Distress beacon for emergency response

[kyres1]

With the incoming ERT rework I figured I'd bring up this old idea again. Currently, calling emergency response is as simple as two keycard swipes. While that is fine in its own right, it calls the response instantaneously and initiates the gear-up phase for the ERT. This means that, given there are two heads, or a head and the spare ID, or even any stationbounds active (including the AI), calling ERT can be done in a matter of minutes or less and the actual process is instant. It's a bit crazy that it requires a degree of mass murder, ID shredding and bot killing to prevent the huge looming threat of emergency response.

A better idea in my mind is a distress beacon, added somewhere relatively secure on the station. This distress beacon requires two card swipes to activate, however, instead of instantly calling the response it makes an announcement stating a ten minute charge up has begun. Once the charge up finishes, the beacon discharges/fires or however you want to word it and then players may spawn as the team that responds. During the ten minute period, the beacon can be disabled by antagonists. This makes it a valuable asset to be defended by the crew. To prevent antagonists from just rushing it at the start of every round, it could be invincible until the timer begins or otherwise difficult to disable preemptively without alerting the crew.

What the beacon could actually call, or the percentages for what can be called is probably best left to developers to figure out. For example, standard NT ERT could respond on a lower chance than the less equipped upcoming Tau Ceti Foreign Legion (the weaker soon-to-be addition to the emergency response the station sees), or an unexpected hostile response could occur as raiders try to get to the Aurora first.

 

[Scheveningen]

i think this is a great idea. CM does this and it makes it so that ERT calls aren't always round-ending, but can also be reasonably counterplayed and even go in the favor of the round antagonists.

+1. i hope this idea is entertained soon

[sonicgotnuked]

+1

 

I remember this old idea and I think it just got forgotten. I want to see something like this due to ERT being really powerful in nature. 

[SeniorScore]

Sounds pretty good would booby trap/10

Having to put some effort into acquiring the eaters of salads most valid would be mucho better for antags under equipped to face them but still good enough to engage the rest of the station

[Pratepresidenten]

36 minutes ago, kyres1 said:

With the incoming ERT rework I figured I'd bring up this old idea again.

..I do remember something along those lines. Whatever happened to it? Im pretty sure that.. The core idea of the ability was already coded. I think Ezuo had done a lot on it?

[kyres1]

Just now, Pratepresidenten said:

..I do remember something along those lines. Whatever happened to it? Im pretty sure that.. The core idea of the ability was already coded. I think Ezuo had done a lot on it?

Fancy new emergency response teams are getting coded and ways to implement them are in the works right now. The TCFL is currently our alternative to NT ERT as it stands.

[Pratepresidenten]

Huuuuuuuuuh. Then by all means, revive this idea for great justice!

[sdtwbaj]

please yes, though maybe if the station's been at red alert for a certain amount of time the charge up time is reduced, to discourage going from blue alert to ERT

[Doxxmedearly]

Great idea, in my opinion. Really nice with the TCFL coming up, too. I think the idea of it maybe backup charging if the station's been at red is a good idea, as sdjkfhsdfsdjkfhbaj said. For instance, every ten minutes at red could reduce the charge time by a minute, as it's been on a sort of low-power "standby" charging, maybe to a maximum of five minutes. Something to think about. Love the idea, in any case.

[DeadLantern]

I feel like the crew should be able to do something physical with the distress beacon to launch it. Maybe, upon the two card swipes, a small room that is blast door locked instantly becomes open. There, the distress beacon is located and the console is there too. The station has to rig the distress beacon outside and on the station to launch it out, and then use the console to turn it on. This could give antags something to do mechanically to prevent the distress beacon, and requires crew support. It also presents multiple ways of a distress beacon being destroyed or delayed. You can destroy the console, forcing engineering to build another one, or switch off power. You can steal the beacon and hide it somewhere. You can destroy the rigging materials that is with the distress beacon. You can destroy it while its in space. This would add another level protection and planning.

[Itanimulli]

Yes thanks.

[CampinKiller]

I'd assume this would have to be in a very secure location? It shouldn't be impossible to disable, obviously, but it shouldn't be something that can be broken into within the span of a minute or two and utterly destroyed, considering we're talking about a distress beacon on a secure research station.

[Carver]

With how easily people get into the vault almost every round where ERT is actually needed (Merc/Heist mainly), I'm a bit uncertain on this.

How would a distress beacon be adequately secured from the groups it's intended to go against the most, would it basically be in the AI core?

[kyres1]

4 hours ago, Carver said:

With how easily people get into the vault almost every round where ERT is actually needed (Merc/Heist mainly), I'm a bit uncertain on this.

How would a distress beacon be adequately secured from the groups it's intended to go against the most, would it basically be in the AI core?

 

18 hours ago, CampinKiller said:

I'd assume this would have to be in a very secure location? It shouldn't be impossible to disable, obviously, but it shouldn't be something that can be broken into within the span of a minute or two and utterly destroyed, considering we're talking about a distress beacon on a secure research station.

 

One does not need to worry about the antagonists getting to the distress beacon itself - because regardless of turrets, doors, APC distance, etc, an EMP grenade and an RCD can get you anywhere. One needs to worry, as an antagonist, about tripping the alarms in place. It's much more difficult to stop a motion alarm than it is to stop a room literally full of turrets. With that said, disabling the beacon may need to take longer than just whacking the beacon until it breaks - maybe do something like the SAT and have a 12-step process with tools to move/dismantle/disable it. In this time security would have plenty of time to run there and secure it.

[Carver]

I see ERT most often needed when Security is just 1-2 people vs a full team of Heisters/Mercs. Situations where it's impossible for them to secure even one location are when ERT are needed the most.

[PoZe]

I think that we should keep the current version of calling ERT, because it uses bluespace transmission and if you just disable relays it will not work. 

But I would suggest also adding a distress beacon that is suggested in here, and let it require 1 head of staff ID or AI.

[DronzTheWolf]

Maybe make it so the distress beacon has no requirement for Head of Staff, but is in EVA/on the roof so only someone who is EVA trained or in a very dire situation can use it?

[kyres1]

On 24/12/2018 at 17:19, PoZe said:

think that we should keep the current version of calling ERT, because it uses bluespace transmission and if you just disable relays it will not work. 

But I would suggest also adding a distress beacon that is suggested in here, and let it require 1 head of staff ID or AI. 

This thread went inactive for a while but this is a good place to start in reviving it. Yes. This is a good compromise. Either this, or -

On 25/12/2018 at 22:33, DronzTheWolf said:

Maybe make it so the distress beacon has no requirement for Head of Staff, but is in EVA/on the roof so only someone who is EVA trained or in a very dire situation can use it?

this, would work best. The latter would work better in my opinion as antagonists would have an easy way to get to it and utilize it as an antagonist tool, but the former could add a layer of necessary difficulty to it.

[GreenBoi]

I think we should go for the EVA-tied Distress Beacon route for a couple reasons:

 

1) ICly, an EVA-bound beacon would be able to transmit it's signal much better than one all snug up inside, the signals would be able to spread slightly faster and much more broader in whatever semi-encrypted frequency it's using. This could be used to explain why Pirates would get it instead of ERT, maybe the signal just bounced to them while ERT was busy and before TCFL could launch

2) It makes sense as a company decision. Think about it, NT has ensured there is no way a crew member can be without internals with all the Emergency Lockers scattered about. Hell, there are so many lockers, we often forget about them and how easy it is to hide in one when being chased. But yeah, if NT has the beacon tied to the roof or some EVA position, it allows it to be used in a better emergency. Command isn't onstation 24/7 and sometimes only 1 is brought to the station, if that person is killed from a surprise Lii'dra attack or from the rare terrorist, the crew is FUCKED unless they get the spare....which was probably stolen. Having someone, a vaurca, or literally anyone (since everyone has access to 6-minute lasting EVA gear) be able to go full Die Hard and scale the station to get and activate the beacon allows for emergencies to be handled. It also enables ALL of the crew to call for help, not just 5 people who will be prime targets by external threats

 

3) Imagine being an antagonist and joining a party of people going EVA to activate the beacon with the thing being that you plan on backstabbing them. Maybe you push one off when they're separated, now they're going to crudely die, echoing your name into the void as the others are now cautious. You pick off another with a makeshift weapon you have and when they're about to activate the beacon, you whack them off. Now the beacon hasn't been activated and anyone else who comes out will have to deal with you. It'll give chills.

[ben10083]

6 hours ago, GreenBoi said:

Having someone, a vaurca, or literally anyone (since everyone has access to 6-minute lasting EVA gear) be able to go full Die Hard and scale the station to get and activate the beacon allows for emergencies to be handled. It also enables ALL of the crew to call for help, not just 5 people who will be prime targets by external threats

Would likely just encourage autism forts over the beacon and/or bumrushing beacon and camping it, and I feel this new system will worsen the problem of "call daddy centcom for win"

[PoZe]

We can make Distress beacon bring random team like CM has? So like there is a chance of Syndicate coming or pirates.

[kyres1]

18 minutes ago, PoZe said:

We can make Distress beacon bring random team like CM has? So like there is a chance of Syndicate coming or pirates.

That's the idea! Or, better yet, we can add more things if we so please. Friendly vox, angry pirates, syndicate commandoes, the possibilities are endless.