Space Station 13 - A case study in emergent gameplay and system-heavy design - Polidicks

[quote=Gamasutra] [img]https://phaven-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/files/image_part/asset/1599857/hQHY6KML6vOF72JiNeoX29Nr9zU/medium_Postcard.jpg[/img] As cliche as it is to start with a definition, I doubt many people have heard of Space Station 13. If I was to summarize the game with an IGN-style "Skyrim with guns" quip, it would perhaps be something along the lines of "Like Dwarf Fortress, but multiplayer", but that frankly only barely scratches the surface. In Space Station 13, players are given a role such as Engineer, Security Officer or Chemist and tasked with keeping the space station running. Some players are chosen (depending on the game mode) to be traitors, aliens, changelings, or even a wizard and must complete hidden objectives like assassinating another crew member or stealing an object. The job roles are complex, the station itself is a maze of hidden passageways and secret items, and in this game knowledge is power. If you know the perfect wall to weld through to get into the armory, or the perfect escape route to run away from security, you become a powerful player. Knowledge of every job role is the lofty end goal of the learning curve, since it allows you to be an effective traitor when it's your turn to kill your compatriots; if you know how the atmospherics system works, how to effectively sneak around (or talk your way out of situations), how the virology system works, how the telecomms system works, and how to use remote triggers and wiring properly, you could orchestrate a communications blackout and pass a deadly virus through the ventilation system that turns everyone without a mask into monkeys, eliminating all of your enemies before they can so much as sputter "CHEF IS ROGUE". [/quote] Full source at: [url]http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JackPalmer/20151106/258708/Space_Station_13__A_case_study_in_emergent_gameplay_and_systemheavy_design.php?curator=MediaREDEF[/url] Didn't see this posted yet and it seemed to be very well written.

ttt or morbus(parasite) in space. Will be popular with YouTubers I guess.

[QUOTE=mdeceiver79;49122018]ttt or morbus(parasite) in space. Will be popular with YouTubers I guess.[/QUOTE] Hasn't happened yet in all the time it's existed, it's unlikely that it'll ever happen. It's a pretty slow-paced game at the beginning, and things don't always go apeshit south every single round. It's entertaining as fuck to read about or play yourself, but it's a pretty boring watch IMO.

Great game once you've gotten used to the clunky interface and awful controls, and found a server that isn't restrictive on how much fun you can actually have. [editline]15th November 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=Sgt. Lulz;49122057]Hasn't happened yet in all the time it's existed, it's unlikely that it'll ever happen. It's a pretty slow-paced game at the beginning, and things don't always go apeshit south every single round. It's entertaining as fuck to read about or play yourself, but it's a pretty boring watch IMO.[/QUOTE] Yeah, it's one you'd rather play yourself than actually watch someone else does. Doesn't stop the occasional streamer from streaming a game of SS13, who gets promptly banned off the server they're playing on for metagaming.

oh no please not more pubbies we already had enough when dean hall got all the dayz retards on it :(

dont worry they'll immediately stop playing once they experience byond

I don't think it's feasible to describe SS13 as anything but its own game, because that's what it is. You can't really understand the unique experience of it until you play it yourself, because literally every round is unique. Sure, the gamemode might be the same, but almost everything is a result of the players so you're pretty much going in blind with a new experience each time. The gamemode rarely directs the round, but rather the players are the ones usually directing it. Especially if it's a standard mode like Traitors / Changelings. A good chunk of what he says is true, you can put so much time into this game and still not understand everything in it. Each role is so complex (yes, even the janitor can quickly fuck the entire station up with the right tools and supplies), that it takes a serious devotion of time to studying each of the roles if you hope to grasp a good understanding of how each job plays in the game. Unfortunately this is why SS13 lacks a significant playerbase. It's very easy to join in as an engineer and accidentally unleash a singularity hellbent on consuming everything in its path and subsequently get jobbanned / banned and in some cases even permabanned from that server. The people who play SS13 play it for fun, but if you start acting like an asshole and trying to ruin the round "just because" then expect hell to rain down on you. Also, live action footage of SS13's robust combat system: [video=youtube;LRPBEC8hWhE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRPBEC8hWhE[/video]

Its been a few years since I played this one, stopped playing a while back because the server admins that ran the good servers at the time where terrible. There anti alt system kept giving false positives with the guy that I found that played down the street from me so I kept getting banned. Then I got banned for making bombs even though I was a revolutionary planning a jihadist attack in revolutionary mode.

[QUOTE=mdeceiver79;49122018]Will be popular with YouTubers I guess.[/QUOTE] Please no youtubers in my 2d spess men game Surprisingly good article though [quote]Even now, after having played the game for a good 300 or 400 hours[/quote] Pretty cool that he's actually a player and not just some guy who found it and wrote an article about it

I remember spending a whole summer playing ss13 back in the day when it was pretty new. I went back about a month ago and it's gone to absolute shit. The servers are run by man children who will admin pm you the second you look at someone wrong. It's actually impossible to RP because if you do anything wrong you'll just get banned. There's almost no point of having security because of the admins. It used to be a great game where most conflicts were handled in game, but now it's infested by circle jerking furries.

[QUOTE=Mr_Razzums;49122246]I remember spending a whole summer playing ss13 back in the day when it was pretty new. I went back about a month ago and it's gone to absolute shit. The servers are run by man children who will admin pm you the second you look at someone wrong. It's actually impossible to RP because if you do anything wrong you'll just get banned. There's almost no point of having security because of the admins. It used to be a great game where most conflicts were handled in game, but now it's infested by circle jerking furries.[/QUOTE] This is less a game issue and more a server issue. There are still some servers in which IC issues stay IC issues

i remember deandreT took me on a romp through space station 13 once and it was some of the best fun i've had with a video game ever hands down [editline]15th November 2015[/editline] even if you start out every round with the goal of growing weed in the botany bay you usually end up having fun in a way you couldn't predict

[QUOTE=Rowtree;49122072]oh no please not more pubbies we already had enough when dean hall got all the dayz retards on it :([/QUOTE] I watched numbers, we had maybe 10-20 new players on the hub player total after dean awkwardly honked at people in the audience.

[QUOTE=mdeceiver79;49122018]ttt or morbus(parasite) in space. Will be popular with YouTubers I guess.[/QUOTE] oh my god please god no you let them take gmod you can't let them take my ss13 too [sp]I actually think it's unlikely though. youtubers tend to be interested in games that you pick up and are interesting immediately. SS13 really isn't that. They'd probably just end up playing their first round as a chemist going back and forth from the wiki or something, or they do something stupid and get killed/banned[/sp]

So is SS13 like a MP Dwarf Fortress? As in basically anything can really happen, and theirs absurd amounts of mechanics, but looks and runs like ass?

[QUOTE=HoodedSniper;49122299]So is SS13 like a MP Dwarf Fortress? As in basically anything can really happen, and theirs absurd amounts of mechanics, but looks and runs like ass?[/QUOTE] Yep. It's pretty poorly programmed with an engine that is already somewhat non-responsive by design, but with great mechanics and a very interesting playerbase. The sad part is after a few hours, you become acclimated and the lag just feels natural.

[QUOTE=geogzm;49122268]i remember deandreT took me on a romp through space station 13 once and it was some of the best fun i've had with a video game ever hands down [editline]15th November 2015[/editline] even if you start out every round with the goal of growing weed in the botany bay you usually end up having fun in a way you couldn't predict[/QUOTE] One of the few games to make me consistently laugh out loud [img]http://i.imgur.com/Q9Tzp69.png[/img]

[QUOTE=HoodedSniper;49122299]So is SS13 like a MP Dwarf Fortress? As in basically anything can really happen, and theirs absurd amounts of mechanics, but looks and runs like ass?[/QUOTE] Pretty much! It's a very fun game when you learn it, but it takes time and effort. Each server being unique also drives some people away, but its like darkrp in a way where each server has the same underlying principles but unique changes and shit. The game being open source also is a nice touch.

For anyone who is planning to start out, head for Goonstation servers or Yogstation. Both these provide a (relatively) safe enough environment for you to learn the basics.

I always hear of stories and funny shit like this. Probably gonna have to give it a go now. Like I cant even think of a game that even lets you do shit like this. [video=youtube;Ec4WI58j8Q8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec4WI58j8Q8[/video]

I played this a lot during HS. It's tremendously fun, but way too time-consuming and hard to master initially. Had to drop it for a while. I might play it again.

my friends tell me about this game a lot and I can't understand why it's so easy to be banned for doing things the game allows you to do. that kind of atmosphere doesn't seem fun at all

[QUOTE=salty peanut v2;49122452]my friends tell me about this game a lot and I can't understand why it's so easy to be banned for doing things the game allows you to do. that kind of atmosphere doesn't seem fun at all[/QUOTE] This varies from servers to serb, but the main gist is that fucking others up, ending in them being taken out of the round, is bannable. So you can't kill anyone without a good reason or proper escalation. Unless you're an antagonist, in which case the station is your playground. Except on certain servers *cough* that hates antags having fun.

I got jobbanned from cyborg because someone wiped the AI's laws and replaced it with something to the effect of "kill all humans" so I welded the doors to the shuttle closed. I loved being an engineering/janitor cyborg too :(

[QUOTE=salty peanut v2;49122452]my friends tell me about this game a lot and I can't understand why it's so easy to be banned for doing things the game allows you to do. that kind of atmosphere doesn't seem fun at all[/QUOTE] Those were likely RP servers, Goon and Nox were very lax and allowed you to do everything.

[QUOTE=Cakebatyr;49122519]I got jobbanned from cyborg because someone wiped the AI's laws and replaced it with something to the effect of "kill all humans" so I welded the doors to the shuttle closed. I loved being an engineering/janitor cyborg too :([/QUOTE] What server was this on? A lot of servers make it so that the person who changed the laws is held accountable for anything a cyborg/AI does under them.

It really is a fun game if you're willing to put the time in to understand it and all that jazz, I've probably dumped a few thousand hours into it (don't judge me) and I still have a ton of fun playing it. It's so utterly, retardedly unique, and it's totally worth looking into [IMG]http://puu.sh/k3BqN/082b765bb7.png[/IMG] (For reference all the red text indicated that a massive bomb just went off nearby and probably killed a bunch of people) What other game can you spend 20 minutes planning out a massive terrorist attack and preparing bombs to plant all across the station to kill everyone, only for some random salt-of-the-earth nerd to come along and hear what you're doing and fuck up all your nefarious schemes, just like that? There are so many wonderful stories you can make in SS13 that you could never get anywhere else.

I used to play this back in the day, had a few really good times. Nowadays, I just can't get over the shittyness of the engine. I absolutely hate the input lag/delay, and how clunky as shit everything is. Patiently waiting for a re-make on a not completely shit ass engine, I'd hop on that right quick.

[QUOTE=MaverickIB;49122593]I used to play this back in the day, had a few really good times. Nowadays, I just can't get over the shittyness of the engine. I absolutely hate the input lag/delay, and how clunky as shit everything is. Patiently waiting for a re-make on a not completely shit ass engine, I'd hop on that right quick.[/QUOTE] Never going to happen. MANY people have tried. To replicate the complexity and depth is something that would take years to accomplish and most people don't have the time. See Centration, SS13 Standalone, many others.

SS13 one of my top games ever played. Every round goes so horribly wrong and year after year its fresh and amusing to play. Shit i saw playing this game not even the most genius twisted diabolic minds can come up with, from getting my arms dismembered by a flying vodka bottle shot out from a vending machine to a magic space corgi shooting fireballs, i will forever love this masterpiece.