Fire and Glory Posted October 10, 2015 Posted October 10, 2015 I also use autolathes to make camera assemblies in the instance that I want to put them in maintenance, replacing the metal and glass used with my own to not break the interfere law. It all looks good to me now.
Guest Posted October 10, 2015 Posted October 10, 2015 I'm still not convinced, drones weren't ment to be full on characters or replace the crew or be better than/replace the current borgs.
Damarik Posted October 11, 2015 Author Posted October 11, 2015 I'm still not convinced, drones weren't ment to be full on characters or replace the crew or be better than/replace the current borgs. I'm not trying to make them be better than or replace the current borgs or crew. I'm just trying to give them more playability. To give people a reason to 'want' to play them, rather than just have them be accessories to the station. I really do enjoy playing the little guys, but it's kind of a downer when you've got all these other players on and they're just supposed to 'ignore you' and you 'ignore them'. I've had some genuinely interesting moments interacting with the crew, despite the basic "Drones do not exist" mentality. From being a hat to damaging myself by saluting with my wrench (and being a bit overzealous about it -WHAM!-), assisting Engineering without their notice and getting praised for it later... I think the best compliment I got as a drone so far was my work on cleaning up all the lattice work around the Solars, and I had to respond LOOC because 'Drones Don't Exist'. In one shift (2-4 hours), I can wire the solars and clean them up, put up additional lighting in every maintenance access, and still respond to one or two minor emergencies. Why do I do these things? Aside from it being the drone's role to maintain and upgrade the station to the best of their ability; In the entire time I've been playing a drone constantly, I've only ever received 2 requests from the drone console in Engineering...and by the time I got there, the players were already fixing the reason for my presence being requested. At this rate, the Drones might as well just be removed, because they literally serve no purpose. "Oh, but they're there for players who want to play without RP interaction!" Yeah. That might be great if you could be recognized for your efforts...or if people remembered that the Drone Request console even existed. I have to ask, straight to the Admins: What would you be okay with changing, if anything at all? That would make this thread a lot easier to manage.
jackfractal Posted October 11, 2015 Posted October 11, 2015 Hmm... Expanding who can create drone requests might be interesting. If engineers had pda carts that let them create requests remotely that might see more play.
Damarik Posted October 11, 2015 Author Posted October 11, 2015 Hmm... Expanding who can create drone requests might be interesting. If engineers had pda carts that let them create requests remotely that might see more play. I wouldn't just limit it to Engineers. Perchance putting one inside the Requests Console in every department? That way, it's not only Engineers that can call em. Regular staff can make the discretionary call of whether to call a Drone (minor problem: floor tiles, lightbulbs) or major problems requiring Borgs or full on Engineers.
Dreamix Posted October 11, 2015 Posted October 11, 2015 Hmm... Expanding who can create drone requests might be interesting. If engineers had pda carts that let them create requests remotely that might see more play. I wouldn't just limit it to Engineers. Perchance putting one inside the Requests Console in every department? That way, it's not only Engineers that can call em. Regular staff can make the discretionary call of whether to call a Drone (minor problem: floor tiles, lightbulbs) or major problems requiring Borgs or full on Engineers. I know, drones are efficient little things, that can repair, modify and improve the station faster and better than borgs and proper engineers. But, I would still want to call an engineer, chat for a while, maybe tell a joke, than to call a mindless and silent drone that cannot even ping at me because of its laws. I think you are trying to make drones playable, trying too hard.
Lady_of_Ravens Posted October 11, 2015 Posted October 11, 2015 I usually forget about drones and I don't know as I've ever used the drone ping. Is that an actually good way to get a drone to respond? Because to be honest, getting something fixed quickly and efficiently without a lot of unnecessary chatter is exactly what I need rather often while playing the AI.
Killerhurtz Posted October 12, 2015 Posted October 12, 2015 Yeah - there's three major 'orders' from Drones: infestation messages from Central, repairs/improvements done by scanning/knowing the station (wiring solars is a big one) and requests from the Drone console. Problem is that there's only a single place to request it from... Maybe if we added that option to the Requests panel?
Damarik Posted October 12, 2015 Author Posted October 12, 2015 I usually forget about drones and I don't know as I've ever used the drone ping. Is that an actually good way to get a drone to respond? Because to be honest, getting something fixed quickly and efficiently without a lot of unnecessary chatter is exactly what I need rather often while playing the AI. See, thing is: Drones can hear Robot Talk. You need something done; we can hear you...but we can't respond because our Synthesizers are rigged to only 'hear' it...not reply.
Damarik Posted October 15, 2015 Author Posted October 15, 2015 It has come to my attention that either through pure belief in the idea, or even through sheer joking, that the people controlling Drones are not 'players'. I beg to differ so hard that I've about given up on this thread now. Just because something wasn't meant to be a regular character aboard the station doesn't mean it's always going to stay that way. You will eventually have people who will arrive, see those 'NPC' PC's, and think: Oh, that's pretty cool. I wanna do that for a while! Well, case in point. I am one such person who does exactly that. I find the little used niches and wrap a character around them. I develop story and personality for those over-looked roles. Why? Because I find it enjoyable. Because I genuinely want to play those roles. However: there are those of you who are so adamant about stagnation of these things that weren't 'meant to be' that now, whether joking or not, you have offered offense. I am very much a player. The legitimacy of my character should not be defined by whether or not it was or was not meant to be a 'playable role' with any content. So I want to play a tiny, 4 legged machine that is slightly different from the rest. How is this any different from those of you who want a special scarf, or a torn up jacket because it defines a specific point in your character's past? Think about that next time you feel like saying that my character isn't a 'player character'.
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