Inserting Brains Into AI Shells

[AwkwardDryad]

So you know the little robots the AI can take control of? For those of you who don't know, those robots can be constructed for the AI to take control of exclusively. They're super cost-effective, functional, and super. freaking. robust.

Sooooooooo. I had this idea:

Simple AI Shell Changes:

This has been stated in a previous thread, so I'll keep it short.

It would be nice if the AI shell interface was updated to be on-par with the current cyborg interface.
Currently AI shells cant:

A. make use of the door open/bolt hotkeys that borgs can
B. manage their tools without going insane due to the needing to click the actual tool sprite instead of the slot
C. make use of the tool selection hotkeys (1,2,3,4) that borgs can

The Actual Idea:

Say you're an antag running a conversion gimmick that's running low on materials for shells to fit your sea of victims your synthetic servants have brought to your door. Or perhaps you are just an honest roboticist doing the roboticist thing and Urist McClown'sRevenge shows up and you really want an inventive way to enact your thirst for revenge and insatiable bloodlust.

Presenting....Shove their brains into AI shells.exe

Instead of inserting an AI interface, you would be able to insert a brain and Huzzah! Mr. or Mrs. SplodeyBoom has become Mr. or Mrs. FloatyBeepBoop and they can fly around the station as a floaty Aperture Science Personality Core or an Aperture Science Personality Core: Prepare to Die Edition.

Also. Since brains would be insertable, AI shells should have an interface lock similar to borgs which will allow the brains to be removed and eaten inserted into a new body/shell when available.

EDIT (Please Read :D)

Alright, I've read through a lot of really good points on this thread, so I have some ideas.

A. The AI should begin with a light borg AND a shell. (borg described below)
B. The AI cores should have a pull and something like the ghost drone magtractor. It fits thematically as the drones and shells have a similar design and, most importantly, gives players incentive to use the shells over a conventional borg. Borgs have a wide toolset, but shells would have more freedom of interaction.
C. The cool part:

Docking Shells Onto Borgs

I propose that borgs should be able to be completed without a chest installed. If a borg is completed this way, any players controlling a shell would be able to click the borg to insert the shell into the chest receptacle and control that borg at the expense of a higher power consumption. (To bounce off prior point A, the starting borg, i feel, should be a chestless docking borg.

Conclusion:

I really like the concept of the "Ultra-Light" borg. Having something light, fast, and versatile (especially with some variant of magtractor) would definitely increase use of the shell bots. Even more so if player brains could be installed as well.

Shells being able to make use of borg upgrades and modules (as suggested in the replies) is a fantastic idea as well, though i feel this should be achieved by allowing the shell to dock with a borg and utilize its upgrades. Why? Simply because it would feel unique as opposed to just giving shells the same functionality as a borg. Shells are freaking fast. With an updated interface, they would be even more powerful, so I think its important to keep a limited toolset to avoid over-buffing them, but with added functionality (the mag tractor and pull) to give them something that would reasonably incentivize players to ask to be borged to a shell instead of a standard borg beyond resource requirements. And being able to borg dock would allow shell players to still have access to the tools a borg would without causing shells to overshadow borgs.

[Sord213]

I've always wondered why we can't put brains in the floaty ai shells. They're cute and they would be great to put peoples brains into.

[SimianC]

All great changes. Equipment management for AI Shells is incredibly awkward, and shutting airlocks behind you is a bit of a pain.

I assume using an emag on a shell would remove their laws like other silicons? Looking forward to creating an army of these shells and dressing them in Bee outfits or bedsheets.

[Superlagg]

They are also unable to pull things and, presumably due to a bug, cant examine things with alt-click. They are hecka robust, being really fast, armed with a screwdriver, kinda tiny, and needing a weapon to hurt, but outside of combat they are kinda limited in their use.

[Frank_Stein]

Shells ought to be cyborg module compatible. We should have shells capable of carrying out specific tasks

[Mordent]

So, mechancially, those eyebots are actually equipped with a cyborg module - it just happens to be a module that has only the common tools.

How would people feel about replacing the roundstart eyebots with light cyborgs that have an AI interface already inserted and a "blank" module (i.e. they can't choose a module, they get the same tools as the current eyebots)? What advantages do eyebots have over a light cyborg?

[Recusor]

Honestly none that i can think of. I think that proposed change would be fantastic, allowing for the AI to have a shell without a roboticist available, or if the AI doesnt need the shells the roboticist has a body ready to plop a brain into.

On the other hand, putting a brain in a eyebot body would really just ensure they are less effective than their full borgo cousins. maybe good if they were a traitor but thats about it in my mind.

[Sundance]

They look cool.
I would be disappointed if eyebots would be removed. Giving AI roundstart borg shells doesn't give the roboticist much impetus to build. I would prefer to give eyebots more tools than replace them.

[Wisecrack34]

I'm with Sundance, eye bots are cool

[Zamujasa]

As a constant AI player I would love a roundstart light shell; the eyebots are very limited, like someone said. AI shells can't pull anything and have a very limited toolset. And while "Well, there'd be no impetus for a roboticist to do it" may be true, a human can do anything, and the requirement on someone else doing their job can be erased with the right access (or tools). An AI without a human to make it a borg shell can do nothing about it.

The AI and Borg UIs are also pretty broken and terrible, and I wish they'd use something more like the Ghost Drone UI, which is actually really good. The biggest things are that alt-click examine is busted, you can't select tools by clicking the whole box (only the icon), and in the case of AI, even the "v" shortcut doesn't work (so to change omnitool options you have to keep clicking its sprite). The AI also can't normally open doors (clicking them always opens the popup) which is... ugh.


I like the eyebots as a concept, and I wouldn't want them to get removed -- they're very speedy and can fly through space, unlike normal borgs -- but the limited toolset and clunky as hell UI means I never really want to bother with them.


To that end, I'd like to also suggest that the eyebots get an auto-charging cerenkite cell but with about the same capacity as their current one (4K), so that when they're not in use they're not constantly draining. (Also, maybe naming them "AI Shell 1" and "AI Shell 2" instead of "Robot 281" to make them easier to keep track of, and showing the location in the AI Deploy menu? It'd be nice to be able to jump around quicker.)

oops sorry for hijacking this

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oh also I'd like to see the concept of "brain in a jar" finished. I think it was under development but being able to stuff someone's brain into a jar in a toolbox with wheels or something to make one of those minibots would be pretty cool and also hilarious


John Pubs's brain jar buzzes, "GET ME OUT OF THIS THING RIGHT NOW!"

those little floorbot/cleanbot drones but with human brains and speakers

[KikiMofo]

Don't remove eyebots. They look really cool and you can tell its the AI. With the AI borg shells I always get confused if its the AI or just another borg. I don't think Ai should be able to use borg shells, they should only use the floating eyes BUT the floating eyes should get the same stuff a borg shell gives. Don't really see why they don't already considering an AI can just use a borg anyway.

[Kovirii]

Not to hijack this thread, but there are other critters that also lack the 1-9 hotkeys.

Off the wall idea: some how give eyebots arms and legs, or even let them swap between floating eyebot and eyeborg in the recharger.

[Frank_Stein]

I like eyebots thematically, but a light cyborg is more useful, and I'd support replacing eyebots with light borgs for now.

My ideal solution would actually be to get rid of light cyborgs, and have eyebots replace them. Instead of eyebots having tools, they'd dock into machines that had their tools built in.

[Zamujasa]

That sounds a lot like the concept of flockdrones, where you move between different drones as a ghost, but in this case it'd be different machine shells with a physical core.

[aft2001]

Similar to this concept, perhaps there should just be a variety of robot/borg-type mobs that brains (regular brains, shell interfaces, AI brains, etc.) can be put into? This mob would be a type of mob, and anything like borgs and the current AI shells and the AI (and maybe even bots and other things) would fall under this category. Essentially, this would result in having two types of bodies that players can inhabit: Robotic and Biological. Would probably be more of a rework/tweak of how the game handles robotic mobs.

But regardless of that potential rework, I very much so would like to see the current AI shells be more of a 'Ultra-Light Cyborg' type of thing. As they're able to fly through space and are generally pretty fast and light and not very capable of much, perhaps they could be renamed to 'Scout Bots' or something?

Also, to build off of Kovirii's suggestion: There could indeed be two variations of eyebot that can be switched between while in a recharger (maybe it'd take a moment or two?). One would just be the current eyebot, and the other would be a spiderbot: a slower moving construct that, while it can't fly through space or move very fast, has a larger tool set and can pull things and could have a magnetic gripper to hold things. The concept of borgs being able to *actually* hold things is a completely different discussion so lets not discuss it here just yet. Don't wanna derail the thread.