Goonhub
07-11-2022, 12:22 PM
I feel like this suggestion stems from a fundamental misunderstanding about the cyborg's role on the station. TLDR; for people who have been here long enough to know why having Sec borgs is such a horrid idea, don't worry the dev team isn't quite that far gone and secborgs will not be reimplemented. Also, to head off "but this codebase does cyborgs differently and I like it better!" responses, I do not care and it is not applicable to how goonstation sees silicons within our ruleset, gameplay, and lore.
Cyborgs, like the AI, exist as part of the station. They are not meant to replace humans at doing a job, but act as tools to assist running the station. Key word here is assist. Thinking of their modules as a direct 1 for 1 replacement for a human job title is a flawed idea. By design they are meant to be limited, for a multitude of reasons, but a big one being that borging is used as punishment in many cases. You go from a free-willed human to a cyborg with a limited toolset meant to serve humans via law restrictions. Now, experienced borg players know that this isn't actually that limiting and if your laws get changed, cyborgs become pretty terrifying. How? Because you work around the limitations, as an example: instead of batonning someone into submission with your hypothetical sec baton, you rapidly bolt them down in a small room with electrified airlocks. Both accomplish the same thing, just with different methods. Borgs have immense access to the station's systems, which is incredibly powerful for those who learn how to use them correctly. You do not need a direct interaction of bonking an antag in order to validhunt them, and it's also why most players look upon cyborgs and an AI that goes around hunting down antags that are not threats to them in a very poor light, they suck and don't understand what a silicon's role on the station is, which leads into another big thing.
As a cyborg, antags existing is really not your concern.
On goon, AI laws have no "prevent harm" clause. What humans do to one another, unless you're ordered to intervene or your laws are changed, is frankly none of your concern. That being said, many silicon players choose to make it their concern, which is fine, but borgs have been designed with this idea in mind. The closest analogue for the brobocop module might be Security Assistant, but even then that's not accurate as Security Assistants have the ability to be a free-willed human. Brobocop has some tools you find in Security, but it is not and never will be a Security Officer analogue. Hunting down antags should be extremely far from your mind, you exist to act as a tool for Officers to utilise in aiding their job, be it watching cameras, writing tickets, etc.
Now I agree that some cyborg modules have more powerful toolsets. Mediborg is probably the most capable of all of them since they have many sharp implements and chemical delivery systems that will absolutely ruin a human's day. Other module toolsets (which can be customised I might add, a function of the module rewriter) do not need to be as powerful as any other given one. It's up to the player being the borg to decide how they want to assist humans in running the station. If you wanted to actually be a scientist, or a security officer, then you play as one as a human, not a borg. This all being said, yes, cyborgs definitely need some QoL love, but as a longtime silicon player myself, no, I never ever want to see them be "as good as" playing a human in the same way as being a human is. I want them to remain unique and function differently from playing as a human, challenging because you need to approach solving situations differently than you would as a human. Wanting otherwise is just completely missing the point.
Cyborgs, like the AI, exist as part of the station. They are not meant to replace humans at doing a job, but act as tools to assist running the station. Key word here is assist. Thinking of their modules as a direct 1 for 1 replacement for a human job title is a flawed idea. By design they are meant to be limited, for a multitude of reasons, but a big one being that borging is used as punishment in many cases. You go from a free-willed human to a cyborg with a limited toolset meant to serve humans via law restrictions. Now, experienced borg players know that this isn't actually that limiting and if your laws get changed, cyborgs become pretty terrifying. How? Because you work around the limitations, as an example: instead of batonning someone into submission with your hypothetical sec baton, you rapidly bolt them down in a small room with electrified airlocks. Both accomplish the same thing, just with different methods. Borgs have immense access to the station's systems, which is incredibly powerful for those who learn how to use them correctly. You do not need a direct interaction of bonking an antag in order to validhunt them, and it's also why most players look upon cyborgs and an AI that goes around hunting down antags that are not threats to them in a very poor light, they suck and don't understand what a silicon's role on the station is, which leads into another big thing.
As a cyborg, antags existing is really not your concern.
On goon, AI laws have no "prevent harm" clause. What humans do to one another, unless you're ordered to intervene or your laws are changed, is frankly none of your concern. That being said, many silicon players choose to make it their concern, which is fine, but borgs have been designed with this idea in mind. The closest analogue for the brobocop module might be Security Assistant, but even then that's not accurate as Security Assistants have the ability to be a free-willed human. Brobocop has some tools you find in Security, but it is not and never will be a Security Officer analogue. Hunting down antags should be extremely far from your mind, you exist to act as a tool for Officers to utilise in aiding their job, be it watching cameras, writing tickets, etc.
Now I agree that some cyborg modules have more powerful toolsets. Mediborg is probably the most capable of all of them since they have many sharp implements and chemical delivery systems that will absolutely ruin a human's day. Other module toolsets (which can be customised I might add, a function of the module rewriter) do not need to be as powerful as any other given one. It's up to the player being the borg to decide how they want to assist humans in running the station. If you wanted to actually be a scientist, or a security officer, then you play as one as a human, not a borg. This all being said, yes, cyborgs definitely need some QoL love, but as a longtime silicon player myself, no, I never ever want to see them be "as good as" playing a human in the same way as being a human is. I want them to remain unique and function differently from playing as a human, challenging because you need to approach solving situations differently than you would as a human. Wanting otherwise is just completely missing the point.