Parasite

[catbarf]

Waaaaay back in the day there was a Garry's Mod game mode called Parasite. Inspired by The Thing and similar movies, the premise was simple: Someone is an alien. If he kills you, you'll become an alien too. Find out who it is and kill him. At the same time, the players had needs they had to fulfill or die- but since the aliens had no needs, this was a way to test whether or not a player is human.

I'm posting this because TTT is quite similar to Parasite, and I believe that a new version of Parasite based on TTT would be fairly simple to create. While there would be modifications, most notably the 'needs' system would go right out the window, the basic gameplay would be the same as it is already fairly similar to TTT. The question is, is there any interest in such a game?

[Killroy]

It was actually pointed out that "this is like parasite" back in SK. I think.

[Marauder8]

I believe I was one of the people that mentioned it. We also had a Parasite forum game quite a while back, I believe you hosted the server, Catbarf.

[Charles445]

I used to play parasite all the time. I actually got to meet ickylevel at one point - he said that the gamemode took him two months to make.

[catbarf]

I believe you hosted the server, Catbarf.

I did. A couple of times. And it's similar enough to TTT to code a new version fairly easily. The question is whether it's different enough from TTT for people to play it. There are a few gameplay concepts that make it significantly different (Killed -> Parasite, instead of Killed -> Dead) but it would still be rather similar to TTT. What are your thoughts? Would you play on such a server?

[Nel]

Maybe we could have a forum game of it?  It'd be interesting to see how it's different.

[Marauder8]

I loved playing it, which made me even more excited when I heard about TTT and Serial Killer. It has a needs system similar to The Ship and The Sims to eliminate camping.

[catbarf]

I think the needs system was clunky, tied to the map, and prevented players from grouping up. It did fulfill the functions of allowing testing for traitors as well as preventing camping, but there has to be a better way.

[Charles445]

I think the needs system was clunky, tied to the map, and prevented players from grouping up. It did fulfill the functions of allowing testing for traitors as well as preventing camping, but there has to be a better way.

The prevention of grouping up is intentional.

[catbarf]

TTT doesn't have any problem with people grouping up. It lets people who know they're innocent work together. But unless you can prove that you're innocent, there's always that element of distrust.

Far more entertaining, I think, to have one or two traitors infiltrated in a group of humans than for the traitors to mob up and just pick off individuals one by one.

[Charles445]

The deal with parasite is, there is NO way to prove your innocence unless you kill a parasite.
There is NO way to kill someone as a parasite unless you use the parasite meelee attack (rendering you obvious)

If two humans are together, the only feasible way to kill them is by zombies.
Yes, there are zombies.

[catbarf]

The deal with parasite is, there is NO way to prove your innocence unless you kill a parasite.

I take it you're forgetting that only humans receive needs. And when a need is fulfilled, the game plays a citizen speech file. So if someone relieves a need, you know they've done it, and it proves they're innocent.

The 'traitors' would lose the ability to kill innocents without it being obvious that they're traitors. But they would, of course, gain the advantage of converting those killed into more parasites. I understand what you mean about dealing with groups, though. There has to be something that will keep the humans moving from place to place.

Edit: I mean, if the humans have to keep moving, then very quick hit-and-run kills are possible as a parasite. The parasites would heal when in parasite form, allowing them to recover from HP lost due to frantic gunfire. The issue is innocents grouping up and camping an area, not allowing anyone in- but this could be solved with a C4 equivalent.

[Charles445]

I don't think that scenario really happens.
I played parasite a LOT and that sort of thing never happened.