Combat

Wow! Combat, the science of kicking ass! That's cool shit buddy.

But first a little history and context
Space Station 13 as a whole (particularly Goonstation) has gone from a lagfest in the early 2010s to a reasonably real-time game. Before, there was plenty of time to talk while fighting. This went at least triple when something was blowing up!

This also meant that as performance improved, the existing ROBUST combat system that would let you do things like dodge bullets, started making its gaping goatse holes even more obvious. Fixes were needed.

One of the changes that our esteemed upstream made to address the changing landscape of clicking on nerds was to add a stamina system.

Technically speaking, it was a lot of work! It did what it set out to do, making combat less luck and scramble, and more of a strategic preparation kinda deal. The upside is that there's no more bullshit unfair fights that end by chance. Unfortunately, that same strength often means outcomes are pretty predictable! So, what to do?

Stamina
So listen, stamina has been a thing for a while and especially in the Dark Souls, it's known, understood, and respected as a mechanic. but this is BYOND. This is the 2D Spacepersons. In keeping with the throwback spirit of Coolstation, we've cut out stamina and brought back something closer to the devastating hits: a mad scramble of RNG and maneuvering and having the right equipment and luck is a very SS13 thing.

We think it's important that a naked assistant who has managed to slip out of the brig has the remote chance of kicking the ass of a half dozen sec officers trying to recapture them in a Benny Hill ass Keystone Kop mess that surpasses even the clown's wackiest japes. That was a common kinda matchup in the earlier times, and stamina basically means that staffie is absolutely gonna lose every time.

However, there IS a twist where combat isn't simply RNG on both sides! The lower your health is, the easier it is for your assailants to do things like land critical hits and push you down! CONVERSELY, or like, alternately? Also??? The lower your health is, the easier it is to do things like land critical hits and push YOUR targets down! Call it Desperation. Call it Back-Against-The-Wall. but when the stakes are high, the risk and reward both rise!!!

We might also adjust some timing in actions and fighting. Not necessarily to the point of reintroducing lag, even though that has been a common joke, but something to adjust the pace of combat

Also keep watch: we are also exploring roguelike controls where running into something in a combat mode automatically attacks it. Finally, a third, streamlined COOL mode where we try to make the best SS13 interface.... from scratch. this is almost certainly impossible but it's worth a shot!!!!

Gun's
we have a whole system okay just go to that page gun's page

they'll be much slower and clunkier but i think it'll balance out