diff --git a/voidwalker.md b/voidwalker.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3c487b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/voidwalker.md @@ -0,0 +1,80 @@ +# Voidwalker +| Designers | Implemented | GitHub Links | +|---|---|---| +| TrixxedHeart (Programmer)
CoolioDudio (Artist) | :x: No | TBD | + +## Overview + + +The Voidwalker based on TGStation's Voidwalker to be a mid-round ghost role antagonist designed to evoke fear. It is a silent, malevolent, spaceborne entity that stalks the station from the void, capable of snatching victims through windows and "voiding" them, a "curse" that turns them into a silhouette of stars that vomits ichor that the Voidwalker can use to traverse. + +The prime philosophy is to emphasize horror by creating something that will strike fear into a player, whether it is their first or hundredth time encountering it due to the consequences of falling victim to one. + +## Background + +Most ghost role antagonists focus on being more direct threats, things that are obvious. The Voidwalker is designed to be more subtle, a predator in the cold darkness of space, *something you should avoid being caught alone with at all costs.* Ultimately this creates an antagonist that truly feels different from all the existing ones and creating more dynamic situations. + +## Features to be added + +### The Voidwalker +Can't have a Voidwalker without the Voidwalker itself. +* **Spawning:** Spawns randomly as a ghost role antagonist somewhere in space near the station. +* **Resistances & Weaknesses:** Resistant to energy-based weapons (e.g., lasers). Weak to kinetic damage (blunt and piercing weapons). Can be shocked and cannot pass through electrified grilles. +* **Abilities:** + * **Draining Slash:** It's attacks do asphyxiation damage, it is capable of using alternate attack to do minor blunt damage, but this is significantly weaker. + * **Cosmic Physiology:** Has natural camouflage in space. Being in space also naturally heals any wounds sustained over time. Voidwalkers also move faster in space, but slow significantly in gravity. + * **Incorporeal Passage:** Voidwalkers that pass through non-electrified grilles and windows destabilize their structure, enabling them, and anything else to pass through it temporarily. + * **Abduction:** Voidwalkers can abduct victims in critical condition when they are in space. This will "curse" the victim with being Voided, and respawn them safely somewhere inside the station. + * **Mental Projection:** Cannot speak verbally, but can project short messages into minds. + * **Unsettle:** Targets a victim by keeping line of sight, once the DoAfter finishes, the Voidwalker becomes visible and the victim stunned. + * **Cosmic Dash:** Allows the Voidwalker to instantly dash into any visible space, allowing them to be able to escape if needed. + * **Void Dive:** Can enter "void space" while either in space or through Void Ichor puddles, becoming incorporeal and untargetable, similiar to that of a Revenant. Can only exit void space by re-entering normal space or through a Void Ichor puddle. + * **Signal Receiver:** Voidwalkers can innately hear all radio signals. (Including Central Command and Syndicate radios, they do not hear Mansus/Hivemind/Astral) + * **Pacification:** Becomes pacified when in the range of an active radio jammer. + +### The Voided State +* **Acquisition:** A player is "voided" when successfully grabbed, pulled into space, and abducted by the Voidwalker. Players who have become voided will appear as a silhouette of stars. +* **Mechanics:** + * **Incurable Transformation:** Acts as a "soft round removal." **There is no cure.** + * **Space Immunity:** Immune to the effects of space exposure, but *cannot* enter space tiles. + * **Void Ichor:** Voided players will have their blood replaced with Void Ichor and become more susceptible to bleeding. Voided players will also periodically vomit Void Ichor (which temporarily stuns them). + * **Voidspeak:** Voided players can only whisper and have a speech trait applied to make them "talk slow" and disjointed. + * **Example**: + * **Original**: “Dawg I think the void just fucking snatched me” + * **Voided**: “Dawg…I th-hink the…void…just fu-ucking…sna-atched…me” + * **Glass Body:** They now have the fragile trait. + * **Pacifism:** They now have the pacifist trait. + * **Passive Body:** Becomes very easy for others to drag around. +#### Potential Cure & Consequences: +Should there be a way to cure it, it should not leave you unchanged. You don't get your entire body mind and soul warped and are able to bounce back as if nothing ever happened. + +If Funky had a system similar to TG13 traumas (preferably without ableist tropes) I’d be okay with adding a method to cure it under the condition you gain a permanent trauma, so that way it becomes a decision between keeping this utterly terrifying state of being or gamble and potentially get something just as bad if not worse. Which ties heavily into the fear factor I wish to aim for. + +### Void Ichor +A reagent that acts as a conduit between normal space and "void space." Evaporates when a Voidwalker uses it to enter void space, but not when it exits. Voidwalkers can otherwise freely warp between them (while remaining in void space). + + +## Game Design Rationale + +I personally feel that the Voidwalker fits into many of Funky's core designs: +* **Seriously Silly:** The Voidwalker creates inherently theatrical scenarios. Imagine the chaos and panic that sets in when someone is snatched through a window mid-conversation, or the dark comedy of a voided crew member slowly whispering warnings while being easily dragged around like a sack of potatoes. It encourages dramatic and amusing interactions. +* **There is no Winning or Losing:** The Voidwalker is not designed for "winning" in a conventional sense, it has no "completion" objectives, just to abduct, survive, and feel like a predator lurking in space. For the crew, "winning" isn't necessarily killing the Voidwalker, it could be surviving its attention, protecting key personnel, or figuring out what to do with the voided HoS. This inherently focuses on creating narrative experience rather than trying to make another antagonist focused on gameification winslop. +* **Take Things Slow:** As a mid-round threat, the Voidwalker doesn't rush the round to a conclusion, it escalates the existing tension gradually, applying additional pressure alongside existing threats. Being a slow yet persistent threat. +* **Maximizing Roleplay Potential:** This antag is a roleplay hook. It forces interaction: security must coordinate hunts, crew are encouraged to stick in pairs to avoid being caught, engineering need go around making electrified traps to prevent it from entering places, everyone must communicate about sightings and disappearances. It actively discourages department isolation by creating a threat that requires cross-departmental cooperation to truly counter it. +* **Dynamic Environment:** The Voidwalker the station's exterior and windows from scenic backdrop into active threat to stay away from. Its ability to use voided crew as conduits to attack informs interaction dynamics. The void ichor puddles become environmental hazards that must be dealt with right away. + +On another note, Voiding fundamentally engages with the player's investment in their character...the time spent on design, backstory, and roleplay by targeting it directly, snatching them away. I think the threat of being voided comes from the profound, irreversible violation of identity. A character is stripped of their agency, their voice, and their defining traits, becoming a distorted, passive echo of themselves. This creates genuine, personal stakes to players. The fear isn't just of being attacked, but of losing *"yourself"* the character you built and inhabited to an uncaring, malevolent force. This elevates the antagonist from a mere obstacle to a deeply personal horror for especially those invested in their characters, making encounters with it feel consequential and visceral. +## Roundflow & Player interaction +The Voidwalker spawns in mid-round like any other ghost role antagonist, once present, it's presence becomes a slow-burn threat that escalates as disappearances are noticed and voided crew are found. +* **Player Interaction:** + * **Crew:** Should seek to stop or avoid abductions and build to defend key areas and personnel from Voidwalkers. This also creates interesting roleplay potential with Voided crew. + * **Voidwalker:** Should interact by stalking, creating opportunities with its destabilize ability, snatching isolated targets, using voided victims as conduits, and avoiding direct confrontation with prepared groups. Its gameplay is one of patience and predation. + * **Mechanical Enforcement:** The Voidwalker's speed penalty and visibility on-station, combined with its weakness to common ballistic/melee weapons and electrified grilles, prevent it from being an unstoppable force inside. It is powerful in its element (space) but vulnerable when forced into the open. + +## Administrative & Server Rule Impact + +* **Griefing Potential:** The ability to drag people through windows could be used to grief by spacing critical people without abducting them. This will be partially mitigated by preventing Voidwalkers from being able to drag victims in a manner that would allow them to toss people into space however, it won't completely prevent them from just leaving the body in space. Should a Voidwalker do this, they should be appropriately punished as any other player would as this is irresponsible antagonist play. + +# Technical Considerations + +Multiple new systems will have to be made for the Voidwalker's abilities that cannot be done through existing systems. There should be little impact on performance. The biggest concern of mine is preventing Voided players from entering space, which shouldn't be much of an issue but we'll see!