Goonhub
03-15-2019, 09:29 AM
Maybe AI should default to unwanted in job preferences? In addition to being removed from high-priority.
I don't entirely agree.
As AI:
- You are often one of the only people capable of calling the shuttle, especially when the power goes out / consoles are bombed / heads are dead / etc. It doesn't come up often, but the AI is the only one who can call the shuttle at any time.
- You have the unique ability to view almost everything happening, and if you spend time adjusting intercoms, hear everything. (Some way to set all the intercoms to a frequency of your choosing would be nice for those HAL9000 gimmicks, though.)
- In lowpop situations or cases where there just isn't access, you can make a huge difference by allowing people into places. Players can break in, sure, but not everyone knows how to, and it isn't fast, and often can be destructive.
- Being that you can see almost everything, you can work with people to guide them around potential hazards (or into them, if you're evil).
I may be a little biased as someone who often plays on RP1, though, where the lower population count makes it all the more important.
The AI should probably be more able to do things that are helpful or useful to make it a more interesting role to play when the station is running fine otherwise; this probably should go into a suggestions thread, but being able to assume control over the "small bots" (cleaning, floor, fire, MULE, etc) could make it more interesting. Give a big speed boost to those bots when they're being controlled by the AI and now the AI can be a mobile firefighter/medibot/delivery machine. With the MULE, the AI can also ignore the limitations of beacons and be able to deliver goods wherever (though nothing would stop someone from just stealing whatever was on top of it). And if a traitor emags those bots, well, now the AI has more tools to be evil than just shocking doors.
Or you can be a huge butthole and emag medibots but not tell the AI it's injecting people with poison.
I dunno. AI isn't vital, but it definitely isn't a glorified door opener for assistants, either.
(03-15-2019, 12:26 AM)Xeram Wrote: The AI is not vital. The AI does not have key duties that nobody else can complete that will negatively impact everyone else in the round. Many rounds go by without an AI even with 20 players because an absurdly high number of players have it set to unwanted because anything else nearly guarantees you are the AI now and forever.
Can we please collectively agree to quit pretending the AI is anything but a convenience for staff assistants to get into places 95% of the time? The job is honestly not nearly as important as everyone seems to make it out to be. Everything you could ask of an AI can be done yourself or by another player. Many rounds where I decided to try to hop in for AI was spent doing a minute of basic setup, greeting the crew, looking around for things to do, then nobody having any need of me or interacting in any way for half an hour. Looking at it from how an AI typically performs and what the community considers "acceptable' (read: Not being the literal embodiment of unfun), the AI seems to fill the same role IC as mentors do OOC. Most of what they do is assisting players who don't know other ways to get into places or do things accomplish things (or those who do know but are feeling lazy).
I don't entirely agree.
As AI:
- You are often one of the only people capable of calling the shuttle, especially when the power goes out / consoles are bombed / heads are dead / etc. It doesn't come up often, but the AI is the only one who can call the shuttle at any time.
- You have the unique ability to view almost everything happening, and if you spend time adjusting intercoms, hear everything. (Some way to set all the intercoms to a frequency of your choosing would be nice for those HAL9000 gimmicks, though.)
- In lowpop situations or cases where there just isn't access, you can make a huge difference by allowing people into places. Players can break in, sure, but not everyone knows how to, and it isn't fast, and often can be destructive.
- Being that you can see almost everything, you can work with people to guide them around potential hazards (or into them, if you're evil).
I may be a little biased as someone who often plays on RP1, though, where the lower population count makes it all the more important.
The AI should probably be more able to do things that are helpful or useful to make it a more interesting role to play when the station is running fine otherwise; this probably should go into a suggestions thread, but being able to assume control over the "small bots" (cleaning, floor, fire, MULE, etc) could make it more interesting. Give a big speed boost to those bots when they're being controlled by the AI and now the AI can be a mobile firefighter/medibot/delivery machine. With the MULE, the AI can also ignore the limitations of beacons and be able to deliver goods wherever (though nothing would stop someone from just stealing whatever was on top of it). And if a traitor emags those bots, well, now the AI has more tools to be evil than just shocking doors.
Or you can be a huge butthole and emag medibots but not tell the AI it's injecting people with poison.
I dunno. AI isn't vital, but it definitely isn't a glorified door opener for assistants, either.