by Arbon » Wed May 11, 2016 12:08 pm
While Scree’s suggestion would certainly be a better fix, it still sort of ignores the inherent problems with our current system.
The fact genetics has no benefit whatsoever from working with another player, so you don’t have scenarios like I’ve seen on TG where the geneticist asks an assistant to help them, because each power has a specific message the assistant gets when a gene is activated. And so having a person inside means you can just ask them to tell you when they feel something strange rather than constantly re-open and check for changes directly.
The fact its completely random, to the degree there are multiple layers of randomness with a random thing leading to a random thing with another random thing. All of genetics boiling down to the dull monotony of staring at a screen pressing the exact same button over and over again waiting for the lottery to accidentally fall on the right set of numbers without accidentally changing any of the other numbers. Its strait-up bothersome to play.
And the fact once the work is done and genetics has completed their actual job, nothing actually comes of it. They have 8-10 disabilities they will never use under any condition, 2, MAYBE 3 powers they will use for themselves and no one else, and at least two powers that the captain or security or sometimes the CMO will crack down on them to make sure none of their work is ever used by anyone under any condition. With the admins instantly siding with said decision. One of the powers is borederline useless, the other makes you kill-on-sight, and the last two are things that people get upset if they even see it being put to use.
Nothing they do is ever going to benefit the players or make the station run better or even feel like research, nor is it conducive to enticing further study or further roleplay. All of which just leads to bad scenarios where unless you have the perfect geneticist working alongside the perfect CMO with completely trustworthy heads in all situations who hand out X-ray and emergency hulk injections for that just in case moment (which you aren’t supposed to do but is literally the most good they will ever be used for) or equally bad scenarios where everyone gets free access to all the powers and then the station runs wild with glowing X-ray telepaths, OR you have the worst possible scenario of genetics doing nothing at all and just being dead weight.
Probably the reason so many bay stations remove it outright.
My suggestion comes very close to scree’s and sort of builds on the idea of traits as a template, because you see rather than randomly click at numbers to make them change to another random number, I’d have the code for each result being a specific number in a randomized block, checking a person’s DNA via either direct scans or scan data from cloning lets you see the exact number for any specific powers they have. Give the consoles the accuracy to change one block at a time, by a set amount, so they could check through each number and combination sequentially and narrow down results.
And finally give players access to ONE of every minor power available for the geneticist to find.
Minor powers being defined as things anyone should be allowed to have at any point in any normal shift, and the ONLY powers a geneticist is able to access without finding NPC mobs or dangerous monsters, requiring an away mission or xenoarcheology to capture something they can fit inside a scanner.
Things like:
Having claws or human hands.
Spending nutriment to create the web clothing as a special power.
Echolocation alongside blindness.
Heat tolerance
Cold tolerance.
Gains nutriment in sunlight, but starves in darkness
Can make the ‘squeak’ sound of stepping on an observermouse play as an option in special powers.
Can produce honk noises as an option in special powers, without requiring a horn.
A “Hide” button as per observermice special powers, placing you underneath objects in your tile.
Expanded vision range.
Greater brightness even in low light.
The ability to chomp instead of punch, presumably incompatible with claws.
Trading away nutriment to produce bioluminescence, glow as if a torchlight for as long as you aren’t starving.
MINOR things, stuff that’s neat and you can use to add flavor or customize a character but won’t mechanically tear the game open the way X-ray or TK currently does, and while you can only pick one at character creation the benefit of a geneticist is to allow the application of multiple minor abilities. Things they legitimately can hand out like candy and not have to worry about someone breaking down the hallways because now they eat light, or stripping naked because they can have heat and cold tolerances.
And of course with the distinction between minor and major … existing, game-breaking genetic powers that we already barely get to use would be things you can’t get by scanning normal crew, or asking an assistant to come sit and listen for squealchy noises as you tick through the numbers in their DNA blocks. Major powers:
TK,
Hulk,
Thermal resistance,
The ability to produce web squeares
Ventcrawling
Spitting acid
Xenomorph projectile neurotoxin,
Ect, all being things you have to capture some specific NPC mob for and then scan it’s DNA for things you can replicate and then apply in crewmembers. With each specific type of mob granting it’s own specific ability. Or some not granting any abilities at all. So that large, potent, game-breaking powers would be something you have to gather a team for, gear up, and go on a specific mission to hunt down and capture said creature then bring them back while still in a condition to scan.
If bringing them back alive is required, all the better because it gives Xenoarcheology more of a clear purpose, even linking them to genetics. Suddenly they go from slime farmers to monster ranchers.