because you hated their medical practices, the alternative of âlive in literal hellâ is probably enough to drive you to ease on some morals. etc. etc. for others.
If youâre going to use the name to support your statement I am going to counter that and suggest a name change. Think I also did that in a previous comment.
Thank you for noticing, I put a lot of effort into Arnold to make him totally insufferable, he mutters shit to himself under his breath at you, implies youâre somehow not as educated as him (even though how the hell could anyone know that)
Like really a hermit and a VIP from exploration arenât that much different at all. They serve the same function.