Horizon Retrofit #45912 - New Ship New You

[Hunt]

Another PR from Huntime, this time working alongside @ReadThisNamePlz for a majority of this. This PR will serve to change the telecommunications, gravity generator, maintenance-drone fabrication, AI core/chamber, captains office, bridge-crewman space, and a few other areas I may have forgotten. A PR for this should be on GitHub by 04/18/2023, the thread is so we start getting feedback ahead of time and can hopefully push the PR to merge with relative ease.

 

Please feel free and do provide all feedback, these are major changes (regarding AI, comms, and captain's office); however, the captain's office images should be added later today (4/16/2023) when Read has time to upload their concept.

 

New gravity-generator location:

Spoiler

• Airlocks will reflect access so engineers can easily access the area through a maintenance shaft or atmospherics if access allows.

Telecommunications

Spoiler

• Telecommunications is now located across from starboard propulsion
• This provides easier access by engineers who need/do have to fix it during power issues or other events/antags
• The windows will all start with shutters down

Deck-1 Engineering section:

Spoiler

Maintenance Drone Fabrication:

Spoiler

Research Maintenance:

Spoiler

• Maintenance behind research will contain something like a construction site and other nondescript features; perfect for antag shenanigans
• Ignore the space-tile beside the elevator.
• This space will serve to either aid antag chaos by providing more maintenance alongside a future/planned update to the research map by giving us more space to use towards the aft rather than the nacelles.

AI Chamber:

Spoiler

• The AI chamber will sit aft of deck-3, connected to Dreamy's new maintenance additions.
• I am against having a space walk, as it will impede the speed of cyborgs who spawn in the AI upload from entering the round easily and also enjoy the concept/visuals of a glass-walled space bridge.
• Moving the AI is a necessity to clear up the aft section of research for maintenance space for a future research remap, in about a month after other projects, in addition to deck-1 so I can debloat the port side of the Horizon.
• This will also aid in antag shenanigans who perhaps want to interlard the AI as the chamber is a tad less secure but subverting an AI will still require far more effort to get the cards and then get to the upload.

Bridge Changes:

Spoiler

• This is a placeholder image. Read is working on their concept for the area.
• The Captain's office will move away from the fore of the bridge and fill up/occupy some of the space here.
• The present space taken up by the Captain's office will become the Bridge crewman work area/space.
• If possible, consular/rep offices may be moved inside the Bridge alongside the meeting room moving.
• Read should have their concept up by this afternoon on 4/16/2023

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by Hunt
Uploaded proper AI upload concept

[White Void]

Will the RD still be able to acess the new tcomms locations though?

It's their job to upkeep it as much as it the CE's

[Hunt]

2 minutes ago, White Void said:

Will the RD still be able to acess the new tcomms locations though?

It's their job to upkeep it as much as it the CE's

They will, I have pathed the maintenance area for the RD to be able to access telecommunications in the event they need to/want to.

Typically, engineers are the ones responding on-scene to fix telecommunications in my experience, this is simply to aid them as we usually have an engineer online over that of a director.

[Sparky_hotdog]

All of this looks amazing! I will admit, I was quite excited by the prospect of having to go EVA to access the AI chamber, but I'm not going to die on that hill. Overall, these changes are very neat, particularly those in engineering.

[Hunt]

6 minutes ago, Sparky_hotdog said:

All of this looks amazing! I will admit, I was quite excited by the prospect of having to go EVA to access the AI chamber, but I'm not going to die on that hill. Overall, these changes are very neat, particularly those in engineering.

I am still debating whether having a space walk is necessary, so if a majority of players still want that I am more than pleased to provide such. I will just have to move the cyborg-spawn points at round start and late join to the drone-manufacturing area, so cyborg players don't have to waste extra round time moving through airlocks, going EVA, and then back into the Horizon! We will see, I appreciate the feedback though!

[Boggle08]

Bless you and Read for those telecommunications changes. I was initially eager to see the devices spaced out, then I noticed it was all parked right next to engineering.

Out of curiosity, what's under the AI core? We don't have to worry about people cheesing it by dropping rods from another sublevel, but I could probably take it out by detonating a single-tank halfcap directly underneath the core. Which might be too jank.

[Dreamix]

32 minutes ago, Boggle08 said:

Bless you and Read for those telecommunications changes. I was initially eager to see the devices spaced out, then I noticed it was all parked right next to engineering.

Out of curiosity, what's under the AI core? We don't have to worry about people cheesing it by dropping rods from another sublevel, but I could probably take it out by detonating a single-tank halfcap directly underneath the core. Which might be too jank.

The core would be (almost?) directly above the SM lol (pretty sure).

---

My thoughts for now:

I think these changes are okay, but I don't play engineering or AI, so I don't really care all that much about the new locations of AI core or tcomms. AI core is looking nice though. More maintenance is nice too. I'm waiting to see and comment on the bridge changes.

[Hunt]

1 hour ago, Boggle08 said:

Bless you and Read for those telecommunications changes. I was initially eager to see the devices spaced out, then I noticed it was all parked right next to engineering.

Out of curiosity, what's under the AI core? We don't have to worry about people cheesing it by dropping rods from another sublevel, but I could probably take it out by detonating a single-tank halfcap directly underneath the core. Which might be too jank.

As Dreamix said, the core is basically above the Supermatter directly. If the SM delams, AI is probably gone/damaged heavily (IMO gives some chaos/high stakes so the research director will rush to card the AI. Additionally, if the SM delams usually we are looking at an evac or round end anyways.

I am open to other suggestions for the core, I would gladly put it above the Tesla but there is no space there. My initial idea was to place it where telecommunications currently is, but that did not seem to be desired via discussions in the coding-channel. So if anyone has other suggestions I am more than open towards moving the AI core there, but I would like to keep it EVA, that was a neat suggestion and I like the gameplay that will come around with space-bridges/EVA.

[Boggle08]

1 hour ago, Hunt said:

I am open to other suggestions for the core, I would gladly put it above the Tesla but there is no space there. My initial idea was to place it where telecommunications currently is, but that did not seem to be desired via discussions in the coding-channel. So if anyone has other suggestions I am more than open towards moving the AI core there, but I would like to keep it EVA, that was a neat suggestion and I like the gameplay that will come around with space-bridges/EVA.

It might be better, having the core be positioned as you have it. There isn't much incentive to interact with the AI normally. If the core is unrecoverable, or if the AI is in active danger of getting struck by other environmental hazards such as ordinance or meteors, it can throw open the doors and get someone to unbolt and move it.

Edited April 17, 2023 by Boggle08
grammar

[Hunt]

>>> Update
The mapping is done for the most part, going through Bridge stuff now but Read was busy, there is no rush obviously. PR should be up tomorrowish.

[Zelmana]

Where did the Captain's office end up?

[Dreamix]

 

1 hour ago, Zelmana said:

Where did the Captain's office end up?

"Bridge Changes:" at the end of the first post.

 

It's not finished ofc. But. I cannot say I like this layout:
- Captain's area is looking really huge, taking like almost a quarter of the bridge, and it looks like it'd have a weird shape too.
- Corporate liaison/representative office is kinda okay, I guess. They're trusted to live in the bridge, as they're SCC. I'd prefer them to be visible from outside of the bridge though.
- Consular office has no place inside the bridge. They're not there to assist command, and are only invited into the bridge if command is feeling nice to them, and can be kicked out for any reason they like. Consuls primarily deal with other crew, and are there to roleplay with them. Consular office should be visible from the open-access hallways, so crew even know who's in, as consuls often hang up their flags on their windows, and so crew can just knock on the window/door and come inside. 
- I'd also really like to see two consular offices. This layout pretty much locks consuls to just one office, with no room or way to expand to a second one.
- I'd prefer the storage room to be a little bit bigger, as right now it's going to be very cramped with the tables and lockers, or whatever can be put there, now or in the future.
- I also do not like the 2-tile-wide hallway between the meeting room and the main bridge hallway. Not sure what could be done about it though.
- The journalist office is huge, for some reason.
- I really hate the stargazer. It just looks weird there and out of place. I'd really love to see it gone, and replaced with something that actually has any function or purpose. The stargazer takes up at least 5x5 tiles of space. I hate it.

 

Alternative layout to this one, that I quickly mocked up, that I think would be better.

 

Edited April 24, 2023 by Dreamix

[Zelmana]

I agree with Dreamix that consulars should not be in the Bridge.

Additionally, as stated in their sidethread with an alternative suggestion, Captain seems pushed aside. I am biased, but the bridge crewman's office having a nice look out into the expanse while the Captain is shoved back into a closet seems fucky wucky.

[Girdio]

1 hour ago, Zelmana said:

Additionally, as stated in their sidethread with an alternative suggestion, Captain seems pushed aside. I am biased, but the bridge crewman's office having a nice look out into the expanse while the Captain is shoved back into a closet seems fucky wucky.

I'm personally partial to the BC spot proposed to Huntie, versus the larger one Dreamy made. There's not really any use of a large Bridge Crew 'office', and if someone wanted to RP paperwork as bridge crew, they can simply use the meeting room or the bridge proper.

 

That said, pushing the Captain's office (as seen in both Huntie and Dreamy's bridge) leads to one major change, that being the Captain's office becomes decisively more hard to break into. Currently, the Captain's office can be silently broken into while a BC, XO, and Captain are all sitting in their respective chairs (assuming the BC is sitting in the helm or sensor chair), with none of them noticing the Captain's office is getting looted. Shutting it off from windows prevents that, and forces antags to either avoid nabbing the spare ID, or find an alternative to. If that is positive or negative is something that has to be answered, as it makes things harder for antags but possibly makes people be more creative (or, it just makes them less likely to play antag).

[Dreamix]

Just had a thought. I think it would be better to split the changes into different PRs. One being engineering changes, another being AI, and the last being bridge layout.

Why? So this as a whole is not stuck in discussion hell, as the bridge layout is kinda divisive, and so it's going to block everything else.

Like for the engineering changes, with tcomms moved out of the bridge, you could fill that part of the bridge with firefoam, or add some crates and building materials, or literally anything there.

Edited April 25, 2023 by Dreamix

[Zelmana]

19 hours ago, Girdio said:

I'm personally partial to the BC spot proposed to Huntie, versus the larger one Dreamy made. There's not really any use of a large Bridge Crew 'office', and if someone wanted to RP paperwork as bridge crew, they can simply use the meeting room or the bridge proper.

 

That said, pushing the Captain's office (as seen in both Huntie and Dreamy's bridge) leads to one major change, that being the Captain's office becomes decisively more hard to break into. Currently, the Captain's office can be silently broken into while a BC, XO, and Captain are all sitting in their respective chairs (assuming the BC is sitting in the helm or sensor chair), with none of them noticing the Captain's office is getting looted. Shutting it off from windows prevents that, and forces antags to either avoid nabbing the spare ID, or find an alternative to. If that is positive or negative is something that has to be answered, as it makes things harder for antags but possibly makes people be more creative (or, it just makes them less likely to play antag).

There's the place on Deck 1 for crewman to gather and do stuff. It is, however, painfully away from the bridge.

[Captain Gecko]

No big issues with all of this beside the Consulars/Reps as people already said. They should NOT be in the bridge. A lot of the consul roleplay I had as a consular was with people spotting my flag and knocking at my door. By putting them in the bridge, the only way for these two to have proper roleplay with others is to actually summon people to their office, I can say for certain that it will never be done. It's too much effort and, aside from doing paperwork with others, it's much easier to discuss things in the bar lounge or whatever, then.

This is also especially important since the Consulars are not even part of the crew technically, they don't have access to the bridge by themselves! I don't know about the rep but I assume it's more or less similar.

[Zelmana]

Some consulates have negative goals as well. Golden Deep for example.