[PR] Hacking a manufacturer is permanent and causes malfunctions

[Chasu]

Inofficial feedback thread for PR #25632.
No official feedback thread was opened at the time of writing.[/color]
Taken from the PR itself:
---
About the PR
Hacked fabricators cannot have their maintenance panel closed.
Hacking a fabricator to show the extended recipe list now cannot be repaired without replacing the entire fabricator.
Hacked fabricators now also malfunction irreparably.
Emags will also cause the fabricator to malfunction, but don't require you to open the panel to do so, reducing the chance of getting caught (although opening the panel will prevent it being closed again).
For reference malfunctioning fabricators:

• Shred inserted blueprints (75% chance)
  
• Take longer to print things
  
• Consume more power
  
• Every so often may flip out with any of the following effects:
  
  • Eject a random item inserted (materials, disks)(15%)(Only if not printing)
    
  • Delete random items from the queue (20% overall, 33% per item (does not include first item in queue))
    
  • Pause current print (5%) (Only if printing)
    
  • Double active power consumption (9.5%) (Only if printing)
    
  • Set speed to a random amount (10%)
    
  • Electrify itself for 5 seconds (5%)
    

Why is this needed?
Currently theres no downside to just hacking a manufacturer at roundstart, hacking should be something non-antags only need to do in emergencies, or that antags use to obtain contraband.
Having the fabricator permanently visibly hacked gives security a chance to investigate for example, why the HoP would hack their own fabricator (its to print a sec radio) or why the general fabricator in tool storage is hacked (the chaplain was printing more .22 ammo)

---
This change does not affect vendors or the botany seed fabricator.

I personally am in favor of this, mainly due to in-universe reasons (employees shouldn't jailbreak their hardware), but have seen a player remark that robotics could be negatively affected by this. Should definitely be TMed first, though.

[Shiiba]

Like I said on discord, I agree with this change but I think it also gives us room to introduce upgrades to fabricators as well, much like how the cloner has its upgrades.

One of my favorite aspects of TG is their research mechanics via RnD which helps with improving QoL on station via upgrading machines and what not, I don't ever see anything like that remotely being added to Goon BUT I do think that this PR could be a stepping stone to introduce working with other departments for QoL things for their own department.

I think Engineering should be able to produce speed upgrades for fabricators (and if this is something that did happen, maybe even decreased material cost upgrades and so on) as it makes the most sense for Engineering to upgrade machines on station in the first place. How would engineering get the upgrades? Idk, but I think it would be really good.

[Kotlol]

I agree to this one. I think hacking fabricators should do something like: It breaks down now since you messed with it and wore off the warranty.

Or atleast add a new late game role called: Warranty Officer. Who's job it is to check fabricators and machines to see if they are hacked and if they are... take em away.

Hacking and messing with devices should be considered a NONO.
As for botany who needs it for their weed farms.
YOU CAN GROW OTHER STUFF, but otherwise just add a spacebux reward that gives 1 cannabis seed at the start of a round or something like that.

[Danger Noodle]

Reposting my comment on the PR

No, not a fan. Not in the current state of things. Manufacturers do not have nearly enough contraband locked behind hacking to justify this (5 of the 10 have no hidden items), not to mention the fact that a lot of the hidden items aren't even things that should be hidden or are inconsistent, why can the gen fab make saxophones normally but to make violins you're forced to brick the thing?

The fact it's permanent also generally makes it miserable to deal with, if the clown (or borg) ever comes over to your fab and clicks on it 3 times and you can't do anything about it minus getting an entirely new one which isn't great. Also what about ion storms? You could be working cargo and now your fabricators just decide to not work half the time through literally no fault of your own.

Making this apply to fabricators only is a bit weird to me too since vending machines offer arguably much more dangerous items on average when hacked (sulfonal, panc, bath salts, slugs, lethal .38, flash assemblies, secmate disks). I don't think this should apply to vending machines either but it's just a bit odd with the disparity this would create.

Finally... why does it give you more speed settings if it slows the fabricator down, either keep the current speeds or remove the 4 and 5 speed options completely, it's just a weird middle ground currently.

[GARGATHUGANOKSREVENG]

this is crazy and dumb.

you can just do a loop around the entire station and brick everyone's manufacturers, force them to replace the entire thing, at like the click of 2 buttons.

the only thing this PR does is add more reasons for bored security officers to ticket people for petty reasons (machine hacking) and punish players for the crime of wanting to speed printing up or print bicycle horns. what did bicycle horns do to you?

[JORJ949]

Hacking a manufacturer does not brick it, just makes it a bit more of a hassle to use. Also the two reasons you want to keep it (speeding up, printing normal stuff) I do acknowledge are reasons against this and are things I want to change, by making speeding up obtainable some other way e.g. an upgrade obtainable somewhere and printing normal stuff to just, not be locked behind hacking. You currently can't really add more contraband to a manufacturer because of the prevalence of just hacking them roundstart. Crew should not have a reason to be hacking these unless its absolutely necessary based on the current state of the round.

[Ikea]

I do think changing the hidden menu should be a prerequisite for this change, removing all of the benign stuff from it and giving the rest (unless if it's a joke like the bikehorn) a contraband rating. Or just making the stuff more deadly, like I'd be for making erebite cells more explosive, powerful, and sensitive so they're less of a grey area. That being said this pr doesn't do that nor is there a pr open at the time to do that. Suggestion for a speeding up fabricator thing, maybe make it similar to the teg semiconductors where each fabricator has a nozzle and a higher thermal conductivity means a higher max print speed (you can change material via the electroplater), nozzles can also be printed out in the engineering manufacturer

[tamakona]

Inofficial feedback thread for PR #25632.
No official feedback thread was opened at the time of writing.[/color]
Taken from the PR itself:
---
About the PR
Hacked fabricators cannot have their maintenance panel closed.
Hacking a fabricator to show the extended recipe list now cannot be repaired without replacing the entire fabricator.
Hacked fabricators now also malfunction irreparably.
Emags will also cause the fabricator to malfunction, but don't require you to open the panel to do so, reducing the chance of getting caught (although opening the panel will prevent it being closed again).
For reference malfunctioning fabricators:

• Shred inserted blueprints (75% chance)
  
• Take longer to print things
  
• Consume more power
  
• Every so often may flip out with any of the following effects:
  
  • Eject a random item inserted (materials, disks)(15%)(Only if not printing)
    
  • Delete random items from the queue (20% overall, 33% per item (does not include first item in queue))
    
  • Pause current print (5%) (Only if printing)
    
  • Double active power consumption (9.5%) (Only if printing)
    
  • Set speed to a random amount (10%)
    
  • Electrify itself for 5 seconds (5%)
    

Why is this needed?
Currently theres no downside to just hacking a manufacturer at roundstart, hacking should be something non-antags only need to do in emergencies, or that antags use to obtain contraband.
Having the fabricator permanently visibly hacked gives security a chance to investigate for example, why the HoP would hack their own fabricator (its to print a sec radio) or why the general fabricator in tool storage is hacked (the chaplain was printing more .22 ammo)

---
This change does not affect vendors or the botany seed fabricator.

I personally am in favor of this, mainly due to in-universe reasons (employees shouldn't jailbreak their hardware), but have seen a player remark that robotics could be negatively affected by this. Should definitely be TMed first, though.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the wire that control the expanded inventory also increase manufacturing speed? This is a huge quality of life for, well, anyone that uses manufacturers a lot. Roboticists, Engineers, Mechanics. I feel like losing this is a pretty major loss compared to what it's apparently trying to fix, it's not like anyone's printing AEX with this, and I've never heard of a chaplain absolutely ruining around with .22 bullets of all things.

I guess a solution is simply separate the two wires, but making it "permanently busted" means you can't test for wires the usual and only way. I dunno, I'm just not very sold on this change.

---

Hacking a manufacturer does not brick it, just makes it a bit more of a hassle to use. Also the two reasons you want to keep it (speeding up, printing normal stuff) I do acknowledge are reasons against this and are things I want to change, by making speeding up obtainable some other way e.g. an upgrade obtainable somewhere and printing normal stuff to just, not be locked behind hacking. You currently can't really add more contraband to a manufacturer because of the prevalence of just hacking them roundstart. Crew should not have a reason to be hacking these unless its absolutely necessary based on the current state of the round.

I really don't think quality of life should be kept behind an "upgrade obtainable somewhere", especially a piece of QoL as universal as the manufacturers. QoL should not be a limited resource that people have to fight over and makes certain roles with better access to places for finding upgrades more preferrable. 

"Doesn't brick it" also feels like a hyge understatement, the effects listed are pretty harsh, and can too easily be used to impact how the crew functions, and from my opinion way easier than a chaplain with a few extra .22 can.

I just don't think this change is very good, or very thought out well. I don't understand why crew shouldn't be doing this roundstart. Is it part of the RP escalation rules? It's not like printing stuff means you're immediately going on a murder rampage. Okay, so maybe it's because you're wrecking NT property. What about the people that make rooms and and modify their bars to look how they want and such? Or the engineers scrambling a pipeline to make a new setup, or the mechanics adding new machines to the insides of the station? Malicious or not, these are kind of no different from hacking or jailbreaking or modifying a system to make it work better for personal projects. Were they supposed to AFK for 30 minutes before starting to do anything?

This very specific mention of "crew shouldnt do this roundstart" makes me can't help but feel like this is kind of a rage PR because whoever made it didnt like that a chaplain smoked em at 20 minutes one round. Which I get it, it sucks, but I don't think is justification for messing with such a universal QoL.

[Chasu]

Also the two reasons you want to keep it (speeding up, printing normal stuff) I do acknowledge are reasons against this and are things I want to change, by making speeding up obtainable some other way e.g. an upgrade obtainable somewhere and printing normal stuff to just, not be locked behind hacking.

I do feel like people wouldn't be as opposed to this PR as they are if some alternative upgrades were already present in the PR itself. I don't blame you for keeping it small, just saying that a lot of these reactions don't consider future changes yet.

---

[...]
I just don't think this change is very good, or very thought out well. I don't understand why crew shouldn't be doing this roundstart. Is it part of the RP escalation rules? It's not like printing stuff means you're immediately going on a murder rampage. [...]  Malicious or not, these are kind of no different from hacking or jailbreaking or modifying a system to make it work better for personal projects. Were they supposed to AFK for 30 minutes before starting to do anything?

I believe you're overestimating the impact of this. It does not take 30 minnutes to print any part on any speed setting. Hacking is still an option, it's just not reversible. All this PR does is add minor downsides to doing so. I agree that the malfunctions themselves are anything but fun to interact with or engaging, and I also think that those aren't great in their current state, but I would not say that it'd have a "large impact on how the crew functions". Most strong stuff comes from vendors anyway.

[nova2053]

Personally I agree with this change, it feels weird from a roleplay standpoint to see people jailbreaking company property without being given a good reason to do so.

[Elskrises]

The fact that the hack is permanent seems very excessive to me, considering how easy it is to do. I might be wrong but no machines can be made worse for forever like this, not including EMAG usage, which this seems more fitting for. I don't know what the way to go with this would be, but having it last forever seems like a terrible idea to me. I am neutral on all other aspects.

[github_bot]

PULL REQUEST DETAILS





About the PR
Hacked fabricators cannot have their maintenance panel closed.
Hacking a fabricator to show the extended recipe list now cannot be repaired without replacing the entire fabricator.
Hacked fabricators now also malfunction irreparably.

Emags will also cause the fabricator to malfunction, but don't require you to open the panel to do so, reducing the chance of getting caught (although opening the panel will prevent it being closed again).

For reference malfunctioning fabricators:
- Shred inserted blueprints (75% chance)
- Take longer to print things
- Consume more power
- Every so often may flip out with any of the following effects:
- Eject a random item inserted (materials, disks)(15%)(Only if not printing)
- Delete random items from the queue (20% overall, 33% per item (does not include first item in queue))
- Pause current print (5%) (Only if printing)
- Double active power consumption (9.5%) (Only if printing)
- Set speed to a random amount (10%)
- Electrify itself for 5 seconds (5%)

Why's this needed?
Currently theres no downside to just hacking a manufacturer at roundstart, hacking should be something non-antags only need to do in emergencies, or that antags use to obtain contraband.

Having the fabricator permanently visibly hacked gives security a chance to investigate for example, why the HoP would hack their own fabricator (its to print a sec radio) or why the general fabricator in tool storage is hacked (the chaplain was printing more .22 ammo)

Testing
Properly could repair malfunctioning fabricators if not hacked, could not repair hacked fabricators and could not close their maintenance panel. UI showed that the fabricator was malfunctioning.



Changelog

Code:

changelog
(u)JORJ949
(*)Hacking a fabricator now cannot be repaired, causes the fabricator to malfunction and stops the maintenance panel being closed.

PULL REQUEST DETAILS

[glowbold]

Hey there, thanks for making the unofficial thread. to make sure all feedback is together, I've moved all the posts into a thread linked from the PR.

[GARGATHUGANOKSREVENG]

Hacking a manufacturer does not brick it, just makes it a bit more of a hassle to use. Also the two reasons you want to keep it (speeding up, printing normal stuff) I do acknowledge are reasons against this and are things I want to change, by making speeding up obtainable some other way e.g. an upgrade obtainable somewhere and printing normal stuff to just, not be locked behind hacking. You currently can't really add more contraband to a manufacturer because of the prevalence of just hacking them roundstart. Crew should not have a reason to be hacking these unless its absolutely necessary based on the current state of the round.

you can get security headsets in the time it takes to hack the HoP fab and you need an actual gun before you start printing ammo from general fabs. what are you talking about? nvm I misread it. emphasis on what I said below this though

also "absolutely necessary to the round" then why are half of the hacked-fab recipes gag items like instruments and bicycle horns. you've made up this system in your head and you're trying to apply it to a preexisting mechanic where it doesn't fit.

[Whele]

I like the idea of some kind of fabricator speed upgrade chip that you can receive from a requisition.
As a personal anecdote, back when I first started playing the game, I used to do exactly what OP described- I'd hack every fabricator just because I could. Nowadays, I hardly bother, and I rarely see anyone else do it, either. There's just not a lot of benefit to doing it for no reason. It's just something you can do if you want. This game is full of stuff like that, and I don't think this change would be an improvement. I'm glad that OP decided to take this in a different direction, because while a major change can be an overall positive (clone disk rack) this ain't it.