AI/Roboticist Upgrade

[RedbeardRum]

I originally posted this idea in the general suggestions thread, but I think that this idea is actually pretty decent, and so decided to flesh it out a bit more and give it its own thread.


A new area would be added, preferably close to robotics and/or the AI upload. This area would contain a bunch of equipment, known as the AI auxillary station-side equipment (ASSE), or something similar.
My theory is that it'd work by fitting additional er, "shelves", I suppose, where you would insert upgrades, similar to the cyborg upgrades. The more shelves the roboticist builds and secures for the AI's ASSE, the more upgrades could be installed, due to each set of shelves only being able to hold a specific amount of upgrades (maybe one per shelf/set of shelves, so that it's more tedious to give the AI every upgrade available?).

The Shelves: (for lack of a better name)
The shelves would need to built, similar to computers, and would need to be on top of a power cable to link up to the ASSE mainframe. They would also require a power supply to be functional. The parts for each shelf could be manufactured by the robotics manufacturers. I'm guessing the necessary parts would be something like: reader/drive(so that it knows what to do with the upgrade), a case/frame, and some wire to hook it up. The optional (or maybe just make it all necessary, if you want) parts could be a power cell, so that it wouldn't immediately be brought down when the main powercell in the room ran out of gas, and a flash, or lightbulb, to act as a sort of "on/off" light on the exterior, so that anyone viewing the shelves can tell if it's activated or not.

Mainframe & Monitering computer:
The mainframe is pretty straight forward - it is what connects the upgrades to the station & AI. I'd like this to be standard issue, and so it would come pre-built, and in place. Maybe you could give it a couple of small hardware upgrades aswell, such as a powercell so that it has a backup power supply similar to the shelves?
The monitering computer would be similar to the robotics control computer. It would list the shelves that're connected to the mainframe, and what upgrades they have installed in them, and any relevant information, which I'll expand on soon. It would also have an "on/off" remote toggle, to allow the personnel and the AI to turn off the upgrades without uninstalling them.

The Upgrades/Augmentations:
Each active upgrade would cause a decent increase in the power drain for the room. This would mean that when the station was low on power, the AI would have to be more sparing with how it used its upgrades, rather than just leaving them on constantly. Of course, if the station had a normal power supply, then it'd be fine with running all of them at once.

• Thermal Vision. The AI currently starts with this, but I think it'd be more interesting if the AI started off bare. This upgrade would allow the AI to see all of the creatures within its field of view/map, even those which are cloaked. This would mean that at the start of the round, the AI would be incapable of seeing cloaked people.
  
• X-Ray Vision. The AI currently starts with this aswell. This would allow the AI to see through walls, so that it would be able to see items, people, and anything else it wouldn't have been able to before due to a vision-blocking obstacle.
  
• Health Vision. I stole this one from enforcer9 in the general suggestions thread. This would act exactly the same as the health goggles in medbay, allowing the AI to see the general health condition of each human/changeling/vampire.
  
• ID access upgrade. When interacting with computers, vending machines, or any other hardware that isn't a door, the AI would attempt to use the ID last scanned by the upgrade instead of its regular AI access. This means that with a roboticist ID scanned, the AI would be able to remotely issue goods from the med vendors, and with a sec id, issue goods from the sec vendors. This would become useful in various crises, such as when someone requires a spaceacillin injection, but no one will come to vend it for them, or when the crew requires flashes, handcuffs, or flashbangs to fight off some sort of menace, and there is no security or heads to help them, which is a common occurance. When logging into computers, instead of using AIusr, it would use the ID scanned. This would allow it to use dwaine computers. Obviously, it'd be a terrible idea to swipe a head's ID in this, because then the AI would be able to recall the shuttle. What if the AI wants to log in as AIusr because it has an assistant's ID swiped? It can use the monitering computer to turn the upgrade off. Convenient!
  In the monitering computer, under additional information, it would list the rank of the ID scanned, and the name.

I currently don't have any more ideas for upgrades, but I'm sure other people will be able to think of other bitchin' ideas - so if you have anything, please suggest it here!

I do have another idea related to the AI, though, which I think would be a nice addition to this AI upgrade & downgrade:

New traitor item: Radar Transparency Device, basically identical to the one from Deus Ex:

"Radar-absorbant resin augments epithelial; microprojection units distort
agent's visual signature. Provides highly effective concealment from automated
detection systems -- bots, cameras, turrets."

When activated, the AI and cyborgs would not be able to see you. Also, other bots wouldn't be able to detect you (eg. beepsky, medibot, etc). It'd fit in your pocket, like the cloaking device used to. Would cost the same as the cloaking device, preferably.

Basically acts as a robot counterpart to the cloaking device.

This'd be a huge boon to most traitors, especially rampaging ones. With the AI unable to track or spot you, you wouldn't have the issue of being randomly locked down. Although there are multiple ways to solve this already, I would like another efficient option besides "kill the AI at the start of the round", due to the finality of its death, and how boring that ends up being for it.

[RedbeardRum]

I don't think I mentioned it, but the roboticist would manufacture these upgrades in the robotics manufacturers aswell.

If robotics research was ever brought back in any form, then AI upgrades could become another thing to research, which'd be cool.

[Anticheese]

So your idea is to take away the few advantages an AI player has and make more pointless busywork/waiting around for roboticists?

[Dachshundofdoom]

I like this, except for:

Thermal/X-ray upgrades

If AI started with realistic vision, it would need a cubic assload of cameras EVERYWHERE so it would be able to see most rooms with only a few blindspots, like you'd expect from something whose job is "watch everyone and make sure they don't all die, at least not without complaining about it." AI would be totally miserable if you couldn't see everywhere. On the other hand,

Health/ID upgrades

These are freaking sweet, especially the ID upgrades because I was complaining about this exact thing earlier.

As for more ideas:

Camera Zoom Upgrade: this allows the AI to actually examine things, letting it look at people's outfits and read notes laying on the floor. Without the health vision upgrade, though, it wouldn't be able to tell anything about someone's injury status beyond, "Its eyes are closed and it is laying still," "it appears to have superficial injuries," and "it appears to be heavily injured."

Cloak Detector Upgrade: regarding the idea for a robot jammer earlier, I think it's a very good idea. However, I think it might also be a good idea if the AI needed an upgrade to be able to IDENTIFY a cloaker. It should be able to see a disturbance (I guess just that white spinning circle with no sprite inside it), but it shouldn't able to name the cloaker or track them unless it has this upgrade, which allows it to actually see through the cloak like normal.

VOX upgrade: given only to AIs that the crew is certain will be responsible in their use of ASS DAY ASS DAY ALL CREW TO MEDBAY FOR ASS INSPECTION WOOP WOOP.

Finally, a traitor item:

Syndicate Modified Upload Card:
10 Telecrystals, Roboticist only
When plugged into one of the shelves, this automatically hacks into the AI and uploads a freeform law of the traitor roboticist's choosing. So long as it remains in the shelf, it will automatically reapply the law in the event that any changes occur to the AI's laws. On the other hand, you can't change the law once you insert it, and removing the card breaks it. Of course, if the crew finds one of these, they know who's responsible.

So your idea is to take away the few advantages an AI player has and make more pointless busywork/waiting around for roboticists?

Also this would be great for those rounds where nobody wants to be borged, plus I always felt like two roboticists was one too many for the work they have to do and equipment they have to share. More stuff is always good.

[RedbeardRum]

So your idea is to take away the few advantages an AI player has and make more pointless busywork/waiting around for roboticists?

No. Consider the AI in its current state to be similar to the singularity being set up before anyone arrived on the station. By forcing engineers to set up the engine, it could be considered giving them pointless busywork. Just to point out that your point is more an opposition to change in general, than to this change in particular, and uh, hopefully add another perspective.

But, with this upgrade, the AI would be gaining more abilities, and as such, have more advantages. I haven't had a round as a roboticist where I haven't had a lot of spare time on my hands, and that's with doing my job properly. Most of my time was spent either waiting around for borgs to come back for servicing, or doing things that weren't strictly related to my job. So, I don't think adding more purpose to their job would be a particularly bad thing. Installing all of the upgrades wouldn't be necessary, and I can't imagine people bothering with that each round - but I'd assume that the two current default abilities would be inexpensive, so it wouldn't be much of an issue for a roboticist to set those up at the start of the round. But, if everyone agrees that taking away its current all seeing vision is unfair, then that part could be easily written off - I still think the other upgrades should be considered.

sweet ideas

Bitchin' examples of new advantages here.

[Iq2Gamer]

If robotics research was ever brought back in any form, then AI upgrades could become another thing to research, which'd be cool

I agree with this completely. The AI should be able to research the upgrades it wants to whether there is an active robotisist or not. The research computer should also be brought back for robotics because it help helps with busywork when no one wants to be borged.

I have several ideas as well.

First, just like all other computers, this new computer should be able to be made from an additional circuit board found in tech storage. Also, the electricians should be able to scan those new upgrades incase they are destroyed as well as robotics.

Second, there should be an upgraded that alows an AI to un-emag a door or robot after a long period of time. So they can unemag beepsky or an important door that was emagged by a traitor that was caught.

Third, There could be an upgrade where the AI has an android capabilty. Like a special cyborg that actually has hands and health but with the addition of no battery problems. It would be a human in everyones' eyes and only the AI, could access it. If it dies though, it blows up or something bad happens.

[Coolguye]

No. Consider the AI in its current state to be similar to the singularity being set up before anyone arrived on the station. By forcing engineers to set up the engine, it could be considered giving them pointless busywork. Just to point out that your point is more an opposition to change in general, than to this change in particular, and uh, hopefully add another perspective.

The problem with this analogy is that everybody loves power, so the singularity is immediately a Cool Thing, my own reservations about its shitty, fun-destroying design aside.

NOT everyone loves the AI. This is true even for Roboticists. As a Roboticist I usually consider the cyborgs my homies, but the AI is only cool if he helps the borgs. Many rounds I might decide that I'm better off with a crippled AI, and I'll only upgrade it if ordered to by the RD or the Captain at that point. And they'll never order me to. The problem here is that this one decision by me has made the AI much less beneficial without making it any less obnoxious if corrupted, so the love-hate relationship the crew has with the AI will inevitably shift more to just hate.

[Karakoran]

This seems like the place to put this, Robotics needs a closet for bodies like Genetics gets. Putting dead, brainless bodies outside is just nasty.

[BruceHenke]

This seems like the place to put this, Robotics needs a closet for bodies like Genetics gets. Putting dead, brainless bodies outside is just nasty.

That's what the disposals chute is for, man

[enforcer9]

This seems like the place to put this, Robotics needs a closet for bodies like Genetics gets. Putting dead, brainless bodies outside is just nasty.

That's what the disposals chute is for, man

But a true roboticist collects all brainless, buttless corpses for his future pleasure.

[Anticheese]

If robotics research is ever reintroduced, I'd like to see something like Complicated Artlab™ in which you figure out the function of Untested Prototype components that Centcom sends the specs for through every ten to fifteen minutes. Let us keep the list of things available now, and add some good, awful, fun, and weird effects attached to the new gear.

Let's say we print off a new prototype arm. The roboticist sticks it in a stress testing machine and pulls it taut to test how much strength the part has compared to standard parts. Instead of returning a strength value, it turns out that its an extend-o-arm that lets a cyborg use modules up to a couple tiles away! The roboticist names it as such for easy reference, and uploads it to the manufacturer.

There's plenty of room for robotics research, but it should involve actual research and reward players with something new. It shouldn't reward players with a 30 minute wait to get stuff they've had for the last several months.

[Anticheese]

Basically I want something for Roboticists to do other than assembling a ton of robots and disassembling the maintenance hallways for scrap metal. Prototypes coming through every 15 minutes gives the roboticists a few neat toys to play with each round and gives them the option of trying something new. Plus, the promise of some new and unique toys should make being borged a more attractive option as opposed to being cloned.

The idea of things coming through every 15 minutes is based on how long it takes a DWAINE newbie to work shit out. Plus, if someone is good at DWAINE or they don't want to futz with research (so they just don't print off new modules), there's plenty of time to build more robots inbetween the wait.

Money is something that we don't see used a lot in SS13, so one use might be to buy new prototypes instantly. Sending the correct specs on what the prototype does to Centcom (Perhaps based on a list of keywords that go in the sentence?) could earn some money, but getting it wrong costs the station research budget. Buying identification for robotics parts should also be a possibility, as it allows for a really dedicated station to try a lot of things in one round.

[CaptainBravo]

things i'd want:

more cyborg accessories(chest accessories have a button in the recharge station but apparently none exist? :? )

e-magging a module gives a chance at the old sec module

that weird bug where sometimes a person who's ghosted can't become a cyborg getting fixed