Guide to genetics: Difference between revisions

  |text=Welcome to genetics, brother! Are you feeling good? You SHOULD feel good! You are now like unto a tiny god! Are you prepared to be what you were born to be? Are you ready to save the station (or totally fuck it up)?

Chin up, buddy. It's not that hard. But before you start grabbing those monkeys from the pen, you should know the basics.

  |image=[[File:Geneticist.png|50px|right]]

The first thing you're going to see is that our department has two rooms. The first, the one you walk into as you enter from medbay, is the Cloning room. It has only one Cloning Console, one DNA Modifier, and one Cloning Pod. More on this later.

The second room is the one where you're going to spend the most of your time. This is where things get done, where people go to become hulking supermutants, where you are going to do. Your. Job. This room has two DNA Modifiers and two DNA Modifier Access Consoles, along with two diskette boxes and a few lockers. The medicine locker has a syringe box and anti-toxin bottles. This is quite useful, as any tampering with genetic code gives Toxin damage. The bio-hazard locker has pretty much what you expect it to have - a bio suit and bio hood. Useful if a disease breaks out. The diskettes are also extremely useful, as we will see later.

First of all, you have to know that, for all things cloning, the CMO has a final say. He is your boss on this side of genetics. If he tells you to clone someone and not some other guy, you do it. The only person with higher say than him on these matters is the Captain.

Well, it's quite simple! What you have to do first is make sure the person is stripped. This is important - abiotic items are not accepted in the DNA Modifier.

Now, just put a grab on him/her and stuff that puppy up in the DNA Modifier. If you want to remove someone from a DNA modifier, right-click it as you're next to it, and then select Eject. Unless the modifier is locked, the person/monkey inside is going to pop right out.

After the modifier is already occupied, interact with the console. You will see a few things. Now, the most important is the first. Click Scan to see if the person inside is actually not an empty husk! If there is no ghost inside the corpse, you will get a "Mental interface failure!" message, and you will not be able to clone that person. If that happens, just "speak" a few times (ghosts can hear globally). Attempting to scan their body will notify them via the chat log. If they still do not respond, however, take the corpse to the morgue and be done with it.

If there IS a ghost in that corpse, however, you will get a successful scan message. That means you now have that person's cloning data saved. You can use that at any time. But, after it's used, it's erased from the records. The only way you can save a person's genetic data is with a "Cloning Diskette", which is found in the DNA Modification room.

After you actually have DNA data from a person, click Check Records, and then select the person who you want to have cloned. You will see a list of their UI+UE and their SEs, which are quite irrelevant. Click Clone. You will notice that the Cloning Pod is now fully active, with a shadow inside. That is the new body. You can now place the old corpse in the morgue. You don't have to worry about it anymore.

The cloning process takes from 2 to 3 minutes. For whoever is getting cloned, it seems like a very long time. But it's not long for you. While the guy is getting his new body set up, take his belongings and stuff them all in the locker right by the cloning pod, so their stuff isn't scattered all over. Plus, cloning the captain and leaving his ID and other secure items on the floor sure is bad.

After the pod is empty, feel free to clone your next patient, and to let the old one out, since they most likely don't have clearance to open the door. By the way, clones might have different genetic code than their original bodies - I suggest sticking new clones with a clean SE injection. I will teach you how to do this in later chapters.

First off, make sure its a husk. Throw the body into a DNA modifier scanner, if it says theres no genetic material, then you have yourself a husk, celebrate.  

The basics from Cloning also apply here. Abiotic items are not allowed inside the modifier, so the subject has to be naked. That part is easy enough.

Oh, also? Your boss here is no longer the CMO. Do not feel forced to listen to his orders. I only listen to direct orders regarding research, obviously, from the Research Director as well as the Captain. I allow NO ONE ELSE in the Modification room. Simple as that.

You might ask yourself: What do they mean? Well, Unique Enzymes are just what identify who you are, your name. Even if you change them, it will have no effect. What does change stuff is you transfering them from one person to another, effectively changing their name.

Unique Identifiers are merely your cosmetic details - eye color, skin color, hair style, hair color and gender. You don't really have to mess with any of these, and they are quite unimportant.

Structural Enzymes, however, are extremely important. They contain data relevant to your genetic structure. This governs your race, and messing with it carelessly might give you disabilities. For those that handle genes with care, however, great benefits are to be had.

Before we start splicing, you must know which blocks control what.<br/>

- <font color=#FF0000>Blocks 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9</font> are '''ALL''' disabilities. These are minor disabilities, and can be discovered easily. These range from Tourette's Syndrome (swearing constantly) to Seizuring. Keep all these blocks BELOW 8xx before attempting to inject these SEs in someone.<br/>

- <font color=#FF0000>Blocks 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12 and 13</font> contain four powers and four disabilities. These are a bit more work, which I'll explain in a bit.<br/>

- <font color=#FF0000>Block 14</font>, as said before, governs the race of the subject. Keep it below 800 for human, and above 800 for monkey.

Let's get started on what the odd blocks (1, 3, 5, 7 and 9) do. Remember, '''keep ALL of these below 800'''.<br/>

<font color=#FF0000>Block 1</font> is nearsightedness. That means your screen goes hazy at about halfway from the edge of the screen. It's not THAT bad, and can be temporarily fixed by using prescription glasses.<br/>

<font color=#FF0000>Block 3</font> is seizures. They make you fall down and keep shaking all the time. They're horrible, and there's no easy cure short of fixing the block.<br/>

<font color=#FF0000>Block 5</font> is coughing. It makes you drop small items you're holding, like syringes. Pretty harmless, but has potential to be annyoing.<br/>

<font color=#FF0000>Block 7</font> is Tourette's Syndrome. Swear all the time. You also may also experience paralysis, and that takes even longer than the seizures. Avoid.<br/>

<font color=#FF0000>Block 9</font> is nervousness. It makes you stammer. Annoying at best.

The other blocks, bar 14, contain four powers and four serious disabilities. They are:<br/>

Disability:Blindness</font> - The most serious of disabilities. You go completely blind. The screen goes dark, and you can't interact with ANYTHING. You're pretty much helpless, you can't even apply clean SE's on yourself. Be VERY careful here. The message you get is "You can't see!" or something to that effect.

That means your subject is genetically perfect - he has NO DISABILITY. That is great. From the round start, everyone (including the monkeys in the pen) is genetically perfect, so don't worry about that just yet. Select the block you want to play with. I suggest starting either from 2, then working your way up (2 -> 4 -> 6 -> 8 -> 10 -> 11 -> 12 -> 13) or starting from 13 and going the other way around. If you have a colleague, even better! Talk to him, and each take one. This will make progress go faster!

Let's say you took Block 2. Your block consists of 5B1. Now, personally, I always try to get a block above DAC - this ensures that I have a lock on said block, and that I am sure to find either a power or a disability.

Since your block is 5B1, it means it's much below the threshold of DAC it needs to activate the strongest powers. Let's go about fixing that. Select the first sub-block, and radiate until you have D or up. It shouldn't take long. If you get an E, that's all you need. If not, however, move to the next sub-block. Don't ever bother with the third block, not even if you get an A on the second sub-block. Just keep radiating until you have B or higher, it's much faster.

All powers have a ''chance'' of manifesting. So even if the block is high enough, you still need to pray to the RNG gods to give it to you. If you know ''for sure'' a block is a super power, just keep changing one of the sub blocks until the power manifests. Disabilities, on the other hand, will always manifest.

You see, after a certain threshold of radiation, your test subject starts mutating of it's own accord. This can only be avoided by injecting rejuvenators in them (every application injects 30 units, and the body can only take 90) and letting the subject "recover" for a while. In other words, this CANNOT BE AVOIDED! Screw recovering.

In the main DNA Modifier screen, click the third option (first if the pod is empty). This is your buffer screen. You will notice there are THREE buffers there. More than enough. Each buffer can save either an UI, or an UI+UE, or, more importantly, an SE. Generally speaking, you will only ever bother with the SE part.

To fill a buffer, once your pod is occupied, simply click what you want to save in the buffer screen, after the Save: part. For this example, save your subject's SE.

What you saved is now backed up by the console, and, if not overwritten, is now safe. Good stuff. You can relabel the buffer to make sure of what it is. For instance, calling your original test subject's SE something like "Clean Backup - Stevenson, F.", or calling an SE that has Hulk isolated something like "Hulk". Simple, but very helpful to not get lost.

Note: you can transfer a buffer's content into the pod's occupant, making it easier to transfer research data between subjects. Just stick a new guinea pi - I mean, test subject, in there, click Buffers, as usual, then click "Occupant", right after "Transfer To:".

Make use of all three buffers. Assuming you have a human with clean SEs inside your pod, you can save his SE in the first buffer, and name it Clean Backup. I always do it. I use the last two buffers to find powers. Say, once you find your first power, you save it to the second buffer. Once you get your second power working with the first, save it to the third buffer. Once you get the third power working with the others, overwrite the second buffer, since it is now irrelevant. Same thing with fourth power.

That covers buffers. But what are injectors, you may ask yourself. Well, injectors are tiny one-shot needles, that contain buffer data, whatever it may be. That means you can now turn that sweet, sweet Hulk buffer into a small, awesome, orange/red injector! Good stuff. To turn a buffer into an injector, simply click Injector in the options below the buffer in question, after "Transfer To:". A small needle will spawn on top of the modifier. You can now stick his baby in anyone who stands around for enough time.

Because of injectors, geneticists are usually asked to give people superpowers. This is best judged by the geneticist, if you want to be like Marvel and give everyone superpowers, by all means, do so. But if you want to keep it to yourself and select others, go ahead, just be ready to say "No" a lot. Also, admins have confirmed that if people inject themselves with a needle they found lying around that says "Godhood" on it without even asking what is in it, you will NOT get punished by turning them into monkeys. Wink wink. Just make sure to answer truthfully if asked, and not to inject it yourself. If people are stupid enough to inject themselves with unknown content, let them.

Remember how I told you about diskettes? You can use them to backup your work as well! With one in your hand, click the DNA Modifier console. Now enter the Buffer screen. Click "Save To" in there to save the data to the diskette. If the diskette is not write-protected, the data is going in there! From the main screen, you can eject the disk from the console. You can also load data from a diskette much the same way. Except you click in "Load From" in the buffer screen, instead of "Save To". Easy peasy. I always like to leave the station with all four powers in an SE stored in a diskette. FOR THE GOOD OF MANKIND AND EVOLUTION!

First switch your target from torso to eyes and turn on the penlight stored in your suit storage. The penlight is going to be very useful for your work to find blindness / X-Ray, so be warned. To test someone's eyes, click the Eyes in the target area, then use the penlight with the subject. If you get a "<subject's name here>'s pupils narrow!", this means their vision is perfect. An "eerie glow" means X-Ray Vision, and "has no reaction" or something means the subject is blind! Fix that ASAP!

At this point it may be a good idea to visit Chemistry and order some Hyronolin for your genetic testing. I usually order 2 pillboxes full of Hyronolin pills with ten units per pill. These are extremely useful as they lower radiation levels almost instantaneously unlike Anti-Toxin, which cures the toxins damage caused by radiation but does little to the rads themselves, or Rejuvinative Chemicals, which can be injected through the DNA scanner and slowly lowers radiation (also seems to make the patient's genome more resistant to change). This will help you keep your patients alive and allow you to use SE Syringes more often without the risk of getting Rad Poisoning and falling over due to weakness. Just eat a pill after every second or third syringe, or give it to your patients when their radiation levels are high (above 20%, due to how long it takes to just wait for it to go down) like when you have just applied a saved buffer to occupant. Use the two syringe rule when injecting other players, always have them eat a pill after every second syringe.  

There are two methods of getting clean SEs, however. One is, of course, getting a player to be a test subject. This is surprisingly easy, but bewarned, the guy might VERY easily be a traitor just out for getting an easy Hulk + TK. If you get a player to help you, simply save his SE before doing anything.

The other method is the most common approach. Grab a monkey from the pen (I like to start with Washington), stuff him in the modifier, and change his 14th block until he becomes a human. Of course, run through all of the blocks to make sure it's definitely clean, and save it.

Now, if you are working with a fellow geneticist, this is really simple. Decide which of you starts from block 2 and moves on and which of you starts from block 13 and moves down. If you are alone, however, I suggest starting with block 2, then moving to block 11, then following whatever pattern you wish. Why 2 and 11, you ask? Well, you will notice, with time, that these blocks always start with the second sub-block above A. Which means that, with a result of D on the first sub-block, you are guaranteed to find either a power or a disability, making your job easier. Also Remember not to focus on following an orderly pattern, If another untested block raises to a high level, test it out, remember to share data with your fellow geneticist. When working with a partner communication is key to efficient work.

After you get your first block above DAC, MAKE SURE YOU CLEAN THE SE. Check every other block for mutations. If any, even the other possible power blocks, is above 800, remove it. After you are sure the SE is entirely clean, save your work. You have just isolated this block. Check to see if your subject is blind. If he is not, you can test the work on yourself. Simply make an injector, and use it on yourself.

Now, what happens is important. If you get absolutely no message, this means the block you just isolated and tested on yourself is a latent power! Should that be the case, you now have made your first step into greatness. If the injector gives you either deafness, strangeness or lightheadedness (you DID check for blindness, didn't you?), this means the injector (and, thus, the buffer) is bad. Scrap that buffer, remove that block from the SE and work from the next on the list. Rinse and repeat, keep on doing this until you have all four powers, and no disability. Congratulations, you have found the Superhuman Serum / OmniSE / Demigod Vaccine / Whatever the hell you want to call it.