Moonridden:Gameplay Concepts

Gameplay Concepts

Tuterr, the Private Eye says: "You know, as much as I like to rib the fresh meat, it doesn't really matter if something happens to them - Nanotrasen thinks death is a waste of money, they'll just get cloned or something. What? Oh, shit, I gotta go. *click* You, uh, didn't hear that - right, kid?"

Before getting into anything else, it's important to note that since SS13 is such an open ended game that has other people in it, when you get in game and try to follow the guide, things may go wrong - the station might have been almost entirely consumed by a singularity, a traitor could attack you with a powerful weapon, or something no one could have predicted will kill you. It's important to not let death get to you - Rule 10 exists for a reason! There are multiple ways you can be brought back into the game - don't get frustrated if something happens.

As a brand-new player, your first objective is simply joining the station as non-essential crew and attempting to survive, escaping via the evacuation shuttle or one of the pods located around the station. From there, you can branch out into more of the specific concepts that are often stumbling blocks for newer players, so let's address those first. (These are all in expandable boxes to save space, but it's not a bad idea to read them beforehand.)

Damage

There are a few different damage types in SS13. If you take enough damage, you'll fall unconscious into critical condition, better known as Crit. If left untreated in this state, you'll slowly suffocate until you die.

Brute damage is received from physical attacks - punches, kicks, toolboxes, hatchets - if someone is hitting you over the head with it, it does Brute damage.

Burn damage is received from fire or exposure to the vacuum of space.

Toxin damage is received from breathing in poison gases, attacks from enemies like giant spiders, ingesting poison, drinking too much booze, or generally having any harmful chemical in your blood.

Oxygen damage is received from being unable to breathe, or while in critical condition. It goes down over time by itself if you're not in crit.

Brain damage is reveived from being cloned or other things. Can randomly cause brain traumas. Those suffering from brain damage usually need chemicals to cure their condition.

Cellular damage is reveived from being cloned or from being fed on by a slime. Can be cured with cryo treatment.

Brute and Burn damage are applied to specific limbs. If you've been smacked in the head with a toolbox a few times, you'll have to aim at your head (with numpad keys) when you use a bruise pack. Most medicines can be ingested to heal damage anywhere on your body. If you take enough damage to one limb, you can be dismembered. You will need surgery to replace lost limbs.

Combat

Combat in SS13 is very heavily focused on who falls over first. If you're prone, you've likely lost. This means items like soap or disablers are extremely useful.

If you get into a fight, consider your options - it may be best to try and simply run away. If you think you can disarm your opponent, you could turn the tables by taking their weapon. Combat in SS13 is fast paced and revolves around a lot of back and forth swipes, almost like a strange joust between 2D spacemen.

Getting better at combat in SS13 requires practice - there's only so much you can be taught. The rest is learning how to create and take advantage of opportunities. Hopefully, you won't have to get into many fights as you start out.

Being in combat mode is paramount to winning any engagement, as without it on you'll be taking substantially more damage, and dealing incredibly less. Being caught off-guard by someone with the indicator on puts you at a huge disadvantage.

To learn more about combat and how to win fights, see the Guide to Combat.

Ghosts

If you end up dying, don't worry, there's a few ways to go from there.

If you try to move, you'll ghost out of your corpse. This is essentially spectator mode - you can communicate with other dead players (and talking about the round out of character is okay in this chat) by talking normally and are able to fly around the entire map. (Note that while it's okay to talk about the round in deadchat, if you're revived, you cannot use any information gained while dead. Anything you saw while alive is fair game.)

If you die, you can be cloned, revived via defibrillator, turned into a podperson, have your brain removed and put into a cyborg, or more. There are ghost roles that can be played by dead players - some areas have objects that, when clicked on as a ghost, will spawn you as a new character. (You're a new character, so don't use any information from your past life.) There may even be alerts that pop up while you're dead, asking if you'd like to take control of a xenomorph, a morph, or almost anything else. These are often provided by admins, but can occasionally happen via random event. Please note that if you take on a ghost role you CANNOT be cloned or return to your original body!