Space Station 13: An Immersive, Sci-Fi Experience

What's the deal?

Space Station 13 (SS13) is a 2D roleplay-centric game that takes place on a space station and allows basically unlimited creativity. You can select from a bunch of different jobs that each play a role on the station. Be warned: Sometimes, people actually expect you to do shit. As an Engineer, you're expected to keep the Gravitational Singularity (large moving black hole) from destroying the ship, for example. As an AI, you're expected to open doors for appropriate personnel and keep the station from being blown up. This game has a steep learning curve with a large payoff.

Sounds pretty neato, where do I start?

SS13 is a game on the BYOND client. I've not found another amazing game on BYOND, though I honestly haven't looked hard. So first, you're going to want to download BYOND

http://www.byond.com/

Scroll down to "BYOND free download" and go through the setup process. Next, open the BYOND client by clicking your BYOND folder > bin folder > byond.exe (shows as just byond).



Make your account and once it's made, you'll see three tabs. Home tab is self-explanatory, Games tab is where you'll find all your BYOND games, Friends is where you can see a list of your friends and what games you're playing. To add friends, simply click "add" and their name.



So how do I join a game?

First, select your Games tab. Then, on the Games in: dropdown menu, drop down to BYOND RPG and scroll to Space Station 13. You'll want to join a SomethingAwful-hosted Goonstation server: that is, you'll want to join Gibbed #3, Gibbed #4, or Gibbed#5.



Here you'll see three options: Setup Character, Join Game!, and observe. You DON'T want to observe. It's completely pointless. Do not select this option.



Let's start with Setup Character.



Name: Make it something that actually makes sense. For example, "Super Mega King" is a bad name but "Skylar Popcollar" is a good name. Make it an actual plausible name. This can be changed at any time. Do not worry about the R

Gender: Self-explanatory. Guy or girl? Please make your name reflect your gender.

Age: No real importance.

Occupation Choices: Here we go.



You'll see a detailed list of jobs to choose from. Select Assistant if you're new because no one expects you to do anything. Generally, I prefer Research jobs. My usual job choices (you can select three) are Chemist, Scientist, Genetics. These are the jobs you will likely be selected to when you finally join the game. You are not guaranteed any job, it's possible you get a job you didn't want.

Blood type: No importance.

Skin tone: Self-explanatory.

Underwear: Self-explanatory. Keep it on, please.

Hair/Facial/Eyes: Here you can customize your character from a wide color pallet.

Be Syndicate?: The syndicates are the "traitors" of the game modes of SS13. Do not select this if you're a new player, please. It'll just aggravate the rest of the game.

And always save your setup when you're done!

My body is ready

Alright. Let's click Join Game! (this option will be Declare Ready if it's the beginning of the round)



Oh, shit. That's pretty complicated. And it will be. I still don't know how to do everything. This game has an incredibly steep learning curve and requires a bit of time and effort to become decent. Eventually, you'll learn to not blow up the station. If you join mid-game, you'll be in the arrival shuttle (which is where I am now). If you join at the start, you'll be in your job station (Chemists in chemist lab, Scientists in toxins research, Miners in mining station, etc.)

This game is too hard!

The best strategy is to play around with the game a bit and then read the wiki. I repeat: read the wiki.

http://ss13.donglabs.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

http://ss13.donglabs.com/index.php?title=Getting_Started This will cover what I've already covered up until this point. Read this anyway, I probably missed something.

http://ss13.donglabs.com/index.php?title=FAQ READ THIS! This is incredibly important with some great information for newcomers.

http://ss13.donglabs.com/index.php?title=Tips_N_Tricks Some basic tips and tricks. This is the kind of stuff that you can do that's really cool.

http://ss13.donglabs.com/index.php?title=Jobs I use this basically every time I play SS13. There is a limited amount of information that can be found online because in general, the community wants you to find a lot of the things on your own. For example: you won't find many chemistry recipes online. I like it that way. If you have any questions about Jobs that isn't covered here, ask in this topic and one of the UX people who play the game will help you out. Bookmark this page.

What about the station itself?

The map changes every few months. The most recent map is a doughnut with the singularity in the middle.

http://ss13.donglabs.com/index.php?title=File:JellyDonutStation-12-25-10-Annotated.png

There's your map. It won't take long to get used to everything, trust me.

I've read the wikis, I know the station, let's do this

So you've put the time and begun to learn the game. Now the fun can truly begin. There are several UX members who play the game: time for you to play with us! Post your information and I'll add it to the below list

SS13 UX ACCOUNTS

Spoiler:

Gamertag - Account Name (Common In-Game Name(s))
Cry Vengeance - Cry Vengeance (Mr. Vengeance, Despair)
El Mexi Can 915 - ElMexiCan915 (Senor Spicy, A.J)
Garquin - Garquin (Tim Allen, Chuck Green, Isaac Clarke)
Harbinger - Collector General (Harbinger)
KZ Powned - KZ Powned (Captain Kirk)
Meatshield718 - Meatshield718 (N/A)
Slacker Hero - DrunkHulk (Ben Stiller, Bruce Willis)
Super Mega King - Skylar Popcollar (Skylar Popcollar, others may vary)
xI SiL3NTSh0t - XxSilent_ShotxX (SilentShot, DanielC)

Gamertag is the UX name; Account Name is the name to add to your friends list on BYOND; common in-game names are the names that you may see that person as

I still have questions...

By all means, feel free to ask! With SS13, there are no stupid questions. Either post your question or PM myself for some answers.

For all intents and purposes, this is the SS13 general topic.

Username: ElMexiCan915
Names: Senor Spicy, A.J, and random names (I'll make a 3rd name instead of random so you can always know who I am in-game)
Preferred Jobs: Anything but the Captain and Security. I'm a good RP character for jobs like Barman, Janitor, and Chef. 

Username: DrunkHulk
Typical In Game Names: Ben Stiller, Bruce Willis. Mostly Ben Stiller.
Preferred Jobs: Medical Doctor, Geneticist, Scientist, Research Director.

Username: XxSilent_ShotxX
Names: SilentShot, DanielC
Preferred Jobs: Security, Scientist, Miner (i like the spacesuits and jetpacks :D)

Name: Cry Vengeance
Player names: Mr. Vengeance, Despair
Jobs: AI, Security, Head of Security, Captain, Chef

Username: Garquin
Character names: Tim Allen, Chuck Greene,Isaac Clarke
Jobs: Chef,Engineer,miner,Quartermaster.

Can't play on gibbed 3 due to the fact im banned

We were playing and there was a mice infestation aboard the ship. I was security so I went to investigate and this is what I saw.



I managed to kill about 30 with my stun baton but they overwhelmed me and bit me to shreds, you can see my ghost in the picture.

Username : Collector General
In-Game name: Harbinger
Favorite Jobs: Chemistry and Robotics.

By the way, play on the Gibbed servers, they're the only ones that are not made of 90% real lag.

Garquin, Slacker Hero, and I all got Bill Cosby disease and so did the rest of the crew.

I was watching the original video (slacker posted) on youtube and this single comment got me excited to play this game.
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The most idiotic thing happend to me on this game.

I see that there is a "pray" option for one of the actions to preform. So I say " what the hell ", and I click it.

It then asks me to say what i want to say to my diety, so i type " Bow chicka bow wow ", next thing I know

BAM!!!

I'm dead, and a message appears saying " God is dead, all hail satan "

I mean what the hell?!

Is the creator some kind of satanist. I mean he killed my character. Pissed me off.

porterbehling 2 weeks ago
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I cant believe this guy was killed for praying to the wrong god. I so hope I am able to kill people like this in this game

Username : UnknownLife
In-Game name: Pwnisher James, Bosco and random.
Favorite Jobs: Medical Personnal, Genecist, Vice Officer, Barman.

Dexta117 wrote:I was watching the original video (slacker posted) on youtube and this single comment got me excited to play this game.
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The most idiotic thing happend to me on this game.

I see that there is a "pray" option for one of the actions to preform. So I say " what the hell ", and I click it.

It then asks me to say what i want to say to my diety, so i type " Bow chicka bow wow ", next thing I know

BAM!!!

I'm dead, and a message appears saying " God is dead, all hail satan "

I mean what the hell?!

Is the creator some kind of satanist. I mean he killed my character. Pissed me off.

porterbehling 2 weeks ago
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I cant believe this guy was killed for praying to the wrong god. I so hope I am able to kill people like this in this game

Praying actually sends the message to any administrators online, who will respond how they see fit. Seems as though you had a cruel administrator online at the time.