well, hm, let's see now...

sometimes you want to play space station 13 or have been curious about it but something doesn't feel right about the available servers to you

maybe it's too different than it was or what you had heard about, too friendly, too antisocial, too polished, too horney, too full of jerks but like not the fun kind of jerks that you can get up to hijinks with, more the kind of jerks that should get their ass kicked but if you do that you'd be the one getting yelled at

we're also fully cognizent of this game not being appropriate for all ages. this means no minors that you have to be polite about in this farts and drugs and murder game (seriously though this is a social game, 13 year olds don't belong here like they don't belong in GTA Online lobbies, and YET, here we are)

There's a lot of people who played a lot in the past but have since stopped because there's just nowhere for them any more. No server that attempts that vibe because it's not what's cool.

GUESS WHAT: WE THINK IT'S COOL

maybe you want the kind of spark that comes from the attitude of 2012 where half the stuff was done because it was funny and before there was such a split between stick in the mud roleplay and more-or-less silent murderfests by the same people or just by virtue of sensibilities changing in staff and playerbase it's just not at all the thing you originally fell in love with and still think about a lot.

we were there for it! we miss it! we're made up of old head goon players and admins and coders (former and current) BUT we absolutely don't miss a lot of the stuff that was also true at the time. it's thankfully not so common or casual any more.

so: coolstation is about backing way up, cutting the shitty parts out, and then growing back out in another direction

after all, if we simply did roll back to something like ~Goonstation 2012~ we'd miss all kinds of fixes, features, and general improvements, including not having lag that stops the server cold for two minutes when someone does a chaos dunk. this means we have to create our own new things to stand out and not simply be "Goon! but old and busted." genuinely, nobody would want that and neither would we.

Coolstation is the place for people who miss or missed that era and want to have a place to experience it with a fresh feeling. a soft remake via fuzzy memory and vibe that's also completely our own thing with bonus complexity/QoL fixes and additions

plus, seriously, all other codebases out there are /tg/-forked so there's the familiarity and novelty of that and we think that's valuable

On our Goonstation-2021-forked code, we've got:

• Classic no-stamina combat
• Modular guns and parts and ammo
• Multi-Z-level colony map on a desert planet
• This includes:
• Multi-Z-level infrastructure
• Map-specific events
• Interactive ceiling lights
• Slower air leaks
• Not everything is an interruptible 5 second action bar
• smoooooth movement
• Less clungk where it counts
• Logistics is separate from Engineering
• Cargo bay orders from sections, not a huge long list
• Return of Cargo Shuttle
• Medical tweaks and pending overhaul
• Italian Spiderman
• DO NOT LEAVE FOOD ON THE FLOOR
• five second rule is applied and enforced
• Emphasis on SS13's ROBUST systems and interactions
• Quality of Life focus that isn't 'your job does itself for you'
• Hellburns I think??? Pretty sure those work
• if they don't we'll make them work
• New setting, new timeline, new adventure zones
• Medical Cigarettes
• No earth or solar system
• Kick Officer Beepsky like the football
• Emotes overhauled
• You can now flip off securitrons, buddies, stoats, crabs
• Broadcasts of television and radio shows
• Including cut-ins for emergency alerts
• Different philosophy for security's role
• The Crew, Antagonists, and Security: STRIFE TRIAD
• Nobody is friends, but enemies/threats take priority
• More freedom in character creation
• hair on cows since like 2022
• being a cat is free of charge
• lizards don't eat a shitload of penalties
• what a fucking concept
• Meet Goku!
• Playable ferrets
• Premium incredible realistic Amusing Duck Bump'n'Go physics where the duck moves forward until it hits an obstacle and then turns around and moves in another direction
• camembert burger erupts when u take a bite

basically

• more crime
• more fights
• more luck
• more laughs
• more sloppy messes
• no slurs
• celebrating complicated systems
• multiplayer dwarf fortress in space was always a unique selling point
• embrace it
• no more amogus minigame jobs
• high roleplay ceiling
• encouraged
• keeps things running
• work and departments matter
• no more fully self-sufficient islands and abundance
• makes bits funnier
• slacking requires slack and free time
• you can be funny while also doing your job! it's possible! try it!!!!
• low roleplay floor
• this is a game about having fun
• you don't have to justify and monologue how you're a bad guy for five minutes before being allowed to shoot a mans
• but you are also not the first person to be a doctor except instead of treating injuries you're stealing shoes and that's the whole gimmick you're doing
• (seriously make some effort and be social, we're all human players here)