Ghost drones ideas and discussion

[Sundance]

The important interpretation I've learned for law 1 is: don't PREVENT damage to the station (thus interrupting what someone was doing), just fix what occurs. Dragging a bomb offstation (which I did) is a nono.

EDIT: Also what happens when somebody opens a door to let a drone in and some crimer comes rushing in? Bam, human impact that could have been saved. Implicit responsibility for someone's round changing severely (getting whomped by a derringer or something the guy was carrying) vs. not. Drones aren't supposed to have to interact with people. They can't even speak to humans or recognize them by voice, for goodness' sake. Don't make them dependent on people, thus interrupting someone else's dynamic to be forced to pay attention to the drone.

The biggest confusion I've seen people having with law #1 is what Nnystyxx mentioned.

The concern people have with #2 is usually about hacking into places. I have yet to be yelled at for doing so, and I haven't seen anybody else yelled at, so I'm guessing it's fine so long as you don't leave all the doors shocked/open.

I haven't seen anybody have a problem with #3 yet.

The addendum I have for the laws is usually the line I gave above: 'Don't fuck with people's round; you're dead'' along with 'Avoid picking up or moving what you don't have to' or 'Imagine yourself a traitor, and the guy you just blew up came back and removed your other bombs after ghosting around to find them'.

We're like improved floorbots, really.

Re: Nnystyxx's comment on opening doors for drones; if someone opens a door for a drone and gets killed by another person I really don't see it as the drones fault. It's a traitor jumping at an opportunity, the drone just happened to be that opportunistic moment. It doesn't mean he's interacted with the situation firsthand, but rather was caught in the situation.

But yeah, more access for drones would be good. I think access to places such as engineering and QM would be essential for their tasks.

Regards law #2, yeah again it seems the intent. Leaving a shit load of doors shocked is reckless and could be regarded as malicious.

Your other points is kind of worked into the laws themselves. Fucking with peoples rounds could fall into law #1 or law #2 depending on circumstance.
Regards metagaming; I feel a strong bold message on the wiki linking to the rules#metagaming would clear any sort of misunderstanding.

[Frank_Stein]

One thing I think worth considering is how involved drones are with the station vs. how easy it is to be a drone.

If drones are an automatically made thing, and separate from the station, then they should have minimal impact and stick to their current role as just repairing and cleaning.

If the drone making machinery is on station, can be tampered with, or requires someone like the Robotocist or another job to get them working, then I think it's okay for them to have a greater impact on the station.

Either way, drones are still a fun thing for dead players to still be involved in the game, especially when there's no chance for cloning or borging.

[Vitatroll]

Ryan brought up a point about infinite drones. I think a drone-tsunami could be jarring on some of the more chaotic rounds, but my opinion is tentative until I witness the outcome and response of those rounds. I'll have to leave that to the input of other given the times I'm on.

My basic round as drone is:
1) Find Hat.
2) Wear Hat.
3) Build something fun in space until people break the station.
4) Fix the station.
5) Back to 1 if I lose my hat; otherwise back to 3.

Sundance: When mentioning Nnystyxx's post, I was actually regarding the bit about preventing damage to the station. Sorry, it was actually more of a #2-3 thing. I've already seen drones try to rule lawyer shit, which made groan and facepalm irl. Not kidding.

[atomic1fire]

If drone factory can be "modified" by the crew, I kinda want a random hat module that gives each drone it's own distinct hat. Like you are built, only to discover you now are wearing a bright green viking hat, so the crew nicknames you viking and somebody quickly labels you to reflect your new name.

[Nnystyxx]

Make it so drones can talk with ghosts still and vice versa, so they don't lose their nice ghost friends when they spawn in.

[Wire]

Pushed a stealth patch last night that:

- Adds missing hotkeys for drones (wasd and arrow key mode).
- Fixes stun overlay sticking around forever if drone enters charger while stunned, by disallowing charging while stunned.
- Fixes chargers never disengaging if a drone dies while being charged.
- Adds missing suicide verb.
- Fixes emotes sending to text chat (e.g. Drone says "*fart") if the drone is stunned
- Upgrades ghostdrone access level to that of an Engineer (until something more permanent can be devised)

[Arborinus]

Restating these in forum form:

- Since they are supposed to be inconsequential little things, let drones be able to be picked up and put in backpacks (enough wiggling by the drone should let them hop out)

- Let drones be used as a head in surgery

[69andahalf]

Restating these in forum form:

- Since they are supposed to be inconsequential little things, let drones be able to be picked up and put in backpacks (enough wiggling by the drone should let them hop out)

- Let drones be used as a head in surgery

Can a be the nerd who says that drones are supposed to not interact with the crew? They're just supposed to help repair the station, not become people, and I can't see drones being able to be picked up not ending up interacting with the crew. Just my two cents though, perhaps I am a total hard ass nerd!

[Frank_Stein]

There's something I saw one nuke round where drones were repairing the damage from RPG blasts which I think needs some attention.

Now, drones should certainly repair things, but during a nuke round, RPG breaches can be a tactical decision on the part of the nuke ops, so I feel like repairing them would be interfering too much with their plan, based on how short those rounds are.

Would it be best to say drones should just steer clear of syndicate activity all together?

[misto]

holes in the station are holes in the station. fixing the station is the little dudes jobs. if the syndies dont want the ghost drones fixing those hole, its up to them to keep shooting to kill the drones.

[Arborinus]

Restating these in forum form:

- Since they are supposed to be inconsequential little things, let drones be able to be picked up and put in backpacks (enough wiggling by the drone should let them hop out)

- Let drones be used as a head in surgery

Can a be the nerd who says that drones are supposed to not interact with the crew? They're just supposed to help repair the station, not become people, and I can't see drones being able to be picked up not ending up interacting with the crew. Just my two cents though, perhaps I am a total hard ass nerd!

I completely agree with you. I was trying to suggest more ways for the crew to mess with drones. I think they should be considered just inanimate objects and doing things from knocking off their hats to destroying them in funny ways should be done. Picking them up and throwin' em around would be great fun.

Why? If we really want drones to not interact with humans, we gotta make them scurry away at the sight of humans in fear of what they'll do.

[ZeWaka]

Would it be best to say drones should just steer clear of syndicate activity all together?

That would be my opinion. I don't think drones should repair a breach if ANY human obviously wants it to be there. That being said, a bomb in genetics that nobody claims responsibility for should be fixed.

[Noah Buttes]

Would it be best to say drones should just steer clear of syndicate activity all together?

That would be my opinion. I don't think drones should repair a breach if ANY human obviously wants it to be there. That being said, a bomb in genetics that nobody claims responsibility for should be fixed.

If a bomb goes off in genetics, someone clearly set it off and therefore intended for the hole to be there.

Really, there's very few sources of station damage that AREN'T intentional. The only ones I can think of are meteors, black holes, and the occasional chemistry/toxins accident.

[Frank_Stein]

Would it be best to say drones should just steer clear of syndicate activity all together?

That would be my opinion. I don't think drones should repair a breach if ANY human obviously wants it to be there. That being said, a bomb in genetics that nobody claims responsibility for should be fixed.

If a bomb goes off in genetics, someone clearly set it off and therefore intended for the hole to be there.

Really, there's very few sources of station damage that AREN'T intentional. The only ones I can think of are meteors, black holes, and the occasional chemistry/toxins accident.

What makes me think Nuke rounds are a larger concern for this is the length. If someone blows up genetics, there could be another 40-50  minutes left in the round. That plus I think more often then when traitors bomb places they are more concerned with the immediate effects and not the aftermath.

[Sundance]

If there is a nuke op round and drones start fixing the breach that was caused by a RPG, I see no inherent problem there.

Firstly if there's more than 1 drone, then that means there's more than 1 person dead and less of a resistance against the syndicate threat. Sure there's alot of drones around right now but it's a fad that will die out once it becomes commonplace.
Secondly the blast alone will depressurize the room. There'll be no air or heat unless the drones get around to that too. So the area is still a major threat to those without protective gear.
Thirdly, it's fucking nuclear operatives. The odds are heavily in the favor of even a mediocre team.

A breach is a breach, no matter what the situation. If we nitpick at it, it'll make things needlessly complicated. I find it hilarious and fitting of a drone to fix a hole while absolute chaos reigns around them and then groan when another hole forms just a few feet away.