transformation

• OK THIS IS GOING TO SOUND WEIRD, BUT STAY WITH ME. I'VE PUT A LOT OF THOUGHT ON HOW TO DO THIS WITHOUT FUCKING UP HOW THE GAME CREATES OUR FURRY HOMUNCULUS CREATURES.

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• How literally everything else handles any form of transformation (NIF, Changeling, that one lavaland knife I doubt you know about) will mostly dna.copy_dna() from the old to the new.

• But the issue is, literally EVERYTHING fucking breaks the second you're using limbs that are entirely incompatible. (Teshari, synths) and the spaceman that pops out becomes a weird ass frankenstein mess.

• That is, unless you force load one set of prefs to the other mob. (Which is a valid and cool option) But overall, to fix the above issue you HAVE TO change their species.

• This is more an illusionary effect and me tricking the game. The base mob is mostly unaffected. You will look like a synth and still bleed red. How will this work?

• /mob/living/carbon/proc/update_body_parts() detects if the mob has this component, then will create the required icon_render_keys based off a separate entity.

• It can't be the source player directly, cause you chop off their head or they put on a hat, it'll mirror exactly to the component holder which is also undesired jank.

• The solution? We still do the whole changeling bullshit to a mob that sits in null space, then have the affected player mirror it.

• If something looks jank, it's because the nullspace dummy we're using for this is not properly mirroring certain icon events. (Hair hiding with hats, gasmasks not clipping with snouts, etc)

• With that, my dear reader, just need to make sure on_transform_limb_icon() properly modifies our nullspace dummy with said event or you add another cached_feature to temporarily change the player's mob.

• TDLR: This whole thing is so you can transform people without changing their species, and for it not to look like shit.

Var Details

dummy

Dummy human sitting in null space

original

Source mob that's transferring.