Remove the need to charge PDAs

[Hepatica]

I'm of the belief that PDAs having a battery while neat conceptually, is a feature that actively hampers roleplay in every single way relevant to said issue, and adds absolutely nothing in return. All it does is prevent people from messaging one another, and causes people to miss messages, which does not lead to any meaningful roleplay that I have ever seen. If you decide you want to hangout somewhere for a good chunk of the round where there's no charger or APC, or you go on an expedition, then you will simply lose your ability to use the object, either forcing you to move and likely disrupt the roleplay you are having or just accepting you don't get to use your PDA anymore. I personally do not find it to be immersive or enjoyable, instead simply an annoyance that actively impedes roleplay. 

One could argue realism, but I think the counter to that is that this is a game that is meant to be fun to play and roleplay in, and as a result we shouldn't have features that actively hamper roleplay while, in my opinion, adding nothing in return. Maybe I'm alone on this feeling, maybe others have had plenty of engaging roleplay spring up from not having their PDA charged, but I personally think it would be nothing but an improvement to remove the feature entirely.

[Acetrea]

I really like this idea. It means I can't ignore people and then be like "Oh... my PDA died!", but it would be fun to make some trash excuse like, "Oh... my PDA has a virus and won't let me message people!"

No, but really. PDA's dying is so boring. 

[Fyni]

PDAs dying is also a huge nerf to antags who use PDA uplinks, especially when in the brig which has no way to recharge it.

I do like the a chargers in the mess hall, it feels like it makes sense, but in practice is just means people hanging around near APCs / chargers.

There is RP to be gained from the low battery life, but the now somewhat default "everyone's PDA dies at the same moment" about 90 minutes into the round is abit odd.

[FabianK3]

Perhaps we can give everyone a different battery level at round start (70-100% for example?) to fix the unified death of PDAs and buff it's capacity?
The small capacity and synced battery death is annoying, but I do like the battery mechanic, it's nice RP fluff.

[evandorf]

1 hour ago, FabianK3 said:

Perhaps we can give everyone a different battery level at round start (70-100% for example?) to fix the unified death of PDAs and buff it's capacity?
The small capacity and synced battery death is annoying, but I do like the battery mechanic, it's nice RP fluff.

It would be good to make the larger  batteries and even wireless charging components fit in the PDAs. There’s a lot of components that don’t get used often because they only work in larger devices like laptops and consoles.

11 hours ago, Hepatica said:

I'm of the belief that PDAs having a battery while neat conceptually, is a feature that actively hampers roleplay in every single way relevant to said issue, and adds absolutely nothing in return. All it does is prevent people from messaging one another, and causes people to miss messages, which does not lead to any meaningful roleplay that I have ever seen. If you decide you want to hangout somewhere for a good chunk of the round where there's no charger or APC, or you go on an expedition, then you will simply lose your ability to use the object, either forcing you to move and likely disrupt the roleplay you are having or just accepting you don't get to use your PDA anymore. I personally do not find it to be immersive or enjoyable, instead simply an annoyance that actively impedes roleplay. 

One could argue realism, but I think the counter to that is that this is a game that is meant to be fun to play and roleplay in, and as a result we shouldn't have features that actively hamper roleplay while, in my opinion, adding nothing in return. Maybe I'm alone on this feeling, maybe others have had plenty of engaging roleplay spring up from not having their PDA charged, but I personally think it would be nothing but an improvement to remove the feature entirely.

On the whole, I wouldn’t want to simply remove the need to charge PDAs. I don't subscribe to the idea that the best RP is uninterrupted by gameplay mechanics. If we sand off all the rough edges and annoyances then the in-game world loses its texture. An argument could be made that you can manufacture problems like this by adding it into your RP purposefully but I prefer to deal with issues as they come up mechanically rather than script them into my RP. 

[greenjoe]

Maybe a combination of making all batteries last 1.5x long, and character PDAs starting between 70 and 100% charge?

[FabianK3]

2 hours ago, greenjoe said:

Maybe a combination of making all batteries last 1.5x long, and character PDAs starting between 70 and 100% charge?

How about 2x capacity? Would result in 180min of charge if I'm not mistaken. Would give you a fair chance to get through a basic round without your PDA dying, which I think would be neat if you charged your PDA before the shift (high roll on the initial charge).

[Hepatica]

I'd be happy to see any positive change to this mechanic regardless, though I do think Fyni brings up a very, very good point. I've personally had that issue where my PDA has died in the brig as traitor and I became unable to access things. If nothing else, a charger in there would be appreciated lol.

[FabianK3]

Besides the changes to the PDAs capacity / round start value - Where would outlets be fitting within the brig?
I'd assume the community area of the brig, cells sounds a bit much, no?

Would outlets pose any threat within a brig to security or the prisoners?

Otherwise outlets are easily added.

[wowzewow]

Even as a stickler for retaining as much features as possible, PDA charging is honestly just busywork with no real net benefit. The difference being is that most "fun" busywork is mainly player-driven : Janitors cleaning up messes made by other people, paperwork made by a Head of Staff, to be filled out by someone else, someway, somehow, you're interacting with someone.

 

PDA charging is just...there. It's ESPECIALLY bad during events or exoplanet expeditions since there's only outlets on the ships.

It doesn't contribute to anything, it actively hinders RP since you might miss an important PDA message if you haven't charged it, and you might actually MISS RP since you're chained to a wall charging the damn thing. Even so, at the very least, I think the battery life should be extended to at least match or exceed regular rounds, and have a little randomization. If a round goes on a little too long, you can go "oh, damn, my PDA's run out, it's been a long day", or it'll only go out if you actively try to waste battery, e.g. leaving the flashlight on, etc.

[Maxspells]

What about PDA battery lowering as you use it? Like, the more you message people and use apps or whatever the faster the battery discharges.

Also, maybe random battery charge levels when you spawn in or come in from lifts might be cool, instead of always being max charge. Part of what I think is so immersion breaking and annoying about PDA's is how everyones PDA dies relatively around the same time and it just makes it feel gamey instead of immersive. Idk just shooting out some ideas

[zha everything broken]

Need to do a little math to figure out what values make sense, but yeah the behavior needs a quick QoL pass. My INITIAL thoughts:

1. Discharge rate and shift start charge should be semi-randomized per-device. You should always be reasonably near to full charge at shift start, and discharge rates should only vary enough to keep devices from dying in sync.

2. Program usage should impact charge, like Maxspells suggests. An engineer keeping their PDA alive on the alarms app in their pocket at all times, or Josie sending ~2-5 chat messages per minute, should both use more power than someone who leaves it idle in their bag the whole round.

[evandorf]

37 minutes ago, zha everything broken said:

Need to do a little math to figure out what values make sense, but yeah the behavior needs a quick QoL pass. My INITIAL thoughts:

1. Discharge rate and shift start charge should be semi-randomized per-device. You should always be reasonably near to full charge at shift start, and discharge rates should only vary enough to keep devices from dying in sync.

2. Program usage should impact charge, like Maxspells suggests. An engineer keeping their PDA alive on the alarms app in their pocket at all times, or Josie sending ~2-5 chat messages per minute, should both use more power than someone who leaves it idle in their bag the whole round.

Other suggestions for your consideration.

- Improve the tech support role by giving them a console with access to research levels that prints out improved components for PDAs including larger batteries and wireless charging.

- Add induction charging between PDAs to share a charge (similar to some cell phones) and even other devices in the modular computer tree; laptops, consoles, tablets, ect.

- Give service workers small, handheld induction chargers that work with personal electronics as a service they can offer.

I had some other ideas but then I slept. I'll update this if I remember.

[Hepatica]

I really like the idea of Service workers having something that can charge other people's devices, actually. Would give them more to assist with on expeditions/give more of an incentive or reason for them to go in the first place. Anything that can improve the tech support role, similarily, sounds great to me.