What abductors tell us about the server

General
21

oh no now they have to one-tap two people instead of one. what a good counter

i hope you realize most jobs you dont usually have 3+ people around you at all times, lest you work med doc or cargo or some service jobs. generally you are alone or at most with one other person 90% of the game.

2 Likes
22

Pff. I’ve seen Ayys chug meth and run down crowded corg hallways picking people off one at a time, even Sec. Numbers will not discourage them from anything unless all of them are armed… even then…

Its a pretty abusable role that never gets enforced as anything non lethal is fair game

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23

Yep, that’s one of my biggest complains i’ve had with Abductors, i’ve seen a lot of reports that end in nothing because of that

Abductors in order to be viable, in my opinon, they need a proper ‘SoP’ or rules for them, either in the wiki or as a text that pop-up when they roll it

There’s nothing worst than Abductors that rush into crowded areas, put to sleep 6 people and then drag them into the ship while making them sleep, that’s not how they’re supposed to be played, a Lot of the ‘‘ghost role mains’’ players have such a shit way to play abductors, i’m glad we’re not where we were months ago where the meta was to stun-sleep as much people as possible, put 10 people on the 2x2x2x2 ship, put them all in a bs bag for easy carry, spam recall shuttle, secure the greentext and go suicide on the shutle with the insta-win click

That used to happen everysingle time abductors were rolled and they were as frequent as we’re now having xenomorphs.

In any case, i believe abductors could benefit a lot QoL and roleplay wise if they had:

  • Proper rules/SoP on what to do and what not
  • Addition of stuff for their ship that gives them the opportunity to experiment on other players (like limbs or organs from different species)

Because one of the main excuses the players said was that ‘‘once we do the required surgeries we get bored and we go holo’’

I wouldn’t go as to remove the insta-win click of the Abductors, since it’s pretty iconic on them and it makes sense ‘‘lore wise’’ that they just shut you down since they’re a more advanced species, the thing is when that gets abused as the examples i mentioned above.

I’ve been working on a draft of possible suggestions for the abductors that would encourage more roleplay opportunities and experimentatons that don’t lead to a random plasmaflood but i haven’t had time to finish it yet alongside some tweaks and suggestions for the Abductors ruling, because there’s a very high need of clarity on the ruling for them.

2 Likes
24

I remember very vividly one of my first times encountering abductors. I was a geneticist working with the other guy in our lab. Nothing was out of the ordinary and then BAM an ayy walks trough the maints into the lab and stuns us both before we can even call for help. It’s left a very sour taste of the ayys for me and i gotta say that the only fun I’ve ever had becouse of ayys was when i made stimulum as an atmosian and just teased them as they stunned people left and right

1 Like
25

The one objective i hate is leave the station and become a hermit because its essentially removing you from round and enforcing you to solo rp for noone except yourself.

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26

im surprised ppl are mad about a midround antag who only spawns late into the round, can be easily spotted with a single click (despite being a stealth role) and also gives brainwashed people a pass to self-antag for their objectives

Not to mention Security has shotties (can’t be EMP’d) and can craft bolas ¯_(ツ)_/¯

27

Maybe because a midround antag who only spawns late into the round, can be easily spotted with a single click (despite being a stealth role) and also gives brainwashed people a pass to self-antag for their objectives might not be a good idea for a “roleplay” server.

Spawning late into the round means they often split right into any roleplay currently going on and can cut right into an antagonist’s work right as the round is about to close off.

And sure, you can spot them with a single click. You can also get hardstunned in a single click.

Giving a bunch of crewmembers a pass to self-antag is not as good of an idea as you seem to think it is, especially when one of the objectives is literally “force the shuttle to be called.”

And sure, Security has shotties and can craft bolas. But Abductors’ entire shtick is they teleport in and out of areas without giving the victims time to even call for help or react at all. And good luck crafting a bola as non-Security, because this is a roleplay server for everyone except Security and antagonists, so you’ll still get that good ol’ powergaming bwoink.

28

With regards to the batong of the eyyy lamo’s, to discourage multi-person engagements, perhaps it should take the Battery function of the SEC Batong/Electro-prod, Requiring charging after perhaps 3 or 4 hits, thusly putting a solid limit on just how many people can be managed by a proficient abductor operative.

If abductor WANTS to, they are allowed to mildly augment their arsenal with afformentioned electro prod/ Sec Batongs to thusly enable them some extra, less powerful batong.

3 Likes
29

Lol why are you so focused on thinking Abductors aren’t good, these points you gave are wrong rly

Stechkin, Tentacle, any ranged weapon is good to scare them away and not bother again if they remember you

Refer to my previous statement

?

They take long time for their teleport to work, which should be enough to run. Not to mention they also get additional “hardstun” on themselves that lasts a few seconds.

30

This is why in addition to some of the other changes Fronsis mentioned, we need to look through the abductee goals and give them a touch up.

31

You do understand the abductees are given objectives to spice up the round right? Its not like they are given the objective to go murderbone and they start slaughtering people and cutting people’s rp short. I get that some of the abductee objectives are bad but come on.

1 Like
32

I really like this idea becouse it would force the ayys to at least mildly plan their abductions instead of just goin in and one tapping everyone who comes in after they are called out for a shit teleport

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33

Or we can upgrade their vendors to sell an upgraded battery for the batons, that way they don’t need to improve or use ‘low lifeform weapons’’ i think it would be nice if they had access to some other items in the store, but that’s a good change tbh

I do agree that brainwashed objectives and alien organs needs to be updated to give more interesting and appropiate stuff as well as to prune the more troublesome ones, i might hit up @Axel since he did an excellent job with the antag gimmick objectives

1 Like
34

Suggestion: Make the baton work the same way as cult spells. Negated by mind shield. (and give abductors built in implants or vars that show mind shields)

This means that Sec are left rather unscathed so they can deal with actual gamemode antags or actually put up a fight against Ayys, so they think twice about playing fast and loud.

Or. if they want to protect the crew. shill out a ton of implants for something that IS only a midround.
Actually put the thought into Sec/Med that the crew is going insane from something influencing their mind and should probably do something to fix it instead of lobotomy. heart replace. pap out the door.

I would happily put effort into gimmicks for upwards of 15min if I knew that someone cared enough to restrain, fix and mind shield me. Rather than this being my whole round now.

4 Likes
35

Deep rooted traumas are what I hate the most about being an abductee. Nothing like having to rush medbay and spend 20 minutes bugging a doctor for lobotomy because you have a deep rooted trauma that makes you punch yourself and then get another bad permanent trauma in process.

Sure viros can help fix deep rooted traumas with mind restoration but good luck trying to get them to make one.

And this is more of a playerbase issue but I hate these abductors who make these cringy brainwash objectives, you know who you are.

image

6 Likes
36

I think it’s also a player/rules issue.

Abductees should not be always going on doing griefish things. That’s unfortunately a byproduct of the way antagonist status is treated by players and the rules.

I think we really need to diverge antags into two types. Mainline antagonists(Traitors, Lings, Revs, Abductors, etm.) and minor antags(abductees, tomas, etm.) where minor antags are only antags as a method of tracking, and generally have a more specific form of play they’re expected to follow(IE: abductors being largely benign cooky guys who do weird things).

2 Likes
37

…Ah yes, an antagonist I have deep gripes with.

I’m just going to rapid-fire all my grievances with Abductors since most of them have been in-depth.

  1. Brain Traumas are the largest round-disruptor, and can also just fuck up your RP. Gimmick Objectives are boring and not open-ended enough, or even contradict server rules “ooooh you’re in a videogame” but Brain traumas are the big factor. I sure do hope you like doing your job, or even your new RP gimmick while stammering and other such Speech Impediments.
  2. Abductors have no end-state, or any other variation to their objectives besides racking up a scoreboard and having no penalty for going Stealth High-Chaos. Seeing an abby teleport into surgery while you’re on the table for a crucial operation, while two other doctors scramble to make sure you’re not going to die of malpractice, is quite insulting.
  3. There is no counter to the Abductor batons.
    No, seriously. Fuck your “Don’t be alone”, I was in an entire security squadron once, and we all got Knocked out. We were trying to stop someone from dragging another bleeding crew member into maints, when an abductor came in and knocked us all the fuck out. I’m glad there was ONE MORE SECOFF to scare them off and keep us all from getting hauled onto the mothership, but that was because everyone screaming that the majority of security were getting one-tap-love-tapped by abbies pretty much made it unviable to take all of the now unconscious and sleeping sec-offs onto the mothership without verifiably and definitively risking making the round FUBAR for both parties involved. The absence of a security team, especially one that was able to get their shit together, is felt the moment they’re all unable to do their jobs.

It is one hit and lights out, no matter what you’re wearing on your noggin, or if you’re mindshielded like security. The power level of that cannot be understated. It is ONE TAP. TO UNCONSCIOUSNESS. That is never, ever fun, because that doesn’t even give the victim a ghost of a whisper of a fart of a CHANCE to react accordingly.

I’m speaking from a game-design standpoint here, OotB OHKO’s are never, ever fun to be hit with, and the ramifications go far past service or science. Competent Engineers, Medical Staff, Security, and Heads of Staff getting one-tap knockouts is bad, plain and simple. Losing anyone who’s remotely knowledgeable in those three departments, even temporarily, can really fuck a lot of people’s plans up, or outright lead to indirect round removals. Making them unintelligible, or god forbid, making them spew slimes up, even if passive, will fuck up THEIR jobs, YOUR Job, and EVERYONE ELSE’S Job, maybe even the jobs and objectives of other antagonists.

The baton is the biggest lynchpin, because there is, I repeat, No counter. Not a one that is widely known (or that I know of).

If you want to claim “Just RP Better”, fine, just remember this isn’t a chat-room. There are dozens of complex systems to add to this game, beyond speech bubbles. OHKO’s need to be done well, and normally that’s possible only in a far more simplified and binary experience of a game, to be tolerated. In horror games, there is rarely, if ever, a one-hit kill unless you’re on the hardest difficulty, and even then, that normally doesn’t invoke fear. It just invokes frustration, annoyance, and ennui.

7 Likes
39

Thank you for saying what really needs to be said about abductors.
Abductors do NOT show an rp problem in the server.
Abductors show a problem with their fundamental design every time they spawn into a round. And that’s nobody’s fault except the people who designed them.

3 Likes
40

I don’t really remember my gimmick objectives as a abductee, but I do remember one where I played into it. I was given an objective to do a seance for a monkey that had died and the chaplain that did the seance pretended like the monkey possessed him and was making the noises and such, it was hilarious. God bless that Chaplain.

5 Likes
41

I’m fairly sure if the Abductor Stun batons were nerfed, the prior two gripes would be far less egregious.

Because now, it’s more of a struggle and an actual interesting dynamic of cat-and-mouse with abductors trying to pick out the right crew members to snag. Scoreboard mentality will remain, but if speech impediment traumas were made rarer, or even removed entirely and swapped out for other traumas, it’d make engaging with abductee objectives more feasible. Making those objectives more involved and adaptable also means people might try actually integrating that kind of character shift into their roleplay dynamic. Abductors losing their one-tap advantage will put them just above par of syndicate contractors, since their kidnapping dynamic alters far more than just “Oh you’re in custody now and you have nothing to do lmaooooo”

3 Likes