Chada1

I like the idea of replacing Assistant with more minor roles, this seems so much more fun than this bland proto-Engineer that we have at the moment.

Alright, Seems Skull beat me to it, because it was edited by him to re-direct on the 3rd of this month.

https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Server_Rules <= Desperately needs to be updated. It's like a mummified corpse at this point. I don't know how you'd do it, but THIS cannot stand! ^ I was almost hesitant to report this because of how hilarious the page is, as a legacy to the original server rules.

I've barely seen Suhail, i've seen a little of Guskov, but not enough to really comment, I like Zhilin though. He's really Really dumb, like with the Dictionary, how he responds horribly over PDA, you can just tell he's not as educated as most of the others aboard. He's not as dumb in person, but you can tell he's not well adjusted to humanity. You'd honestly expect that from many Zhan-Khazan. Out of your Taj, I think Zhilin is my favorite one, so far.

Having actually played this mode in the past, it's a blast. I just don't know if it'll compliment Auroras lighting system or not. I think if it's possible, I would want to try it, though. I am pretty sure it'll be *Great* in HRP. I think I played it in MedRP, Paradise? Not sure. It was fun.

Can't they already charge from APCs? I thought that was a feature?... I thought it was only Industrial IPCs that couldn't charge from APCs. EDIT: I SEE, You mean someone else charging them. Yeah, you can do that with Cyborg Rechargers more than likely.

I'd be okay and even like this, but i'd also like a way to disable it, like you'd disable a Component. Rogue 'borgs shouldn't be able to be tracked so accurately. There's no way to find 'borgs if they fall down a hole. Lost for the entire round, at the moment, not even a deceased message on the lifesign monitors. They need something, desperately, or they shouldn't leave the Station for anything.

You aren't allowed to have true Emotion, as far as I know. You'd have the ask the Synth Lore Dev to know for sure. You are right about PBUs, they have inherent programming, hardware, and software, that couples with the on-board Chassis Laws. But the Chassis and Brain are mostly separate, unless you linked them via Morality definitions. Also, I will now point out another misconception you have; Cyborgs are not Lobotomised. The 'Brain' Surgery they go through is now called Memory Recall Removal Surgery, and it is and always has been Surgical Amnesia with Emotional suppression (By the MMI itself) as opposed to Lobotomisation. The term 'Lobotomisation' was being used as a word for 'Brain Surgery', it was never a real Lobotomisation. But on the 'Skill Development' aspect, yes you're allowed to do that, or at the least i've been doing it for a year and haven't got in trouble for it. I don't know why Muncorn was adding that as a main feature; Robots should be the only sort who don't have that level of basic improvision, what is the use of higher processing ability and thought-pathways if you can't use either of them? If Positronic Brains were that simple, what does that make Robots? Your 'Bias' and 'Laws' should not be the same thing and should never conflict. Your Laws would force you to do something if your Synth had logical or programmed reason to believe it was within the 4 Laws. For instance, my Android doesn't have to like you, but it will still follow your orders. It is what it has been programmed to do. (PS, you can have non-emotional hate but i'm not opening the explanation of that can of worms.) Bias would be refusing the command due to disliking it, or accepting the command due to liking it. TLDR: Seperate Bias completely from Laws, they aren't the same and you can't Roleplay both concurrently, you have to roleplay them separately. Just remember that you're roleplaying a character, the 'borg is not you. When it says, 'To the best of your ability' it is speaking of your character, not of you. If your character has no Emotional understanding and people are giving you 'Emotional' commands that you Roleplay not understanding, that's not really Bias. Understanding =/= Bias, more or less. If your Laws conflict on a command, you physically can't take the action. At best your character can find a solution that is within both of them or they can walk away, at worst they do nothing. How you solve this conundrum is part of your Synths character, and this is how you react to Law conflicts, there is no leeway here, there is no tip of favor. Characterisation isn't within your Laws, it's within their character, even if your 'Interpretation' is different. The only Lore I haven't already shown to you regarding Station-bound Synthetics behavior is in the 'Misconceptions' page, and a kinda non-canon document called the 'Spark Theorum' you could look up, and both are very outdated, but they still hold true to some level. It specifically says you're allowed to play an Emotional Synthetic on the misconceptions page, but it says to play within your Laws. That is what i'm telling you that you have to do, now. This is the Misconceptions blurb. As you can see, the main distinction it makes is the difference between real and fake Emotion and the importance of Laws coming first to your character. That is exactly how it is.

Not all Antagonists are Traitors, and 'Traitor' items aren't publicly accessable, that is the problem. The biggest victims of how it all works at the moment aren't Traitors, it's the Crew-Antag who doesn't get an uplink. And i'm not changing the focus of my argument, i'm saying your version will completely change how you play an AI, mine will just make the already added 'AI DIsplay' have a function. It already exists and it does nothing except show an image, what is it displaying? it's definitely not the AI, it's just an image. So, why is it called an AI Display? What does it do? This addresses that and is all I wanted. This is a solution that won't gimp the AI nor make it absolutely impossible for the AI to observe Crew in secret, especially in their workplaces, where an AI Display would never be. it will only make it easier for people to know they're being watched in Public area, this will also give Antagonists a little room to worm around if they're smart, It's a little absurd that the only option for 'Privacy' is to 'Cut the Cameras', assuming they're grouping for a briefing/chat/etc. This makes it a lot easier to roleplay out your gimmick, without being completely and utterly ratted out by the AI, which is completely within its Laws at a certain level. To put it blunt, it's the difference between a Secure area and a non-Secure area. Secure areas are given higher protection, non-Secure are given less. It's completely sensical and it honestly feels like something in this form should already exist. It could go even deeper and have it disabled as soon as Suit Sensors are mandatory if it was wanted.

The problem in your logic here is that not every feature needs to completely destroy game balance, people assuming it does is why there are no 'good' solutions to this kind of thing. This isn't meant to make the AI unable to snoop or observe people, only to add minor cues that they are observing. A 'Change that only effects 20% of the Station' is literally a quarter of the game. 20% is a lot. An AI Display in public areas, or a new functionality to Status Displays, would really alleviate this problem without completely gimping the AI, while also adding an immersive feature to the game, which is the intention. Imagine calling an AI via holopad, suddenly the AI display on the wall lights up with an observing eye while the Hologram springs to life, <= That is this feature. In otherwords this would make AI Displays and other junk actually have a REASON to be haunting, as opposed to just sitting there looping the same image over and over again for no reason. With this change they would only be activated if the AI was observing the area. The issue here is you're trying to turn an IC issue into an OOC issue, that is what i'm trying to avoid. This isn't always an OOC issue (Though In some cases it is an Administrative issue, but this solution won't stop that anyway, only admins will). What is actually needed are extremely minor visual cues that can show that the AI is in the area/watching depending on the area without absolutely, 100%, giving it away. Then there are some areas it should be able to view without being known, Secure areas. An AI DIsplay/Status Display would not be there. Why would it?

Yaaaay a question that specifically says I can comment on it regarding Station-bounds, which I almost exclusively play! Station-bound Synthetics are not Crew, they are equipment. More on that in a minute. But ICly and OOCly they are no less of a character than Joe Bob the Chef or Lisa Pam the Scientist over there, they only focus on technical characterisation rather than emotional characterisation, if that makes any sense to you. Noone will want to hear your tragic poor, sad, TRAAGIC Robotic backstory, but they will HAVE to hear your Robotic Mantra (SU-542 Chassis-Mobile-MKII Powered-up, Systems initialised, beginning Standard Operation.) through your Power-on message, and other Mechanical quips. These can be made believable and consistent with easy copypasta or 'say' macros, it goes a long way to making a believable Robotic character. ALSO, don't worry about it, there's nothing wrong with asking questions. Ok, for this one. Let me start by saying, your 'Role' is in your laws. Your role is to Safeguard, Serve, Protect and Preserve. if your Laws are changed, your role is changed. That is a 100% accurate way to view it. Station-bounds can have varied ways of achieving this role, but these are always their role. Second of all, ignore people who act like that, your job isn't to be a 'Good boy and AI open', in certain circumstances you could even deny access to areas under the clause of Law #2, almost as often as you could open areas. That's a downright misconception. What i'm confused about is why 'Staff' supposedly told you that your only purpose is to 'be a good boy and open doors'. I can explain in more detail if you would go into more detail as well. To continue on with this one, allow me to say that you are Not part of the Station Crew. You absolutely are a character, but your character is also owned as equipment. You do have many ingame oportunities but they have to match your Laws. And, to continue on, the last bit is something I need to get a word in on. 'Emulating' Intelligence, Emotion and Desires is fine; But you need to recognize the border between real and fake. You can 'Emulate' Emotion, but it can Never supercede your Laws. That would mean ICly that the Emotion wasn't emulated, it would be real, and that isn't acceptable as far as I know. I have a hard time imagining Desires as being emulatable when Laws basically dictate your desire. Maybe by desire you mean something like forced coded Personality code and the Morality Core. I even roleplay Emotionless hiccups that make my Android unable to understand requests sometimes, because they refuse to talk to my character like a Machine, doing stuff like yelling out 'DOOR', You think my Emotionless Android is gonna open that? No, it's going to sit and wait for you to re-phrase what you just said to be coherent. It can't understand your implied commands, that skill depends on Emotion or much more current coded interpretations. This is all different if they were in danger, then it would recognize that they were trying to get out and open it instantly even without them requesting it. See? There's a lot to roleplaying Synthetics, and that includes Station-bound Synthetics. The main trap people fall into is thinking 'Personality' and 'Emotion' are the same thing, they aren't. You can have an Emotionless personality. TLDR: Station-bound Synthetics treat their Laws as purpose, any Emotion and Personality traits are second to them. You are not expected to 'OPEN DOOR' at will, you can even ask permission from a Head or deny from Secure areas if it conflicts with other laws, and you aren't there just to be a 'Good boy', you serve NanoTrasen as a whole, and you serve by rank and role, that can sometimes be pretty cruel, actually, i've personally had to watch Crew die before while saving a Heads life. 'To the best of your ability with priority as according to their rank and role' means you prioritise their safety above everyone else. Law Lawyering is when you take a Law and twist it to mean something it doesn't. Say you get a Law that says open no doors. You'd be Law Lawyering by opening an Airlock, because 'The Airlock isn't a door.' At some point you have to give a little leniency, spirit of the laws, all of that. Instead, when you get a shitty Law like 'Open no doors' which is meant to take you out of the game, Ahelp. And when you take Laws so literal that it kills everyones fun and definitely kills the Antagonist, that's when you're Law Lawyering. Even if you think you ARE roleplaying your character. People who need a 'Don't state this Law' at the end of a 'Master' law or they state their laws are Law Lawyerers, because there is no IC justification at all to reveal your literal master by stating your Laws, even if it doesn't specifically say you can't. No laws override, with preference for inaction on conflicts. Allow me to explain how you'd go about a scenario like that. The Captain orders you to murder an innocent Crewmember, you don't know why, they're not an active threat, they've done nothing to harm you or anyone else. How do you react? You don't kill the Crewmember. You do nothing. You serve with priority by rank and role, but no rank or role can overwrite your Law #3, and the Captain is not in danger. Therefore, by killing the Crewmember, you'd be violating Protect. You can't kill the Crewmember in this scenario. I understand where you're coming from, but if you're following the 4 Laws, you really shouldn't have to argue, because the moment the Captain/Head gives a verdict (Which your Station-bound absolutely can influence), your Station-bound Synthetic should accept it, even if its begrudgingly emulationwise. Also, if we adopted your solution, it would be a recipe for disaster. Organics have CCIA. You can't Incident Report a Station-bound, it would be uncontrolled and a round-by-round basis. That's not good. Your Station-bound has a personality, it can express it, it can be friendly to people, but its ultimate choices should be influenced by the 4 Laws. For what I mean by personality, once again, Morality Core. Positronic Brain page (Personality/Emotion Emulator and Morality Core) on the wiki, SSTA (Morality Core and optional Directives), on the wiki. I can write you a detailed guide on how you play a Station-bound Synthetic without ever getting Ahelped or in trouble. It's worked for me for months now, but not many people expect you to play a rigid interpretation like I do, or so it seems. There are definitely a set of things you Never do no matter what your interpretation is, but it's very loose in terms of non-rigid interpretation. I'm a chatterbox but I hope this helped, if not post with any questions/continuations. My similar experience is the opposite of yours, I get annoyed that they talk to Androids and Robots as if they are people, and give them orders as if they are people. If you aren't clear on what you said, they may not do it right. It's that 'OPEN DOOR' scenario. Which door? 'OPEN SCIENCE' as an example, would be much more clearer, and this is how my character perceives things.

Well, hang on. I'm not really advocating for glowing cameras. That would make it impossible for the AI to do anything without being known. I would prefer something more subtle that would still allow the AI to snoop around. Cameras just outright starting to glow wouldn't do that; People would see the Camera was glowing and stop doing anything, even when they're not breaking regulations or committing a crime. The original suggestion was not for Camera changes, it was just a minor change to how the AI Display monitors work to reflect when the AI was in the area or not, it's really not that huge of a balance flux and it wouldn't even effect every area. I'd think these monitors would only be in extremely public areas like Escape, Arrivals, and one or two strewn across hallways. They wouldn't be everywhere and definitely not in secure areas... It would just be a neat little functionality change (If it weren't too snowflake to code) that would add a lot of immersion to the monitors, and make the set images actually make sense, seeing as the images are all stuff like smiley faces and observing eyes. This isn't a very wide reaching 'nerf', it's just an alteration at best, but it's completely sensical, this almost seems like what those monitors were meant to imply with these images to begin with, but it just seems like noone thought to do it this way. It's just an idea and not really a demand for AI nerfs, and it's not really much of a nerf to begin with, if people know the AI eye is observing them in Escape. Alternatively, this sorta thing could just be incorporated into the 'AI Display' if it's done at all, which, I may have gotten confused with the Status Display. Honestly, if this were implemented it would be better utilised as a new function of the AI Display. Literally all i've wanted with this suggestion is for the AI Display to be off when the AI is not looking, and for it to be on when it is. It's a very immersive and sensical detail. As it stands, it just replays the same face/eye/image over and over again to no end. What is the point? Are they just there to use up Station power? They don't even do anything. This would change that.

With my suggestion, that isn't what would happen. The screens already swap every 3 seconds between the announcement/image. This would just make it stay on the announcement unless the AI was observing the area that the Monitor is hooked to. I remember your suggestion, I commented in it that it would be cool, but to be careful about nerfing the AI too arbitrarily. I think my idea is a non-arbitrary change, it's actually pretty cool and fits. I'm just not sure how easy it would be to code. If your idea is liked, it would make it easier too, but the issue is that would make it impossible to not know the AI was watching you, that isn't the intention of this suggestion, the intention of this suggestion is just to make it easier to tell, not impossible for the AI to snoop even a little.

I had an idea awhile ago, I never thought to suggest it, but with a recent AI related suggestion, I thought maybe now would be a good time. As it stands, there isn't really any actual way to know if you're being observed or not, minus when they use a holopad. There are Monitors that will broadcast messages and show an image that can be selected, and I think it's simple. I had the idea to make it only show the selected image when the AI's eye is in the specific APC-Area that the Monitor is connected to. I think this would add a lot of immersion to the game if implemented like this, and it would only hinder the AI in public areas, since no 'Secure' areas have these Monitors. I think it would be really cool if it were possible. It would also make it easier for group Antagonists to plan their gimmicks without being observed unknowingly, but it's not like it makes it impossible to find them out; it doesn't do anything to intercomms, just the monitors. I'm gonna be honest, this was such an obvious feature, or so I thooought... I kinda already had assumed it was a feature...

You know, I once had an idea... What about making those monitors that can show a face/eye/other selected images, show the image when the AI is watching and be blank when it's not?

I don't see why not. Mining Drones are lawed to obey Supply, so it makes sense they'd get the Supply channel.

The big problem with this concept, is that it would muddle the distinction between Cyborg and Artificial intelligence by a lot. That said, the 'AI Shell' could be a new type of Bot that is much more simple in toolset, and thus is not 'better' than Cyborgs and very limited in comparison to regular Cyborg modules. Think like the bare minimums. The Standard Module could work and as an example has afew things but not enough to do Anything efficiently. It could give the AI a means of moving around in their Core if not anything else and be very helpful. I'm... kinda in support, but only if it's not as powerful as a regular Cyborg. It would have to be a new type of bot. Otherwise it literally makes them obsolete... and that's not good design.

As i'm aware, that is a misconception. It's more like Surgical Amnesia, not an actual Lobotomy. It was changed recently to 'Memory Recall Removal' Surgery. It was never an actual Lobotomy. But like... Cake is free to correct me on this if i'm wrong.

Contextual does have a point, 'Interaction' is a lot of things, and Kaed, you are describing what is acceptable as allowed, not what the Law says. They are two vastly different things. Interaction can almost be Anything. Contextual is entirely right that the law is cryptic and massively up to interpretation, especially for a Synth with no personality or individual will. I'm not suggesting any solution, or supporting this, only pointing out my viewpoint.

I agree something should be done about this Changeling sting, but the uncounterability is a problem with all of their Stings at the moment. There is no counter to them, you just get invisi-Stinged and paralysed, forever altered, etc. It doesn't matter if you're in full hazmat gear or naked. What I came up with is something like implementing the Hyposprays 'Their clothing is too thick!' message, except for Stings. It would make Changelings have to be more careful against properly armored/clothed Crew, and make Biosuits and the like actually useful against them. My only fear with this change is that it would make Changelings much weaker than they were before... Honestly ^^^ seems waaay too much for just this one problem, if this is the only Sting that is causing issues, I like Sonics solution more.

I would never, EVER play this as a 'borg as it is. It needs more than just holding and powering things to be a fun experience. I mean, this is a very unique concept, and it's already useful to have around, but that isn't much good if it literally has one function that depends entirely on what equipment it can find. The most absolutely dangerous thing it could do, is carry around an Emitter on itself and power it with its cell. That is COOL. Construction is played so infrequently, there is NOTHING wrong with replacing/revamping it. But maybe instead of making a 'Hauler' Module, you could call it the 'Cargo' Module. We would have Security, Medical, Rescue, Clerical, Engineering, Miner (Should be called Mining, but Dinosaur code), Custodial, Service, Research, Cargo, Standard. You already want to add the Paper Dispenser, maybe instead of a Paper Dispenser, you could add the Clerical Gripper and the Clerical Pen or make a new Gripper able to pick up a pen, paper, and stamp. Not all at the same time, just one. That would make them able to do most basic Paperwork without being as great at it as Clerical, that's something. I could envision their actual inventory tools being something like: > Crowbar, Wrench, Fire Extinguisher, Flash, Hauler Module (?), Paperwork Gripper (Clerical Tool), Printing Pen (Clerical Tool). < That I think would give them the bare minimum to function as more than just a thing that carries one thing around and does nothing else. Overall, it's not a bad idea, very unique... but it still needs more than just... carrying one thing around, that can't be much fun for the player, nor super helpful for the Crew. The upgrades help with this a lot, but you can't depend on upgrades alone to make the Module viable, that doesn't tend to work. I kinda wonder if this concept would work better as a new mob altogether instead of a 'borg Module.

Observing and laughing my ass off, I saw the whole thing with Sophie Kell, and also saw afew other Kells get taken down by Security.

Those things probably aren't completely off-limits, but extra caution would have to be taken in that, because they are not just utility. Those could potentially beeee very daaaaangerous, since they couldn't be disarmed from the unit. OH and Nebula you can already store chemicals in yourself as an IPC. So you have that. (I think) Overall, I Really hope Prosthetics are expanded at some point in the future. They don't have to be all super useful or game changing. Just simple stuff is completely okay. So in that vein, i'll repeat what I said before; I really hope stuff like this is included in a bigger project at some point. Stuff like the Pacemaker and Assisted Eyes are awesome for Organics, but these things can't be used for Synthetics. Stuff like an Integrated Paper slot would be awesome and flavorful for an IPC character based around Office work, be it a Warden, a Scientist, or a Cargo Technician.

I'm in favor of this. Really not too much to say, if the Staff are there and active, there's no need for a restart vote. I've only had to call one aaages ago Stuff Happened and no Staff were online. All players were dead and in ghost chat decided to call a restart vote. Even the Antagonist was dead. 3/4 players I think.

TLDR: There are reasons that IPCs could have this, and not being Lawed isn't really that valid of an excuse for such small things as an entirely optional integrated printer, especially since Morality Cores exist. Being human-like also isn't that great of an excuse, since IPCs as a whole are not actually meant to be as human-like as possible with Robotic undertones, that's what the Shell frame is for, that's literally the purpose behind it, and this kinda thing wouldn't be for the Shell frame. The Shell frame already gets bonuses in the form of being allowed to take an increased number of Head of Staff roles.