Remove Rampant Brand Intelligence Event

[GreenBoi]

This event is incredibly annoying and stupid. It forces vendors to start throwing their products at you and can only be fixed if you know the red light for the vendor. It often results in piles of items around a room because engineers didn't get to it. No one finds it fun, it's not much of a challenge- it's just a boring chore like having to make and move shields in the past.

[Alberyk]

Kinda agree, but that would be another event down the drain, and that means more other events happening. I believe that a replacement should be suggested as well.

[geeves]

Wezzy had a great idea where this event would simply cause vendors to shut down for some time, instead of flinging their shit everywhere. Perhaps it can dispense premium stuff as well if you hit it while in the shutdown state?

[GreenBoi]

The shutdown one sounds cooler and less of an issue than it flinging around objects, I'd be fine for it if you can easily fix it as an engineer or whatever.  Maybe one of those currently useless lights in the vendors (I think just cyan) is the lockdown one.

[Gangstafary]

Not supporting. The actual functionality of the vending machine to throw up things allow for some obscure antaggery mechanics, and then directly going to the event leading to vending machines doing that on their own can help you get free food or to access some stuff you wouldn't be able without it.

Also, contrary to what the OP suggests, you don't need to know which wire is related to the red wire. Just cut and mend them all (with insulateds, for the love of god) or just have an engineer who's bored have something to do for five minutes.

[GreenBoi]

It's not based on the red wire, it's based on the red light, which happens to only be disabled/enabled from cutting & mending or pulsing.

 

Antags can already hack vendors for free items by being smart and using remote signallers or by choosing to play a game heavily in their favor (there's 5 wires, and only one of them shocks). Most vendors affected won't even benefit an antag.

[canon35]

I would prefer Wezzy's idea of it shutting down and giving items if you hit it. Easier to steal from vendors, not as annoying to fix. Much better than shit being flung around, you can still try to grab all the contents from it with relative ease, 

[Screemers]

On 02/01/2020 at 00:29, Alberyk said:

Kinda agree, but that would be another event down the drain, and that means more other events happening. I believe that a replacement should be suggested as well.

What about throwing stuff violently at the people using the machine instead of everyone in proximity? Damages from these items could be increased a little too so engineer would have a reason to get to it.

There is nothing likes having your soda can violently thrown at your face with an insult from the machine in bonus to support you.

[Gangstafary]

23 hours ago, Screemers said:

What about throwing stuff violently at the people using the machine instead of everyone in proximity? Damages from these items could be increased a little too so engineer would have a reason to get to it.

There is nothing likes having your soda can violently thrown at your face with an insult from the machine in bonus to support you.

Absolutely not. It's already dumb that you can get your chest bruised by a candy bar or a labcoat. Cans, however, I wouldn't mind.

Edited January 4, 2020 by Gangstafary

[GreenBoi]

bump

[Omicega]

Can I bump this without being crucified? I hope so.

This is event is doubly annoying for bartenders now that fragile glassy items smash when thrown. It is also infinitely more annoying for IPCs, who can get whacked with a vendor-tossed item and have to go bug a roboticist to fix the red overlay they get treated to for the rest of the round.

I don't know if I've ever seen rampant brand intelligence add something in the way other events can. Carp migrations and spider outbreaks stimulate some kind of interaction, the blob pulls engineering into the mix with an emitter, and so on. RBI doesn't really do anything other than irritate you and make you PDA an engineer for minor busywork.

[Boggle08]

I cringe every time the poor hydroponicist's nutri-vend breaks whenever engineering is busy, lazy, or absent during a round, because it entails them losing all of their soil bottles since they break on impact. Since the vending machines start from the top and work their way down, medical probably gets fucked over too, since the dylovene and innaprov bottles are close to the top of the screen IIRC.

RBI gives engineering something to do, maybe just having it provide a less intrusive effect would be better. I don't like seeing a department's stock of crucial equipment slowly disappear because it's all stored in glass.

[Wildkins]

I'll take a look at changing this event once VueUI vending machines get merged.

[Carver]

I'd have no problem if it didn't break shit. It gave stuff like the debugger a reason to exist.