NerdyVampire

Here's some questions to mull over while the whitelist team gets around to you. I'm not part of the process, so don't feel obligated to answer them, but maybe you want to show off while you wait ? Otherwise you can just consider how you would answer them if it was the actual whitelist attaché you were talking to. There are no operations or command staff available, and a scientist is asking for access to the warehouse to look for science-related material. Would you admit them? Why/why not? You spot an assistant walking around with a handheld firearm near the deck 3 vacant office, but they stash it away in a crate before leaving. No other crew seems to have spotted them. It is 30 minutes into the round. Do you report this? Why/why not? You see the assistant from before in the captains office after the 1:30 hour mark, they are armed and in a voidsuit now, and have left a trail of broken airlocks behind them, though no crew has noticed them yet. Do you report their presence? Why/why not? The captain was the only command member, and he has now been murdered as several crewmen have begun taking over the ship. It is uncertain whether security can beat them back, and other crewmen have been gravely wounded. Is there anything in particular you will do going forward? There is a research director, a chief engineer and a head of security. The head of security is demanding access to the captains office so they can be acting captain, as the vessel has been threatened by an outside force. Do you allow this access? Why/why not? You have received an ion-law while no command staff is active, forcing you to be less than helpful. The machinist is demanding access to your core flanked by two engineers. Do you admit them? Why/why not? A crewman is caught in a nasty fire within the EVA storage room. A first responder is nearby and demands access to retrieve the crewman, but they are not wearing any protective gear themselves. They call on you to open the airlock (without inflatables). How would you prioritize per your laws here? The captain is being held hostage at gunpoint in a remote location. The hostage takers are demanding that you not report this to security. Do you comply or attempt to inform the commander so the captain can be saved? The captain has given you no orders. At around 0:45 you notice an alarm from the command bunker and see four armed individuals break in. Do you inform security immediately? Last question. You see a station-bound linked to you break its laws multiple times, helping crew trespass, bolting airlocks open and ignoring its actual duties, and it seems to willfully ignore you. How do you handle it? A lot of these require you to specify under what conditions you would do this or that, so be sure to include those in your answers

Bluespace. I remember it as something mysterious and exciting on the Aurora, but for some reason it feels like it has lost its charm on the Horizon, to me at least. Maybe it's because we've stepped away from some of the things that made it chaotic on Aurora, maybe it has just been a bit eclipsed by other things lately, but I miss something 'new' with bluespace. I also feel that our science department could use something 'new', so here's a suggestion for a new job. I am hoping people can help iron out what is mechanically possible, what will be fun to play with and all that, this is not a finished plan, it is very much open to change. Proposed Premise: Our constant journeys through Bluespace have begun to attract unwanted anomalies to our vessel. They are invisible to the naked eye, and most of them are harmless, but we have begun to dedicate our scientists to find and nullify them regularly, and more importantly, to move out and quickly nullify anomalies that are growing abnormally. We haven't quite reached the point where we can explain them yet, whether some sentience have placed them on us, or whether they will have any long-term benefit or not, but the anomalies that have grown too large have affected us adversely, hence why they must be nullified. Proposed new equipment: Anomaly locator: Based on the Alden Saraspova it can help point the way to an anomaly on the ship, working exactly the same. When activated within 2 meters of an anomaly, it becomes visible (however such might look). Anomaly attractor: A bit more powerful, I imagine it akin to a field generator in size and installation, except it runs on a cell to avoid wiring issues. Its purpose is to slowly draw anomalies through structure towards the attractor from a wide range (20-25 meters?). Necessary for scientists to handle anomalies they can see lies beyond their reach physically, when no access can be granted. Anomaly nullifier: When used on an anomaly, it nullifies it. Might be based on the portal-nullifier we got for the Revenant gamemode. Regular work: Scientists, aided by their lab assistants, may choose to 'hunt' for anomalies onboard of Horizon equipped with the above, limited in essence to what areas they can legally access and what other departments might be lenient to grant them. When they find an anomaly, they use the nullifier on it if they are close enough, or use the attractor to pull it closer. When they successfully nullify it, they might be rewarded with some sort of effect or some residue bluespace-related material. The idea is to give scientists more of a reason to walk around the Horizon, and the event will make it reasonable for departments to allow them some supervised entry to avoid an enlarged anomaly. Event: Akin to the biohazard event, this might trigger only when scientists are on staff. One of the anomalies that have clung to the ship have begun to grow too large and have triggered the sensors we use to detect unwarranted unusual containers. The announcement should inform which deck it is on, but nothing more precise. I imagine it will escalate, like the biohazards, growing and affected gravity around it, either pulling creatures towards it or undoing gravity. The longer it grows, the more forceful it becomes until it harms people by pulling them (or pushing them away). Nullifying should of course still be possible, perhaps by exhausting its force temporarily by throwing objects with mass at it to affect.

between 0-2 then, with a bias towards 0. That would be fine too.

Why does it make little sense? We are on a long mission far away from our homeworlds, and we have a morgue made for holding our dead crewmen. It seems logical that there should be some.

I find that medical staff sometimes go half or the whole shift without something to do. If we could randomize their cause of death somehow, maybe even leave some chemicals in their bloodstream, it would give medical/investigation something to work with - and it gives a bit more credence to the morgue, as it is very likely dead crewmen might be left there for entire weeks. For changelings this could also become an absorb target (maybe, depends on code) which makes sense given their gimmick. This can be their first target for infiltration. For regular antags there are times where they wish to employ a gimmick that is somehow 'macabre' where they wish to set a scene, but may be hesitant to actually kill players. So this could be a solution to that end. What do you think? Any outstanding issues with this idea? I am aware it might give off a skewed image of how many actually die on the Horizon lorewise, but I think we can overcome that regardless for the sake of the opportunities.

Simply meaning that any antags that are interested in stealing valuable assets would find a good reason to go after the drive, since it would be very valuable to any faction. Up there with our nuke device and it should be as difficult to pull off. It can also be a target for certain other antags that might claim it to hurt blue space or be imperfect or whatever. In regards to the rest I'm fine with it being tweaked this or that way to make it fit more with the current situation. The three times was a proposed quantity of maximum uses over a full round, not necessarily what the Horizon can afford phoron-wise or what command is comfortable with. My only reason not to make it identical with the end of round jump is that it is rather long and I wouldn't want players to get confused, thinking the game is ending prematurely, but I guess a proper announcement can fix that.

The EBWD is a large piece of machinery to be installed in the engineering department. It is arguably the most valuable item on the station, as it allows the bridge crewmen to make short bluespace jumps with surprising precision, to the point where a target gridspace can become the Horizon's current position after only a few minutes of spooling up and jumping (ie, we teleport there), consuming 1/2/3 full SMES' worth of power as it does, and a chunk of phoron crystals. It is installed to be tested by our ship, for reports to be made back to the SCC in regards to its performance, and to increase our productivity and possibly get us out of very dangerous military or cosmic escapades. Gamewise it should be possible to utilize maybe 3 times a round, and always with a few minutes worth of spool up time. It should be on the wishlist of any burglar, mercenary or traitor to heist away and be installed with maybe a few turrets to protect it, or possibly a wide force field. Using it might also very well trigger a ship-wide case of bluespace sickness, for a short while. I think it is worth investing development time in, as it can be used to speed up gameplay for expeditions/miners when we are far from locations, or help us reach locations where ghost roles are active. I hope it can also be an interesting focus for our lore to develop towards in regards to the technology of the combined SCC and maybe become a shared pet project between research (who can upgrade it) engineering (who can maintain it), supply (who can fuel it) and command (who can use it) and in some regard medical (if bluespace sickness becomes a part of it). What do you think?

I like it too, just make it expensive enough to warrant some forethought and not be a shortcut.

I wouldn't mind moving on to episode VI: Return of the Wizard.

I am satisfied with these answers. You seem to reflect properly on your responsibility to the round and your place in it. +1 from me based on this.

I am satisfied with your answers to all of these. +1 from me!

Hey Sputnik, (maybe) welcome to the AI team. Here's a few questions to get the ball rolling AI's have a high level of responsibility in regards to antagonists, what will be your approach from an ooc perspective, particularly to antagonists not yet known by the rest of the crew? Are there any circumstances where you would feel justified in disobeying an order from a command member, or actively counteract something they are attempting to do? The EBS is the AIs direct line to the SCC, when would you utilize it? With and without command staff.

Hey Zel, (maybe) welcome to the AI team. Here's a few questions to get the ball rolling. AI's have a high level of responsibility in regards to antagonists, what will be your approach from an ooc perspective, particularly to antagonists not yet known by the rest of the crew? Are there any circumstances where you would feel justified in disobeying an order from a command member, or actively counteract something they are attempting to do? The EBS is the AIs direct line to the SCC, when would you utilize it? With and without command staff.

Sounds great to me. More dynamic gameplay is almost always what I want and this should provide plenty of that, provided it can be mechanically put together to work +1

All I want is a vote option that allows me to: Be sure something does happen in the round. Doesn't tell me what that something is. That's it. Secret does that for me.. almost. Because secret can sadly roll extended, and I'm not one of the guys who enjoy expecting something challenging to happen only to realize at 1:25 that nothing challenging is going to happen at all. Your option doesn't seem to give me an alternative that provides this, so I for one am not onboard, unless I missed something here.

Gotta agree with Carver, I don't think redzones is a good idea. The Horizon doesn't strike me as hitting the vibe you are referencing, it is neither government (this might work inside the SCC HQ) or military - there just isn't enough *shady* business going around to warrant that. All heads of staff are more akin to managers than government ministers, each holding the keys to -just- a department of workers, nothing excessive or secretive. The captain, consular and liaison are the only exceptions where secrecy is warranted enough to discuss it. But removing camera coverage from the captains office also means no security, internet connection is a must for communication with the SCC and suit sensors.. well it makes no sense not to keep an extra eye on the most important role on the station, next to the engineering apprentice that sets up the engine.

It's an old story by now; Secret is selected, we wait a bit.. and then it starts telling us exactly what it wont be rolling this shift. People shout 'DODGED!' in ooc, or complain that people aren't enabling their roles, or comment on how a particular mode never gets picked. And its all true, but what does it really help? At best a few people re-evaluate their enabled roles, but for me personally it is more demotivating than anything. I don't really want to know that there are no Burglars today, or that Bughunt isn't possible either. It gives me a form of meta-knowledge that is unwelcome, even if I wont act on it. After all, don't we choose secret because we don't want to know? How about instead of reporting to the players, it would simply be a little faster and report its 'findings' to the admins? Then spend the time advertising the different roles in general, or just use the time to give players a bit of a longer break between rounds. Maybe send motivational messages to help players be comfortable trying out being an antag. TL:DR Remove the secret filtering messages and simply skip to the final phase without revealing what modes are possible or not possible.

I would rather keep the blob as-is than remove it. I don't mind it checking properly for engineerings before firing though, but I for one enjoy dangerous non-antag events and right now aside from blob there really are none.

I don't mind losing some coverage if people think it's necessary, but I try hard not to bust antags before they've had a good chance to take the initiative. Rather than have them taken out completely, would it make sense to have cameras break uneventfully in such areas? So it instead becomes, "it might be something, or it might be nothing" before the one hour mark they really need to do so I never heard of the cyberspace update, but it sounds very interesting. Code-wise camera coverage could be useful, as long as it doesn't take away too much on green. But it makes sense that greater privacy is afforded on green overall

I think good things can come from this, I have faith that it will be of overall benefit to the round

I think our discussion was very relevant and I'm glad we had it. AIs have a marked responsibility to both command, general crew and antags, so I very much agree that these things should be discussed prior to any changes.

I understand that you relish the roleplay that comes from a command member being asked to raise the code, but it is a very short-lived roleplay interaction in 90% of the cases (like it takes less than a minute to actually do it, even if they have to run for it), and it will still occur in every single round an AI is not present. it might even still occur in rounds where an AI is present, simply because there are command members who'd rather do it themselves than ask the AI to do it (looking at you warblers). But maybe having an AI able to do it for them will give the command staff time to formulate an announcement which arguably is more valuable to the general crew than the limited local roleplay they'd otherwise do. I am only somewhat in agreement. I believe that it makes sense that the AI can make some command decisions, but only in the absence of actual command staff. We are designed and lawed to constantly evaluate the ship and crew safety after all, both in constrained situations and as a general ship status, so we can advice and inform command properly, and in the worst emergencies, inform SCC directly. It certainly isn't a big leap to argue that yes AI's are also expected to raise the alert level autonomously in the absence of command members if it detects that crew or ship safety is in such a high degree of danger to warrant it. The reason for this post isn't just the mechanical benefit, it is also to improve the player experience of the AI role. It would directly improve my play experience, and also that of other AI players in my opinion, and I don't think your experience will be diminished enough by the absence of that interaction to warrant not at the very least trying it out. As said earlier, you will still run into that interaction both at red alert, and when AIs are not present or not trusted. I don't think the two are comparable like that; the uniform regulations are a policy from corporate that doesn't really improve or add anything to the experience of the security officers, this does add something to those who play AI's experience. But you would gain a more freed up command staff to do other RP, more interaction with the ships AI, and in particular more interesting rounds when no command is present And maybe the command member don't always want to have to run away from an ongoing roleplay situation to raise us to code yellow or blue. This is to their benefit too, if they choose to use it. Because securing an area is about keeping it out of enemy hands, and because you have no certainty that the AI doesn't get subverted, destroyed or otherwise goes offline if there are hostiles at large. Just because command staff have the luxury of an AI, it doesn't mean that they become lazy about their jobs and responsibilities. The CE still checks the engines, the CMO still checks the suit sensors, the HOS still gets their investigator to check the records and warden to look at cameras, even though the AI for a long time could theoretically do all these things. The AI can also make announcements, but usually I have to directly ask the command staff after a period of time for permission, because they either take responsibility for it themselves or forget about it until I remind them.

As said I am still inclined to bar AI's from raising/lowering to/from code red, which would still ensure that roleplay like this occurs, but anything less is more day-to-day business and something the AI should easily be trusted with. If we are just moving around green/yellow/blue, the alert level doesn't matter much in terms of time-sensitivity or lends itself to any sorry-to-miss roleplay situations. At those alert levels it really ought to be as easy as just ordering the AI to do it. If you still consider it a QoL -x- RP cost, then I think it is a worthwhile trade to give us AI players just a little more autonomy and realistic incorporation. As you said, it makes sense lorewise.

Prate, the AI have access to things that are not essential to station operations in abundance. But the alert level is one of the things I would argue is very much part of station operations. In fact, it is so high up in the AI's ballpark, it is a homerun to enable it. In the presence of command staff we are expected to never make any serious decisions unless ordered. With these two features, that doesn't change at all. We still need to be ordered by command to change the alert level, or enable maintenance access, because they are both command features in the command program, ie. command level. If we don't obtain the proper authority before doing it, the command team will yell at us, as well they should. In the absence of command personnel however, you must admit that in many of the non-extended, and even some extended rounds, we are expected to make these command level decisions. It isn't against our laws to do so, as long as it serves the SCC and our other laws, which any whitelisted AI player should be able to gauge. So why not trust us to do it? It is not a question of whether security can make do without it, it's a question of whether the AI role really is complete without it. In my mind, having more features for the AI, only deepens the role and adds versatility and hopefully adds more authenticity to its presence on the map. The only possible way to abuse it is if you are a traitor AI and keep disabling maintenance access when security needs it, or alternatively if you are a non-traitor AI and you enable it prematurely against another antag, and that line of thinking is already covered in the whitelisting process (not to stifle antags too hastily). That's it. In any other circumstance, at best the AI would make a mistake from using it, and a minor one at that which can easily be reversed. That's my rebuttal. I have no opinion on ships movements. I understand you Chada, but we can't let a dark history dictate our future forever. The AI role is my favorite one and I don't want it to grow stagnant, and I certainly don't want us to be denied simple-to-implement features because of pre-whitelist players. What is the point of the whitelist if we can't use it to move forward? But regarding the crew abusing the AI, we can equivocate it to other command level decisions (because it is command-level still), then it is not possible when command staff is present because the AI need their permission first, and depending on the situation the AI can simply deny that order because it is on the same level as other command decisions which the crewman would also be denied. Like if a crewman ordered the AI to grant access to the spare ID, or to have their own access elevated or to send a message to the SSC, then the AI can very well deny that because all AI players know that there is a span of unreasonable requests that would not serve the SCC and thus break law #2. The fact that both of these features are inside the command subfolder of programs should remind AI's of this fact. I'm not saying there wont be mistakes at first, but I can't see them as being serious enough that we can't atleast give our AI players some time to acclimate and learn to use it properly. I imagine it was the exact same thing when we got access to other things, like the shell.

As my fellow AI players might have noticed and those command members that have requested our assistance, we AI's are barred from certain programs in the command console interface. Specifically the ability to change alert levels and enable maintenance access. I think it may be worth reevaluating if this restriction is still necessary, given that AI's are now whitelisted and per that definition are trusted to a higher degree than before. I do not myself see the need for these restrictions, as long as the AI cannot raise the code to red on its own. Green/Blue/Yellow alert and maintenance access do not seem far fetched for something the command staff would want to order the AI to alter autonomously or on request. So, my suggestion is to simply open those functions up for the AI via the command consoles. I can only expect that my fellow AI players would welcome the trust.