Space Station 13
By: Tolth


Overview
Space Station 13 was written for BYOND. Like many BYOND games, it is two dimensional with a top down view and runs terribly. It uses tile-based movement. Space Station 13 (or SS13 for short) starts you on a space station orbiting a very peculiar gaseous planet in a binary star system. Each round type is centred around a specific type of disaster, ranging from a meteor shower to a traitor within the crew. The game is constantly being developed, so new modes are added all the time!

Objectives
The primary objective in most modes of Space Station 13 is survival. You must try to stay alive long enough to escape on the evacuation shuttle. This doesn't mean you should immediately rush to the escape dock and wall yourself in; half the fun is in trying to keep the station running for as long as possible. Exactly how you do this is up to you and your assigned job.

Modes


Blob- A deadly mutagenous virus has been released and the crew must fight a green mass for control of the station. The blob spreads quickly, and only the sacred welder can fight it back! (Unless it spawns in the engine and dies instantly.)

PROTIP: USE A WELDER


Traitor - In traitor mode there is a traitor aboard the space station!!! The traitor is assigned a random objective, from escaping alone to stealing the captain's jumpsuit. The objective of everyone else is to stop the traitor and survive!

PROTIP: THE TRAITOR SPAWNS WITH A RADIO THAT IS THE BEST WAY TO IDENTIFY HIM IF CAPTURED.

Meteor – In Meteor, the station is threatened by a meteor shower. The objective is to do your best to repair and maintain the station, and eventually escape.

PROTIP: THE METEORS CANNOT SEE YOU IF YOU LIE DOWN.


Monkey – In Monkey mode a deadly mutagenous virus has been released and the crew must fight small underdeveloped primates for control of the station. The monkey's bite is deadly, and anyone bitten will soon join the primate horde.

PROTIP: ELECTRIC GRILLES ARE PRETTY DANGEROUS.


Nuclear- A crack team of Syndicate operatives have assaulted the station in order to gather a nuclear activation key. If found, the team will detonate a NUCLEAR BOMB and the station will be destroyed! The team must escape with the nuclear activation key while fighting off the syndicate.

PROTIP: IF YOU KILL A MEMBER OF THE SYNDICATE STEAL HIS STUFF.


Getting around
The interface for Space Station 13 is largely click driven. To use something, you will almost always click or double click.


Getting Started (A Quick jump-start guide to get into the game)

Select your preferences using the character setup command and then use ready to enter the game.

If you do this after the game has started you will spawn as an assistant; otherwise, a vague guide to the jobs you may choose follows.


Assistant

You'll spawn as this if you enter after a game has started. Assistants have a very low-access ID card, and really nothing else. They don't however have any duties, so this can be a pretty good way to learn the layout of the station if you join midway through a round. It's really not worth choosing this, though.

Atmospheric Technician

This involves looking after the atmospheric systems on the station, as you can probably guess. In theory, you'll be checking the air composition of the station with an analyzer and making sure that it's not going to kill people. In reality, you'll be cleaning up the constant gas spills caused by griefers and the traitor via use of the pipe filters in the maintenance tunnel (which are pretty self-explanatory) and the portable filters that are around the station and in Atmospheric Storage. This is probably the easiest job for a new player, so jump in as this and getting a feel for the station layout and the basic workings of the game before you try anything else.

Medical Doctor

Pretty much self explanatory. Grab a Medkit, and either patrol the station treating the gassed/beaten crewmembers who will be lying around within 20 minutes of any game starting or stay in Medical and heal the people who get dragged in. More advanced medical is explained in weasello's guide below.

Station Engineer

This can be one of the more technical jobs, but it doesn't take a huge amount of time to learn. Basically, the Engineers handle the engine itself (which involves keeping it fed with plasma, igniting it, and so on.) and the repair of the station. Weasello's stuff has a reasonably good guide to the basics of this, and you should be able to work the rest out by jumping on one of the empty servers and tinkering about for twenty minutes or so. This isn't a bad place to start, but messing up with the engines can kill every single person on the station so be fucking careful.

Security Officer
Open your locker, grab a stun baton and then patrol the station and hit people. That's it.
PROTIP: KILLING PEOPLE OR BEING A DICK WILL GET YOU BANNED


Toxin Researcher
Toxin researchers are essentially the bombmakers. Weasello's guide has a reasonably complex explanation of what you're supposed to do here, but basically you'll be heating plasma and assembling bomb circuitry. Security and the AI will almost certainly be keeping a close eye on you if you choose to do this, so I'd you play around a bit with Atmos and get some experience before trying this.

Forensic Technician
Seriously, don't bother with this. It's arguably the most boring job of all, and can be one of the most annoying to get to grips with. Forensic Techs take fingerprints from people and objects and check them against their records. That's pretty much it. With the relatively short length of games on the goon server, this isn't really worth doing in itself, as any security man can be a Forensic Tech if needed.

Genetic Researcher
This is pretty much the most complex job on the station. Don't touch this until you've played for a while. Genetic researchers can directly edit the DNA of other players and monkeys, and as such can bring people back to life, change their skin colour, or turn a human into a monkey or vice versa. It's all far too complex and annoying to be worth typing out here. There's probably a more complex guide for this around, go find it if you REALLY want to do this.

Chaplain
AARHGFHGHGH I FUCKING LOVE TO PRAY

Head of Research.

The Head of Research essentially administers Medical and Toxins research and has an ID-card with quite high access. This isn't really a good choice at all for a new player as it implies a degree of experience with the game. Practically, you'll be helping out Toxins and Medical and occasionally being attacked for your ID card.

Head of Personnel
This one really is only for players with a little bit of experience. The Head of Personnel is in charge of Security and managers the positions of the people on the station; they have access to the personnel records and can edit the ID cards and thus positions of crewmembers as they wish. They also start next to a locker which contains a laser pistol, which can be useful for a traitor or in self defense. Traitors will often target the HoP for his ID card and special equipment, as well.

AI
Don't do this. It carries a huge amount of power as well as massive limitations, as the AI is bound by Asimov's laws. The AI can control any of the electrical systems on the station, including the air supply, engine blast doors and power. Making a stupid mistake as the AI will very possibly kill several people, so stay away from this until you have a little bit of experience with the game.

Captain
Self explanatory. An all-access ID card, total power over the crew, guns and a personal teleporter. ABSOLUTELY DO NOT DO THIS UNTIL YOU HAVE SOME EXPERIENCE WITH THE GAME OR YOU WILL PISS OFF OTHER PLAYERS.



Movement
Movement on SS13 is only in the 4 cardinal directions. The diagonal directions throw/drop items, switch hand/modes. If you move into a dense object you first try to push it. Not all items can be pushed. You can also right click on an object and select 'pull' and then every movement you make will ttempt to drag that object behind you. If you wish to stop pulling you must go onto your on-screen display and find the object with a person in a box. Click on it and you will stop pulling. If you ever desire to make sure of which direction you are facing use .center and then try to move what direction you want to face.
'Equipping'
You 'equip' items in SS13 by picking them up. In order to pick an item up all you must do is attack it with a free hand. Now you hae two hands. Which hand is being used is indicated by the blue button in the lower-left area of your HUD. You can change hands by clicking the hand button or pressing the .northeast macro. You can then also then transfer that item to another part of your body. In order to do this you just attack the green box (or blue storage box) on your hud that you would like to move it to. In order to 'unequip' a equipped item that is not in your hand. Get a free hand and attack the item. Then in order to drop an item in your hand (and make it a free hand again) click the drop button (or throw to throw the item wherever you are facing).
Talking
Talking on SS13 is still via the say verb so the normal say speech bubble on the command line will still work. Please note however that you can whisper. More on this in the items selection under radio, intercoms, and headsets. There are a lot of emotes that are accessed by preceding your text with a '*'. To view a list of available emotes for your character use the type '*help' into the say menu. To speak via your headset use a semicolon after say “.
Taking Items/Giving Items
You can take items from people by dragging their mob onto your mob. A screen will pop up. From this screen you can select an object to remove from them. If you select a 'Nothing' slot then you will attempt to equip that slot with the object you are holding.


Death
If you are dead then you can use the watch verb to look through the eyes of another mob. Depending on circumstances you can use abandon mob to restart (leaving that box blank gives you a random name). A dead person hears everything that is said but might not hear all attack messages.



AND NOW

SS13 DECLASSIFIED BY WEASELLO


SECTION NUMBER A: Straight facts, no flourishes, a lot of details missing. A good reference section to have open when the game is running.

PARTITION THE TWICE: Newb guide, written in full sentance form with screenshots. Tedious for the experienced, hand-holding cradle-bearing for those just born. This section should totally be read in order as later lessons depend on earlier ones.

SECRET SECTION TROIS: Advanced guides. Not quite bullet-point and more conversational, but not tedious like the newb guide either.