Cogmap 2: *** UPDATE TO BYOND 509 ASAP ***

[atomic1fire]

Words about phasers and other guns

I kinda think if security has access to something from QM, it's kind of silly to not put it in the armory. If it's too dangerous for the crew to use in a room that only HOS can open and doesn't open very often, it's probably too dangerous to let security order from QM.

[Cogwerks]

Alpha test link is active again:
byond://70.181.163.123:5513/
edit: busted tonight. play at your own risk

[Noah Buttes]

Alpha test link is active again:
byond://70.181.163.123:5513/

oh cool

[BaneOfGiygas]

Time for another longpost!

Changes and Improvements
- The security camera console has a new interface and it's absolutely lovely. Instead of a jumbled list you have to scroll through and then press okay for every time you switch cameras, it's a more concise list that automatically flips to whatever camera you click on, without the hassle of hitting an okay button or having the window close and re-open every time. Excellent!
- The mounted cameras are working and functional, though there doesn't seem to be a way to control the wheeled ones yet.
- The teleporter room is actually in a location that makes sense, as opposed to being next to the owlery.
- Various offices and facilities such as the offices of most heads and the QM office now have their own announcement computers, which makes getting word out around the station much easier.
- The Captain's office, the HoP's office, the security weapons room, and quite a few important places in general have connections to the maintenance tunnels. This translates to a lot more break-ins and other such shenanigans, which is always fun and helps keep people on their toes.
- There's a public garden space just outside of the chapel area with some public-access hydroponics trays and plant analyzers!
- The AI upload's turret controls are now clear on the far end of the room. This makes uploading laws a lot trickier, as you either need to disable the turrets via gunfire, ask the AI, or make a mad dash back and forth. There's also a turret control console in the little lobby area outside of the upload, apparently called the Net Cafe, even though there aren't any turrets. There may be turrets later.
- QM will have a console that lets them send profits across the station in a way that's separate from the Bank Records database. I'm not sure if there are any specific details on that yet.
- The bridge now has an automatic intercom system that will broadcast anything said across the command radio, similarly to the intercoms found in the brig and the chapel.
- Microphones and speakers! Anything spoken into a microphone will be projected through the nearby loudspeakers, with a larger text size depending on how close you are to the speaker. You can even get that horrid feedback noise! Most microphones are stand mics, but the Chaplain starts with a handheld microphone in their office.
- Disposals seems to route to a conveyor belt near the arc smelter, which actually deposits stuff straight into the smelting lab after being crushed.
- Mechanics, mining, and QM are all clustered quite a ways away from engineering proper. Makes sense, all things considered.

Suggestions

- As things stand, the mounted cameras are connected to the TV network and not the security camera network, which is odd, since security actually has a few of those mounted cameras. Perhaps the security camera network could include the TV network in the listings, so security can use the remote-control cameras to patrol and keep an eye on things.
- As for actually controlling the cameras, some kind of helmet or computer or other sort of system that lets you take control of the camera like how AIs can control cyborgs would be a good way of implementing it.
- That blast door right in front of the AI core should not be there, for reasons that have already been gone over. Either put the blast door in the back, position the turrets so they can actually hit someone in that crevice, or just go with the current setup of a glass window box.
- For the money-distributing tool for QM, I was thinking of a console that, when an ID/PIN is inserted, allows the user to make one-way transactions from their account to various places in the station. They can wire their profits straight to another crew member's account, they can wire it to one of the three station fund groups, or they might also be able to wire a set amount of money to be split across each member of a given department, such as research or medical.

Glitches and Odd Happenings

- The Research Director doesn't have access to the AI core, for whatever reason.
- The pipes are messing up at the beginnings of the round, for some reason.
- The robotics lab is atrociously understocked: No flashes, no sheets, no mechanical toolbox, no power cores.
- The captain's space suit and spare ID are nowhere to be found.
- There aren't any controls for the disposals system conveyor belts.


All in all, a good update! Things are very interconnected, which is an impressive feat given the map's size, and the new features are geared towards cooperation with fellow crewmen from other departments and within one's own department, something very neat indeed.

[Frank_Stein]

Here's some things I noticed

- Moving around as AI wonky due to lack of cameras
- A gajillion notifications as AI for unconnected APCS
- Seemingly can't move into a AI linked cyborg as AI
- The AI core turrents don't seem to have a control switch on them, just the ones in upload
- There are double sets of fire doors at the teleporter. One going horizontal, the other vertical

Also, the OMJ shoes are very nice for exploring the station.

[Remmon]

From what I understand of the setup the turret controller outside the AI upload is what should control the AI upload turrets. The one in the AI upload controls the AI core turrets. No need to go running into turret fire or ask the AI for anything.

[Frank_Stein]

From what I understand of the setup the turret controller outside the AI upload is what should control the AI upload turrets. The one in the AI upload controls the AI core turrets. No need to go running into turret fire or ask the AI for anything.

You would think, but the ones outside the upload in the net cafe aren't hooked up to anything, and the upload switch seems to control the upload ones.

[Cogwerks]

Yeah, turret controls need to be reworked to work on tags/ids instead of areas.

[RedbeardRum]

I'm sorry if this has been mentioned before (There's a lot of pages!), but aren't the windows placed a bit too often/in strange places? eg. the detective and barman can look into each other's quarters, so they can watch each other while they sleep. Botany and the DnD/RP room look right into each other aswell which seems like an unneccessary inconvenience, and the security conference room has a window that looks right into the lobby, so anyone could listen in on their conferences.

If you think my complaint has merit, I could try and find a few more examples of window placement that I think are either strange or hold negative implications for the party with which the room is associated? My apologies if they were intended to be like this.

That said, I'm loving how comfortable the quarters seem to be.

[Noah Buttes]

I've managed to find two cigarette vending machines. Only one of which is accessible to the detective.

[Zafhset]

One thing I've noticed is that disposals lacks a lever to control the belts (or I'm blind) - this would make rescuing a fainted individual almost impossible as a person or AI

[Houka]

Thoughts from testing

Pros:
[*] There's a cool way to enter the secret room behind the chapel, making it the most creative crime room I've seen in this game.
[*] The full circle hallway makes everything feel... advanced. Like a real space station. Following this...
[*] The layout feels a smidge confusing, but it also feels very much like a step up in design and the aesthetic thought put into it.
[*] QM and Mining feel nicer. Mining in particular, with the ability to move ores to them with a very dangerous automatic chute that you can fall into if you're not careful. (I fell into it on accident and laughed for ten seconds straight. Might be good for Crime.)
[*] The security chute transportation network makes me smile every time I see it. That's going to be just comical to see in action, and very appropriate to the tone the servers have retained.
[*] The amount of back alleys this map has is insane. A criminal could stash an entire station's worth of bodies in each spot and not get caught if they're smart and quick enough. I particularly like the areas around Engineering, such as the combustion chamber being attached to a maintenance hallway.

Cons:
[*] There are some unpolished things. For instance: The Captain doesn't seem to start with a space suit. The Barman's room has a rack with all of his stuff, but the rack is placed on top of everything so it's easy to miss the shotgun(!!!) and the many other items on that tile.
[*] There's no quick and easy way to transport corpses to Medbay from, say, the medical kiosk near the Owlery. Chutes are needed badly, because corpses getting stolen between most areas and Medbay would mean you aren't ever seeing that corpse again.
[*] I'm not a fan of the open armory idea, as anyone with even basic knowledge on how to break down walls/windows/tables can steal the stuff inside the armory in a very short span of time. Vigilante tryhards would be the WORST about this.

[BaneOfGiygas]

[*] I'm not a fan of the open armory idea, as anyone with even basic knowledge on how to break down walls/windows/tables can steal the stuff inside the armory in a very short span of time. Vigilante tryhards would be the WORST about this.

Personally, I think that it should at the very least be given a trial run to see how a locker-less armory fares. I'm of the belief that there are more pros to this layout than cons, but if the whole thing ends up going to shit, sticking the stuff back into lockers would be trivial.

[Winklabom]

When I tried disabling the AI's turrets, it gave me this error: !ALERT! Unable to connect to a turret!


The turrets were still enabled and fired at me until Gannets came in and wrecked them with god mode enabled.

[Ed Venture]

[*] I'm not a fan of the open armory idea, as anyone with even basic knowledge on how to break down walls/windows/tables can steal the stuff inside the armory in a very short span of time. Vigilante tryhards would be the WORST about this.

I feel exactly the same way. It's not going to take a "trial" or "test" round to figure out that people know how to break into things and the armory looks real easy for anyone to break in and steal all the guns.