Shedding some light on TermOS and other computer stuff

[Embolism]

embolism listed a couple things computers can do but the only thing that's really useful is controlling guardbuddies (and you need a head ID for that), nuking the station doesn't actually affect anyone anymore and PDA messages that're useful to intercept are rare

controlling the emergency shuttle and blowing up computers remotely sounds cool but i've never seen anyone who knows how to do it

Here's the thing: you don't need a head ID to control buddies. In fact none of the things I listed require a head ID if you have the know-how. Oh, and nuking the station definitely can have an impact on everyone. A very very big impact. Controlling the shuttle without a head ID or ComMaster is not difficult either.

If I want to stun that dude, I will simply steal a taser and shoot him, instead of coding a packet to spoof the RD's login so I can hack the guardbuddies into attacking him. Too damn much trouble.

It's actually a really simple procedure: you can do it in 10 seconds.

As for how to actually do these things, Tech Storage has a bunch of tools to get you started. Use the wired and PDA packet sniffers to capture packets while you mess with DWAINE and ThinkDOS, preferably with superuser-level access so you can take a peek at the fun stuff. The Buddy frequency is 121.9: even if you aren't interested in controlling the buddies it can be a useful frequency to listen to...

[Embolism]

Having said that, I definitely agree that more fun things to do with computers would be welcome. It is somewhat limited compared to the fun things other aspects of the station can do.

[icarus]

i figure there's a way to get around the su thing you need for guardbuddies, it's just that it's another thing you have to dig deep into termos for

is there really still a way to nuke the station, though? i know there was the research station in donut 2 and you can blow up the derelict of it in space, but i don't think there'd be a nuke on the station

[Lavastage]

i figure there's a way to get around the su thing you need for guardbuddies, it's just that it's another thing you have to dig deep into termos for

is there really still a way to nuke the station, though? i know there was the research station in donut 2 and you can blow up the derelict of it in space, but i don't think there'd be a nuke on the station

The nuke is still there. I have seen people drag it to the station and then blow it up a few times.

[Berrik]

TermOS and DWAINE is stupid nerd shit that should be removed and replaced with something a bit more user friendly.

[Embolism]

TermOS and DWAINE is stupid nerd shit that should be removed and replaced with something a bit more user friendly.

User unfriendliness is kind of the point. To be fair they're not actually that difficult to figure out once you get past the "OH HELL WHAT IS THIS SHIT" phase. The main problem is figuring out the right syntax, which you can partially do by sniffing packets. The rest is some educated guesswork (or if people tell you, heh).

Think of the time you spend working on them as a payment for its secrets. Granted it's not quite as powerful a system as I would like, but the upside is you only need to figure it out once: after that it's easy to make it do what you want.

[AngriestIBM]

Fuck TermOS/DWAINE, the average player will run screaming after their first exposure and the actual hardcore ITnards either get mad that it's a worthless, only semi-accurate, half-complete, unnecessarily tedious model of a system that has little applicability, or REAL mad that it's unwittingly a perfect replication of nightmare-inducing proprietary OSes.

We are no longer friends.

[Cogwerks]

There's a lot more planned for computer interaction stuff still, but it's one guy (that guy ^^^) handling all the effort of coding several simulated operating systems into a spaceman fart game, so let's not be jerks about it, eh?

We've had some discussions and design docs going for awhile about rolling a lot more stuff like door access control, apc control, security records, medical records (if anyone ever cares about those) and other stuff into the mainframe system. The email network is a big step in interaction between the various computer networks on the station towards those goals.

But for reals, let's have some more Fun Tips and less grumpin'.
Fun fact: I kinda hated DWAINE for awhile too until I sat down and actually read the manual IBM wrote for it. Then I realized that it in fact owns. Just needs more things to interface with. Ideally I'd like to see DWAINE functioning as the arch-nerd networking framework underneath the more user-friendly ThinkDOS apps, so it's easy to use all the job-related stuff, but people who enjoy nerding the heck out about fake spaceman programs (of which there are quite a few) will still have all sorts of hidden things to mess with.

[AngriestIBM]

The artifact research equipment works, it's just that artifacts themselves don't expose near anything of value. Hello scanner, here's a number shared by all other artifacts that with this icon that has nothing to do with function or activation (???).

Artifact code is somehow even more arcane than the computer code.

[Lainge]

I like the Dwaine system
If only people actually checked their emails.
It would also be nice if the Portable Computer didn't suck ass.

[Cogwerks]

What should the portable computer have instead? If it's something that any of the other computers have, it'd be easy to swap the components or starting programs around.

[Lainge]

It has 32kb of space is all I mean.
That and no real wireless potential apparently.
Also I have no idea how to charge it.

[Cameron Higgs]

I'd like to see a TermOS cartridge for PDAs, so you can have DWAINE on the go. I'd much prefer to be able to, say, gptio read gas_test_cha while sitting right in front of the test chamber instead of having to run up to the nearest terminal in artlab to do it.

DWAINE is really cool and I really like playing with the CLI, but I wish it was better documented and you could do more stuff with it. Also, isn't FROG (the ThinkDOS program) a TermOS terminal?

[Chike101]

I'd like to see a TermOS cartridge for PDAs, so you can have DWAINE on the go. I'd much prefer to be able to, say, gptio read gas_test_cha while sitting right in front of the test chamber instead of having to run up to the nearest terminal in artlab to do it.

DWAINE is really cool and I really like playing with the CLI, but I wish it was better documented and you could do more stuff with it. Also, isn't FROG (the ThinkDOS program) a TermOS terminal?

Maybe even ThinkDOS too, so you can access your email, and WizWrite?

[Cogwerks]

Yeah, with a FROG program disk from the vending machine, you can mess with the DWAINE network from any of the thinkdos desktops scattered around the station.