Game Modes
Current Game Modes
Traitor
In this game Mode, a number of random crew members, based on current server population, will defect from Nanotrasen and become traitors with varying objectives! They each get access to a bunch of cool and deadly gear.
Changeling
A horrible organism (that is most certainly not a copy of The Thing) has escaped from some private research facility and is preying on the crew members!
Prepare for acid spitting, DNA sucking creatures who can disguise themselves as any crew member they have stolen the DNA from! Trust no one!
Wizard
Hark! A Technophobe wizard with a mighty beard hath appeared on the station, and he's out for blood! Beware his fireballs, golems, missiles and horrible cluwne curses! The round will end if the wizard achieves his objectives or the crew kills him.
Vampire
The shadows shifted. "You a Dracula?" the haggard man spat through his beard. He could sense something watching him.
Some of the crew are vampires. Stop them from feeding on human blood before they grow powerful enough to throw the station into complete darkness. Vampires occasionally show up in Changeling rounds.
Mixed
Traitors, changelings, wizards, and Vampires all in one gamemode? Oh my!
In this mode, instead of there being one fixed antagonist type, there is a mix of various types all at once.
Spy
The game randomly assigns several players as spy masters, with the objective to kill all the other spy masters and be the only one to escape. Unlike traitors, spies do not know the identity of their targets and have to do some sleuthing. The spies get to forcibly recruit several other players as their hapless minions to turn the station into a cloak and dagger warzone.
Nuclear Emergency
Generally known as nuke. A team of operatives, whose number is based on the server population, are spawned on a small shuttle with a nuclear bomb inside of it. Their objective is to get Nuke Disk from the grubby hands of the Captain. The round will end if the syndicate successfully detonates the nuke, or all operatives are killed, brigged, or AWOL (lost in space).
Rule update: 02/01/13
RE: The Syndicate Shuttle
We generally prefer players do not board it. We would take a dim view of anyone boarding it without knowing that the disk is long gone and probably on the way there. Anyone seen camping the shuttle and waiting for syndis to return with the disk will likely be gibbed. Just be sensible with it, please, it's a very lame way to ruin a round for successful syndicate agents.
Gang
The station is caught in the middle of a war between groups of people with silly names! Will TUNNEL SNAKES be victorious over BADMIN BUSTAS? Play as a gang leader, a gang member, or some random guy who is not in a gang! This mode is not in the Secret rotation.
Secret
The default mode for both servers. The game will randomly choose from the available game modes to keep you on your toes!
Other Game Modes
Extended
Extended is a round where nothing happens. There are no antagonists selected. Extended is mostly used by admins to run custom game mode gimmicks, but it's in the Secret mode rotation too.
Sandbox
Sandbox is a mode where all players can spawn more or less anything in the game through the "Sandbox Panel." In theory this is the mode you go to to figure out how stuff works and practice various systems, such as starting the engine or building complex pipe constructs. In practice this is the mode where everyone spawns cloaks and revolvers and gives themselves all the wizard spells.
Discontinued Gamemodes
Blob
The Blob is a bright green jelly that rapidly spreads across the station, destroying obstacles such as walls, windows, and crew members. At the start of the round, a single Blob will be placed somewhere random on the station and immediately begin spreading outwards from that point. It will spread more quickly if it is in contact with gases like Oxygen, and has a strong vulnerability to fire - Welders, Flashbangs and actual Fire will damage and destroy the blob, a tile at a time. The AI must help the crew in fighting the blob, but it also has a key difference this round in that it must prevent anyone from leaving the station - the Quarantine law is added to the AI at the beginning of the round.
The Blob now appears as a Random Event.
Meteor
In this Mode, the station was bombarded by wave upon wave of meteors. After about 30 mins or so, the shuttle would be auto called. It was quite a fun mode, but due to the awfulness of BYOND, it became horribly laggy and basically unplayable past the 20 minute mark. The goals of this gamemode are quite simple, escape on the shuttle, and you win the round.
Meteors now appear as a Random Event.
Disaster
Basically admin-fuckery: the gamemode. It is also known as Meteor's big brother. the objective for everyone in this mode is simply to survive. This is complicated by the fact that minutes into the round quantum portals will begin to open at random and shit will get unbelievably chaotic. The portals can explode with electrical energy, a burst of stunning light, or just plain explode. Portals may also summon a variety of unhelpful robots that can stun or injure you. This inevitably leads to the AI being destroyed or corrupted, pretty much every area of the ship being exposed to vacumn and everyone on the station going deaf. After a set amount of time, the shuttle can be called. If you escape on it, congratulations, you survived! This game mode is not in the regular list but admins occasionally bring it up.
Revolution
3 revolutionaries are given the power to recruit any non-Security member to their cause, with their objective being to kill all the Heads of Staff. The shuttle would refuse to arrive in this game mode, meaning it could only end if one side or the other was successful. Removed due to being unbalanced as fuck. Revolution was in theory a really great gamemode, but it never quite turned out as well as you would hope: the rounds always turned out to be chaotic as fuck, and more often than not, ended up with a battlefield, and dead assistants and security officers everywhere. Since at the time 60+ player rounds were not uncommon, the revs usually converted most of the crew and quickly killed all of the heads by swarming them. The only real defence was to hide, which made the round drag forever. Game ending conditions:
- If all of the Command Staff die, the Revolution wins. (Head of Personnel, Head of Security, Research Director, Chief Engineer and Captain)
- If all of the Revolution Leaders die, the crew wins.
- Leaving the station zlevel, not being logged in and brigged all count as "Abandoned the station/Abandoned the Cause", in which they are treated as dead.
Deathmatch
Space Station 13: Black Ops 2. One of the few gamemodes that included every person on the server. Everyone would spawn as a death-commando. Last man Standing wins. Removed due to how SS13's horrible amazing combat system is.
Predator
A predator is spawned with the task of collecting X number of skulls as trophies. He is invisible and equipped with armor, thermal vision, an advanced laser gun, and hunting spear. In theory he roams the station and predates. In practice he stands around for five minutes trying to figure out what to do before immediately losing his spear to an assistant and then dying horribly to the first passing crew member with thermals.
Monkey
Came in two flavours: Monkey, and Monkey Survival In Monkey mode, random player(s) where chosen to carry a virus that turned other players into a monkey when bitten.
In Monkey survival, the crew where pitched against super fast, super robust NPC monkeys.
AI Malfunction
Basically, the AI's fucked and the crew has to fix whatever's ailing it. In theory, this is a game mode, but in actuality, this happens every round, so it's more or less redundant.
Restructuring
A horribly drawn-out team death match mode. A Player would be randomly chosen every 5 mins. All other players were tasked with killing this player. If he died or survived for 5 mins, another player was chosen. This continued till 1 player was left.
Alien
Aliens was a game mode where Player controlled Aliens attempted to turn the Station into a hive while killing the crew. The crew would need to work together to slay the aliens and stop them from breeding. Aliens were split into four different job classes: Queen, Engineers, Soldiers and Larvae with each having their own unique strengths and weaknesses. This was discontinued because the Aliens would get themselves killed within seconds, while the crew would know exactly how to fight them.
Waldo
Wally Waldo, who may or may not be a little bit magical, has a very clear defined objective to hide while everyone else must find him. Another person plays Odlaw, and must assist Waldo in achieving his life long dream of not being found. This mode is rare and not in the Secret rotation.