Glass Cannon Shadowkin

[SixplyDev]

Description

Honestly... much needed until they can get a proper rework from the original creators. This PR nerfs them a shit ton (no more teleporting away when you're in danger, smh) to make them more in line with the other species so they aren't powergamer central. Additionally, brings them more in-line with the traditional SS13 shadowkin. Shadowkins should no longer get darkswap and such, in fact I've commented out the entire ability until it too can get a rework.

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TODO

• Removed DarkSwap from Shadowkin
• Made shadowkins much more easy to damage
• Brought shadowkin much more in line with their SS13 counterparts
• Fixed shadowkin lore, making the guidebook entry more interesting
• Shadowkin can be chosen as a player species roundstart
• Rework Marish to have a more fleshed out language protoype
• Make DarkSwap unable to interact with the world as a whole
• Give DarkSwap a longer cooldown
• Make DarkSwap unable to be used if stunned
• Adjust DarkSwap glimmer production
• Shadowkin do not have black eyes by default
• Shadowkin have the black eyes trait listed (Waveform Misalignment equivalent)

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Changelog

🆑

• add: Shadowkins can now be roundstart species again
• tweak: Shadowkins are now more easy to damage
• tweak Shadowkins are much more like their SS13 counterparters
• remove: Removed DarkSwap from Shadowkin roundstart.

[RustedBR]

What if they get the Psionic invisibility roundstart?

That wouldn't be OP, we already got lots of counters

[VMSolidus]

Actually Darkswap is here to stay, although it needs some new interactions added. Darkswap is generally what should replace invisibility. Darkswap needs to:

• End immediately if the user takes damage over a threshold, or is stunned
• NOT make the user intangible or able to walk through walls(this is a very shit mechanic)
• End immediately if the user is Flashed, regardless of if they have flash protection, and stun/damage the user when flashed out of it.
• End immediately if the user attacks or performs any "potentially hostile action", you can check the same even Pacifism checks, its its own special thing.
• Darkswap's init feedback needs significant improvement. It also needs an action bar text that isn't a stupid joke.

For Shadowkin, my requirements for them are:

• They MUST be parented to BaseMobSpeciesOrganic. I won't accept a non-breathing species that doesn't have a parent prototype.
• They must have Marish reworked with a significantly more fleshed out language prototype.
• Their general writing quality needs significant improvement. It looks like a child wrote it.
• Their "Feature list" must be significantly reduced in scope. While we like species being more detailed, and prefer each species have something unique, Shadowkin have waaaaay too much unique.

[VMSolidus]

Oh, while I'm at it. Darkswap should never have needed a "mana" system bolted onto the psionics code. Nothing else interacts with that, it infuriates me how useless it is. Darkswap, and any other power that uses a finite draining/regenerating resource could have just used Stamina instead. Congratulations, Stamina is now a casting resource that has a plethora of pre-existing interactions.

[SixplyDev]

For Shadowkin, my requirements for them are:

• They MUST be parented to BaseMobSpeciesOrganic. I won't accept a non-breathing species that doesn't have a parent prototype.
• They must have Marish reworked with a significantly more fleshed out language prototype.
• Their general writing quality needs significant improvement. It looks like a child wrote it.
• Their "Feature list" must be significantly reduced in scope. While we like species being more detailed, and prefer each species have something unique, Shadowkin have waaaaay too much unique.

I am not a coder by any means (surprise surprise) and generally only learned coding to fix some things that were making me upset on SS13. How would I go about implementing these features? I can do writing quality myself and the feature list is being worked on as well. Really I need help with the first two.

[VMSolidus]

For Shadowkin, my requirements for them are:

• They MUST be parented to BaseMobSpeciesOrganic. I won't accept a non-breathing species that doesn't have a parent prototype.
• They must have Marish reworked with a significantly more fleshed out language prototype.
• Their general writing quality needs significant improvement. It looks like a child wrote it.
• Their "Feature list" must be significantly reduced in scope. While we like species being more detailed, and prefer each species have something unique, Shadowkin have waaaaay too much unique.

I am not a coder by any means (surprise surprise) and generally only learned coding to fix some things that were making me upset on SS13. How would I go about implementing these features? I can do writing quality myself and the feature list is being worked on as well. Really I need help with the first two.

So in their Resources/Prototypes/Entities/Mobs/Species/shadowkin.yml file, and in every other file present in that folder, it lists the prototype used by the game to define what the ingame mob is. Its a list of Components, such as Type: Sprite, or Type: Pulling, and these components define what a Shadowkin Entity DOES.

If you look at other species in that folder, they list a Parent. Usually listed as BaseMobSpeciesOrganic. Parenting means, "First spawn a BaseMobSpeciesOrganic. Then, overwrite all its components with those listed in BaseMobHarpy".

Shadowkin lack a parent prototype. This was done specifically so that they could be made without a need to breathe(Type: Respirator). This is also incredibly bad. Its probably the single most Tumblr OC thing they do. Saying no to an entire game mechanic is awful. Its also awful for maintainers like me. Normally I can fix shit by just touching the parent, and that fixes it for all species.

To fix it, add the parent. Then delete every component that Shadowkin share with the parent that they do not also modify.

[sleepyyapril]

Do me a solid and just delete shadowkin and everything to do with it

[DEATHB4DEFEAT]

real

[BlueHNT]

They are a cool idea, but a balancing nightmare.

If your race needs like 10 different tools to just deal with them alone, they shouldn't be roundstart.

[SixplyDev]

I have no clue why shadowkin restraints were removed from the secfab, I'll need to re-add those. I'm removing their invisibility ability (for now) until that can be reworked. They're my favorite species from SS13 but they were horrendously botched here.

[SixplyDev]

Decided to just remove DarkSwap from Shadowkin instead of everyone as a whole. Will make a separate PR to review DarkSwap.

[SixplyDev]

I'll be removing DarkSwap from this PR and moving it to a separate PR. I'll make a new comment when the changelog is updated to reflect this.

[sleepyyapril]

I have no clue why shadowkin restraints were removed from the secfab, I'll need to re-add those. I'm removing their invisibility ability (for now) until that can be reworked. They're my favorite species from SS13 but they were horrendously botched here.

This is why I'm genuinely requesting a removal of all things shadowkin. They added a lot of unnecessary and unbalanced things. It can be re-added in a better way later.

[SixplyDev]

I have no clue why shadowkin restraints were removed from the secfab, I'll need to re-add those. I'm removing their invisibility ability (for now) until that can be reworked. They're my favorite species from SS13 but they were horrendously botched here.

This is why I'm genuinely requesting a removal of all things shadowkin. They added a lot of unnecessary and unbalanced things. It can be re-added in a better way later.

Yep the intent here is to bring them a lot closer to the baseline rather than being super duper special furry oc like they were before. I'm not a coder so the rework of the other things are going to take a bit as I strugglebus my way though it.

[SixplyDev]

For all curious, here's the shadowkin lore document. Best viewed on a PC. I wrote it entirely from scratch & it will be replacing old shadowkin lore.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13c14bGs2Jb8PMr0g10IGu-Q-AL8RKqWVBIKgTQ0R_mc/edit?usp=sharing

[SixplyDev]

Forgot to add on the DarkSwap removal that they also now gib at 300 damage instead of 400, this is to further reinforce their glass cannon build & weak structure.