Monster Suggestion: The Doppelganger

[Micro 8=D-ickMan]

This game is fantastic, and I think its biggest strength is its monster variety and their uniqueness. The fun comes from learning to deal with them in different ways.

This is why I hope making new monster suggestions can help the developer(s). We can all brainstorm and support the game’s development this way.

Here is a monster idea I think can work for the game.

Let’s call it the “ Doppelganger .”

Description

This is an indoor monster that can spawn on Intermediate+ moons (Offense, March, Rend, Dine, Titan). It looks like a default Worker (player characters) and follows a random player, pretending to be one of them. It will not make any unique noises, and the main giveaways will be its silence and constant staring at the player It follows.

Spawning Options

There are two ways this monster can spawn.

Starting in Human Form

The first option is to let this monster spawn in a worker form from the beginning. This is a more subtle way to do it and makes it more difficult to notice that there is a fake player. Of course, you can notice that there are 5 of you, instead of 4.

In this scenario, we can make the monster slightly different in appearance from a normal player. For example, the Rank Tag on the chest can say something different or be empty. Or we can make it so that the monster only uses the default spacesuit color; this way, using different color suits can be more practical.

Taking Over a Body

The second option is to let the monster take over the dead body of a player when it is left unattended for a while. This will encourage the players to hurry with body recovery.
Since in this case, the monster will look exactly like the player whose body they took over, the giveaways can be some odd movements (such as occasional twitching, or random gesturing).

As to how the monster will look before taking over the body is up to the developer(s), but it should probably be something very small/unnoticeable.

Aggressive Behavior Options

There are many ways to make this monster act. Here are two examples I think can work.

Harmless – Item Stealing

One option is to make the monster harmless and non-lethal. It can be there to either confuse players or make their lives even harder.

For instance, they can just follow players and take items from the floor. They can take those items farther from the exit in random directions. This way they essentially make the item locations more difficult.

Dangerous – Damaging

The other option is to make them dangerous, by having a specific trigger that makes them attack.

Since they pretend to be a normal worker and follow the player, their trigger can be the voice chat noise. After following a player for a while, they can get agitated by the player talking too much and they attack.

So, to prevent the attack (or make it lose interest), the player needs to stop talking via the voice chat for some time. Thus, they cannot respond to other players and have to find the team/exit in silence.

Conclusion

These are just starting suggestions and a place for us to brainstorm ideas to help with game development.
I am looking forward to hearing your ideas.

Please let's try to minimize the “funny colorful suspicious astronauts” jokes…

[FluffyRug]

good idea. kinda reminders me of the alternates, from the mandela catalogue. would love to see it. been planning on playing this game with some friends soon

[theKing_Tohy]

might do an illustration...

[Tenebrae]

I like the idea of combining the behavioral mechanics.

Have it follow a player and pick loot up not because it seeks this loot out, but because it's mimicking the player it's stalking in an effort to get them to drop their guard so it can then kill them.

This would make it a stalker, like the Bracken, but in a very different way.

Edit:

If you wanted to make this even creepier, you have it take the form of the last person it killed...but it mimics them vocally, meaning the last thing that player said before they were killed can, periodically, be replayed by the Doppelganger mimicking them.

[MMAS]

YES! I would absolutely love if there were a creature that basically acted like ‘The Thing’ I think the Doppelganger shouldn’t even have a dead giveaway other than staying silent. It would be really cool if maybe it acts “normal” at the start but then suddenly gets freaky, like spinning in circles really fast, suddenly running straight down a dark hallway, walking up the wall and on the ceiling, etc. And then it can “reveal” itself by becoming a monstrous version of whatever player it’s shapeshifted into and attack the player.

If it worked that way I can already imagine funny and creepy clips of people just walking and talking to their “friend” when suddenly they start crawling on the walls and ceiling. Or when a 4 player lobby realizes there are 5 of them, it’d be perfect.

[Micro 8=D-ickMan]

Originally posted by Tenebrae:

I like the idea of combining the behavioral mechanics.

Have it follow a player and pick loot up not because it seeks this loot out, but because it's mimicking the player it's stalking in an effort to get them to drop their guard so it can then kill them.

This would make it a stalker, like the Bracken, but in a very different way.

Edit:

If you wanted to make this even creepier, you have it take the form of the last person it killed...but it mimics them vocally, meaning the last thing that player said before they were killed can, periodically, be replayed by the Doppelganger mimicking them.

Them mimicking the last thing people say is going to be funny, considering people mostly scream like a banshee before they die.
We are going to have a monster that yells at you with your friend’s voice before killing you.

[Micro 8=D-ickMan]

Originally posted by MMAS:

YES! I would absolutely love if there were a creature that basically acted like ‘The Thing’ I think the Doppelganger shouldn’t even have a dead giveaway other than staying silent. It would be really cool if maybe it acts “normal” at the start but then suddenly gets freaky, like spinning in circles really fast, suddenly running straight down a dark hallway, walking up the wall and on the ceiling, etc. And then it can “reveal” itself by becoming a monstrous version of whatever player it’s shapeshifted into and attack the player.

If it worked that way I can already imagine funny and creepy clips of people just walking and talking to their “friend” when suddenly they start crawling on the walls and ceiling. Or when a 4 player lobby realizes there are 5 of them, it’d be perfect.

I would love/hate that.
Seeing my friend crawl on a wall would give me a weird mixture of fear, confusion, and amusement.

[tetris]

maybe there could be a possibility where the game gets a random audio clip of the players its killed. it would make it harder to differentiate friend from foe!