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[Gamerlord]

Welp, I joined a game, wandered a little, got shot and died.
New game, apparently I'm a clown.  And apparently no one else is playing again.

This has all the appeal that I remember - which is to say that I'm confused and not having fun.

Solution: don't play clown and set preferences. Clown has some hidden difficulty and people take most excuses to torture the clown.

If you REALLY want to play the clown, try breaking onto the bridge, then when you're caught spend the rest of the round accusing the captain and HoS of molesting you. While running from them naked. It never gets old. Especially if there are people on the station who believe you.

[Knirisk]

Welp, I joined a game, wandered a little, got shot and died.
New game, apparently I'm a clown.  And apparently no one else is playing again.

This has all the appeal that I remember - which is to say that I'm confused and not having fun.

Solution: don't play clown and set preferences. Clown has some hidden difficulty and people take most excuses to torture the clown.

If you REALLY want to play the clown, try breaking onto the bridge, then when you're caught spend the rest of the round accusing the captain and HoS of molesting you. While running from them naked. It never gets old. Especially if there are people on the station who believe you.

To be honest, I'm almost certain that SS13 could be a bit more elegantly designed. A lot of it isn't intuitive and it leads to a lot of confusion. I still consider it sort-of on par with DF, though. Both have a tendency to make really great stories, but they both have a user interface like the entrance to Diagon Alley.

[miauw62]

If you believe it's not elegant now, I dare you to play one round with the UI set to "old". Besides, in what way can we improve it? It's really logical once you get the hang of it.

[Knight of Fools]

That's mostly because we're used to the UI. I'm sure a fresh perspective would point out a lot of improvements that can be made - Unfortunately, most of those would require at least a partial system redesign, and the rest would only be solvable by making the game more like an overhead action game or FPS. I know there have been FPS attempts, but nothing's been released to the public quite yet.


I really recommend that Newbies simply Spectate or Ghost through their first round and follow some people performing jobs you're interested in. Once you've watched them for a round or so, you'll have a better idea of what those jobs entail and what's possible with the system. From there, wait until someone takes that a job you want to learn or a job that oversees that job and ask to follow them around and help you learn in-game. Mining is pretty simple once you figure out internals (Which is absolutely vital to survival), and if you screw something up you'll only destroy a mostly unused part of the station.

Also, be sure to tell people you're new in OOC, let them know who your character is, and ask any questions you have in there. Folks will automatically be 200% more friendly towards you. If there's something complex you can't figure out, check the Wiki. It's pretty thorough. Click through the tabs on the top left, too, since there's a lot of options you can't see normally.

On a side note; people who play security, have you ever arrested someone for growing A.V. before?

As the Detective, I got hard evidence of someone distributing it (To me, no less) and watched them be brutally beaten as punishment.

So, no, I guess I haven't.

[Gamerlord]

Actually, i think new players should jump in at the deep end. Make them sec officers, it would give them a decent overview of combat while also giving a grounding in space law (important to make sure you don't piss people off in your first serious round).

[Knight of Fools]

The only problem with a newbie is that they may not have much to do during a round, especially at the beginning, and once things actually get rolling they'll be fairly helpless against an experienced player in a combat situation (Which is what Security is all about).

[Knirisk]

Actually, i think new players should jump in at the deep end. Make them sec officers, it would give them a decent overview of combat while also giving a grounding in space law (important to make sure you don't piss people off in your first serious round).

This is the worst idea. I'd have them play as converted revolutionaries before they play as security.

Although, to be honest, with how powerful security is in comparison to Goonstation, and how mild our population is, I suppose a new player could learn the ropes of security far easier.

[Psieye]

To be honest, I'm almost certain that SS13 could be a bit more elegantly designed. A lot of it isn't intuitive and it leads to a lot of confusion. I still consider it sort-of on par with DF, though. Both have a tendency to make really great stories, but they both have a user interface like the entrance to Diagon Alley.

2 major differences with DF:
1) You are required to use a mouse, as opposed to DF's 98% keyboard UI. This is extreme rage when you are forced to click on 1-pixel-width space vines while they are rapidly growing. It's bad enough when I have to click on 3-pixel-width wires.
2) It's a multiplayer game hosted on a server, as opposed to single player on your own machine. This means you cannot pause and lag (there is a lot) screws you up much more. Furthermore, you cannot play whenever you want and you cannot (without difficulty) STOP playing whenever you want. The latter can be a problem when rounds might stretch out to 3 hours.


Those are pain points that don't go away once you climb the learning curve. I do see the appeal and potential of this game, but I feel my time would be better spent helping out with the re-coding efforts than actually playing it at present.

[debvon]

I really love a good clown. Is that something I should be ashamed of? There's nothing quite like watching some silly security officer slip on a banana peel, get his baton stolen (which he had out in his hand) by the clown, and then slip on the peel again while trying to catch the bobbing and weaving clown. Honk

[Jacob/Lee]

Welp. Axl Blyant was HoS traitor, so the station was doomed from the start. I did quite enjoy that scene in the bridge though, where I was cuffed to the chair. Oh, and Jacob, I was trying to push you into the electrified door when I unbuckled myself.

Axl immediately subverted the AI with the help of the clown that the AI (Janus, or me) was trolling. Then the clown was executed by the turrets, and the Captain came to save the clown. My AI hologram was Axl also, so there were two Traitor Axls on station. Ya'll we so screwed. The Captain came to save the clown, and got jumped by Axl, who stole his stuff. Then the Captain escaped into the Conference room, where I messed him pretty good with doors and such, until he got on the bridge and got out a message. Then Axl told me to kill all nonhumans and captured the Captain.

So I killed Simon Faust with the Telecomms door, and Hugo Tennant with suffocation, and Bomrek Nussbaum died to a doorshock. Then I turned on the Syphon on the bridge after Axl finished monologuing at the Captain and carded me. So the Captain was trapped, restrained, on the bridge with all the doors bolted and the grates electrified, as the air syphoned out. Terrible way to go.

Traitor Axls = Instant win.

I wasn't finished monologuing, I was cut short by the shuttle. My monologue, in short, was about how a NT death squad destroyed a small station I was the captain of. They did it over a mineral-rich asteroid and killed my wife in the process. I also wanted to torture Jay, since he pretty much immediately yelled "sacrifices must be made!" in response to my story. I need to do this more often

[IronTomato]

Actually, i think new players should jump in at the deep end. Make them sec officers, it would give them a decent overview of combat while also giving a grounding in space law (important to make sure you don't piss people off in your first serious round).

I tried that. I got kiled, 5 rounds in a row, by "Civilians" who somehow got their hands on energy rifles. I also got lectured by a moderator on how that job delves you into the heart of SS13, how it's more than tazing criminals and brigging them, and how I should be an MD first.

I love Facepunch.

[Psieye]

I started out as an Assistant, then immediately got re-assigned as a Botanist. Yes, the plants demand responsibility and attention but that's something a DF player is used to. Then I tried a Shaft Miner and that was easy yet essential too.

Then I got fed up with rounds ending prematurely at the very start because of a singularity fuck up so I learnt to Engineer and get power (including Solars) up for the station. Slapping down walls is then the only other essential thing an Engineer is regularly called on to do.


The bare minimum a beginner DF fort needs is food and booze. The bare minimum on SS13 is food and electricity. The rest is then up to the players.

[Twiggie]

Food is technically optional :p

[USEC_OFFICER]

The bare minimum a beginner DF fort needs is food and booze. The bare minimum on SS13 is food air and electricity. The rest is then up to the players.

Fixed for you. As far as I know it's impossible to starve to death. You only slow down the hungrier you are.

[Psieye]

Hmm yes, food is indeed technically unnecessary for "bare minimum". Thing about air though, is that it's already set up for you at the start of each round. Ok, it's nice to run around and set all the air alarms to scrub for the other bad gasses too but if a round starts with only one player who never does anything meaningful, air won't be a problem.