NerdyVampire

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.

It is not exactly a second life though, you don't have it as a backup since you still need to kill off your own body to make the transfer, and to do that you will need help from someone else since you cannot manipulate your own MMI brain / posi. If you do have a partner though, you can escape a maimed body and other penalties this way. But the TC cost is the easiest thing to fix anyway I'd assume 😆

I like it, but if it is to transfer consciousness without extra hands it should cost more TC imo. The idea was also to facilitate a bit more antag cooperation. But I was willing to spend double the amount of TC, I don't think it would be too much for a one-time transfer. For a remote controlled body I would incur some penalities, like reduced speed and bodily strength.

Only three years ago, a secret collaboration between Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals and NanoTransen resulted in a prototype device, dubbed NERP. A relatively disarming name, with a very dire function. But during its hours of completion, a raid by a shadowy organisation destroyed the accumulated and well-hidden data, and stole the prototypes of each iteration. It is unclear exactly how many of these escaped, but their existence could shatter the reality of the masses. The NERP is a new item that can be purchased from the uplink at maybe 3-4 TC. It comes as a nanopaste-like tube, except colored appropriately for the antaggy design, maybe purple/red or darkgreen/black. It must be applied to an organic body, at which point the nanobots hastily install an underlying electrical neural pathway into the body, allowing certain machines to be installed into that body; positronics, man-machine interfaces and possibly subverted maintenance drones. When installed in this way, the player inhabits the organic body, allowing them control and use its motor-functions as before. The only way to determine that it is synthetically controlled is with an EMP, medical scan or otherwise thorough bodily examination. Maybe there is a visible cue on their head, pushing them to wear a hat to conceal it, or their hands are unnaturally cold to the touch. The lore implications for the existence of this are quite massive. With it, an organic might 'bequeath' their body to an IPC friend, an elderly human might have their brain installed into an MMI and hence into a younger person. Synthetics might infiltrate society on a whole other level, and even an incarnation of Glorsh might claim to be present and having been present inside a Skrell this entire time (as downloaded to a positronic). A number of gimmicks can be formulated this way: The traitor is playing an IPC and want to experience the full rights of a biological being. They decide to assault and murder a crewmember, and with the help of a fellow traitor they install themself into their body to take their place. The traitor machinist have been activating positronics in their lab, but rather than give them a cyborg body, he has managed to get his hands on the corpse from the morgue, and suddenly the unfortunate assistant is walking again. An elderly traitor crewmember are feeling the weight of time and sets about to both recruit a willing helper and find a suitable host to become his new permanent resident, while at the same time figuring out how to get rid of this old body. (event) A dignitary from the Dominian Empire has come to the station, but after suffering an accident it is revealed that they are, in fact, a positronic mind controlling their body, calling their intentions and diplomatic immunity into question. I think there are some good possibilities with this item, though I do not know how hard it would be to code. Let me know what you think.

But cargo and merchant are very very different. Cargo is a supplier mainly for departments. You just don't see people take time to browse through cargos lists for private purchases very often. Usually what they are buying have some relation to their work anyway, and should really be paid by the department funds. The merchant on the other hand gives the option to preview a selection of wares before buying, and the merchant itself is less scrutinized than the digitally-controlled cargo department. It is just more reasonable and easier to actually obtain contraband through the merchant, cause cargo will in most cases demand command permission for anything 'out of the ordinary'. The merchant being private can ignore that, at least to a degree. Having the merchant on the ship just means opening up an alternative and imo. more reasonable avenue for crew to spend their paychecks. The merchant as it works now is fine, a merchant station could work fine as well, but I don't really see any obstacles in having them just be on the Horizon either. For a merchant station to work, there should be multiple merchants and some other recreation facilities I think.

He has my confidence in regards to his plays, however I was surprised to see that you even need a whitelist to play a matriarch drone. Either way, +1 from me.