Combat
As a crewmember, you can use many objects as Weapons including ranged weapons, melee weapons and even your own fists.
When to use Combat
Whilst combat is frowned on in most situations and murder of your fellow crew and animal pets should be a last resort, there are exceptions.
An Antagonist may have an objective to kill certain crewmembers and isn't punished if they need to slaughter someone who gets in the way of their objective. However, that does not give leeway for a Traitor to go on a killing spree.
A Security Officer may encounter resistance in Syndicate crewmembers and may need to use force to protect the station. Typically non-lethal force is suggested as a first attempt unless the crewmember is exposed as being a Syndicate.
A non-antag crewmember may face situations wherein hostiles threaten them. For example a Salvage Specialist may encounter aggressive space carp or an infestation of spiders/rats may occur in the station. Alternatively, perhaps a Chef is sick of mice eating all their food and kills the nuisance rodent. A Chef can also order crates of docile animals for slaughter purposes.
Combat Mode
A crewmember can enter Combat Mode via the Actions menu on the left-hand side. It is otherwise known as Harm Mode.
When in this mode, most normal interactions no longer work. For example if you try to pick up an object by left clicking on it, you will instead attack it. If you try to open a door by left clicking on it, you will instead attack the door. Right clicking will no longer open the item menu.
When you left click somewhere, you will attack with your equipped item (if any). i.e. this is the item you are holding in your active hand. If this item is not a weapon (e.g. a piece of paper), you will not do anything. If you are holding nothing, you will attack with your fist. If the weapon requires ammo, you will not do anything if there is no available ammo and you may need to first load or cycle the weapon. Ammo can be ordered by a Cargo Technician.
When you right click someone with an empty hand, you will "shove" them, attempting to knock them down. If they are holding a weapon, you will attempt to disarm them. Both these things are good for when you need to get away from a dangerous person, or for when you're cornered.
When you right click while holding a weapon, a little bar will appear below your character, which will slowly fill up while you hold right click. If you left click right when the bar fills to the green area, you will do a strong attack. Strong attacks hit a lot harder than regular attacks, and can hit targets much more easily than regular attacks, but take longer to execute - which means you don't need to spend as much time close enough to your target for them to hit you back.
In general, power attacking is a much safer and more tactical option when you're in an actual fight - I.E. trying to hit something that will try to hit you back. Regular attacking (by just left clicking) will usually kill something faster - assuming you never miss - so it's good for breaking immobile objects, or for dealing with less-mobile dangers like kudzu.
Note that a Zombie starts in Combat Mode but can turn it off to right click on creatures to determine if they are already Zombified or not.
Weapons
A weapon can range from a glass shard, a screwdriver, a shotgun, a knife, a club or even your fists. Damage is dependent on the weapon which you can see if you right click on the item and Examine its Damage. Refer to Weapons for more details.
Ranged Weapon Usage
There are several ranged weapons which can be acquired. Most require some sort of ammo either lethal or non-lethal. If ammo is required, you will first need to ensure the weapon is loaded and if not, load it with ammo. After loading the weapon, you can then put it in your active hand and left click at a target to fire a shot. Note that you cannot shoot diagonally past if a wall is adjacent to you (even if it is a mime wall). After firing, if you try to fire again, it will click and otherwise do nothing. This means you need to cycle to the next round in the ammo clip. More ammo can be acquired from a Cargo Technician.
To summarise:
- Put an empty weapon in your active hand
- Cycle the weapon to prime it
- Load ammo into an empty weapon
- Left click a target to fire at it (refer to Server Rules)
- Cycle the weapon by pressing Z
- Left click a target to fire at it
- Cycle the weapon by pressing Z
Troubleshooting:
- If you attempt to reload the weapon with a new ammo clip and there is unused ammo in the current clip, such will fall to the ground.
If you put ammo into an unprimed weapon and attempt to shoot, the ammo may fall onto the ground unused. Cycle an empty weapon before loading.
