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Entities

Being a being.

Mobs, beings, entities, whatever you want to call them. The entities in Space Station 3D come in many different character types and roles, both which help to make the environment feel more full and diverse.

Roles

Player roles.

For technical documentation on this system, use the link below.

SS3D focuses on a dynamic that is primarily between players. Aside from a few basic mobs, this game features very few NPC’s. Instead, the well-being of the station hinges completely on the competence of the crew members, and the antagonists who put it in danger.

Victory for each player can mean something completely different depending on who – or what – you are. This is because each player occupies a specific role that contributes in some way to the environment around them. In this section, we focus on the types of roles the players will be occupying.

Crew

Crew roles are the "Jobs" on the station, these roles sometimes vary greatly and specialize in different things. They are categorized into departments in the subpages.

Chain of Command

To keep the station orderly and running coherently, you can expect that any station, no matter how different from another, will have a chain of command.

The chain of command is issued by rank, with every crewmember given a rank depending on their status. Ranks are ordered so that the lowest number is the highest rank and vice versa.

Rank #

Rank Name

Roles

Nanotrasen

Nanotrasen (NT) is the corporation that owns the space stations and others like it.

Although all crewmembers are technically employees of the Nanotrasen, most work for a specific station rather than directly for the corporation's headquarters.

Quantity for these roles is likely just 1 unless stated otherwise.

NT Administration

Since NT Administrators work directly for Nanotrasen and have high authority in the company, their authority supersedes all crewmembers of the station, including the captain. It is unlikely they will do so though, unless the captain in being unreasonable.

Nanotrasen Representitive
Nanotrasen Death Squad - (quantity 3-5)

NT Staff Members

These roles can be more flexible according to the roleplay of that round, being made up on the spot even.

Some ideas:

Nanotrasen Law Enforcer - op security officer
Nanotrasen Medical Technician - op medical doctor
Nanotrasen Civil Engineer - op engineer
Nanotrasen Safety Officer - makes sure the station is clear of common dangers and hazardous work environments (lol)
Nanotrasen Health Inspector - checks to makes sure the food is grown, cooked, & served in a sterile environment and is poison free (lol)
Nanotrasen Lawyer - a lawyer with a nicer suit. for when the station needs a lawyer for a court case but doesn't have one, or some rare instance of diplomacy between space factions.
Nanotrasen Magician - or some other kind of entertainment role similar to that of clowns or mimes, with a few basic special abilities (built into their gear). They may come with a "Magician's Assistant" role as well (to play along with the allusions).

Command

The command department is a leadership department which consists of 1 leader from each department. These department leaders have special permissions and access. They can access the command bridge and use various command-only equipment. They also have their own private offices tucked inside of their respective departments.

Captain

Quantity: 1

Supervisor to all other command roles.

Head honcho of the entire station. Everyone is subordinate to this role.

Head of Personnel (HOP)

Quantity: 1

Supervisor to all civilian roles.

Also in charge of administrative duties such as modifications to crewmember ID’s. Second in command behind the captain.

Head of Security (HOS)

Quantity: 1

Supervisor to all security roles.

Chief Engineer (CE)

Quantity: 1

Supervisor to all engineering roles.

Chief Medical Officer (CMO)

Quantity: 1

Supervisor to all medical roles.

Research Director (RD)

Quantity: 1

Supervisor to all science roles.

Quartermaster (QM)

Quantity: 1

Supervisor to all supply roles.

Security

The security department is the department that generally all other departments dislike, but is crucial to the order of the station which can have a large impact on the direction of the round.

Security Officer

Quantity: 4-5

As a security officer, a player’s objective is simple: keep the station secure! Security officers may enjoy access to a broad range of weaponry and armor, but with great power comes great responsibility.

Players in this role are the offense, and defense when it comes to protecting the station, whether that means arresting the clown for breaking into the morgue, or opening fire down a densely crowded hallway just to take down a hostile monkey. Security officers are responsible for all crew and non-crew infractions, and may face brutal opposition from other players when attempting to perform an arrest.

This role is ideal for players who want to see action, as well as a great deal of responsibility and accountability.

Warden

Quantity: 1

The warden plays a simple, yet unique role in the station: watch over the security wing. This means ensuring players don’t break out of prison, and ensuring nobody breaks into the armory. The warden also is in charge of all matters relating to prisoners, unless otherwise stated by the Head of Security.

This role is among the simplest in the entire game, yet can quickly turn into a struggle even for experienced players if the security wing is compromised in any way.

Lawyer

Quantity: 2

Lawyers are a unique role to the security department in that they have no tools or even authority to issue warrants, detain, or release suspects.

Their entire goal relies on using spess law to argue in roleplay court for the safe release of their clients.

Engineering

The engineering department's goal is to maintain a livable and operable structure for the crew. That includes power, atmosphere, & gravity.

Engineer

Quantity: 4

Engineers have perhaps one of the most integral jobs on the station: keep it all running. The primary goal of the engineer is to maintain the engine (and thus station power), whether it’s a radioactive crystal, or a contained black hole. As you may be able to imagine, the engineer’s job, when it goes wrong, will go horribly wrong.

The secondary goal of the engineers is to fix whatever gets disconnected or blown up, which can take engineers all across the station in order to perform their odd jobs. Aside from security, engineers may also see the most carnage of any other role on the station, and often find themselves dragging bodies or severed limbs to the medbay when they’re found at the site of a bombing.

The engineer is a great choice for players who like varied tasks, and jobs with a lot of accountability. On downtime, engineers will be able to enjoy their broad range of tools in ways that allow them to construct structures, renovate rooms, or tamper with the engines in dangerous ways to get absurd power output.

Atmospheric Technician

Quantity: 2-3

In the same wing of the station as the engineers, atmospheric technicians manage the one thing that everyone always needs: the air. The most basic and primary task atmospheric technicians will be given is to maintain the piping and airflow across the station to verify that all corners of the station are breathable.

That doesn’t just mean pumping rooms full of oxygen, it means ensuring proper mixtures of gasses go to the right locations; people emit CO2. Where are you going to pump those gasses? Into space? Or can it be used for anything else? Some gasses cool faster, some flow quicker, some interact in interesting ways. What do you do when all the air in the station is flammable? Can we pump anything into the engine to increase its performance?...

The role of the atmos tech may be one of the simplest to fulfill, yet most difficult to master. On downtime, the experienced atmos tech may enjoy pushing their mastery of piping networks to their limits, or collaborating with the engineers or even scientists in constructing new ideas.

Medical

The medical department is responsible for keep the crewmember alive and healthy by use of the latest (and sometimes older) technology.

Doctors & Paramedics

Quantity: 3-5

Medical doctors are the station’s answer to a dying crew. Players working the medical bay will find themselves tasked with keeping the station alive when things go wrong, and will be utilizing every piece of equipment at their disposal to do so.

Defibrillators, scalpels, ointments, sleeper beds, bone saws, IV’s, and a lot more. Medical doctors will be tending to patients who suffer from a broad range of ailments, which could be anything from a bruise to full-on decapitation. When the station is in complete turmoil, the fate of the station lies in the hands of these players.

This role is perfect for players who enjoy assisting others, and those who thrive in the chaos the station will inevitably fall into. Doctors can rest knowing that even if there’s no immediate threat, there will always be someone incompetent enough to hurt themselves on the job.

Some stations (usually ones with larger populations) will also have paramedics. Paramedics are essentially the same thing as doctors, but the primary difference is that doctors tend to wait in the medical bay for patients to come to them and paramedics go seek out patients to either treat locally if benign or bring them back to the medbay for more critical care.

Chemists

Quantity: 2

As the chemist, players are in control of producing a large range of chemical substances that serve a large range of purposes. As stated in the bartender’s description, the job of the chemist is quite similar to the job of the bartender, as the chemist will be pouring chemicals into beakers to get perfect ratios that produce new reagents, much like how the bartender mixes drinks.

The chemist may also be expected to heat up or cool down substances to get different reactions, and performs a key role in ensuring that the station doesn’t fall victim to hallucinations, diseases, a lack of cleaning products or healing substances, and more.

The role of the chemist is great for players who are up to the challenge of learning and performing complex tasks with many steps quickly depending on the urgency of the situation. On downtime, the chemist may enjoy throwing together substances to make useful or deadly reactions.

Virologists

Quantity: 1-2

Put simply, a player who chooses the role of the virologist will be responsible for creating and studying viruses, using monkeys as their testing ground. Should a player contract a foreign virus, it is partly your responsibility to create a cure.

While studying viruses, the player will gradually acquire an index of what makes a virus tick, including symptoms, stats, and bonuses granted by the virus, which allows the player to create their own viruses with unique effects. Should you survive long enough, you may go on to create helpful viruses that give players incredible abilities, like eternal youth, or instantaneous beard growth.

However, screw up hard enough, and the entire crew gets sick, then spontaneously combusts. This role is great for players who want a high-risk, high-reward experience with high potential to worsen or improve the station.

Geneticists

Quantity: 2

Should a player put themselves in the role of a geneticist, they’ll find that their job isn’t too dissimilar to the virologist, in the sense that they’ll be locating harmful and beneficial genetic deformities, which they may or may not want to distribute to the rest of the crew.

When altering something’s DNA, one may find that it’s quite possible to completely change one’s physical form, whether that means changing everyone into the same person, or just turning yourself into a monkey. Somewhere within the DNA of a test subject, a geneticist will locate super powers, crippling disabilities, and amusing mutations that should be distributed, or kept far away from the crew.

This job type is ideal for people who want to be purveyors of oddities on the station. Ideally, there is little true downtime for geneticists, as there is always another mutation to add to their collection.

Science

The science department's goal is to build, maintain, and upgrade various station technologies like communications, AI, robotics, tools, and more.

Scientists

Quantity: 3-5

The scientists on the station occupy a crucial role on the station – updating various technologies for the station and conduct research in a variety of sub-departments.

Players in this role have a wide range of facilities at their disposal, such as a toxins research lab, experimental lab, and slime farm; all of which allow the science department to rack up research points they can use to climb research trees.

Enough research points will allow the station to develop greater tools and weapons, and also improve productivity of existing machinery. The scientist’s job is to figure out how to get research points using the available resources, and find out what the station needs sooner than anything else on the tech tree. This job allows for a lot of sandboxing, all in the name of science.

Roboticist

Quantity: 2-3

Players who enjoy seeing their creations move may want to choose the roboticist role, as their primary objective is, as you may imagine, creating & maintaining robots & cyborgs. As one of the easier jobs, the roboticist will find themselves worrying more about the assembly portion of the robot creation process rather than the software portion.

This is mostly because basic robots are brainless, while cyborgs are controlled by actual players. Whether the brain is artificial or real, the roboticists can insert it into a cyborg body, upon which it will carry out the roles of your typical cyborg.

Alongside robots & cyborgs, the roboticists can also create powerful mechs, which can often be the station’s final line of defense against highly dangerous threats to the station. Mechs are a large vehicle that humanoid players can control.

This role is often the portal back into the game for other players who have died (they can become a cyborg), and can be a great way for a newer player to learn while also contributing to other players’ experiences.

Supply

The supply department is responsible for the transportation and transaction of good coming on and going off the station. This includes buying/selling thing via a cargo shuttle, as well as mining/salvaging resources from nearby cosmic bodies, debris fields, or derelict stations.

Handlers

Quantity: 3-4

AKA a cargo technician (but I dont like that name).

The handlers' main job, predictably, is to handle cargo, loading things on and off cargo shuttles, and sometimes deliveries to departments. But thats only half the job, the other half is paperwork; that means approving or denying shipment requests from the rest of the crew, and placing the order to Central Command accordingly.

Their secondary responsibility is to fulfill bounties given to the station for money; does Central Command want a crate full of pens for some reason? Better ship off a crate full of pens.

Cargo is a great beginning job that never really runs out of tasks, thanks there always being money to earn or spend, and can be very rewarding to the well-being of a station during a supply shortage in any department.

Miners & Salvagers

Quantity: 3-4

Miners and salvagers have essentially the same job in that they both adventure off away from the station (often times using a shuttle) to look for and retrieve usable resources for the station.

The resources could be anything from raw materials or strange plants, to abandoned hardware or strange artifacts. There will also be plenty of surprises and dangers.

The main difference between the 2 jobs is where they are going to retrieve the resources, this determines what resources are available and how to acquire them, which determines the equipment the role requires.

Mining usually entails traveling to a planet-like map and breaking away at the cosmic body to find buried raw materials.

Salvaging usually entails traveling to a station-like map and looting and deconstructing derelict structures for raw materials and components.

Some rounds will only have a location for mining, some will only have a location for salvaging, some will have both.

Civilian

Civilians generally have less-complex and less-responsible jobs compared to other departments, which makes them good for beginners or more relaxing rounds.

The roles in this department vary more than any other.

Botanists

Quantity: 2-4

Botany is the source of the station’s necessary (and unnecessary) vegetation. The overarching goal of the botanist is not too dissimilar to the goal of the chef, filling the stomachs of the crew members (botanists will get requests for ingredients from the bartender and chef).

But procuring the requested goods may be a bit of a process. In a basic sense, the botanist’s goal is to grow, maintain, and harvest crops, then repeat the cycle. However, a botanist also has the hardware to check the genetic traits of each crop, and ensure they are always replanting the best of the best for greater numbers, higher potency, and even genetic mutations for more bizarre and unique crops.

Getting tired of making wheat? Why not produce some meat-wheat? Is the station a little lifeless? Why not throw some walking mushrooms into the hallways?

Chef

Quantity: 1

What increases morale more than a stomach full of food? Probably not much, but nobody would know better than the station’s chefs.

As the game progresses, crew members will fall victim to hunger, which will deplete their sanity and movement speed. The chef should expect to see a wide number of crew members with different tastes that encourage the player to learn how to make a variety of dishes.

The chef’s goal is to keep the station fed, ~~and harass the Botanist to make more wheat~~. On a populated station, the chef will (hopefully) be one of the most active crew members, and on downtime, can ~~finally grab a bite to eat for themselves~~ experiment with the cooking system to see what dishes are possible.

Bartender

Quantity: 1

Bartenders are one of the few role-play centric jobs on the station, but that doesn’t mean their job has no depth; the bartender can be thought of as a low-level chemist, and is a great job for beginning players. While a large portion of their job does indeed include talking to whoever walks into the bar, the second half of the job is mixing drinks for their patrons, who are also players that might want something simple, or will challenge the bartender’s knowledge of mixology.

Often at the heart of the station, the bartender will likely be one of the first people to witness the station fall victim to traitors and incompetent crew members.

Janitor

Quantity: 1

Janitors are the station’s first line of defense against complete chaos. Think about it, if the place looks like a madhouse, people will act like it, too. The objective of the janitor is clear: keep the station clean.

It’s not a very complicated job, but it’s a rewarding one that can give a player joy when they see the hallways spotless. This role is ideal for players who like a slow-paced role that benefits everyone.

It also makes for a good beginner role because the job itself is not complex and you get to travel and learn the layout of the map.

Librarian

Quantity: 1

Chaplin

Quantity: 1

Clown

Quantity: 1

The clown and mime are similar entertainment roles with the bonus of injecting a bit of mischief into the station. Unlike the mime, the clown is conducive to high-octane hijinx and loud shenanigans. the mime role is significantly more reserved, and works well for methodically thought-out pranks.

Additionally, the clown is noisy and clumsy. They have various clothing and items which make noise and they have a gene which causes clumsiness.

Mime

Quantity: 1

The clown and mime are similar entertainment roles with the bonus of injecting a bit of mischief into the station. Unlike the clown, the mime is significantly more reserved, and works well for methodically thought-out pranks.

Additionally, the mime is quiet and sneaky. They have several abilities that only mimes can use, and and have to stay silent and mime out all communication or else..!

Assistant

Quantity: _UNKNOWN_

Assistants are crew members with limited access, who are subordinate to all other crew members. Wearing their trademark gray jumpsuit, on down time they can focus more on learning the game, or enjoying the role-playing experience the station has to offer.

When all other crew roles have been filled by players, new players will 'overflow' into the assistant role, forcing them to choose this role or become a ghost and look for ghost roles. As a result, in larger rounds there often times are many assistants to due this crew overflow.

Silicons

The silicons' goals are to assist the living crew (non-silicons) of the station, answering their demands as long as those demands to not conflict with one of their internal laws. The laws can be changed and customized by the living crew given they have the permission.

The station AI is subordinate to all the crew members on the station, aside from other silicons.

General there is only 1 AI on a station, but on a rare occasion you may see more.

The AI has a lot of power over the functions of the station, and can open any door as well as operate a wide variety of machinery.

Since consciousness inhabits a processing unit (the AI core), the gameplay is not centered around a body in the way that most other entities are. Instead the majority of their duties utilizes the station’s security cameras to gain visibility to the things they need. If a security camera is removed, broken, hacked or loses power, the AI can no longer see out of it.

Cyborgs

Cyborgs are subordinate to all crew members, including the AI, unless orders conflict with their laws.

Cyborgs (aka "borgs") function very similarly to your average crew member, but are more specialized for completing specific tasks. Due to this specialization, borgs have both advantages and disadvantages compared to their fleshy counterparts.

Upon creation, a cyborg can choose a specialization, such as engineering, security, or medical. After choosing a special, cyborgs may enjoy having more 'hands' than your average crewmember, but will notice that they aren’t as dexterous as organic hands.

Cyborg hands are more like tools than hands, they can be swapped out on the fly for various components stored in the torso based on the cyborg’s specialization.

Antagonists

As a compliment to any good protagonist, antagonist roles also exist on the station. Many antagonists are capable of existing at the start of rounds, or can appear in the middle of the round as well.

Antagonists (aka Antags) are categorized into 2 main categories; primary and secondary.

Primary Antagonists - usually more detailed with more complex abilities and goals. They are designed to have a large impact on the round, and as such, they are usually only spawned at the start of a round.
Secondary Antagonists - usually more basic with less unique abilities and goals. They are designed to have little impact on the round, and as such, they are usually only spawned in the middle of the round.

That being said, primary antags can be spawned mid-round and secondary antags can be spawned at round-start if the admins choose to do so.

Primary Antags

Primary antagonists are usually more detailed with more complex abilities and goals. They are designed to have a large impact on the round, and as such, they are usually only spawned at the start of a round.

Traitors

Traitors are the most basic and classic of all antagonists, but by no means is it easy. You secretly work for your station's rival corporation, the Syndicate. It is your goal to complete whatever objectives they have requested of you.

At the beginning of your job, you are given objectives you must fulfill, and an uplink you can use to spawn illicit items using a limited number of points. Traitor objectives can be anything from theft to murder. Traitors on the station are not only just traitors, but also whatever job they picked at the start of the round.

A scientist traitor will have a completely different set of tools at their disposal compared to a janitor traitor, putting victory at higher or lower difficulties depending on who you are, what your objective is, and how resourceful you can be.

In order to claim victory as a traitor, you must fulfill your objective, and survive until the end of the round, outside of captivity (ie. you cannot be in jail, and you cannot be turned into a cyborg.) That is, unless one of your objectives is to die a glorious death…

Nuclear Operatives

Nuclear operatives are composed of a number of individuals whose main goal is to blow up the entire station using, you guessed it, a nuke. There’s only one problem; they must first locate the nuclear activation disk, which lies in the hands of the station's captain.

Similarly to traitors, nuclear operatives are also employed by the Syndicate corporation and thus have access to the same set of syndicate tools and weaponry. Usually syndicate get many more points and equipment options to use though.

Also, these antagonists work together as a squad, and will often create plans with a lot of high-octane action that usually ends in a bloodbath. Nuclear operatives are arguably the most dangerous thing that can happen on board the station.

More Primary Antags

We will write up more details about some of these or just link to SS13 wikis about them later. Not crucial right now.

Changelings who can alter their appearance to achieve their goals.
Malfunctioning AI with altered laws.
Cultists who aim to summon an ancient deity.
Revolutionaries who aim to drive a mutiny to overthrow the department heads.
Renegade wizards without a cause.
Gangsters who pit the crew against each other.

Secondary Antags

Secondary antagonists are usually more basic with less unique abilities and goals. They are designed to have little impact on the round, and as such, they are usually only spawned in the middle of the round.

Blobs

Blobs are a station-eating blobulous mass that intends on feasting on the station everyone inhabits. The goal for the blob is simple: consume. As a blob, the player must choose a location for the core of their body to spawn, from which point the blob will begin to spread.

Spreading into occupied tiles will destroy the tile. Performing actions as a blob costs resource points, which generate over time. The player can choose to allocate resource points to lay down specialized blob tiles, as well as production of smaller allies that can travel and deal damage.

For a comprehensive list of the blob’s abilities, see here. Biologically, not all blobs are alike, and each blob may have different attributes depending on its strain. For a list of blob strains and how they react, see here.

Victory for the blob occurs when the blob reaches its goal for the number of tiles occupied.

More Secondary Antags

We will write up more details about some of these or just link to SS13 wikis about them later. Not crucial right now.

Gray aliens who abduct crew members for experimentation.
Chest-bursting aliens who serve the queen.
Giant spiders who want to turn the station into a nest.
Self-replicating robots that eat all the station’s resources.
Phantoms who aim to exact vengeance on the station.
Morphs, creatures that can look like anything, and just desire to eat.
Shadow creatures who aim to destroy all lights on the station.
Space ninjas which utilize stealth and deadly force to fulfill objectives.
Slaughter demons, which simply aim to kill everybody.
Pirates that strive to steal any and all things valuable.
Sentient diseases which aim to find a way to spread off-station.
Fugitives which use the station as their refuge from…
Hunters which storm the station to find fugitives.
Space dragons which aim to fill the station with space carp.
Sentient slimes who may or may not be aggressive.
Rat kings, who want an army of rats. And cheese.

Ghosts

When your character dies, the soul of your character lives on in the spirit realm. You can move around as the soul (ghost) of your character and chat with other ghosts while spectating the round.

If you are lucky that your character's body may be revived then you can always re-enter your body and live as that character again/still.

If you do not believe that your character has any hope of living again, you can choose a ghost-role if there are any available.

Ghost Roles

Ghost roles refers to roles that are made available mid-game. Obviously players who already have a role and are still alive in the game have no reason to become a new roles. Only players who have died and become a ghost (or decided to spectate for other reasons) will be granted the option for these mid-game roles, hence their name "Ghost Roles".

Ghost roles can be any typical role like a crewmember, but they can also be antagonists or even simple characters like animals.

Characters

Characters are the different types of entities. Basically all forms of life, both organic and artificial. This includes:

Humanoids
Animals/Creatures
Cyborgs/Robots
AI/blob
Vehicles (yes even vehicles are considered entities because they are driven by humanoids the way the brain/soul "drives" a humanoid body. vehicles can also be autonomous)

Player Characters

Players can control essentially any entity in the game, to different extents. But most of the time, most players will be playing as a humanoid, while the others are less common for various reasons.

NPCs

NPCs can also control essentially any entity in the game given we are able to program some decent AI for it.

Though the traditional game flow of SS13 doesn't require NPCs for humanoids, cyborgs, AI, or blob; because these roles are able to be filled by players.

Based on the traditional game flow, we only need NPCs for animals/creatures and robots.

Later in development it would be nice to have AI for the others though as to expand gameplay options or even able to player solo/small stations.

Player Characters

Humanoids

Humanoids on the station are varied, and make use of a flexible character customization system. The vast majority of humanoid characters are actually player-created, and each player can save and load characters to play throughout different rounds of the game. Players may also opt to go for randomly generated characters, if they don’t wish to spend time creating their own.

When creating a custom character, players have access to a range of customization options, including sex, hair style, hair color, skin color, eye color, facial hair style, eyebrow style, jaw width, height, and other bodily proportions.

In some cases, the player may also change their species from human to lizardman, or moth person, and so on. (Implementation of non-humanoid species are not out of the question, but have developmental hurdles that may need to be crossed in order to make them function, such as new sets of animations or custom-fitted clothing.)

In regards to clothing, players will often be swapping between various articles depending on the circumstances that arise on the station. Clothes can give different abilities and perks, depending on the clothing.

A space suit influences the player’s ability to survive a vacuum, whereas insulated gloves may be needed to handle electrical elements. A hardsuit may be more protective against hazards than your undies, but you’re definitely able to run faster in your undies. And when players aren’t dressing for the job, they can simply dress for fashion instead.

Death in SS3D is certainly an affair, but not a permanent one. Whether a player has died from gunshot or disease, all players will leave their bodies in the form of ghosts, which vaguely resemble their past selves.

Ghosts are the spectators of the round – but that doesn’t mean they are not from participating; there does exist a chance the player’s body is resurrected by medical staff, or by other odd circumstances.

However, if the player has given up hope that their body can be found, or is even salvageable, the player may simply float around the station, seeing what everyone else is up to.

Alternatively, if that isn’t enough for the player, they may also participate in the form of ghost roles, which allows their soul to enter a new entity (becoming a new character). For a better picture of what these ghost roles entail, see the section Ghost Roles under the In-Game Roles heading. Ghost roles may include lesser entities like animals, insects, or creatures due to the limit of humanoid roles available in a round.

Alternatively, ghosted players may be given a point system so they might be able to affect the station in other ways, such as placing cobwebs, or nudging objects with their ghostly powers.

NPCs

Add info about how different types of NPCs are expected to behave.

animals/creatures
robots
humanoids?
cyborgs?
AI/blob?

Health

Let’s get one thing straight: space is dangerous.

The depth of the health system will vary depending on the species of the character. Simpler entities may not have all of the following systems, for example it would be a waste of resources to simulate organs or blood for something tiny like insects.

The health system documented here assumes we are referring to the primary character type, humanoids, unless otherwise stated.

Stamina

The strength to go on.

Stamina system is responsible for managing the player’s ability to run around. It is a single value which initially depends on character’s species and can be modified in the round by doing exercise (or reduced by getting fat, contracting an illness or getting injured). The amount of stamina available is reduced with running, fighting, carrying heavy objects or doing any other physical activity that can make people tired IRL, but is recovered over time to the maximum stamina amount.

Improving stamina is done by doing said physical activity, the max amount of stamina is increasing with every N spent stamina.

Stamina can be recovered quickly in a variety of ways as shown below, ordered from slow to fast recovery.

Walking (instead of running)
Staying still
Sitting
Lying

There’s a variety of ways the Max amount of stamina or it’s regeneration speed can be reduced. For example, the Max amount of stamina is reduced by (100-x)/2 where x = health of both lungs, and regeneration of the stamina is reduced by total OXY damage. (all numbers are placeholders, here and below)

For a healthy character stamina should regenerate fast enough to not matter much, and for combating, injured or tired character it can serve as a more flexible cooldown system. At least, that's the idea of how it should be balanced.

Damage

Ouch.

Damage

Damage, in general, measures how much health character can lose before dying or being rendered inoperable.

Historically, within SS13, a player’s overall damage is composed of 4 primary types: brute, burn, toxin, and oxygen.

Damage Subtypes

Proposition: expanding on the damage types by adding subtypes of damage might make more sense in the context of medical experience and in other spheres:

BRUTE: Brute damage is the most common: it's caused by being hit with physical weapons, pressure, explosion blasts, surgery, and so on. Subtypes:

CRUSH: Damage for being hit with a blunt object (fists, toolbox, hammer)
SLASH: Damage of being cut with a blade (sword, saw, cleaver)
PUNCTURE: Damage if being pierced with a bullet or a stab with a blade (bullets, drill, spear)
PRESSURE: Atmospheric pressure or lack thereof (depressurization, overpressurization)

ENERGY: Previously known as a burn damage type. The second most common damage, is usually dealt by lasers, hot weapons like welding tools, electric shocks, explosion heat waves, fire and cold. Subtypes:

HEAT: Damage of being exposed to dangerously high temperatures (fire, laser burn, welding tool)
COLD: Damage of being exposed to dangerously low temperatures (being stranded in space without env suit, being stuffed in the fridge, contact with liquid nitrogen)
SHOCK: Damage of being exposed to electricity (taser, hacking failure, stun baton)
RAD: Damage of being exposed to radioactivity (uranium, refined plasma, space exposure)

CHEMICAL: Previously known as a toxin damage type. The least common (normal) damage, it's caused mainly by, obviously, toxins, acid and miscellaneous poisoning. Subtypes:

TOXIC: Damage of being exposed to viruses, poisons, bacteria or viruses, oxygen poisoning (too much O2 in the air) also counts as such (self-explanatory)
ACID: Damage of being exposed to corrosive materials (acid, being devoured by slimes)

OXYGEN: Also known as suffocation, this damage is taken when not breathing

Сlarification: doctors don’t heal the damage subtype itself, but it’s effect on different organs/parts. Any damage taken will add to its corresponding category and subtract from part's health.

Subtypes exist mainly to calculate what's going to hurt more - bones, muscles, circulatory vesicles, nerves or organs. For example, no matter if the bone is shattered by puncture or slash, the treatment should be for a physically (BRUTE) damaged bone. For more info, check out Body Systems.

Also, this way the damage from the toolbox (CRUSH) and the knife (SLASH) would be different (because it logically should be), without directly manipulating the chances of causing bleeding, concussions and other effects for every weapon and item.

Damages are shared between the different body part layers on a body part. Getting a strong hit in the head will damage mainly the head's bone structure, but also its circulatory system. If the hit is strong enough, it can even affect the brain.

Certain types of damage, like burn and brute damage, may have a direct effect on specific areas of the body; different body parts may be damaged individually. For example, if your liver dies, you may start fainting and sustain toxin damage over time.

Damages can affect many things, from your ability to talk and walk to your ability to feel pain.

Body Systems

Humans are made of a lot of stuff.

The health system is composed of many different and optional complex systems, which we will divide into Body Layers and Body Parts from now on.

Body Layers

One of the main systems of any biological character is the system of their tissue layers. Humans are generally made of muscle, connective, neural, bone and other types of tissues, each providing different functions and having different ways of being affected by the outside world.

Body Layer

Descryption

Function

Injury/Failure

Circulatory System

The circulatory system makes the heart pump the blood through the organism; blood goes through various organs in the torso and distributes oxygen and nutrients to other body parts, so the root of the system should be located in the Torso and depend on the heart.

This also means, that if the intermediate link in this hierarchy is damaged, the child link should have less blood delivered as well as the damaged part itself. The easiest way to imagine it is to think of it as a number of interconnected containers.

Nervous System

The nervous system is also connects all over the body, but the hierarchy is different:

Which also means that if the intermediate link in this hierarchy is damaged, the child link should have worse chance to provide sensory information or receive a brain's command to function as well as the damaged part itself. That means that if the NERVES are severed in some body part, it’s connection to the brain is lost along with the parts that are lower on the hierarchy. If NERVES for the body parts are damaged, the character’s ability to make precise movements is damaged as well, to a point of losing control of the body part completely, depending on the severity of the damage.

Below is a breakdown of players’ body parts, and what they do.

Organs

The messy inner workings of man.

Organs

Humanoids with organs can also suffer damage to specific organs, separate but still connected to the other damage types. To analyze organ damage, you need a health analyzer equipped with an organ scan upgrade, which will assess damage in these relative terms:

1-9: "Minor"
10-29: "Moderate"
30-64: "Significant"
65-99: "Critical"
100 and above: "Dead"

Usually, "Significant" and "Critical" are the most important ratings, for some organs cause extra problems upon reaching the "Critical" damage threshold.

If left untreated, these problems can cause the organ to fail completely and die, resulting in the same effects as lacking one. Dead organs cannot be healed back to full health and thus require transplants.

Below is a breakdown of players’ organs, and what they do.

While it may seem like a lot, the majority of the organs perform their functions by simply existing. It’s when the organs fail, die, or go missing, is when the effects kick in.

Organ failure occurs when an organ sustains 65% damage. Upon failing, the organ will slowly deteriorate, and eventually die, at which point a transplant is needed.

Lungs

Lungs are the organs interfacing between the atmospherics and circulatory systems. They intake gases, including oxygen, and transfer a part of it into the circulatory system.

Lungs have a specific rate at which they do this intake. If the equilibrium between amount of oxygen needed by body parts and amount of oxygen available gets negative (e.g when too much blood is lost or when oxygen in air is low), then the intake rate may increase.

Lungs are working independently from each other, meaning a human can survive with only one lung left, even though it will be able to intake only half the amount of oxygen it needs, and so will have to breath two times faster.

Heart

Heart is pumping blood and oxygen into body parts. One of its main role is actually to send oxygen contained in the circulatory system into each body parts reserve connected to it.

Sending oxygen to body parts

On each pulse, heart send oxygen to each connected body parts. Connected body parts are all parts linked to heart through a chain of circulatory layers present in adjacent body parts, including internal ones.

Heart uses the body part parent hierarchy to decide what is connected to it.

Indeed, on human, the torso is the root of the body part parent hierarchy.

Heart should check then what are the children of the torso to know which body parts are connected to it.

Blood

The red stuff swelling inside.

What's blood for?

Blood is circulating through the body, carrying oxygen, it's necessary for body parts that require oxygen.

The hazard players are most likely to face, likely result in some form of bleeding.

Many creatures you’ll encounter also rely on their blood levels to survive. In the average human’s body, all players start with around five liters of blood. Any attack with a sharp object, like a broken bottle, or a kinetic firearm, may form an open wound that causes blood loss relative to the severity of the wound.

Luckily, most living things (humans especially) are equipped with processes that slowly reduce the severity of most wounds, meaning blood loss will slow down and eventually stop. However, some wounds may be too severe, and cause fatal blood loss faster than the wounds can be naturally healed. A little blood loss is one thing, but a lot of blood loss is another thing.

Blood volume in the body

A human with an average body contains around 5 liters of blood, so if a human has an approximate volume of 65L, we have a ratio of approximately 0.077, blood on total volume. Applying this ratio to individual body parts we can deduce their blood volume (always assuming that blood is spreaded homogeneously in the body). Let's call B a body part and BV its blood volume, then :

$BV(B) = \text{Vol(B)} \times 0.077$

The blood a human can contain can be should then have a maximum volume capacity roughly equal to the sum of individual body parts blood volume. let's call this substance container volume $Vol(S_c)$, then

$Vol(S_c) = \sum_i BV(B_i)$

This simple formula will be used to always determinated the maximum amount of blood a human can contain, depending on what limb they have left.

This quantity will change if the player lost a limb, or any other parts. It is important because it can help to define the right amount of blood the player needs to have in its circulatory system, and it's drastically different if it's a whole healthy human or just a living head.

Absence of blood, global effects

Below is a chart of blood levels, and how they affect the player.

As a player can lost limbs, or even just be a brain, the player does not need the same amount of blood depending on its total volume.

Keep in mind the percentage below is expressing the amount of blood in the body, over the maximum amount of blood that could be in it.

Other effects, such as vision reduction may apply.

Absence of blood, local effects

Blood is essential to convey oxygen. If blood lacks too much, then oxygen starts to be difficult to conveys to organs and other body parts. This inexorably lead to oxygen damages.

Oxygen damage can eventually lead to body parts failing and dying, see more in :

Treating blood loss

Open wounds may be treated using medicines, just like most other injuries. Cauterization is also a potential solution, as well as bandages and sutures.

Because the amount of blood loss from open wounds needs to be tracked, each limb may need to track their own contained blood and wounds.

That said, bleeding damage shouldn’t be counted toward the total damage taken by a player, and instead should simply be an indicator of how much blood is being lost over time.

Blood can be drawn and injected with syringes and IV drips, can be lost from wounds and regenerated through chemicals. Blood regenerates slowly over time, and regenerates faster the better fed the character is.

There are also blood types, which follow the general real world rules. Lizardpeople have a special bloodtype, marked L, which can only receive from and donate to the L blood type. See

Oxygen

Some data regarding oxygen consumption in the body.

At rest a human consumes about 250 ml of oxygen each minute, 4.16 mL per second, so approximately 4.16/22.4 = 0.18 mmol per second (22.4 is the molar volume of oxygen under 1 atm and 25 degree celsius). https://www.britannica.com/science/human-respiratory-system/Interplay-of-respiration-circulation-and-metabolism

Average volume of a human body : 65 L https://bionumbers.hms.harvard.edu/bionumber.aspx?s=n&v=3&id=109718
One milliliter of body then consume 0.18/65/1000 = approximately 2.77*10^-6 millimoles per second. We'll call that MilliMolesOfOxygenPerMillilitersOfBody.

Oxygen needs of individual body parts

A body part might, or might not, need oxygen. At the basis, it's the layers composing it that needs oxygen. Generally, the formula will be very simple, let's call L a single layer and O() the function for the needed oxygen. O(L) is expressed in millimoles, Vol(L) in milliliters and MilliMolesOfOxygenPerMillilitersOfBody is the constant above (unit in the name). The volume of a layer is currently simply the volume of its body part.

$O(L) = \text{MilliMolesOfOxygenPerMillilitersOfBody} \times \text{Vol(L)}$

Now for each layers present in the body part, we just compute the average of their need in oxygen to get the need of the bodypart itself.

Oxygen reserve of individual body parts

The amount of oxygen a single body part can hold will rely on its volume and on a factor that user can pass in parameter.

$R_o(B) = \text{MilliMolesOfOxygenPerMillilitersOfBody} \times \text{Vol(B)} \times \text{ReserveFactor}$

The reserve factor is here to allow the user to set different amount of oxygen reserves for body parts, thus making some dying faster than others.

Some data regarding blood and oxygen volume in a human

The maximum volume of oxygen which the blood can carry when fully saturated is termed the oxygen carrying capacity, which, with a normal haemoglobin concentration, is approximately 20 mL oxygen per 100 mL blood.

Of course, oxygen doesn't circulate in the body like in the air. In blood, it is densely packed into haemoglobin. We can safely consider that haemoglobin makes up 2% of blood volume, so oxygen is packed by a factor ten compared to normal atmospheric conditions.

Upon being taken in atmos by lungs, oxygen should turn into haemoglobin, so that there's no actualy oxygen into blood.

Pain

The taste of things to come.

Pain is a (normally) unpleasant feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli. It's a transitory symptom of an underlying condition or problem in the life form’s body.

It triggers as a burst of pain, then it slowly fades away, causing varying effects depending on the level of pain and its localization. Pain is transferred over the Nervous system layer and is delivered into the brain (so there’s no need for several pain meters for each body part). There is the natural pain resistance every creature has, as a threshold the pain level must cross before causing any effect. Pain resistance is also the factor by which pain is reduced over time.

Pain effects

Pain can manifest in several ways, beside the action message, depending on the level of pain the life form is feeling. Some of those effects are:

Mechanics: Temporarily disabling a body part, which can cause dropping things (in case of pain in arms) or inability to run (in case of pain in legs)
Mechanics: Dizziness, Passing out (heavy stamina damage?)
Mechanics: Vomiting
Visual effects: Sudden red flashes on screen so show damage occurring
Text: RP automated messages like *Twitches*, *Goes Pale*
Sound: Involuntary vocal screaming, moaning, groaning or whimpering.
Animation: Involuntary movement (spasms, twitching), momentarily violent muscle contraction (think of tasers)

Mitigation of pain

Pain can be controlled in several ways. First and most effective way is to fix the issue that is causing pain - take care of the wound, for example.

Drugs such as morphine can also relieve pain momentarily as the needed drug is delivered to the Nervous system via the Circulatory system, without fixing the underlying issue. And lastly there is intervention on the nervous system, affecting Nervous system directly through surgery or other means.

Death

End of the line.

Death is a (semi)permanent disability, suffered by biological characters. Character is counted as Dead upon death of a brain (or an alternative organ/device responsible for higher neural/computational functions). The general order of a natural death of the body (or brain removal) is as follows:

Neural activity stops, the body is unable to move. Remedied by brain reconnection or implantation with an AI tech.
Heart stops, blood flow stops. Remedied by Torso surgery to connect the Circulatory system to the medical blood pump.
Organs and all other layers stop receiving O2 and nutrients. Remedied by surgical removal of the organs prior to their death and connecting them to life support containers. (Organs not connected to the Circulatory system start taking oxygen damage)
Organs and all other layers take oxygen damage. Systems that require nutrients to sustain regenerative functions stop doing that. Blood starts being replaced with a substance “Stale blood”, that cannot be used for transfusions. Blood staleness is prevented by pumping it out of the body and storing it in a cold place.
Organs’ health lowers. Organs that deplete their health die and cannot be used as functional transplantation organs. Not remedied
The Muscular, Circulatory, and Nervous systems continue taking damage as they rot. At the point of 0 health they cannot be used as a transplant (limb transplant, for example). Not remedied unless transplanted before death of a layer or removed from the body and stored in a life support container.
The Muscular system continues to lose health down to -100, at which point the muscles cannot be harvested as human meat and cooked. Remedied by storing the body in a cold storage prior to this point or harvesting meat immediately.

As stated, the death of the brain is the death of the character. But it might not be the end! Possible options to continue the game are becoming a ghost to fly freely over the station in spectator mode or taking a role for a ghost, such as an AI for a personal PDA, little robots or possible poltergeist antagonist. See Ghosts in Roles section for more info.

Players can also be cloned/resurrected/regenerated. The brain (or the body with one) can be thrown into a cloning vat to be rebuilt and restored. For balancing, this process might require a lot of energy or nutrients to do its magic. For RP balancing, the lore of the game claims a short term amnesia is a constant side-effect of the revival, so players can’t just wait for someone to clone their character back and use their knowledge prior to their death to point at the antagonist who (most likely) killed them.

Body parts volume

This data is useful as it gives us some rough rough idea about things such as the volume of blood in a given body part, if we make the simple approximation that blood quantity is homogeneous in the body (obviously untrue, but good enough for SS3D).

Average volume of a human body : 65 L https://bionumbers.hms.harvard.edu/bionumber.aspx?s=n&v=3&id=109718
Volume of intestines : https://bionumbers.hms.harvard.edu/bionumber.aspx?s=n&v=2&id=111759
Volume of Heart, lungs and liver : https://bionumbers.hms.harvard.edu/files/Mass%20and%20volume%20of%20the%20organs%20of%20the%20human%20body.pdf
Volume of stomach : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stomach
Volume of limbs :
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2769678/

Using those sources, we can approximate the volume for each body part :

For the torso and its organs :

Total Torso = 50 % of 65L = 32.5L
Heart = 0.3 L
Lower and upper Intestines = 1 L each
Liver = 1.5L
Lungs = 0.7L each
Stomach = 2L
Total volume of Torso without organs = 32.5 - 0.3 - 1 - 1 - 1.5 - 0.7*2 - 2 = 25.3 L

For the limbs :

left/right arm = 4% of 65 L = 2.6L
left/right hand = 1% of 65 L = 0.65L
left/right leg = 14% of 65 L = 9.1L
left/right foot = 2% of 65 L = 1.3L

For the head and its organs :

total head = 8% of 65L = 5.2L
Brain = 1.3L
Eyes = 0.03 L each
head without organs = 5.2 -1.3 - 0.06 = 3.8L

Healing

Ways to remedy the damage.

Every damage type has a way to be treated with professional help. Most of the damage can be negated or remedied by providing the damaged part with a substance designed to deal with it.

Substance Exposure

Reagents should be introduced into the bloodstream at various rates depending on the type of 'exposure'.

Injecting: would instantly introduce reagents to the bloodstream. Requires IV stand, syringe or hypo applied to the bodypart (+ CIRCULATORY connected to it).
Inhaling: introduces reagents fast, but not instantly. Requires at least one working lung (+ CIRCULATORY connected to it) and either breathing mask connected to a source of gas/dispersed reagent or said reagent introduced to the station’s atmosphere.
Digesting: slowly extracts reagents located in intestines. Requires working intestines (+ CIRCULATORY connected to it).
Topical: skin absorbs reagents very slowly. Requires a reagent or a patch/bandage/dandaid containing it applied to a bodypart with a not-dead MUSCLE layer (+ CIRCULATORY connected to it).

This way, for example, a combat stim patch would be good for negating the effect of a wound temporarily, a pill would be perfect for long engagements with a very low overdose risk and an autoinjector would be an ace up your sleeve at the risk of an overdose if the dosage is too high.

Surgery

Surgical Access

Several problems require immediate surgery to save the patient, some of which concern their extremities or internal organs, in which case the patient must be "opened" in order to directly interact with the part that needs doctor's attention. The overall organ access order (by body parts) should look as such:

That means, while Eyes, Ears and Speech organs (Tongue) can be directly accessed and treated without surgical intervention, to treat the brain the doctor should first cut through the skin of the patient’s head and through the skull bone. Or, in other words, they should cut through the MUSCLES and BONES layers of the Head body part.

The dotted line means that there’s no need in any sort of incisions to access the needed organ, the parent organ just should be moved (Made for simplicity and cartoonish style, don’t try this at home, author knows nothing of real anatomy or surgery or medicine in general. Applicable to the whole document, actually.)\

Surgical transplantation

In order to be removed, the organs should be surgically accessed and disconnected from MUSCLES, CIRCULATORY and NERVES of their body part.

Example: In order to extract the brain, the doctor should first cut off the top of the head, open the skull, cut the nerve endings, cut off (and cauterize, depending on the situation) the blood vessels and extract the brain. In order to install a different brain in it’s place, the doctor should basically perform the procedure in reverse: place the brain in the head, reconnect blood vessels of the new brain and the body, reconnect the nerves, close the skull and staple the head back.

Surgical tools

Surgeon uses a variety of tools

Tools for incisions (TI) - the tools to cut through the soft tissues of the organism, used primarily on MUSCLES, CIRCULATORY, NERVES and ORGANS. The most convenient one is Scalpel, but any item/weapon that can do slash damage might work (the more the characteristics of the item differ from the scalpel, the worse it is as a tool for surgery, i.e. being too heavy, making too much/not enough slash damage, etc.).
Tools for bone cutting (TBC) - tools to cut BONES. Bone-saw is an obvious choice, but other types of slash damage items might work (but even worse than the incision tools).
Tools for retraction (TR) - opens the incisions wide, holds the skin and MUSCLES in place and doesn't allow it to close on the doctor while they operate. Surgical retractors are made for this purpose, but wire-cutters or wrench can be used in case of emergencies.
Tools for cauterizing (TC) - burns the CIRCULATORY to stop blood loss from a specific vessel, for example, after ORGAN removal. Cautery is the choice for this job, but any item that can provide a similar HEAT damage can possibly work.
Tools for manipulation (TM) - for moving organs tissues and bones around without harm for the patient. Might also be used to close the CIRCULATORY vessels (to be reconnected later). Hemostat is the intended tool, but wire-cutters can be used to achieve the same effect with a certain chance of failure.
Tools for bone merging (TBM) - for setting BONES back together after fracture of surgical procedures. Bone gel can make bone tissue ductile, after which the bone parts can be mended back together with TM, but it can be partially substituted with surgical tape or a regular adhesive material for worse results.
Tools for wound closing (TWC) - for sawing MUSCLES wounds back together or bandaging the wound. Depending on the severity of the wound/incision, medical gauze or surgical tape might be enough, but the wound might reopen if the application is removed too early. Surgical suture is more time consuming and works only for incisions, but needs no removal. There are ghetto versions for both, being adhesive tape and cloth for the first option and regular sewing thread or wire for the second.
Tools for drilling (TD) - for making holes in BONES or teeth to insert pills/patches into a resulting cavity. The medical drill can be used for it, but the cavity can also be dug with other drills like mining one (why) or meticulously scratched using needles or scalpel.

Surgical description (in-system)

Surgical operations should be described in the same way as basic crafting recipes (see Crafting Design Document (WIP)), in a sense that every interaction of the tool with a certain layer or organ should describe the target, the tool and the result of the basic interaction.

{
  "type": "surgery",
  "result": " [ { "bones_access", 1 } ]
  "time": "10 s",
  "tool": "saw_circ",
  "component": [ [ [ "head", "bones", "bones_access", 0, "muscles_access", 1 ] ] ]
}

This “recipe” describes that if a circular saw is used on a patient head’s skull when the skin in the head is already cut, then after this interaction 10 seconds (of animation) should pass and the skull would also be opened.

Combat

Combat is a character-on-character interaction system that mainly focuses on keeping player character and allied characters alive/functional and rendering hostile characters not-alive/functional.

The main tools of character-on-character interaction are clicking on the character and the body part selection dummy:

Clicking on a target dummy’s body part would select it and highlight it for the player. It would be used for context related character-on-character interactions, such as aiming or disarming. Same dummy is used for medical purposes.

It is used for the most common type of characters: anthropomorphic ones, such as humans, abductors, plasmamen or podpeople. For lizardmen, felinids, mothmen or xenomorph-expy creatures additional features can be added, such as tails, wings or antennae.

hit/punch people with or without an item in one's hands
disarm the target
shove the target
grab and pull the target
throw the target
Fireman carry target
throw things at the target
shoot the target
taze/inject/forcefeed the target

There should be a battle mode (harm) and a non-battle mode (help), that should affect the effect of the click on the other character. There should be an ability to:

Body parts can also be selected via hotkeys, native for experienced SS13 players.

Creatures like goats, cows, dogs or space carp would need their own target dummies. If a player clicks on a non-standard creature, the target dummy would change from standard to edited one. If the changed one is still anthropomorphic, the original selected body part would remain. Otherwise, the torso or a center of mass would be automatically selected.

Combat Mode

The Combat Mode switch was designed to rework the intent selector, traditional to the 2D Space Station 13 for 3D environment. The intent selector allowed you to choose how you're going to interact with the items and the environment around you, utilizing four modes: Help, Disarm, Grab, and Harm. Now they are reworked to allow more actions:

Help

Do good.

HELP

If the Combat mode is disabled, most of the actions performed on the characters are supposed to be non-harmful (at least, not directly, see details below):

LEFT_CLICK on an active target character, while having an empty hand and Combat mode is disabled, will result in giving the target a hug. (This action also pets animals)

LEFT_CLICK on a knocked down target character, while having an empty hand and Combat mode is disabled, will result in an attempt to help the target back up on their feet.

LEFT_CLICK on a target character in a critical condition, while having an empty hand and Combat mode is disabled, will result in an attempt to perform CPR and revive the target.

Harm

Do bad.

HARM

LEFT_CLICK on an active target character, while having an empty hand and Combat mode is enabled, will result in an attempt to punch the target in the selected bodypart.

(On standing targets player character will attempt to punch the target, which deals 1.5-15 stamina and 1-10 brute (CRUSH subtype) damage. The chance to miss a punch increases the more stamina and brute damage player character has. Punching has a chance to knockdown the target for at least 4 seconds. The more brute and stamina damage the target has, the longer the target will be knocked down.) For more info on Stamina and Damage types, visit Health design document: Health/Medical design document

Suggestion: longer LEFT_CLICK should result in a stronger, slower attack.

LEFT_CLICK on a knocked down target character, while having an empty hand and Combat mode is enabled, will result in a kick of the target in the selected bodypart. (The kick deals 1.5-15 brute (CRUSH subtype) damage and has no chance to miss.)

The damage of any attack that is made using character's muscles should also depend on the

Overall health condition of the attacker
Health of the limb used to attack
Stamina amount (debatable)

One of those factors (chosen by the worst condition) should reduce character's damage with melee fights.

Grab

Seize what you need.

GRAB

CTRL+LEFT_CLICK on an active target character, while having an empty hand and Combat mode is disabled, will result in grabbing the target.

If used on humanoids, the grab on the torso allows the player character to pull or push the target with it.

Grabbing the hand of an active target character while Combat mode is disabled will result in an attempt to extend own hand to the target character.

If the player character’s arm is not empty, target character has an option to take the item, as long as they have an empty hand.
If the player character’s arm is empty, target character has an option to put their own item into the extended hand, as long as they have an item in hand OR to shake hands, if both characters have an empty hand.

Grabbing the hand of an active target character while Combat mode is enabled will result in an attempt to DISARM: take an item from their hand or make target drop it from the said arm (if it’s not empty), or prevent the target from using their arms to fight and/or grab (if it’s empty).

Grabbing the leg substantially slows the target’s movement. (if too complicated to implement or confusing in gameplay, might be worth automatically switching to the arms or body)

Grabbing the inactive target by any bodypart should result in an animation of the player character dragging the ragdoll (or IK-rigged) target by the selected bodypart. (Also works for inanimate objects)

Hold

Keep it close and personal.

HOLD

LEFT_CLICK on a grabbed (lvl1) target character while Combat mode is disabled will result in careful Fireman-carrying the target (Should prevent the target’s body from collisions with objects on the floor). Attempt to grab the already dragged inactive targets/inanimate objects of comparable size should result in the same type of animation. The action itself needs 2 empty hands, and the same amount to safely put the body down. While Fireman-carrying the target, one hand is permanently unavailable.

Grabbing an already grabbed (lvl1) target character will result in grabbing the target stronger.

(This action automatically enables Combat mode) (The resulting aggressive grab (lvl 2) would be N% harder for the target character to break from. Disabling Combat mode would make lvl2 and higher grabs become lvl1 grab again. All grab moves from lvl 2 and higher require Combat mode enabled)

LEFT_CLICK+CTRL on an active target character, while having an empty hand and Combat mode is enabled, will result in grabbing the target in the aggressive grab (lvl 2) right away.

Grabbing an aggressively grabbed (lvl2) target character, while having two empty hands, will result in automatically switching to the neck (or head, depending on the UI detail) on the UI dummy and grabbing the target even stronger.

(The resulting neck grab (lvl 3) would be M% (where N<M) harder for the target character to break from.)

These levels serve a purpose of the preparation to choking someone and giving plenty of opportunities to back down, just in case.

Grabbing a target character already grabbed by the neck (lvl3) will result in an attempt to strangle the target.

(The resulting strangling grab (lvl 4) would be L% (where M<L) harder for the target character to break from. Target in the strangling grab would be dealt suffocation damage over time. Target character may attempt to resist being grabbed with a certain chance of success.)

Push

Clear your personal space.

PUSH

RIGHT_CLICK on an active target character, while having an empty hand, will result in an attempt to push the target.

(IK-rig needed. Target character should be pushed in the direction of the push and slowed down very slightly for 3 seconds, unless they collide with any other objects. In case of said collision, the target character should become a ragdoll for 3 more seconds starting from the collision time.)

RIGHT_CLICK on a target character that grabbed the player's character, should result in an attempt to push away the target and disable the grab (with a certain chance).

Toss and Throw

Direct stuff where it needs to be.

TOSS/THROW

Holding CTRL+RIGHT_CLICK while having an item in hand or holding a target character in a grab, will result in the player character preparing a throw. An arch-like trajectory indicator should appear and follow the cursor, indicating the supposed trajectory of the thrown object, where landing point ending where cursor points. (Works regardless of the player's current combat mode.)

Warning: might be too OP. In that case, the trajectory trail should be either disabled or become more transparent the greater the distance to the intended target.

Suggestion: trajectory indicator should fade away the longer distance a thrown object should travel if thrown, as bounce prediction over long distances might be too OP. Alternatively, it can be only visible with an item perk, like AR glasses (if anybody would use them)

While aiming at the active target character, while having an item in hand and if Combat mode is enabled, trajectory indicator should “stick” to the bodypart of the target, selected in the UI dummy.

(If Combat mode is disabled, indicator should treat other characters no different from other environment entities (no “auto aim” at the characters))

LEFT_CLICK while aiming on an active target character, while having an item in hand and Combat mode is enabled, will result in throwing the item in the active hand at the target character.

The damage of the item, shall it hit the target, should be calculated from the weight of the item + it’s perks (to decide the damage type, for example *sharp* should result in dealing a certain amount of SLASH damage) + health and stamina conditions, as stated in the HARM section. If Combat mode is disabled, LEFT_CLICK will result in tossing the item in the active hand, dealing no damage (or less damage then when throwing)

LEFT_CLICK while aiming anywhere in the gameworld while holding an item, will result in throwing the item at the cursor.

(Works regardless of the player's current mode.) (Holding a target character in a grab should throw the target character’s ragdoll in the general direction of the cursor) (Can be used to toss grenades: activate the grenade and toss it in the direction of the target.)

Items

ITEMS

There are several options proposed on how to deal with item interactions when tied to the intents, but one overall rule remains: items that are made to be used on a character should be easily used on them if needed. In other words:

LEFT_CLICK on an active target character, while having an item that's marked as "helpful" in hand, will result in the primary interaction of the item applied on the target character. (Works regardless of the player's current mode.)

(For example, clicking on another character with a syringe or food in your hand will make you attempt to inject or force feed them)

LEFT_CLICK on an active target character, while having an item that's marked as "harmful", either "melee" or "ranged", in hand, will result in an attempt to use the item on the target character accordingly (see section WEAPONS). (Works regardless of the player's current mode, but this action automatically enables Combat mode)

The rest is divisive. The items that were not made to be used on humans, ideally, should still be used on them in some way. For example, the toolbox.

Option true to the SS13: LEFT_CLICK on an active target character, while having an item that's not marked as "helpful" or "harmful" in hand will result in an attempt to bash the target character with this item. (Works regardless of the player's current mode.)

This, however, has a problem of player/character disconnect (RP stuff) and it generally wouldn’t make sense hurting someone with the HELP intent. For this purpose, another set of options was suggested:

LEFT_CLICK on an active target character, while having an item that's not marked as "helpful" or "harmful" in hand, will result in:

a message "You can't help this person with your hands full" (Works regardless of the player's current mode.)
an attempt to bash the target character with this item. In HARM mode, the rules for improvised melee weapons apply. In HELP mode, the damage is reduced to ⅓ or less, depending on the traits of the item, such as "sharp" or "chemical" or "breakable"
an attempt to bash the target character with this item. In HARM mode, the rules for improvised melee weapons apply. In HELP mode, the damage is reduced 0, so only the effect of the hit (such as the animation and the sound) remains
an attempt to bash the target character with this item (In HARM mode) or an attempt to drop the item and help the target character with a freed hand (In HELP mode)
an attempt to bash the target character with this item (In HARM mode) or an attempt to offer the said item to the target character (In HELP mode)

Melee

MELEE

LEFT_CLICK on an active target character (any part of it), while having a melee weapon (or basically any item that can be used as one) in an active hand, will result in an attempt to make a fast hit (punch with something blunt or jab with something sharp) in the selected bodypart.

Suggestion: longer LEFT_CLICK should result in a slash attack for blade melee weapons (like swords),

longer hits with contact-type weapons (like stun-batons)

or stronger, slower heavy attack for weapons that rely on brute force (like hammers)

where the longer the time of holding the LEFT_CLICK, the wider the swing (or the longer the contact with the contact-type weapons, like stun baton or soldering iron).

The choice of the attack type might depend on the weapon’s primary (biggest) damage type or might be a completely separate thing, specifically programmed for melee.

Reference for how the melee fight should look/feel like pace-wise:

Reason for this is that in Space Station 13 the fights mostly consist of attacks that occur on click on the opponent, which means the fights are made with fast hits and instant attack startups in mind.

Ranged

RANGED

Holding RIGHT_CLICK, while having a ranged weapon in an active hand, will make player character to aim at the cursor.

The character should follow their aim at the location cursor points at freely, until it points at the target (human or other living being that has individual parts that can be aimed at).

If cursor overlapses with the target, the aim of the character must automatically lock on and aim at the middle of the bodypart of the target, that was selected on the UI dummy.

Aim (and the animation of the aim via IK, probably) should change if the targeted bodypart on the dummy was changed via hotkeys.

In case the part of the character that is currently aimed at is obstructed, the aim on the UI dummy should be disregarded and the aim should remain “free” as in unlocked from the target and should simply follow the cursor.

If the said part of the character is no longer obstructed while the “free aim” is still on the targeted character, it should remain that way to prevent aim jumping. To re-aim and lock onto the targeted bodypart, cursor must be moved from the target character and then moved onto it again.

LEFT_CLICK while having a ranged weapon in an active hand AND aiming (holding RIGHT_CLICK) should make the gun shoot in the direction of the current aim, free or not.

There should also be a chance to miss the body part that is aimed at within a certain radius (represented by the transparent red circle on the image below) or even miss the character entirely.

This error radius should depend on:

· type and integrity of the weapon

· condition of the aiming character’s body (especially the arm holding the weapon)

· other effects on the aiming character, such as medication, drugs, alcohol or other

- Distance between characters

Once the point of the shot is established aiming should be locked (player should still be able to move the cursor), the animation of the fired shot should play for the character, damage and force of the shot should apply to the target. After that, the aiming process should continue as normal.

In case of the automatic weapons or other weapons that fire continuously, established aiming should not be locked, but should remain “free” from the point of starting fire (both time and aim coordinates). For example, longer LEFT_CLICK while aiming at target’s chest with a flamethrower should result in continuous fire in the general direction of the target’s chest, but

LEFT_CLICK while having a ranged weapon in an active hand will make player character shoot from-the-hip style, aiming rules above applied.

LEFT_CLICK on an active target character, while having a ranged weapon in an active hand AND aiming (holding RIGHT_CLICK), will make the player character shoot, aiming at the targeted area.

Melee combat

Range and Arc

Different melee weapons have a different range and arc of reachable targets. A spear can reach far, but with a very narrow angle. A hammer has low range but with a wider arc of reachable target.

Below is a picture of a stun baton and a bat, and their respective arc and range.

Selecting targets in melee combat

Aiming in SS3D implies two things :

Selecting a target entity.
Selecting a body part on this entity.

Selecting a target entity in combat mode

Attacking a player happens when left clicking, therefore, click position matters to determine which entity to target.

First, an entity must be reachable to be targeted, meaning it must be in the area determined by Range and arc of the melee weapon.

Clicking directly on reachable entity

This one is simple, if the target is reachable and the click is on the entity, the entity is selected.

Clicking outside of arc and range

If the click occurs outside of arc and range of the weapon, the selected entity will be one that :

Is reachable.
Is the closest from the player.

Clicking inside of arc and range

If the click occurs inside arc and range, even with a reachable entity, the target will be whatever was clicked on. This allow to smash an item (or just the ground) in close proximity of another player.

Selecting a target entity out of combat mode

Out of combat mode, selecting a target relies solely on the interaction system, it therefore implies clicking on the target, and some checks are done to verify if the hitting interaction can occur.

Here's a drawing to sum it up : (This one assumes direction of aim is following player's rotation, look at the aiming's direction part for more details on this particular point)

Selecting a target body part

The consensus is that it's simpler for now to simply use the targeting doll to select the body part one's want to hit.

The targeting doll allows one in the UI to select any given body part on a humanoid character. In case where one of those body part would be missing, the next closest body part would be selected (missing right hand and right hand selected -> hit right arm).

Aim's direction

In combat mode, the direction of hitting should follow the mouse, it's independent from character's body rotation (note that in this mode the character is strafing).

Timing

Timing refers here to the time it takes between choosing a hit interaction, and landing the hit.

A simple solution could be first to reduce this time to zero. However, we might note that it'd be hard to make sense of animations if a player takes a hit before the swinging animation of the weapon even started. This is a point to consider, ongoing discussion.

Movement in combat mode

In combat mode, strafing will be the main way of moving around, with the player's torso direction following the mouse cursor.