Design document for 'The Creature' antagonist

src/SUMMARY.md

@@ -209,6 +209,7 @@ Space Station 14
 		- [Turf War](en/space-station-14/round-flow/proposals/turf-war.md)
 		- [Changeling](en/space-station-14/round-flow/proposals/changeling.md)
 		- [Paradox Clone](en/space-station-14/round-flow/proposals/paradox-clone.md)
+  		- [The Creature](en/space-station-14/round-flow/proposals/the-creature.md)
 		- [Revolutionaries Rework](en/space-station-14/round-flow/proposals/revolutionaries-codeword-rework.md)
 		- [Tourists](en/space-station-14/round-flow/proposals/tourists.md)
 		- [Station Ecology](en/space-station-14/round-flow/proposals/station-ecosystem.md)

src/en/space-station-14/round-flow/proposals/the-creature.md

@@ -0,0 +1,137 @@
+# The Creature
+**Type:** Midround Solo Antagonist (Ghost Role)
+**Status:** Draft
+
+---
+
+## Summary
+
+A stealth-based predator that hunts crew and department pets from maintenance tunnels. Fills a gap in the current Wizden midround roster, while the ninja does use stealth, its not used in the same way as this proposed antag.
+**Gameplay identity:** Hit-and-fade. Sting a target, drain blood, retreat before crew can respond. Punishes reckless play; rewards map knowledge and patience.
+
+---
+
+## Design Goals
+
+- Make maintenance feel dangerous again — maint is currently treated as a safe loot corridor for passengers
+- Add a stealth archetype currently absent from upstream midround pool
+- Increase midround variety
+- Generate emergent crew behavior (buddy system, patrols, paranoia) without admin involvement
+
+---
+
+## Objectives
+
+| Objective | Description |
+|---|---|
+| **Eat 3 department pets** | Must consume Ian, Poly, Momo, or other map-assigned pets. Forces The Creature to leave deep maint and enter department areas. |
+| **Consume X units of blood** | Tracked via Drink Blood ability, which can be utilized in the future for vampire antag. Scales with player count at spawn time. Requires repeated engagement across the round. |
+| ** Kill x crew or specific crew** | Gives the creature a reason to fight other players, not just static NPCs. |
+| **Survive** | Standard survival objective. Reinforces the retreat-and-hide loop. Gives Security a valid win condition. |
+
+> **Pet edge case:** If a map has fewer than 3 pets, the objective count adjusts to match available pets. A fallback target (e.g. station mice) may be needed — TBD.
+
+---
+
+## Abilities
+
+| Ability | Description | Design Purpose |
+|---|---|---|
+| **Passive Stealth** | Visibility float from fully invisible (at rest) to fully visible (active). Moving, attacking, and using abilities increase visibility; each tick it decays back toward invisible. | Core identity. Rewards patience, punishes recklessness. |
+| **Drink Blood** | Channeled action on an adjacent target. Drains blood, heals The Creature, and increments the blood objective counter. Requires standing still for the channel duration. | Sustain loop tied to objective. Creates a vulnerability window during use. heals |
+| **Sting** | Short-range attack that stuns the target for a set duration. Moderate to long cooldown. | Setup tool for Drink Blood. Creates the Sting → Drink → Retreat sequence. |
+| **Attack** | Standard melee. No wide-swing. Applies a brief stagger. | Combat fallback if cornered. No wide-swing discourages open-hallway fighting. |
+| **Eat** | Action option. consumes valid animals - crew are blacklisted, similar to dragon | Completing eat pet objective |
+| **Speed** | Faster than standard crew. | Enables disengagement. The Creature should be able to choose to flee a bad fight. |
+| **Door Pry** | Can force doors open at a significantly faster rate than crew with a crowbar. Produces a sound cue. | Allows station navigation without access cards. Sound cue is a discoverability breadcrumb. |
+| **Body Drag** | Can drag incapacitated or dead crew with reduced speed penalty. | Repositioning for safelu drinking blood. Evidence removal. Horror moment generator. |
+| **Darksight** | Has a client sided point light. | Navigating dark areas. |
+
+---
+
+## Stealth Visibility Detail
+
+Visibility is a float with a minimum (fully invisible) and maximum (fully visible). Thresholds determine visual state, uses existing steath and stealthOnMove component / systems.
+
+Actions that raise visibility: moving (already implemented). Possibly attacking (needs implementation) or other actions.
+Visibility decays passively each game tick while The Creature is not acting.
+
+Bonus - increased stealth recovery in darkness, if code complexity permits.
+
+All specific float values, thresholds, increment amounts, and decay rates are TBD pending playtesting.
+
+---
+
+## Upgrade System (BONUS)
+
+Blood consumed via Drink Blood accumulates in a persistent pool. Between hunts, The Creature can spend blood from this pool to purchase upgrades from a radial menu (similar to the Ninja's UI). This creates a meaningful decision loop: spend blood on upgrades now, or bank it toward the blood objective.
+
+Each upgrade has three ranks (+1, +2, +3). Purchasing rank 2 requires rank 1, and so on. Each rank costs progressively more blood. All specific blood costs are TBD.
+
+### Upgrade Tree
+
+| Upgrade | +1 | +2 | +3 |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| **Predator's Strike** *(Attack damage)* | Minor damage increase | Moderate damage increase | High damage increase; |
+| **Quickness** *(Movement speed)* | Slight speed increase | Moderate speed increase | Moderate speed increase again |
+| **Shadow** *(Stealth — faster decay rate)* | Faster passive visibility decay | Significantly faster decay | Near-instant decay |
+| **Venom** *(Sting — stun duration)* | Longer stun | Longer stun | Longer stun |
+| **Ravenous** *(Drink Blood — channel speed & heal)* | Faster channel | Faster channel | Fastest channel |
+| **Pry Mastery** *(Door Pry speed)* | Faster pry | Significantly faster pry | Near-instant pry; no longer produces a sound cue |
+| **Iron Hide** *(Damage resistance)* | Minor resistance to all damage | Moderate resistance | High resistance; The Creature can drag bodies at full speed |
+
+### Design Notes
+
+- No upgrade should push any single stat into "unkillable" territory. The intent is to broaden The Creature's options, not create a mandatory optimal path.
+- Balance to be determined during playtesting - current values at 500 health, 300 blood, crit at 400.
+
+---
+
+## Intended Round Flow
+
+1. **Early:** Spawns in deep maint fully invisible. Player scouts pet locations, camera positions, etc. No pressure to engage immediately.
+2. **Mid:** Begins hunting. Isolated crew in maint are prime targets. Pet kills leave discoverable evidence (blood decal, sound cue). Crew survivors can report sightings.
+3. **Late:** Crew is now aware. Security patrols maint; AI watches cameras. The Creature must adapt routes or accept higher-risk department incursions. If objectives are done, it hides and waits for round end.
+
+---
+
+## Crew Counterplay
+
+**Individual:** Don't go into maint alone. Bring a weapon — a stun baton can interrupt a Drink Blood channel. Flashlights help in dark maint sections.
+
+**Security:** Patrol maint, respond to missing persons/pet reports, arm crew if threat level warrants.
+
+**AI:** Monitor maint cameras for stealth shimmer or door pry cues. Bolt doors to restrict movement.
+
+**Medical:** Fast treatment of blood loss victims prevents death from repeated taps.
+
+**Engineering/Atmos:** Seal maint hatches to restrict The Creature's movement network.
+
+---
+
+## Design Pillar Alignment
+
+| Pillar | How The Creature satisfies it |
+|---|---|
+| **Just a Spark** | Cannot end rounds alone. Crew reaction (lockdowns, panic, overreaction) generates most of the chaos. |
+| **Escalation** | Each successful hunt raises tension and crew awareness. Blood objective scales with pop. |
+| **Full-Time Job** | Stealth degrades when inactive in open areas; objectives require active predation. No path to victory through crew-blending or passivity. |
+| **Back and Forth** | Must expose itself to attack when striking. Cannot stay aggressive indefinitely — must retreat and wait. |
+| **Discoverability** | Leaves evidence: missing pets, blood trails, pried doors, shimmer sightings from survivors. |
+
+---
+
+## What This Is Not
+
+- **Not a murderboner.** Sustained combat breaks stealth; Security can coordinate to kill it. Stealth takes time to regenerate, meaning prolonged or agressive fights are severely punished.
+- **Not a station destroying antag.** No station-wide threats, no infrastructure attacks, no explosives, no nuke interaction. Can still be a major threat if played well or ignored.
+- **Not a conversion antag.** Victims do not become allies or infected.
+- **Not an NPC.** Ghost role only — human unpredictability is the point.
+
+---
+
+## Open Questions
+
+- **Spawn rate:** Suggest starting comparable to Space Ninja or Revenant and adjusting from playtesting.
+- **Appearance:** Visual design unspecified. requires new sprite(s) and sfx, stealth handled by existing code.
+- **Multi-antag interaction:** Should spawn weight be reduced when a major roundstart antag is already present?