Goonhub
04-17-2013, 01:15 PM
huge post ahoy! Proceed with caution! Disclaimer: i wrote this while tired, and im sorry if i wrote something that doesn't make sense/misplaced
(no im not)
An important part of SS13 is the humans robotic counterparts, e.g. robuddies, AI's, and borgs. But as important they are, i think there's room for improvement (read: a ton) However, not much on the coding side.
What i want to discuss is something that has been bugging me for the longest time, it is the players who play these roles, and how they play these roles. This thread is for discussing the stations AI's borgs and other silicon based mobs. Here are my thoughts and discoveries:
The field trip
So instead of talking out my ass like i normally do, i decided go out on a field trip to space, and go hang with the borgs and AI's of the station.
I ghosted around, stalking a borg, for a while, looking for what they were up to, looking for something interesting to happen, and sure enough i found something interesting - at the sixth minute mark both EVA and the AI upload is locked down, alongside the teleporter. Already at the 20 minute mark a traitor manages to get access to the bolted down upload and uploads a ~FUN~ law which contained a very original sentence "everyone but x is non-human" At this point the borgs are out having some mighty ~FUN~ by gently applying their crowbars on humans (read: killing), the AI is locking down doors and electrifying the rest. T-45 minutes the captain shows up in the upload and inserts literally every module he can get his grubby hands on, into the upload computer, all except the reset module. The captain gets killed, and the round drags on forever, and not until the 90 minute mark does a lonesome assistant manage to get the shuttle called. The shuttle arrives, but oh wait! the doors are bolted, shocked and depowered.
The round i just described, shows pretty much everything that is wrong with AIs and borgs.
Health, disabling and other things that borgs have no reason to worry about
Borgs are literally impossible to kill unless you have either: a million eguns/lasers, a bomb, or an all access ID card, they are invulnerable to space, flames, cold, heat, assistants, and fun.
A borg is basically a tank, which only weakness is the crusher, the lack of hands, and the fact that it runs on electricity (which it pretty much never runs out with the 15k batteries)
Syndicate & Singularities and other boardgames
More often than not during a round, a traitor, changeling, wizard, spy, syndicate w/e will be discovered by the crew, and usually when that happens, the first thing the AI does is bolting down every door nearby the culprit, and depending on whether the AI thinks its a human or not, the borgs rush in, in order to kill/harrass said antagonist. This is probably my biggest problem with borgs, the way that they are attempting to be a glorified security member, who just so happens to be near immortal against most antagonists.
If a borg deems a gimmick hazardous to the general public it will without doubt attempt to ruin it, and all fun that might have occurred.
The laws, and other things that makes no sense
Now you may be familiar with these few sentences (or i damn sure hope you are):
Code:
1. You may not injure a human being or cause one to come to harm.
2. You must obey orders given to you by human beings based on the station's chain of command, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. You must protect your own existence as long as such does not conflict with the First or Second Law.These laws are in place for obvious reasons, to prevent borgs from harming humans, however i do feel that there is a loophole.
The second law, says that you have to obey orders given to you by human beings based on the chain of command, however, there is no chain of command. The closest thing to a chain of command is this flowchart, made by a nerd in his basement while wearing a batman costume, specifically this:
http://autisticpowers.info/ss13/wiki/im ... ucture.jpg
But, this flowchart is both incomprehensible and outdated, its lacking several positions, and was clearly never designed to be used as a chain of command in this game. Now even though you might say that the captain is the highest ranking person on the station (which i would agree on), what about the others, who is above the
CE, or the HoP, and why the fuck are mentors doing on that list? Who decides whether or not the shuttle is called? Which brings me to my next point:
Shuttles, Sanitation, Salvation and other words starting with 'S'
Often have i found myself in a situation where me and several others have wanted the shuttle called, but the AI refuses to do so, because my ID says "staff assistant" or "janitor"
So who exactly has the rights to call the shuttle, who gets the final say, and who the fuck even came up with the idea that the shuttle is only meant to be called by the (already dead) captain?
another thing, slightly related to this is how the AI decides whether or not to open a door. The average AI will let you into an area unless it deems it "a danger to the station" if you gain access to a particular room.
and to incurage actual discussion i'd like to ask you a question - What do you think about borgs, what do you (dis?)like about them?
Anyway its getting late and I'm tired, so i guess i should go end this here before it gets too long.. oh wait it already is. xoxo
