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Comment by Aromasin | Hacker News Reader

Reminds me of a game I used to play called Space Station 13. It's a completely unique game. Imagine a giant game of Among Us, but with the engine complexity of Dwarf Fortress. Most servers are high level roleplay, where each player has a role (doctor, janitor, captain, clown, etcetera) and the rounds play out until chaos ensues (theme changes each round, but it could anything from station terrorists to a wizard causing bedlam). This YouTuber really expresses it better than I ever could: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URJ_qSXruW0

Everyone has their goals to achieve each round, but it's general havoc. The OP animation really channels the feeling of playing the game.

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> This YouTuber really expresses it better than I ever could: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URJ_qSXruW0

From the video:

> You can try taking a painkiller instead, but, it wasn't a painkiller, it was LSD. Having a bad trip? Don't worry, there's a security officer nearby to help! But he can't respond because he was murdered and replaced by a genetically modified monkey wearing his uniform. Hallucinating? Keep calm and focus on what's real. Unfortunately for you, the supermassive black hole expanding towards you is not a hallucination. It is, in fact, very real. _{THE EMERGENCY SHUTTLE HAS BEEN CALLED}_ Welcome to Space Station 13.

Just wow.

SS13 has been remade, SS14 https://spacestation14.io/ Its very playable today, and has a bunch of improvements to the original. Its also open source under an MIT License.

SS13 remakes are like "nuclear fusion" and "year of the Linux desktop"... always announced, never delivered.

Does this one actually have traction?

> SS13 remakes are like "nuclear fusion" and "year of the Linux desktop"... always announced, never delivered.

It's not announced, it is there.

I was more referring to the graveyard listed here:

https://tgstation13.org/wiki/List_of_remakes

However, it seems ss14 has earnt a place on the "not dead yet" portion of the page, so we shall see if it can break the curse of not.

> Reminds me of a game I used to play called Space Station 13. It's a completely unique game. Imagine a giant game of Among Us, but with the engine complexity of Dwarf Fortress.

I rather like games that have a lot of depth to them, especially if they manage to be at least remotely approachable.

For anyone craving a mechanically interesting single player experience, there's Ostranauts, which sees you trying to make a living in space with your own shuttle, space stations to explore and derelicts to salvage. It is mechanically interesting, if a bit unfinished (early access): https://store.steampowered.com/app/1022980/Ostranauts

For something a bit more lively, there is Objects in Space (sadly never quite finished in the first place): https://store.steampowered.com/app/824070/Objects_in_Space/

And for something closer to SS13 that has multiplayer, there is also Barotrauma. In that game, a crew needs to operate a vessel, except that it's a submarine, chaos also ensues: https://store.steampowered.com/app/602960/Barotrauma/

I've never spent too much time in either of the games, but I admire the concepts and hope that eventually we'll get more (finished) projects like that, even if it's a bit of a niche type of game or audience.

SS13 has given me some of the best memories playing games, ever. A playable AI, objectives that each class needs, a few PCs playing sinister characters... it was so. much. fun! My favourite mode was the "Thing" mod, where one player was the "Thing", you could turn into people you killed, but players at the start of the round didn't know which mode it was, so they wouldn't know (until you were found).

Getting access to the AI and rewriting its rules so it killed everyone on the ship or helped you at the expense of others

An atmosphere physics system that caused insane lag spikes but allowed you to make bombs with pretty much anything

Spend a couple of rounds messing with the radiation / gene editing machine to turn people into superhumans

Be a clown (that everyone hates)

Honestly, I spent a summer playing this game and it was marvellous. Even with the horrendous lag that the game suffered from.

It must be about 12 years ago I played this, still one of the best multiplayer games I ever played.

The game Stationeers is basically a variant of space station 13[1]. I had a hard time "getting" stationeers. I was ranting about how the game has very good systems, some of the best systems I have seen in a minecraft-but[2], but the controls are very obtuse almost to the point of being cryptic. Then I watched tex[3] play space station 13. and it clicked. I have never played ss13 and I don't suspect I ever will. but the controls are cryptic the way they are because that is how ss13 controls are. The problem is that nobody is playing it correctly. They are playing it like minecraft where you build a base out of first materials. but ss13 is supposed to be played where you try to survive a shift in an already built, poorly understood, prone to exploding station.

1. A clue is left in the executable name. it's "rocketstation13"

2. it's a genre. you know how rogue-like is a genre. however this one goes. it is like minecraft but...

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrs8rMbNM3I

SS13 is like Eve Online, great fun to read the antics, but a bit of a chore to actually play.

a slightly saner review is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLAHBexJxrE

Both videos are good in different ways, though your link is just a tad clearer ;) for a SS13 noob like me. Thank you!

Haha I've been really vibing to Sseth's content of late. Thought of this video too.

10.46 is just testimony to the kind of chaos you can get in this game.

I love Space Station 13. I even created my own little one-page role-playing game inspired by SS13. You can download it for free here: https://arispen.itch.io/space-station-r4n-d0m

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