Move the AI/upload chamber

[69andahalf]

Here's a different layout:



Thoughts or opinions?

Now all the grills sorrunding the AI's chamber and upload are electrified, along with the windows, which also have IR scanners to alert the AI of any baddies coming. This makes sure no one can break a wall and attack the AI without alerting it, and people can't run around the inside of the walls as easily as they used to be able to. There's also a nice lil' foyer now too!

The air-bridge is the regular 3 wide now, because I thought that being 1 tile wide looked dumb :I

Belt-hell is a bit more hellish, but it actually works!

[Mageziya]

I think that layout looks like some GOOD STUFF. Though turrent placement might need some testing to see if it actually works.

[Nnystyxx]

hey look at that, an airbridge in a place where an airbridge actually makes sense
i like it

[misto]

   

if you have any questions about my critique please ask. so many holes and weaknesses remain. the computers and printers in the upper room need to be recessed into the wall in order for the turrets to maintain relevant fields of fire. you may need to make the upper room fatter to accomodate that. i have also proposed adjustments to the lower room. frankly i wish the lower room was bigger and had room for even more turrets because god knows just a couple of stun/laser blocking pushable items such as lockers or something will still have you in there with no sweat at all

the northern apc remains as a classic achilles heel, that's acceptable

oh yeah, and the belt/launcher bends are utterly unnecessary

[Vitatroll]

We probably need to first figure out exactly how defensive to make it. The majority of break-ins will probably be counter-rogue agents considering most antags could easily bump off a head to get the required access.

I'm of the opinion that the upload should be of moderate difficulty to break in to, but the core and killswitch should be like a short walk through hell.

[misto]

a disconnect in considerations between core and upload may be part of the problem. if you can get into the upload you can probably just tell the ai to kill itself or make it so it has to, by law, let you in to kill it/take its brain/whatever unless some enterprising funkiller beat you to the punch or snatched the freeform/onehuman/whatever you were planning to use. cracking the upload room, unless someone has been in there before you, renders the ai just as much if not moreso at your mercy as cracking the core.

[Vitatroll]

Ah yeah you're right. I haven't played in a while so I'm a bit off my reasoning. It would also make situations where people destroy all the upload cards a certain kind of hell.

I do wish there was a way to reset the AI even after the cards were destroyed. That's always been a large problem I've had with the system.

[Frank_Stein]

There was the idea to have a way to reset it in VR that I think is very promising

[The Grim Sleeper]

(Huge map overhaul)
The air-bridge is the regular 3 wide now, because I thought that being 1 tile wide looked dumb :I

I like the idea of adding an airbridge, but extending the AI-wing outward like this completely ruins the overall symmetry of Cog2 and looks like it is also a lot of work. I'd be in favour of replacing the netcafe with an airbridge and relocating the netcafe. One place it might go to is where Emergency Storage B currently is, and moving ES B to that little catwalk in the vacuum next to the core.

There was the idea to have a way to reset it in VR that I think is very promising

I like this idea. It is a good idea.

[DreamCarver]

There was the idea to have a way to reset it in VR that I think is very promising

So like, Burning Chrome critter gauntlet race against the AIs ICE moblets that kill your cyberself if they catch you? Possibly even kill your fleshself? 

And down now, down, the program a roller coaster through this fraying maze of shadow walls, gray cathedral spaces between the bright towers. Headlong speed.
Black ice. Dont think about it. Black ice.
Too many stories in the Gentleman Loser; black ice is a part of the mythology. Ice that kills. Illegal, but then aren't we all? Some kind of neural-feedback weapon, and you connect with it only once. Like some hideous Word that eats the mind from the inside out. Like an epileptic spasm that goes on and on until there's nothing left at all...
And we're diving for the floor of Chrome's shadow castle.
Trying to brace myself for the sudden stopping of breath, a sickness and final slackening of the nerves. Fear of that cold Word waiting, down there in the dark.

[Superlagg]

What about making the upload two separate rooms side by side? Consoles in one, boards in the other, need to go though both in order to turn the AI into an aerobics instructor. Something about separating the boards and the consoles to require must a little bit more effort to subvert the AI.

Course keep in mind that our security systems will only stop assistants with thermite, and all they'll ever do tell you to say dumb things or hang out in the core. No security on the station will keep out anyone with a head ID, the people who actually tell us to close the game window. With a precopied law, it takes an antag or pissy captain barely a couple seconds to go from entry to the upload to AI suicide. Zip, grab, paste, click, ultra kill. Makes it almost a bonus when someone emags the turret controller, since other bad guys can't turn it off!

[Frank_Stein]

There was the idea to have a way to reset it in VR that I think is very promising

So like, Burning Chrome critter gauntlet race against the AIs ICE moblets that kill your cyberself if they catch you? Possibly even kill your fleshself?

Yeah basically. It would be a little area the AI had some control in decorating and spawning in mobs  and puzzles as counter measures

[Nnystyxx]

There was the idea to have a way to reset it in VR that I think is very promising

So like, Burning Chrome critter gauntlet race against the AIs ICE moblets that kill your cyberself if they catch you? Possibly even kill your fleshself?

Yeah basically. It would be a little area the AI had some control in decorating and spawning in mobs  and puzzles as counter measures

I would love the AI having their own pad they could decorate and maybe talk to certain people one-on-one in. They could collude/collaborate with others in the N E T S C A P E (and also fight them, etc.)

[69andahalf]

if you have any questions about my critique please ask. so many holes and weaknesses remain. the computers and printers in the upper room need to be recessed into the wall in order for the turrets to maintain relevant fields of fire. you may need to make the upper room fatter to accomodate that. i have also proposed adjustments to the lower room. frankly i wish the lower room was bigger and had room for even more turrets because god knows just a couple of  stun/laser blocking pushable items such as lockers or something will still have you in there with no sweat at all

the northern apc remains as a classic achilles heel, that's acceptable

oh yeah, and the belt/launcher bends are utterly unnecessary

Just remember, this is trying to make it harder for the AI upload and camber to be broken into, not ensure that it's impossible for anyone without I.D access and a non-rogue AI.



With that in mind, there were a couple of the ideas you presented which I have changed:

• The computers in the AI's chamber have been recessed so that the north turrets are a bit more effective.
  
• There are two more turrets in the AI upload, and the robotics control console and AI upload computer has been moved into the center of the room.
  
• Belt hell has been extended to the north.
  

Some of the things you presented but I didn't include:

• The windows on the outside are for alerting the AI that someone is breaking in now, especially from space which has come silent. The IR detectors will beep if someone tries to get in the easy way to then break through the reinforced walls into the AI chamber. This will give the AI time to alert security or the crew to come help it, this is an import point to make as, while the AI does need some form of self-defense, the crew are also a major part of keeping it safe.
  
• The disposals chute will have to say in the AI upload, as it's there to ensure is people are bolted in and the turrets set to lethal they still have some way to escape. Even in it's location and with two turrets the entire room didn't have a safespot either.
  
• The thick windows around the AI have to remain, as they make more sense with the blast doors, but more importantly you can click-drag things through thin windows into crates. So you could just walk in, click-drag the AI and walk out with it.
  
• In general though, if someone wants to steal the AI no defense is going to truly stop them. This improvement is focused around making it harder for people to do so. This is through ensure the AI knows someone is trying to break in (IR detectors) and delay their attempts (wires under grills, and reinforced walls).
  
• Don't forget that the AI can't even use its lasers of a human is breaking in and it doesn't have a law that allows it to defend itself with lethal force. Therefore, having windows into the core is made more pointless I find.
  

In response to general feedback:

• If we continue to focus on the idea that the station's symmetry can't be ruined then the ability to improve cog2 will be severely limited. git fuked symtry
  
• The idea of putting the modules in two separate rooms is an interesting one, but I think the AI has more than enough defense against rogue law uploaders, and any dedicated ones can simply steal the law board and make another AI upload with the bridges circuits.
  

[Noah Buttes]

The windows on the outside are for alerting the AI that someone is breaking in now, especially from space which has come silent. The IR detectors will beep if someone tries to get in the easy way to then break through the reinforced walls into the AI chamber. This will give the AI time to alert security or the crew to come help it, this is an import point to make as, while the AI does need some form of self-defense, the crew are also a major part of keeping it safe.

I think misto was trying to say that people can just bypass the IR detectors in the windows entirely by melting through the walls on the side of the windows instead.

The thick windows around the AI have to remain, as they make more sense with the blast doors, but more importantly you can click-drag things through thin windows into crates. So you could just walk in, click-drag the AI and walk out with it.

The AI is bolted to the ground though. Also, being able to click drag things through thin windows is VERY MUCH A BUG, but I believe there's specific code to prevent this from happening with mobs, including the AI core.

If we continue to focus on the idea that the station's symmetry can't be ruined then the ability to improve cog2 will be severely limited. git fuked symtry

SCREW SYMMETRY