Ghost Role - Holograms

[Marlon P.]

We have a holodeck with holocrabs, so holopeople make sense.

However, the holodeck is a constrained area and not often used.

Therefore,

A hologram ghostrole should be tethered to our existing holographic projectors in the floor. They'd be able to speak and have minor ability to interact with wireless devices similar to a pAI. If they float too far away from the holopad they fizzle out and have to teleport back.

Happyfox and tron got me the idea. They deserve all the credit..... but i get the money.

Edited September 6, 2021 by Marlon P.

[NerdyVampire]

I am usually a fan of ghostroles, but I am not sure what the purpose of the holograms would be on station. What's the reason NT allow them? Aren't they just a nuisance to the workers? Do they have laws and how would we get rid of them if they were acting out?

[Peppermint]

If people can't be trusted to play rats, I'm really not sure I like the idea of actual, talking throwaway characters. Sure, it's not a bad idea by any means, but I can already feel the headache they'd cause forming.

[Marlon P.]

Were pAIs and other ghost roles removed?

[Alberyk]

1 hour ago, Marlon P. said:

Were pAIs and other ghost roles removed?

Only rats were disabled.

[Butterrobber202]

4 hours ago, Peppermint said:

If people can't be trusted to play rats, I'm really not sure I like the idea of actual, talking throwaway characters. Sure, it's not a bad idea by any means, but I can already feel the headache they'd cause forming.

Rats were a problem because they could have a physical impact on the round. These Holograms sound like the opposite, with only being able to speak and emote. I'm for it.

[Carver]

On 07/09/2021 at 08:56, Peppermint said:

If people can't be trusted to play rats, I'm really not sure I like the idea of actual, talking throwaway characters. Sure, it's not a bad idea by any means, but I can already feel the headache they'd cause forming.

Rats had near-0 RP expectations and could essentially soft-griff a chef by biting chunks out of every piece of food the chef makes. They were also a huge pain in the ass to get rid of due to their ability to both hide and respawn in random spots in maint.

[Colfer]

This seems like a good idea but only for specific circumstances, I do not believe they should freely roam the station, antagonists are already having to avoid 7 actively in use cameras, the AI, and also upwards of 20-40 crewmembers, they don't need throwaway wandering spirits to dodge as well.

I think this would be better suited as lawbound holographic projections that are only available in the holodeck (OR) at upgraded holopads. To further expand (or contract, depending on your view) of your vision, heres how I think it should work. 

Default holopads cannot project holographic persons.
Holographic persons can be projected in the holodeck, clicking a button opens a ghost roll and you can have up to 10 holographic persons at a time, clicking the button again closes the ghost roles and you can dispel holograms by shutting off the holodeck to remove all of them, or removing them from a list via the holodeck pad. They cannot leave the holodeck after being projected there
Holographic persons can fully interact with their surrounding environment with no limits besides their 2 hands and take the appearance of the loadout slot of the person in the role.
Holographic persons can project to upgraded holopads, holopads have 5 microlasers and all of them need to be tier 3 to project holographic persons. After projection is complete, the holographic person cannot walk out of range of the holopad.
All holographic persons get the "Despawn" verb just like ODIN personnel, and stop holopad transmissions when despawned by themselves or somebody else.
All holographic persons in the holodeck are allowed to form holographic weapons in a limited range, such as laser tag guns, energy swords and boxing gloves. (Obviously, these do not deal damage unless safeties are disabled. This could also happen to emagged holopads)
All holographic persons are bound by a couple laws;
1. Do not under any circumstances bring any form of life, synthetic or organic to minor or moderate harm without consent. Serious or irreversible harm cannot be done under any circumstances. Holographic persons are not a form of life.
2. Obey commands from any form of life, synthetic or organic, and answer any questions as truthfully as possible within your skillset and knowledge, answers or actions which may violate the privacy of another individual are strictly prohibited and cannot be answered.

Holographic persons also get a prompt at the start of their life as a hologram that informs them that they are not a sapient being and meerly a computerized program, and that they should not concern themselves with tasks outside of their lawset or commands, such as reporting murders, break ins or otherwise acting as a crewmember and giving antagonists another set of eyes to avoid. 
With the lawset, holographic persons would still be able to do things such as training in CQC, boxing, personal socialization or generally populating the holodeck or where-ever they are at, without feeling like "Just another risk" to an antagonist

Edited September 8, 2021 by Colfer

[CourierBravo]

I like this concept, and especially Colfer's edition to it. I'd love to see more ghost roles in game, and this would be an excellent way to utilize the feature.

My only concern was, people sometimes suck and do stuff like they did with rats. Colfer's idea pretty much squares that away. I'd love for this to be implemented

[Caelphon]

Sounds fun, but unsure how the difficulty to sprite / code such a thing?

[greenjoe]

Sprites wouldn't be an issue

There are already holograms that can show a character.

But yes

Code is the bigger issue.

[Marlon P.]

I like Colfers rundown. I'd only feel bad if theyre a role exclusively locked to a 6x9 room. But if its a valued addition then there's always a potential future with a bigger holodeck. As a ghost role in how i originally saw it it'd still give some fun for volunteers. And glee when the safeties are disabled. >;)

[CourierBravo]

I'm sure we could manage to pay a handful of people to spend some time on this project. Its a lot, but I really doubt its gonna be too hard. We could probably repurpose parts of the holopad code, but IDK. I'd be willing to drop a little into the bucket here in a couple weeks.