[1 Dismissal] Buff Beepsky

[Scheveningen]

Beepsky's not been in a very hot spot lately. The iconic mascot of NT security powered by a shot of whiskey and a potato, Officer Beepsky is not terribly useful beyond telling nearby officers that someone is wanted for arrest and chasing people very uselessly. Anyone with sprint can actually rush over him without being batonned.

Therefore, I suggest a few buffs, sorry for being the ideas guy but I am not a smart person with code;

* Beepsky's engagement is instantaneous, and he is FASTER. He is his normal speed as is on live when he is patrolling, but faster than a spider when rushing to do his job. He will always move to get within 2-tile range of a criminal.

* Unlike hand-held batons, the Beepsky O'Baton releases a powerful static charge and will immediately render anyone without energy, stun or pain resistance unconscious. It is powered by a potato and a shot of whiskey. Such power ought to be feared.

* DETAIN setting: the suspect will be informed they are wanted and to not move as Beepsky gets into adequate range. If the suspect moves in any way from or towards Beepsky, he will rush towards the escaping criminal and stun them until unconscious and proper for cuffing. He will also hold the criminal as if they are being pulled until an officer arrives to pick them up.

* ARREST setting: the setting security should always set, while also chasing and chirping someone is wanted for arrest, he will baton a detected criminal on sight, without warning, provocation or any inch of mercy.

* Beepsky can no longer be pulled, but he can still be walked over and such. Beepsky is too seasoned to be a sidekick.

* Beepsky can still be called (for assistance, of course!) using the security PDA cartridge, and detective PDAs immediately get access to Beepsky so they don't have to use their revolver to arrest. However, they operate on call queues. Beepsky will always move to the first response call before moving to a second, it is never interrupted unless the calling PDA interrupts their pinging for Beepsky's assistance. In addition, if Beepsky sees a criminal on their way to a response scene, they will always interrupt their route and wipe it in order to detain a suspect.

* Beepsky will INSTANTLY react to being attacked in melee so that it proves difficult to being cheesed for a free stun baton by greytide, and Officer Beepsky automatically sets the attacker to Wanted. He is more vulnerable against anyone with a gun or decent armor. Or anyone immune to stuns or pain.

* When emagged, Beepsky's capacitors are overcharged to give him even more speed, he always detains randomly and on sight (except flagged syndicates, ERT are to be set as the exception to avoid odd cases) and his stun baton hurts a lot, giving burn damage on top of the immense pain damage he deals out. He will also always play the swearing ogg when arresting someone.

* Beepsky can be given an optional mode where he spouts a mix of inspirational and humorous loose cannon lines over the security radio randomly. This can be disabled or enabled at a security officer's leisure. When emagged, Beepsky becomes much more verbose, aggressive and mean than usual.

[Ornias]

I have my own suggestions for what to do with Beepsky.

 

 

Meet Beepsky 2.0.

[Bath Salts Addict]

+1 on this. Likewise, make his and other security bots' radio calls be heard by everyone wearing a headset with the Security channel. As it stands, only people wearing SecHUDs can hear Beepsky. This makes it hard for Captains, HoPs IA, fashion-conscious officers, Detectives, disgruntled eyepatch-wearing Wardens and tater tots listening in to Sec comms to be aware of what's going on.

[Fire and Glory]

* Beepsky can no longer be pulled, but he can still be walked over and such. Beepsky is too seasoned to be a sidekick..

Beepsky also has awful pathfinding and needs to be moved by his human servants on occasion

[Pratepresidenten]

Maybe its patrol pathing could be rewritten so it patrols from arrivals, around the aft section of central and through the starboard hallway before returning to arrivals, taking the fore section of the central ring before repeating its patrol. Keeping the hallways safe from criminal scum!

But yeah, Im all for some of these ideas. Its way too underpowered as of now, I mean, a medibot is more useful than Beepsky.

#makebeepskygreatagain

[Surrealistik]

+1, though I'd like the option to set Beepsky's level of verbal aggression from polite to a hair short of the emag "from the depths of shit" setting.

[Kaed]

[Redacted due to off topic]

Edited March 6, 2017 by Guest

[Scheveningen]

I think a much more reasonable 'buff' to the Beepsky situation would be to remove him entirely - He's a largely antiquated gag roughly in league with Ian as far as being a 'departmental pet'. Unlike Ian and Runtime, however, he can be ordered to attack people, and due to the coding involved in the mob, he is sometimes treated as an object, making him immune to certain attacks (as in, they can't even hit him) and allowing him to demolish certain antagonists who have not prepared to specifically fight him. He is capable of nonsensical bullshit like targeting nearby or passing incorporeal characters (i.e. an ethereal wizard) with his stun baton. He also cannot be grabbed or picked up, which makes restraining him nigh impossible unless you blow him up - he just rolls away from you and back onto his patrol route or target if you drag him. He even opens up certain doors and allows people who shouldn't be able to get into maintenance to trail after him.

I feel like I can already hear the wave of protesting comments about how this is just because 'beepsky is awesome' and more jokes about potatoes and shots of whiskey. Can we just stop this outdated meme-culture for a moment, though?

Beepsky is a just a named securitron, something that can be made in robotics, and should remain the purview of their creation. There should not simply be one provided free at round start for security to carry around like a pet attack dog. The station already has enough mechanical surveillance at round start, between the AI and any borg present, and all of those are piloted by actual players who need to obey the same vision and targeting behavior as everything else that isn't a simple mob. If you really must have Beepsky, have a monument or display case with Beepsky in it - deactivated, not wandering the halls.

 

Do you enjoy being the token contrarian? You're no fun.

[Kaed]

[Redacted due to off topic]

Edited March 6, 2017 by Guest

[Arrow768]

I feel a reminder of the "1 suggestion per topic" rule is in order here.

The suggestion is to buff beepsky not to remove him.

[Nanako]

It would not be hard to allow beepsky to wear hats.

Should i do that? y/n

[LordFowl]

It would not be hard to allow beepsky to wear hats.

Should i do that? y/n

 

I feel a reminder of the "1 suggestion per topic" rule is in order here.

 

>:l

[Ron]

While I don't dislike/disagree with the idea, I'm going to vote for dismissal to help clean the suggestions forum up. This is a somewhat big project, and if a developer wants to work on it then it won't be archived/will be pulled out of the archive.

[Scheveningen]

[mention]Alberyk[/mention] Maybe you could, Alb? I would hate to see this get dismissed considering Beepsky is in a sore spot right now and could use improvement to his AI.

[Alberyk]

While I am not sure about buffing securitrons to be like on old code, which ended in some hilarious cheese by sec or antags. I had the plan of allowing people to take control of simple bots, such as securitrons or cleanbots, like posibrains, which would indeed be a buff.

[Chada1]

While I am not sure about buffing securitrons to be like on old code, which ended in some hilarious cheese by sec or antags. I had the plan of allowing people to take control of simple bots, such as securitrons or cleanbots, like posibrains, which would indeed be a buff.

 

I basically only chimed in to say how much I love that idea.

Also, Beepsky is pretty underwhelming, but i've gotten a lot of use out of it as a Cyborg, using it to act as a patrol partner. It helps prevent stuff like being flashed among other things. Overall, I really do think Beepsky and some of the bots in general are underwhelming, not just Beepsky.

[LordFowl]

Voting for dismissal. Beepsky is not really designed to be a security lynchpin. He fills in accountability gaps when needed, and is in general pretty useful. A general AI mob code rework is something to be considered, but in much greater scope than this thread.