NerdyVampire

I've played some rounds as BUDDY in this new system, gotten traitor a few times as well. I am happy to have instant bolting back, it just feels normal for an AI to do. I was surprised the first time I got traitor, cause I hadn't noted that it was back on the table, and it did take some getting used to not having malf-powers go along with it. But honestly, I like it. I like that it isn't too much, that it isn't too little, and that it requires some extra thought to make a gimmick. The only thing I do miss from Malf tools is the ability to fake an announcement, because it gives some more width in what would make sense as a traitor AI to do. Another thing I would consider adding are some more lawsets that we could load in case we didn't have inspiration for a round. I mean, we have the room for it in our law-manager, and it's an easy way to a gimmick. I think whitelisting the AI was a great idea and so far it has been implemented to my satisfaction.

BYOND key: NerdyVampire Discord name/id: NerdyVampire#3641 Borg / AI names: Budget Bot - engineering stationbound; BUDDY - station intelligence. Have you read the Aurora wiki page about the AI?: Yes Why do you wish to be on the whitelist?: BUDDY is the character I play most on this server and I feel like I play it in a way that enrich the gameplay for both crew and antagonists. Have you received any administrative actions? And how serious were they? I received a warning from a trial moderator a few weeks ago (forgot their name) for making a mistake on my first (and only) round as a captain. I do not consider it to be very serious administrative action, all parties involved seem to understand that it was accidental. Do you understand your whitelist is not permanent, and may be stripped following continuous administrative action? Certainly, I expect nothing less.

Played with them as station intelligence, they seemed to hold the office competently, communicated and delegated well and most importantly decided to play into the antagonists gimmick, even when the gimmick included them becoming hostage in their own office. +1 from me.

I kinda like that niennab, antags getting on the manifest easier. But I would still prefer that there was less reliance on the manifest either way, it seems that it should be behavior rather than a nametag that sets apart the antags. Perhaps a compromise could be to move the manifest to the station newscasters instead, that are readily available but still require at least some effort from people to access.

That sounds like another good suggestion!

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about the current system, I just think I'm seeing an opportunity we might want to explore, at least as an experiment

Having to purchase an announcement to justify your (seldom used) chameleon equipment and fake identity is exactly what I see as the problem. It defeats the purpose of infiltration because it will directly draw the attention of all security at once and it isn't reliable against anyone who doesn't read it. And that isn't a strong solution either, it only works until security or command decides it doesn't and either watch you 24/7 or imprison you while waiting for the mandatory fax. The whole purpose of this suggestion is to remove the 'watchdog' mentality that all crewmen get while having easy access to the crew manifest, so an antag could potentially have success impersonating a role on the station at least until they actually do something suspicious or a detective/sec find reason to actually ask someone at their console/the AI/the head of that department.

Outline: We remove the crew manifest program from PDA's and instead restrict them to consoles and synthetic bounds/AI. We stop cryogenics/arrivals from announcing newly awakened non-command crew, instead log it in the cryogenics computer. Reason: So before you lynch me, let's consider how every crewman has instant-access to a complete crew manifest on their PDA, and can insta-valid anyone who has even a slightly different name. Practically I actually find it rather implausible that we all know each other well enough to have a sixth sense about who is an infiltrator and who is not, yet that is the reality of Aurora right now. No antag in their right mind would change their ID and expect to get away with anything, because anyone would point them out with a vengeance. Instead let's pretend that someone would either have to A. Ask the AI, B. Ask security to check their consoles or C. Have to find a console of their own. Now the chances that anyone other than our vigilant security forces would check you out without at least some suspicious behavior becomes much closer to 0, while our collectivel meta-paranoia will go up a healthy amount. I expect that we will get a much more RP based validhunting: with the added efforts to check up on someone, it requires actual reasoning to report someone to security. Once someone has been ID'd, security is right where they usually are, until then antags can enjoy an overall benefit of the doubt. Or people will have to actively admit that they find it mighty suspicious that there are *2* chefs this shift! A compromise: If this is way out of bounds for players, can we at least try to remove the manifest from all but sec and command players, and pretend that ordinary crew aren't expected to have an active memory and relation with all crewmen aboard or need to know when someone unimportant arrives? Alright, commence lynching.

I was almost about to make a similar (but not as sophisticated) suggestion to this but searched first and found this active post. I really like the idea of something more dynamic being implemented and can't wait to see it in action. Full support and love from me ❤️

Hm, well I still think there is merit to separating them so it can be targeted directly. Then again, I recognize that the number of antags that will make use of this may be small, so its likely not a development priority, especially if it has to be untangled from tcomms.

It does? So you cannot disable one without the other?

The suggestion is merely to add a machine in the medical cryogenics room (or where it otherwise makes sense, research mby) which can be sabotaged to disable the suit monitoring system. This will of course require that it can also be repaired as well. Discuss ?

Love it. I think this will be a great change.

From an AI perspective I felt that they communicated well with the rest of the team, partook in the incident (in contrast to other RDs that sometimes turtle), and handled the aftermath professionally. They seemed willing to engage in RP and took care of the antag player as well so they weren't left to their own devices (disembodied malf cyborg). From an earlier round as a member of their department, I found them communicative enough, they took charge on educating our lab assistant but was rather quick to abandon me once it was clear I was an antagonist. I did miss some more confrontation from a superior towards a department member, if not immediately then at least while I was incarcerated. However I do feel such isn't the norm anyway, so that's excused. All in all I have no objections to them retaining command, I think they will be a fine addition.

I see the usefulness in this, but would this prevent people from changing their characters before round-start? Like if you had a last-minute change of heart about who you want to play?

Possible unpopular opinion related to the warehouse: you don't have to and shouldn't send as much stuff out as you do. The purpose of the warehouse is to store the surplus equipment and materials, there is actually no logic in sending it to the departments if it isn't specifically missing. Sending out crates is just something cargo has become used to doing because noone ever needs anything anyway, so perhaps the real issue if any, is increasing the likely hood that a department might be missing something that cargo can deliver. I don't think the warehouse needs to start with more unique or antag-friendly items than it does, but I wouldn't mind seeing such items as orderable through the cargo-ordering system.

Just realised that this was supposed to be a game mode. I suppose it can be tweaked to be so.

Name: Unaccounted For Short Description: Something was left behind after an incidental shift, something the maintenance drones missed. In this event we open up ghost roles for playing crewmen of a previous shift, people who have been trapped in remote areas of the station with only a station bounced radio, left to be rescued by drones who couldn't understand them. This could be patients who had been ushered into the long-term care or old medical wing to hide, a maintenance technician who got trapped without their tools or ID, a security officer who awakens without his leg, or someone similar. The first time one of these spawn, central command could send an announcement that it has come to their attention that "some crew from a previous shift is unaccounted for" and mandate that the current shift find and report their status. It could even be a round-start only role to be assigned. Why should we add it?: It adds some new roleplaying possibilities without being fueled by direct antag activity. It can work in both extended and secret. It does not require the creation of any new object data, just spawning rules and some lore-wise believable pre-conditions to inspire these players and give believability to whatever story they choose to tell.

I like it, sounds like a hoot to experiment with

Is it possible to have it be a function based on the number of players? I suppose that becomes a problem when many players join after round start.

Good to have in writing ?

I like this, for both antag and crew, +1

I support red flashy warning, but I'd prefer it happens at the point of no return. It starts when the ninja dies, and gives you X seconds to get away OR get the body into disposals/space/any remote area.

What do you think about giving the wizard an option to be more of an occultist? Add a new spellbook that spawns them a bag full of trinkets which can be sold/given/traded to crew members or hidden around the station, and like anomalies actually grant some small magical effect or boon? This would at least give them a new option to be neither strictly peaceful or antagonistic, and it would be easier to conform to the setting as a strange merchant or whatnot. It's more work than simply removing it, but I can imagine having an enjoyable round with this. Small activateable/passive boons: heat-vision, short-range teleport, small emp, telepathy, small magical weaponry? Point is, let the wizard deal this stuff out without having to sell their soulsouls and people can at least get a bit on board.

Didn't see this whole thread before, but reading it over I think it's worth pursuing so I'll bump it up with my thoughts. What would be really cool, is a verb in the AI Commands which I can push saying 'Code Delta' , which pops up a confirmation box stating if I can confirm that the disk has been missing for X minutes, that no non-interim captain is active and that to the best of my knowledge the disk is in the hands of unauthorised personnel. Then confirming this, it auto-sends an EBS to central command and actually changes my lawset to deal with this until the Code is called off. But other than that I like that it is just clarified policy. My approach as BUDDY is to give the HoS some time to recover it (if one exist), otherwise I go directly to an EBS to central command and cross my fingers for some instruction. - Unless a captain is active, in which case I trust them to make those decisions.