Space (Asshole) Station 13

[Geremy Tibbles]

All the talk about The Ship and the Thumbs' love of bizzare player interactions got me thinking if anyone here played Space Station 13.

I was pretty surprised I couldn't find a topic here, especially since Chris' "Space Asshole" is practically the unofficial theme of the game.

For those of you who don't know...

It's a free, 2D isometricish game available via BYOND's client, and despite it's clunkiness I'd seriously suggest everyone check it out.The backdrop for is (unsurprisingly) a space station, one that's heavily covered in simulations. Every tank on the station has an internal pressure and temperature related to that pressure and related to what's inside. Outside the station is space. Not just "you die after a few seconds" but an actual vacuum one that on some servers will even cause ice to form in hull breaches, complicating movement and repairing them. There's a slew of jobs, from a hydroponics department that manages a small flock of animals and trays full of plants, to a robotics bay that can make cyborgs out of people after removing their brains, or build power loading mechs. The station has necessary jobs like a security force, a medical bay and an engineering department that sets up the power for the station. There's even a player controlled AI who oversees the station, and department heads and a captain to add some bureaucracy to the mix. People are expected to roleplay as their jobs and create a sort of temporary character, which all adds the the very "slice of life (on-board a space station)" feel of the game. All of this is interesting enough, but on top of all this is what most people consider to be the real game.

Each round, a game type is picked, which usually dictates how long the round is going to be. Free form is just people getting to roleplay and goof around, or reach the end of the rather long and sometimes laborious research trees in the robotics and research bays. These rounds can last up to 3 hours, but usually this mode isn't turned on unless people request it. Typically, the game choose a game type that involves an antagonist. Most commonly this is a Traitor, a randomly selected member of the crew who's given an objective (Kill a crew member or steal a piece of equipment), and survive until the end of the round when the evacuation shuttle is called. They can spawn a limited number of items to help them complete their objectives, all of which are contraband and if they're caught, they'll likely be jailed for the entire round, or executed. Traitor is the most common, but there are other modes like Changeling, which has a small group of players who can shapeshift into other players after consuming them. There's even a Wizard mode, in which an asshole space wizard is given a big book of spells and a really simple objective, most of the time which never gets accomplished, but often results in entertaining round types, especially when the wizard decides not to be an antagonist and just pal around.

The easiest way to get a feel for the game would be to just observe on one of the servers, or play as an assistant and ask for control help.

There's a ton of servers, but I find the ones set up by 4chan's /tg/ and /vg/ to be the best in terms of their server code's content, playerbase and their admins.

http://www.nanotrasen.com/ has all the info you need, including a helpful wikia.

[eot]

This is spooky, I was just going to make a thread about this.

It's kind of like Dwarf Fortress meets The Ship, in space. The amount of possible interactions in the game is just crazy. I was watching a tutorial video on it and the guy playing genetically engineered a human, sedated him, cut open his belly, removed his appendix and fed the subject his own appendix. He then went on to do brain "surgery", removing the brain entirely, takes it to the chef who stuffs it in the microwave together with some eggs which causes it to explode. It's just nuts.

Rocket (DayZ creator) runs a server called Rocket Station which I've heard is quite good.

[Murdoc]

After a Dwarf Fortress comparison I had to start this up, no thoughts on it yet, but the first message that popped up was this:

The wizard has been killed by the crew! The Space Wizards Federation has been taught a lesson they will not soon forget!

[Security_Tubbs]

I played a bit SS13 a while ago. The crippling lag eventually drove me away, but I did enjoy it as long as I played it.

I started out picking Janitor or Barkeep as my profession. Later I also tried playing as a hydroponics worker. I tried growing as hot chilis as possible, but due to a mutation they became "cold chilis". I then worked to make those as potent as possible, and eventually the extract from those plants would freeze anyone who drank it into a block of ice.

There's a remake in the works. I haven't been following it, but it seems to be active.

[Geremy Tibbles]

The interface is going to seem clunky as shit and impenetrable at first (much like Dwarf Fortress), just a warning.

One of my most favorite moments was playing as the Head of Security. The round was fairly uneventful, I had to mostly deal with false arrests and a paranoid captain. I was sitting in my office when suddenly out of the disposal chute, a tall, brown paper wrapped parcel popped out of it. Curious, I walked over to it and unwrapped it, finding that it was an emergency air tank closet. Suddenly it burst open and a man ran out, throwing a home made explosive at my feet before scrambling back into the disposal chute. "OH FUCK" is all I typed before running out of the room, narrowly escaping the explosion that destroyed my office and put a hole in the side of the station.

I was later bludgeoned to death by an assistant wielding an air tank. Such is life in space.

[Geremy Tibbles]

There's a remake in the works. I haven't been following it, but it seems to be active.

It's active but a long way off from anything playable, which sucks. BYOND is responsible for most of the lag, as I understand it.