We've had first powers PR, what about second powers PR? (Mostly housekeeping systems with 4 new powers)

[TheOneAndOnlyCreeperJoe]

About The Pull Request

Powers is in and there are a few things that need attention still. The UI is catastrophic, there are some underlying faults that I do not want to have blossom in a "its just how we do things", and in general I want powers to be left in a state where the fundamentals are good enough to just not need to touch again.

So we did the following:

• The UI has been overhauled to a much, cleaner and sleeker look. The front-end now has cool, stylized buttons, each of which redirects to a general page that all the powers re-use with their own style added, or to the special "Your Powers" page which renders all of your personal powers. Adds a whole bunch of new images used by this UI, which basically have a pure-white non-aliased aesthetic (and should be easy to mimmick in the future). This UI also displays icons of powers, and powers are now able to be assigned menu_icon and menu_icon_state to pass these along in case they don't have an action_path to draw from (or if overriding is necessary).
• The middleware has been overhauled to use constant data. I am going to proclaim that I am not entirely sure if I did it 100% right but as far as I gleamed we have minimized the data we communicate by a large measure. The only non-constant data being communicated is augmented's snowflaking with arm augments.
• Powers now have bitflags that determine their magic types. This is displayed in icons next to the learn button and informs someone if their power is magical (and detectable to things that detect magic) and that it may be prone to anti-magics of that type, as well as dispels.
• Powers now have designated color defines and most powers that used these colors (or adjacent ones) now use these defines. The new UIs also use these defines (except not really cause TGUI can't read them so instead we just hardcode them in a cofig file) and they have gotten new background icons that match these colors.
• Aberrant is now split into twain: Aberrant and Imbued. Aberrant is now squarely the physical body transformations/changes subtype. Meanwhile Imbued now inherits anomalous and is the definitive "you passively are magical/supernatural and are basically a SCP" genre. This makes aberrant no longer a kitchen-sink. Aberrant also now has its hunger mechanics standardized.
• Imbued in addition to inheriting anomalous now has Enchanted. It has you positively interact with other magic systems such as reducing cooldowns, allows you to detect other magic users and has a gimmicky "anything you throw returns to you" power. Summoned has also been moved here. More specifically:
  • Enchanted: Makes cooldown pass 20% faster, cool effect for root. Only affects magical powers and spells (as in the type)
  • Alcohol is Mana: Makes the above enchanted up to 500% better depending on how drunk you are. This is specifically the degree of drunkenness, not how much alcohol is in your bloodstream.
  • Returning Throws: Anything you throw will not only return to you but seek you out. Throw behavior is othrewise unchanged, so it can be caught, embedded or get stuck.
  • Magic Sight: Can be activated to show an aura around mobs that confirms if they are magical or not (either have magical powers or can cast spells). If you share at least 1 powers path, they appear in a different color instead. No visual tell except your eyes temporarily changing color.
• Irregular is added to Mortal. False Power and Hidden Power have been moved there and is reserved for a category of "neat advantages that aren't people being powerful". This path ignores the 2-path restriction.
• Fixes a few leftover bugs such as Deflect going on cooldown too early and Presti being unclicked after use.
• Some balance stuff: Inexorable is now a power instead of being part of genemodded due to the philosophy of no strong power in quirks. Deflect has been made less conservative power wise.

Why It's Good For The Game

Fundamentals! These are most of the common issues received as either feedback or that I have personally observed and have moved to address before our current system became increasingly reliant on them:

• The UI was just plain terrible. Everyone agrees; its the old language menu which is even bad for languages!
• The middleware was bad as it communicated too much info with every change. Whenever you learn or forgot anything it basically acquired and send any and all powers data fresh, which was bad. This basically only sends constant data, and in fact only relevant constant data, helping optimization a ton.
• Power bitflags opens up more design options since we now definitively know what powers are magical (as opposed it being only able to be arbitrarily infered by a power's action having the resonant trait) and what type of magic.
• Power colors is just cool consistent styling.
• Aberrant being a kitchen-sink was a thematic failure that came from early development. With fun ideas such as "being able to be summoned by saying X" or "being immune to magic" needing a home, this became that home, even if it was stretching the flavor definition. With this, Aberrant has its own more squarely rooted theme of resonant-induced physical mutation.
• Meanwhile Imbued has a stand-alone identity of people infused and acting magical/supernatural. Whilst this is technically the "new" miscellaneous section, it has an identity strong enough that it doesn't feel out of place. The new powers that came with Enchanted are there to give a starting foot in the door for the theme and help set guides on what we want in there.
• Irregular is based off of common feedback that the security record powers would be really neat to have available without the path restriction. Irregular ignores the 2-path restriction, and its sole goal is to faciliate these generalist 'situations/powers' that don't belong in quirks and still warrant a power cost, with the idea that they are only belonging there if they enhance roleplay/character building options and don't belong elsewhere.

Testing Evidence

Screenshots!

Changelog

🆑TheOneAndOnlyCreeperJoe
add: New UI for Powers that actually looks robust!
add: Powers now have color defines; in essence consistent color associations. This is reflected in the UI and the action button colors.
add: Added Imbued under Resonant! It is now the home of Anomalous and Enchanted. Flavored around being inherently magical or supernatural, this category has a myriad of ways to interact with existing magic systems and act quirky at the same time.
add: Added Irregular under Mortal! It is now the home of False- and Hidden Power. The path is meant for niché powers that don't justify being secluded to a specific path. Irregular ignores the 2 path restriction
del: Powers can no longer be used when their user is in inside containers (mechs, closets, etc).
balance: Anomalous has been split away from Aberrant into the new Imbued path.
balance: Deflect has less conservative upkeep and stamina costs.
balance: Inexorable has been moved away from Quirks and into Aberrant (Monstrous). Costs 5 points.
balance: Telekinesis can no longer levitate mechs.
balance: Species with TRAIT_NOHUNGER (Hemophage, Holosynth) also get a 35% slower bleed-out rate to offset the fact that they do not regenerate blood.
refactor: Backend middleware was improved for Powers, no longer sending unnecessary amounts of data.
refactor: Powers now store the type of magic they do which can be exploited by various other powers.
refactor: Power actions now inherit their antimagic flags from power's magic flags. Can still be overriden per usual.
fix: Fixes the mental shielding implant to not consume quality when hit with magic that has 0 charge_cost
fix: Fixed a bug where the cultivator UI usurped the theologist UI if it was added after the theologist UI.
fix: Reality Anchors now check off of archetype instead of path for moodlets, future-proofing them.
fix: Deflect now only goes on cooldown after deactivation, not on activation. Respects the incapacitate var.
fix: Prestidigitation is no longer unselected after use.
fix: Martial Artist now lists its numerical value.
fix: Riftwalker sometimes did not show rifts to a mob until they logged out and back in again.
fix: Durathread robes now are properly included in the affinity file and thaumaturgic supplies.
fix: Fixes a bug with Manipulate not nesting properly in the UI.
fix: Fixes a bug with Hidden Powers not HIDING THE POWERS WTF- (it didn't hide powers that came after the Power was added).

/:cl:

[00-Steven]

only looked down to radiosynthesis so far

[00-Steven]

honestly losing track of what still needs to be looked at with the amount of minor changes in here since the last time, but past all this should be fine

[BasilTamaya]

just some things i noticed when going thru the UI and the PR itself, sorry if it seems weird, i wanted to help out a bit tho

[BasilTamaya]

Suggested change

mechanics_text = "Augmented grants you augments at round-start, but is is beholden to a fair few restrictions and drawbacks; you can only have one augment per body part, and you are susceptible to EMPs, disabling your augments and possibly having adverse side-effects.\n\nA subcategory of powers exists within Augmented; Premium Augments. These are commercialized and specialized augments made out of propieretary parts, making them unable to be built on the station. These possess a quality meter, which dictates how much mileage you get out of your Premium Augments. The higher the percentage, the stronger their effects. Through robotic surgery, these can be maintained and refurbished, restoring their quality. Once quality reaches 0%, you are required to refurbish it for it to be functional.\nWhether you wish to burn through your augments and make repeat roboticist visits, or try to be more diligent with it, is up to you. Keep in mind as well; your powers can be physically stolen!"

mechanics_text = "Augmented grants you augments at round-start, but is is beholden to a fair few restrictions and drawbacks; you can only have one augment per body part, and you are susceptible to EMPs, disabling your augments and possibly having adverse side-effects.\n\nA subcategory of powers exists within Augmented; Premium Augments. These are commercialized and specialized augments made out of proprietary parts, making them unable to be built on the station. These possess a quality meter, which dictates how much mileage you get out of your Premium Augments. The higher the percentage, the stronger their effects. Through robotic surgery, these can be maintained and refurbished, restoring their quality. Once quality reaches 0%, you are required to refurbish it for it to be functional.\nWhether you wish to burn through your augments and make frequent visits to robotics, or try to be more diligent with it, is up to you. Keep in mind as well; your powers can be physically stolen!"

just some spelling stuff and a suggestion that's more of a preference really

[BasilTamaya]

Suggested change

mechanics_text = "Warfighter, as the name implies, focuses almost exclusively on combat. It is split into three distinct categories, which are not mutually exclusive.\n\nCommander, which applies defensive buffs to targets through verbal or non-verbal command. The efficiency of these powers scales with whether the target is in your department and if you are a leadership role.\n\nEquipment Specialist, which specializes in using specific equipment in better ways. These usually require a specific type of item to get their mileage out of it, but some are more universally applicable than others, such as dual-wielding.\n\nMartial Artist, which powers up your unarmed prowess and grants you better strikes, access to martial arts and tackling."

mechanics_text = "Warfighter, as the name implies, focuses almost exclusively on combat. It is split into three distinct categories, which are not mutually exclusive.\n\nCommander, which applies defensive buffs to targets through verbal or non-verbal command. The efficiency of these powers scales with whether the target is in your department and if you are in a leadership role.\n\nEquipment Specialist, which specializes in using specific equipment in better ways. These usually require a specific type of item to get their mileage out of it, but some are more universally applicable than others, such as dual-wielding.\n\nMartial Artist, which powers up your unarmed prowess and grants you better strikes, access to martial arts and tackling."

minor grammar thing, also might look better if instead it was written like, "The efficiency of these powers scales with whether the target is in your department and if you are in a Commanding Officer role," for the sake of specificity, since commanding officer really refers to all head of staff positions including the captain, and fits the game terminology a bit more (which helps with game knowledge, as silly as my suggestion might seem even if others know what you mean, if that makes sense)

[BasilTamaya]

Suggested change

	overview_text = "Practical combat skills, tried, tested and trained for milennia before magic ever reared its head. They may throw fireballs: but what good are their feats of magic if they're already tackled and restrained to the ground?"
	overview_text = "Practical combat skills, tried, tested and trained for millennia before magic ever reared its head. They may throw fireballs: but what good are their feats of magic if they're already tackled and restrained to the ground?"

spelling

[BasilTamaya]

Suggested change

	\n Creating anything using Web Crafter causes varying amount of hunger, and you cannot use it if you are starving.\
	\n Creating anything using Web Crafter causes a varying amount of hunger, and you cannot use it if you are starving.\

grammar

[BasilTamaya]

Suggested change

mechanics_text = "Aberrant specializes in adjusting their physical qualities to mimmick various other creatures, granting them unique physical advantages, both big and small.\n\nNearly all your abilities impact your hunger, increasing it with their use. If you have an alternative stomach, such as by being an Ethereal, it will deduct that stomach's satiety equivelant instead. Make sure to match your strength with a voracious apetite, as nearly all your powers cannot be activated while starving (and passive powers will stop functioning then). Your powers are sometimes non-magical.\n\nBeastial; people who have the trait and qualities of animals. Whether being able to shift into one, or mimmicking their biological traits, they wield these along with their existing biology to enhance their capabilities. Most powers belonging to Beastial are oriented towards utility, rather than raw offensive force.\n\nAberrant; whose traits are not of animals, but of monsters. The ability to regenerate any wounds, to grow blades for arms. The qualities of monsters that are often the tail of rumor and folk-lore. They often resist any and all harm cast upon them; and often are the truly unstopable monsters people think about. Aberrant focuses on strong combat prowress, both in high defense and offense."

mechanics_text = "Aberrant specializes in adjusting their physical qualities to mimic various other creatures, granting them unique physical advantages, both big and small.\n\nNearly all your abilities impact your hunger, increasing it with their use. If you have an alternative stomach, such as by being an Ethereal, it will deduct that stomach's satiety equivalent instead. Make sure to match your strength with a voracious appetite, as nearly all your powers cannot be activated while starving (and passive powers will stop functioning then). Your powers are sometimes non-magical.\n\nBestial; people who have the trait and qualities of animals. Whether being able to shift into one, or mimicking their biological traits, they wield these along with their existing biology to enhance their capabilities. Most powers belonging to Bestial are oriented towards utility, rather than raw offensive force.\n\nAberrant; whose traits are not of animals, but of monsters. The ability to regenerate any wounds, to grow blades for arms. The qualities of monsters that are often the tail of rumor and folk-lore. They often resist any and all harm cast upon them; and often are the truly unstoppable monsters people think about. Aberrant focuses on strong combat prowess, both in high defense and offense."

it isn't highlighting, but for things resembling of a beast, is "bestial" instead of Beastial