Personal AI (PDA Liaison) - Playable PDA

[Glamurio]

I always loved PAIs on other codebases, and I find it a very good idea, however I still do have concerns about the possibility of metagaming if it is made as a respawn role, and the possibility of not being used at all (as it's a downgraded version of sillicons) if it is made a latejoin role.

Concerns about metagaming are valid, but I'm less worried about the latejoin being an issue. There's the idea of introducing a new trait that spawns your PDA with a core installed, ready for people to join in, which would allow fairly quick latejoining. Additionally, there's the idea that cyborgs, on round-start, can be notified about PDA availability and switch over.

Alternatively, players could choose to be a PAL on roundstart, similar to cyborgs, and the game generates a PDA at a spawnpoint (robotics, crew quarters) for players to pick up and use. Since they can manifest as critters, they can make their presence known and entice people to use them, or just play the round without an owner (with the ability to be converted into a cyborg by a roboticist)