[PR] Make most gloves leave scrambled prints while having some leave only material...

[github_bot]

PULL REQUEST DETAILS

About the PR
Basically a reboot of one of my older PRs. Most gloves will now leave scrambled prints of the user (black, insulated, unsulated ,etc) while only a couple (latex, boxing, janitorial, etc) will only leave material prints.

Why's this needed?
Current forensics are not ideal, dare I say useless. For the most part, its ignored by Detectives and regular officers as confirming the prints on anything is unintuitive as it is. Both regular crew member and crimers alike wear insulated gloves and being able to confirm who's fibers belongs to who only via direct confrontation only hassles regular crew members and is a huge giveaway for antags.

By making most gloves leave partial prints, Security can now make actual use of said evidence by using cross examination of the prints with the given Security records. Being careful about what evidence you leave behind actually requires effort now and isnt something you did by accident just because you're wearing gloves. I think it would be beneficial to Sec gameplay as well that useful policing work can be done behind a desk, not just by being out in the field.

Regarding some comments from the previous PR:
I dont think having gloves that leave no prints whatsoever would be all that good for gameplay. If anything, Id imagine it would only cause confusion. (I'd say its also unrealistic but current forensics is kind of a mess in realism)

Changelog

Code:

(u)Carbadox:
(*)Most gloves will now leave scrambled prints and only a couple will leave only material prints (eg, latex gloves, janitorial and boxing). Previously, all gloves would leave material prints and only latex gloves would leave scrambled prints.

PULL REQUEST DETAILS

[Mouse]

Leaving prints through gloves is very nonsensical, IMO. I'd rather see refinements to forensics (such as being able to scan glove ids at a distance, flag glove ids in a database, search the security database for partial strings, that sort of thing) than have prints be visible through an inch of rubber. And honestly, as long as you can't search the database for partial strings then the scrambling is pretty damn good at hiding identity because you have to check each security entry individually. (That said if you get the ability to search the database for partial strings I'd like fingerprint ids to be much more similar to each other so that having a partial print will generally only allow you to narrow it down rather than instantly giving you the right person.)

Removing partial prints from latex gloves and having them leave only material information would be a good change though. Hell, to give them an actual use in forensics you could just not have them leave material fibers, or perhaps just not leave any unique glove id since they're mass produced.

[Sundance]

https://forum.ss13.co/showthread.php?tid=13705

Previous thread earlier in the year. I supported it then and I support this PR now.

[Spoodle]

You know, this makes a more sense than how it was previously. +1.

[KikiMofo]

I understand this is trying to nerf insulated gloves because most people that are up to no good will wear a pair and trying to scan for prints and just coming back with insulated fibers all the time is lame but thing is insulated gloves IRL would leave NO PRINTS at all because they are completely insulated. That's how they work.
I have no idea how to fix this without it being just focused on making insulated gloves worse.

[Flaborized]

IMO material prints are easier/more fun to find than partial prints, so I'd prefer that the more common gloves use them.

To find partial prints: Either scan a couple surfaces touched and write down what you get to make a complete code out of them, or scroll through every forensic file until you find one that matches the partial code to find out who was wearing the gloves. Both of these are very tedious to Me Personally and Not Worth It.

To find material prints, copy the material ID somewhere, scan people who are wearing the right type of gloves with a scanner until you find a match. Also can scan doors commonly used by only one job (IE: scan the CE's door if the person you're trying to find is using insuls to see if they match) and generally be a lot Smarter About It in that way. When I played sec I would usually ignore the partial prints mechanic of latex gloves and just go for material.

Also: removing the material aspect of most gloves removes that cool "which job probably did this" aspect of it. Finding insul prints doesn't mean "oh anybody could have done it" it means *somebody who was wearing insulateds* did it. That means you can be extra suspicious of people wearing those gloves, especially if they're not a job that starts with them, and can single them out to scan with your forensic scanner. Partial prints is basically "solve a boring matching puzzle and then you Get The ID of The Person". I think the former is much more detective-y in game-feel and much less answer-give-y.

[GORE]

Correct me if I am wrong - but partial prints do make sense.

See - if you touch a glove your oily sticky grubby hands you will leave your skin oils on whatever you are touching; thus a print is created. Putting on a glove and touching it on the outside can leave partial prints on the glove and might leave those on touched stuff too.

[Drago156]

Assuming that you put the first glove on touching only the edge/bottom of the glove, and then putting the other glove on using the first glove, you don't leave a lot of room to leave prints.

Also as it is now, I don't 100% support this, but I think it would be good to have these on the black leather/fiber gloves that most of engineering gets because a lot of people wear those and it can be difficult figuring out who has what with those, a lot more than insuls. I'm also mostly certain that latex gloves already give partial ID, so why change them to material only? Seems a little bit counter to the point to me.

[Carbadox]

Gloves leaving material prints isn't unchanged, they still leave that. They just also leave partial prints as well, which I'll be honest is just semantics. I think the names could be changed to something else that could possibly fit but IMO, I think it mechanically makes sense.

[Sundance]

Also: removing the material aspect of most gloves removes that cool "which job probably did this" aspect of it. Finding insul prints doesn't mean "oh anybody could have done it" it means *somebody who was wearing insulateds* did it. That means you can be extra suspicious of people wearing those gloves, especially if they're not a job that starts with them, and can single them out to scan with your forensic scanner. Partial prints is basically "solve a boring matching puzzle and then you Get The ID of The Person". I think the former is much more detective-y in game-feel and much less answer-give-y.

Flab, this change doesn't remove that aspect of this at all. Let me take your example and bounce it back at ya:

Say the change is implemented and you're at a scene of a crime, and find partial prints along with insulated material prints.

You don't go through every forensic file, that would be silly. No, you would check the manifest, see who is likely to have insulation gloves and then cross reference that with the partial prints.

The current way requires you to physically scan that persons gloves. The issue there is that if a person has done crime, they're unlikely to allow you to get that close in the first place, it is a fool's game tbh.

Also, I don't get the IRL argument. It's dumb, we don't balance things based off of IRL. We reference it.

[Leeanei]

Latex gloves should leave prints because not only does it *not make a lick of sense* given latex gloves leave prints in real life, but they are also ridiculously disposable and nobody bats an eyelid if you wear them unlike insuls. It'd make forensics much harder, because currently the match game is the best way to handle latex glove forensics.

[Boxta]

Personnally, i think all gloves should leave Partial prints, And traitors/Spys/Nukies would be able to get swat gloves, Which would just leave no trace at all, perhaps at 1-2~ TC cost?

[GORE]

No - not all gloves should leave complete prints; and even if so - then there should be a way to delete prints on objects.

[Boxta]

No - not all gloves should leave complete prints; and even if so - then there should be a way to delete prints on objects.

I meant partial prints, And it would be cool if you could like clean off a object with a sink or a sponge to remove prints

[Carbadox]

Space cleaner removes forensic evidence. This includes blood stains and finger prints