From 8eed5a1de110a11d2cd76ab628d74f6f48e75735 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SophiaImpetus Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2026 18:21:13 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 1/2] Create Quylon Species.md --- src/design-proposals/Quylon Species.md | 103 +++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 103 insertions(+) create mode 100644 src/design-proposals/Quylon Species.md diff --git a/src/design-proposals/Quylon Species.md b/src/design-proposals/Quylon Species.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6939a63 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/design-proposals/Quylon Species.md @@ -0,0 +1,103 @@ +# Quylon Species + +| Designers | Implemented | GitHub Links | +|---|---|---| +| SophiaImpetus | :x: No | TBD | + +## Overview + +Quylons are lithoids with a physiology dependant on magic and crystalization. As floating rocks, they completely lack the limbs others have, posessing additional gemstone organs which allow them to move and manipulate objects manually. +Quylons slowly suffer adverse affects from remaining in the station enviroment, losing magical charge until they become inert. They must cooperate with each other to perform a randomly generated scavenger hunt each shift, in order to complete the ritual that ensures their survival. + +## Background + +The game currently has a surplus of mammalian species, and even the majority of the non-mamalian are very humanoid in shape and appearance. There is a large gap for more truly alien feeling species to fill. Filling this gap would benefit both the sci-fi aspects of the roleplay setting, sharing the station with beings who have vastly different needs, experiences and bodies, along with enhancing the occult aspects of the setting, these aliens may have unnatural powers, appearances and minds. +There is also a need for what differentiates species to be better expressed in gameplay terms, without the flaws that caused IPCs to be removed, as gameplay helps form the core of roleplay for species. +This document references features introduced in the Ghost Hunting design document. + +## Features to be added + +### Quylon + +Quylons don't eat food, but still require sustainance to repair the wear and tear their bodies take over the course of working on the station. Their homeworlds are worlds rich in multitudes of gasses which fulfil these needs, in contrast to the station where only oxygen and nitrogen are seen as nessecary for the station atmosphere. +Quylons still need to breathe air to live. Oxygen is the core component of their respiration, and they suffocate without it. Like Thaven, they can breathe other gasses safely, and gain nutrition from inhaling gasses which are not oxygen, nitrogen, or a noble gas. Gasses inhaled by a Quylon are not exhaled as anything else. +Quylons have floating movement, and can't be slipped. Stuns will still knock a Quylon down. Quylons floating movement has a slight jetpack-like impulse, allowing them to accelerate in space without anything to push off of. +Quylons have no limbs, and are formed of only a torso and eyestalks component. All of a Quylon's organs are inside the torso, except the eyes, which are attatched to the eyestalks that grow from the top of their torso. A quylon can live without eyestalks, but will be blinded. +Obviously by lacking limbs, Quylons are not able to benefit from item that would require the boots or gloves slot. Their eyestalks are also unsuitably shaped for headsets or eyewear to be equipped. +Considerations would have to be made for how this affects the sprites in game. While items could be resprited for Quylons, it's also interesting to portray how the station, and equipment therein, isn't designed for them. Being roughly torso shaped and limbless, they could wear any existing outfit or body item. In the case of jumpsuits, they would escew the pants components with sleeves dangling loosely besides them, in the case of hardsuits, using the existing models could be easily justified as them fitting into the torso and helmet part and leaving the limbs empty, utilizing a suit not shaped for them but that fits them. Alternatively, as there are not too many hardsuit designs, these could be resprited to have configurations for Quylon. +Quylon's unarmed attack is swinging their eyestalks at someone. No eyestalks, no unarmed attack. +Quylon internal organs and eyestalks are powered hydraulically, and their blood is just water. A Quylon that starts bleeding won't stop bleeding until it is patched up, unless the temprature is low enough for water to freeze as it leaves the body +Quylons have 30 flat heat resistance, providing immunity from all lesser heat sources. Quylons also take slightly increased blunt damage and slightly reduced slash damage. 20% of Ion damage dealt to Quylons becomes attenuation points as the Ion disrupts their arcane structures. +Quylons have the following organs. +* Diamond Mind, which functions as the brain with the soul of the Quylon connectecd to it. +* Ruby Heart, which functions as a heart. +* Sapphire Lungs, which function as lungs. +* Emerald Liver, which functions as a liver. +* Alexandrite Arcane Structure, which stores attenuation values, removal causes total attenuation. +* Angelite Eyes, which function as eyes. +* Tourmaline Levitation Structure, which causes Quylon to be able to float and move, and allows them to move as if they had a slight jetpack impulse while in space enviroments. +* Cirtine Manipulation Structure, which allows Quylons to hold objects through telekinisis and interact with objects. +* Amethyst Crystalzer Structure, which allows Quylons to regain hunger from gasses and regain thirst from liquids. +Quylon organs are high in value, selling for at least double the spesos of normal organs of their type. +Gemstones implanted into a Quylon will transform into their organ version if the Quylon is given Healium to breathe, but their organs can't be replaced with any bio-synthetic organ transplants. Attempts to do so by any doctor foolish enough to think it may work deals heavy continuous genetic damage while the organ is inside their body. + + +Every minuite a Quylon spends in space (which includes inside a space station), attenuation increases by 1. Each point of attenuation visibly desatuates a Quylon. At 40, Quylons become slowed. At 50, Quylons lose the ability to pick up and hold objects. At 60, A Quylon becomes unable to move, talk, or interact in any way, effectively being dead (and thus able to enter spectator mode), although they are not dead in lore. + +### De-Attenuation Ritual + +The De-Attenuation Ritual randomly selects its requirements at the start of every round. +These requirements are selected based on the following criteria. +* The item is not too common (e.g. Steel, Lightbulbs, Paper) +* The item is not too rare or important (e.g. Nuclear Disk, Golden pAI.) +* The item is not exclusive to antagonists. +* The item is not an live creature, organ, or corpse. +* The item is not a randomly generated or transitional item. (e.g. mail, randomized outfits) +* The item is not unrealistic to aquire in the timeframe, or overly round affecting in aquisition (e.g. tier 3 researchable items, security and command manuals) +* The number of items required is equal to four plus the number of Quylon on the station. +* At least one item must be "difficult", e.g. contraband, difficult crafting requirements, available only via cargo requests. An additional item must be difficult for every five Quylon on the station. This does not prevent a higher number of required items being difficult than nessecary. + +The items required may be overly specific, such as requiring a specific playing card from a deck of cards. They may be contraband, such as requiring an armament from security. They may be unique and irreplacable providing that allowing the item to be borrowed or taken can be worked around. + + +### Quylon Guidebook + +Species guidebook entry should explain mechanics and cover the following points. +* Quylons, despite having abilities others would be incredibly envious of, are not in any way built to survive space, and are expected to struggle in it. Taking a job on a station is a significant hazard to you, and while Nanotrasen is nominally dedicated to ensuring its assets do not perish, being unable to de-attenuate on the station is a possibility. Life on a station will be harder. +* Completing your hunt for everything required to perform a de-attenuation ritual can be difficult to impossible without working together. +* Attenuation isn't natural, and is a scary experience, with full attenuation being comparable to a state of permanant sleep palarysis. You should not remember anything that happens while attenuated. Attenuation isn't death - the standard procedure is to retain attenuated crew until de-attenuation is possible, via magic, organ trnasplant, or returning to a compatible terrestrial enviroment. Funerals are not to be conducted for a de-attenuated crew member. +* Chromatic naming convention, should be, or evoke, a colour that the Quylon is. Pine Needles, Rust, Lake, Sky, Spilled Blood, Baked Beans and Orange are all valid names providing the colour of the Quylon is matched to it. + +### Quylon Survival Box + +Quylons don't have a nutriblock in their survival box, instead having a canister of CO2. + + +## Game Design Rationale + +Quylons add a rich, multi-layered variety of roleplay hooks and challenges to the average round on the station by their nature. The requirements to use the de-attenuation ritual naturally lead to interactions on the station, between fellow Quylon and between anyone who has the items they seek. The need to consume gasses may require transactions with cargo or negotiations with engineering. Medical would be forced to seek outside help in the event a Quylon comes in with missing organs. The fact they are burdeonsome will itself prompt interesting roleplay as the use of station time or resources can be drawn into question, Quylons can be scrutinized by security on if they really need a contraband item or are making things up, and their rituals may be mistaken for illicit and unsanctioned occult practices. Command might have a good reason not to want to let Quylon use the the warden's shotgun to de-attenuate, but their co-workers would rightfully be upset that they're being left to paralysis in the name of security. They, like thaven and vox, are intended to be a challenge for more experienced players, and this challenge itself feeds back into the roleplay. While attenuation is not fatal, it is a serious hazard for Quylons that makes life on a station difficult and so the question of what would cause a Quylon to take a job like this, as well as the fact more of their paycheck is going to basic survival needs and the increased stress and friction they exist under should create a unique ground to inform roleplay. + +Quylon's physiology is not just there as a challenge to players, but there to make them as alien feeling as possible. The galaxy is vast, xenofauna is diverse, it makes sense that crew members should have to work alongside and rub shoulders with the unfamiliar as much as the familiar. Even with convergant evolution at work, not every other species will be a friendly, humanoid version of a beloved earth animal. Much like how a Thaven roleplaying their moods can enhance the game for many people and creates a authentic sense of an alien psyche, Quylon's nessecary behaviors and physiology create an authentic sense of an alien existance and ideally will enhance the game in their own, similar way. + +### Take Things Slow + +Quylon's scavenger hunt should be fun for the same reason players enjoy cargo bounties, they give you a reason to go around the station and talk to people. A simple exchange of one item is rarely too time consuming for the person being asked. Difficult items might take quite a lot longer to aquire, but a time investment by one person will benefit all Quylons as a whole. This is a design where completing the task might take a while, but individually people can contribute as little or as much as they want to. + +## Roundflow & Player interaction + +Attenuation is on a short timer and the ritual will need to be completed within the first 50 minuites of the shift. This means that attemps to collect items will happen before the "loud" phase of ramping antagonists like the cosmic and blood cults, or zombie infections. This serves to break up the monotony of round start and create more moments of interaction and conflict while antagonists are prepairing or remaining stealth and there's no major station events or damage. + +Like Thaven moods, Quylon attenuation can impact the ammount of work being done in a given department until everything required has been collected. This isn't an issue, since many factors can influence the ammount of work departments complete and the objective of the gameplay is to roleplay, not win a department. If someone wants to complain the Quylons should be literally working themselves into a death-adjacent state because they need a department to do something, that can be resolved in character. If their requirements in a round are paticularly difficult, this is the point where those organizing the station should consider moving resources about, tasking more people to work on it, opening up communication to solve the problem. The burdeonsomeness of them, and how it can sometimes affect rounds, IS the point. + +As there are a lot of factors which change how Quylon's affect the round, such as what items are needed, what departments Quylons are in, if any Quylons have increased access such as command and the number of Quylons, the impact they have should not be too repetetive from round to round. + +## Administrative & Server Rule Impact + +Any feature which is designed to cause friction and conflict in rounds is bound to come up against rule 1. The current direction the server is taking is to embrace conflict, and ideally the type of players who would play Quylon would do so to embrace the friction that is created and not be overly upset if someone puts them in a tough position in a round. Despite this, Quylons have the same inherent risk as Thavens and Silicons do wherein that conflict and friction can be expressed as outright bigorty in game, which isn't desired. Based on the current community and the culture around thavens and silicons on the server, the hope is that players can be trusted in the same way here. + +# Technical Considerations + +Obviously, a new species will require new sprites. +The ritual system references a system that would be introduced in the Ghost Hunting design document, but if Quylons are implemented first then this system would have to be built for them. +Certain features like gaining sustinance from gasses, moving and interacting without limbs and these abilities being controlled by the presence of an organ may be theoretically already doable with the game's current code, but may have bugs or issues requiring rewrites. + From c67a145e3d97105bd79f551dc2674d14b2fae35f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SophiaImpetus Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2026 04:59:29 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Removed heat resistance --- src/design-proposals/Quylon Species.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/src/design-proposals/Quylon Species.md b/src/design-proposals/Quylon Species.md index 6939a63..01e6122 100644 --- a/src/design-proposals/Quylon Species.md +++ b/src/design-proposals/Quylon Species.md @@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ Obviously by lacking limbs, Quylons are not able to benefit from item that would Considerations would have to be made for how this affects the sprites in game. While items could be resprited for Quylons, it's also interesting to portray how the station, and equipment therein, isn't designed for them. Being roughly torso shaped and limbless, they could wear any existing outfit or body item. In the case of jumpsuits, they would escew the pants components with sleeves dangling loosely besides them, in the case of hardsuits, using the existing models could be easily justified as them fitting into the torso and helmet part and leaving the limbs empty, utilizing a suit not shaped for them but that fits them. Alternatively, as there are not too many hardsuit designs, these could be resprited to have configurations for Quylon. Quylon's unarmed attack is swinging their eyestalks at someone. No eyestalks, no unarmed attack. Quylon internal organs and eyestalks are powered hydraulically, and their blood is just water. A Quylon that starts bleeding won't stop bleeding until it is patched up, unless the temprature is low enough for water to freeze as it leaves the body -Quylons have 30 flat heat resistance, providing immunity from all lesser heat sources. Quylons also take slightly increased blunt damage and slightly reduced slash damage. 20% of Ion damage dealt to Quylons becomes attenuation points as the Ion disrupts their arcane structures. +Quylons take slightly increased blunt damage and slightly reduced slash damage. 20% of Ion damage dealt to Quylons becomes attenuation points as the Ion disrupts their arcane structures. Quylons have the following organs. * Diamond Mind, which functions as the brain with the soul of the Quylon connectecd to it. * Ruby Heart, which functions as a heart.