CryoBot

[Nanako]

Whenever the server is visible, and sometimes even when it's not, we seem to have a plague of brand new SSD characters lying everywhere. That is, people who logged out and just left their character there.

They clog up medbay like hair in the sink. Taking them to cryo manually is generally a pain, and often not something medical staff can be spared for. It's especially complicated when they're injured. Treating them is ethically the right thing to do, but in practical terms its throwing time, resources, and roleplay into a hole.

There's often also a complaint about roboticists not having something to do. So here's an idea to help ameliorate both those problems at once

The cryobot would be somewhat high cost among bots, built from the following items

1x Mounted Sleeper

2x Robot Arms

1x Health Analyser

1x Proximity Sensor

1x Tracking beacon, or some similar slightly tech-y item.

The cryobot would be an automated little machine that wheels around collecting SSD people from all over the ship, and puts them into cryo storage. If all the storage beds are full, it'd leave them on the cryobat floor for now, and come back to put them into a sleeper as soon as one is available

Only people who've been SSD for a certain amount of time would be eligible for pickup. Maybe 5-15 minutes, adjustable of course

It'd have all-access like a borg, and drive around wherever is needed to pick up SSD characters from anywhere on the station proper.

Anyone resting on a bed would be ignored. If you don't want to get picked up for some reason, go have a nap in the dorms

Whenever the bot has nobody to pick up, it would return to the medbay lobby and stay there until someone falls SSD, as that's where SSD people tend to congregate

Edited March 24, 2016 by Guest

[Guest Menown]

STATION. IT'S A STATION.

[Carver]

The cryobot would be an automated little machine that wheels around collecting SSD people from all over the ship, and puts them into cryo storage. If all the storage beds are full, it'd leave them on the cryobat floor for now, and come back to put them into a sleeper as soon as one is available

Only people who've been SSD for a certain amount of time would be eligible for pickup. Maybe 5-15 minutes, adjustable of course

It'd have all-access like a borg, and drive around wherever is needed to pick up SSD characters from anywhere on the station proper.

Anyone resting on a bed would be ignored. If you don't want to get picked up for some reason, go have a nap in the dorms

I would get mad if my internet went out for 10-20 minutes and when I came back some automated bot shoved me into cryo. Part of the game is that people will log out, sometimes they may or may not come back, but they should always be given time. If anything there should be a clientside toggle for if you want to be picked up by one of these things, or the timer should be a minimum 40-60 minutes before the letting-antags-into-secure-areas bot goes after the person.

[Nanako]

I would get mad if my internet went out for 10-20 minutes and when I came back some automated bot shoved me into cryo.

 

There's also a pretty decent chance some non-automated person will shove you into cryo. Nobody knows about your connection issues

 

Part of the game is that people will log out, sometimes they may or may not come back, but they should always be given time.

It does give you time. As specified the cryobot would only take peolple who've been SSD for some configureable amount of time. And once you're in cryo, there's also a 15 minute delay before you're removed

 

or the timer should be a minimum 40-60 minutes before the letting-antags-into-secure-areas bot goes after the person.

far too long, pointlesly restrictive. The bot would just idle in medbay the whole round and not pick up anyone

with a 5 minute timer on the bot, you have a total of 20 minutes afk time before you're removed. If you need to be afk from a game for longer than that, why are you even playing it at all? But if you do, go sleep in a bed. Done

Maybe you get disconnected and intend to return, but your internet is down for the night, an d you won't come back. Should we let your corpse sit around medbay wasting your class slot and blocking someone else from it forever? An online game is about other people, not just your own comfort

[Carver]

I would get mad if my internet went out for 10-20 minutes and when I came back some automated bot shoved me into cryo.

 

There's also a pretty decent chance some non-automated person will shove you into cryo. Nobody knows about your connection issues

Perhaps you may lack social contact but that isn't the case for everyone, it isn't difficult to contact a staff member (Or someone ingame who can contact them for you) and inform them that you're having temporary issues and to ensure you're not cryo'd.

 

Part of the game is that people will log out, sometimes they may or may not come back, but they should always be given time.

It does give you time. As specified the cryobot would only take peolple who've been SSD for some configureable amount of time. And once you're in cryo, there's also a 15 minute delay before you're removed

It certainly needs to give you more than five minutes, it personally can take my computer an upwards of 20-30 minutes to reboot, with extra time for just getting BYOND running and back into the game. Why should people with slower machines get punished?

 

or the timer should be a minimum 40-60 minutes before the letting-antags-into-secure-areas bot goes after the person.

far too long, pointlesly restrictive. The bot would just idle in medbay the whole round and not pick up anyone

with a 5 minute timer on the bot, you have a total of 20 minutes afk time before you're removed. If you need to be afk from a game for longer than that, why are you even playing it at all? But if you do, go sleep in a bed. Done

Maybe you get disconnected and intend to return, but your internet is down for the night, an d you won't come back. Should we let your corpse sit around medbay wasting your class slot and blocking someone else from it forever? An online game is about other people, not just your own comfort

Noone's internet is ever down for an entire night, and as mentioned above, 20 minutes simply isn't enough, some people have slow machines whilst others have to deal with real life on occasion. What you don't seem to realize is we have crew transfers just for this purpose. When people pile up, it might just be time to start the round anew and give everyone available a fresh start.

This isn't an MMO where an auto-logout is required to ensure lack of cluttering, it's a game that runs roughly 2-3 hour sessions that reset themselves completely between each session. The only roles in particular need of watching for cryo are Heads of Staff, and even then such a confounded system isn't needed. Keep in mind that the pathing for AI in this game is truly fucking horrible, Beepsky constantly vents hallways or gets stuck on the way to one of his beacons, whilst the other bots quite often lag the game to Hell and back or get stuck on windows. If you really expect a bot that can seek people out reliably no matter what little crack or crevice they're in, you'll be in for a Hell of a surprise when it gets stuck as often as Beepsky or a Mulebot.

[Dreamix]

I wouldn't want people to get forcefully put into cryo with all of their equipment they had. Imagine the missing security belts, stamps, all the nice things.

It's not that hard and time consuming to strip an SSD person off the things you don't want to disappear and dragging them to cryo.

[LordFowl]

A lot of people are concerned about the ethics of the device, but what of its practicality? Would it just randomly patrol, letting people into secure areas willy nilly but ignoring SSDs in isolated locations? Or would it auto path to any SSD it can detect, venting the entire station as it bravely propels itself to rescue the SSD miner on the asteroid?

[Nanako]

Perhaps you may lack social contact but that isn't the case for everyone, it isn't difficult to contact a staff member (Or someone ingame who can contact them for you) and inform them that you're having temporary issues and to ensure you're not cryo'd.

If you have internet to talk to other players, you have internet to play. i fail to see the issue

 

It certainly needs to give you more than five minutes, it personally can take my computer an upwards of 20-30 minutes to reboot, with extra time for just getting BYOND running and back into the game. Why should people with slower machines get punished?

That is insane. Are you running on a toaster?

A computer that takes 30 minutes to reboot is an abnormality, it's not reasonable to expect everyone else to accomodate your soviet-era hardware. The round is only two hours, generally. That's an absolute standard. If you're going to be out for a quarter of it because of a crash, the problem is on your end.

Most cases i see of people going SSD, they're back within a couple of minutes, often under 30 seconds. i've never heard of anyone taking that long to get running again

 

Noone's internet is ever down for an entire night,

Mine is sometimes.

 

and as mentioned above, 20 minutes simply isn't enough, some people have slow machines whilst others have to deal with real life on occasion.

It's long enough for everyone to get annoyed with their SSD body breaking immersion and wanting it gone. And considering that many jobs have limited slots (especially heads of staff, which have only one), you being SSD and squatting it can have a major impact on the round.

So what if you come back as a ghost? Just respawn, RP that you went for a cryonap and just woke up

 

What you don't seem to realize is we have crew transfers just for this purpose. When people pile up, it might just be time to start the round anew and give everyone available a fresh start

No, we have cryo for that purpose. Crew transfers are for ending the round and playing a new mode. The people who are SSD don't care, they've closed the client and gone to do something else. Those who keep voting to continue the round clearly want to play.

 

The only roles in particular need of watching for cryo are Heads of Staff, and even then such a confounded system isn't needed.

Also chemists, roboticists, warden, chaplain in cult rounds, cyborgs, and the AI., The latter two can't be cryo'd sadly, but these people being SSD significantly affects the round in a negative way

Keep in mind that the pathing for AI in this game is truly fucking horrible, Beepsky constantly vents hallways or gets stuck on the way to one of his beacons,

It needs work, it has needed work for a while. And hopefully it will be worked on. I don't see why the poor state of a current feature should affect the addition of a new one, it just adds a prerequisite, and imo pathing needs to be worked on anyway, with or without a cryobot.

 

whilst the other bots quite often lag the game to Hell and back or get stuck on windows.

Server admins have identified that janitor bots are causing insane amounts of lag. Skull seems to be working on it now, so i'd expect that to be sorted, and probably made better than before

[Nanako]

I wouldn't want people to get forcefully put into cryo with all of their equipment they had. Imagine the missing security belts, stamps, all the nice things.

There's a whitelist of items which aren't destroyed when someone is moved to longterm storage, specifically for this reason

It's not that hard and time consuming to strip an SSD person off the things you don't want to disappear and dragging them to cryo.

it is. try playing medical on a long shift during visible time at peak hours. SSD Baldies everywhere, piling up like sandbags. 95% of them don't have anything valueable to be lost, either

[Guest]

SS13 is a game people can run on toasters, that's part of why it's so alluring to people. I know a person from Bulgaria whose only outlet used to be Space Station 13 until they decided to quit because it bored them. No one in Bulgaria can really afford anything past a junker of a computer. They wouldn't be able to afford anything top of the line or even acceptable for the current decade. Not all Americans are in the shape to get better rigs either.

[Carver]

Perhaps you may lack social contact but that isn't the case for everyone, it isn't difficult to contact a staff member (Or someone ingame who can contact them for you) and inform them that you're having temporary issues and to ensure you're not cryo'd.

If you have internet to talk to other players, you have internet to play. i fail to see the issue

Because not every SSD is due to internet, some people have power issues due to storms or poor infrastructure.

 

It certainly needs to give you more than five minutes, it personally can take my computer an upwards of 20-30 minutes to reboot, with extra time for just getting BYOND running and back into the game. Why should people with slower machines get punished?

That is insane. Are you running on a toaster?

A computer that takes 30 minutes to reboot is an abnormality, it's not reasonable to expect everyone else to accomodate your soviet-era hardware. The round is only two hours, generally. That's an absolute standard. If you're going to be out for a quarter of it because of a crash, the problem is on your end.

Most cases i see of people going SSD, they're back within a couple of minutes, often under 30 seconds. i've never heard of anyone taking that long to get running again

I have a computer that has to start 15-20 programs, is five years old, and never gets updated. Two hours is no longer an 'absolute standard' due to readdition of the 2/3 rule until the third hour. Routers do not restart instantly, computers do not reboot instantly.

 

Noone's internet is ever down for an entire night,

Mine is sometimes.

That is insane. Are you running on a toaster?

 

and as mentioned above, 20 minutes simply isn't enough, some people have slow machines whilst others have to deal with real life on occasion.

It's long enough for everyone to get annoyed with their SSD body breaking immersion and wanting it gone. And considering that many jobs have limited slots (especially heads of staff, which have only one), you being SSD and squatting it can have a major impact on the round.

So what if you come back as a ghost? Just respawn, RP that you went for a cryonap and just woke up

Respawning as the same character, from what I have been told, is heavily frowned upon no matter the situation.

 

What you don't seem to realize is we have crew transfers just for this purpose. When people pile up, it might just be time to start the round anew and give everyone available a fresh start

No, we have cryo for that purpose. Crew transfers are for ending the round and playing a new mode. The people who are SSD don't care, they've closed the client and gone to do something else. Those who keep voting to continue the round clearly want to play.

No, I was quite right the first time, we have crew transfers for that purpose. As the round goes on, there becomes an apparent lack of equipment even if people get cryo'd as it steadily gets used up, eaten by the cryo machines, or stolen. This game was not built to readily replace the equipment of people who leave, and that will always be an issue until they develop a system to hard-reset gear lockers and offices when a new person in that role joins. Combined with the fact that jobs are both often filled, this often leads to latejoining being a generally unpleasant experience in comparison to starting anew in a fresh round for people, where they are given chances to get the roles they want, with the intended gear for said roles.

 

The only roles in particular need of watching for cryo are Heads of Staff, and even then such a confounded system isn't needed.

Also chemists, roboticists, warden, chaplain in cult rounds, cyborgs, and the AI., The latter two can't be cryo'd sadly, but these people being SSD significantly affects the round in a negative way

If these people are all SSD, then that is likely a sign that the round should be started anew since it's clearly leaving people in those roles bored enough that they log off. Sans the occasions with missing roboticists, you can also readily build new AIs and Androids. The chaplain is never a necessary role in any roundtype, unless the cultists happen to be spamming invisible cult walls.

 

Keep in mind that the pathing for AI in this game is truly fucking horrible, Beepsky constantly vents hallways or gets stuck on the way to one of his beacons,

It needs work, it has needed work for a while. And hopefully it will be worked on. I don't see why the poor state of a current feature should affect the addition of a new one, it just adds a prerequisite, and imo pathing needs to be worked on anyway, with or without a cryobot.

You truly don't understand how absolutely retarded the AI is in byond code. The most advanced you'll find might be some of the more humanoid AIs in Gooncode, but the AI in Baycode is an irredeemable mess and trying to adjust it to the various odd mapping layouts is anything but an easy task.

 

whilst the other bots quite often lag the game to Hell and back or get stuck on windows.

Server admins have identified that janitor bots are causing insane amounts of lag. Skull seems to be working on it now, so i'd expect that to be sorted, and probably made better than before

Fixing lag does not necessarily mean a massive redesign of the pathing, so much as finding what's causing the lag and setting it back into it's proper place.

[Arrow768]

To be honest I dont think that a cryobot is worth the developer time.

There are not a lot of developers and even less developer time as we all have something todo.

(And I am only the web developer).

So to complete this request someone would have to write code:

* that periodically checkes if there are ssd players

* that dispatches the closest cryo bot

* then plots a way to the nearest unoccupied cryo pod

* or to the nearest bed if no cryopod is avaiable

* periodicaly checks if a cryopod is empty and rearanges the ssd persons as required

* that allows the bot to be constructed in the first place

Then we need a sprite for it.

And thats just the stuff that I could quickly think of with my limited byond knowledge.

Do you really think that its worth all that work for just automatically moving players to cryo ?

- Which can be done way more efficient by medical or their co workers