Goonhub
05-03-2020, 01:42 PM
For my 500th post and 50th thread, I've two suggestions that were inspired by UrsulaMajor's sleeper agents event: a procedural generated sound clip that plays to a borg/AI upon killswitching, with extra delay to accommodate it, and an announcement and/or said clip upon killswitch activation.
When a killswitch is activated, the game plays to the cyborg/AI a series of sinister beeps and boops and codephrase said in Dectalk, then the killswitch starts shortly after. Codephrase is in the general format of "literary reference/past author related to technology" + "noun", so like:
It's mostly a flavor suggestion, but it does have a few effects on gameplay.
-First, it adds some an extra ten seconds, give or take, between the killswitch's activation and the killswitch going into effect, which I think is alright. Ten extra seconds is not too significant.
-Second, the sound cue is lot more noticeable than the red "KILLSWITCH ACTIVATED" message, so cyborgs are gonna be a lot more aware they're being killswitched. (AI already gets a honking big red KILLSWITCH TIMER over their UI, so I don't think the extra sound cue will affect their awareness much. If borgs get this too, ignore me on this part.) I think this is fine too; the red message gets lost in the chat easily, and all the possible interactions from trying to turn off the switch is more engaging to everyone than "oh, I was switched? I didn't see the message."
On a tangent, another idea that's best saved for when the above gets implemented: make killswitching a lot more involved by having it require assembling parts of the passphrase. Killswitching requires swiping an ID with Upload access and entering the killswitch passphrase into the Robotics Control Computer. One part of the phrase requires using an ID with Upload access on the AI Upload computer; the other requires requesting it from CentComm through the Comms Console (and of course, it's logged).
In an emergency, the nuclear auth disk can activate a killswitch without an ID or passphrase. It can also deactivate one.
The other idea is make this new killswitch message also broadcast to everyone and/or possibly make an announcement.
Now this makes killswitches a lot less stealthy. You can't give the silicons a law to keep quiet and then killswitch then, 'cause everyone'll still know they're being killswitched from the sound cue and/or announcement but I think that's fine. That tactic shuts down interactions and thus engagement, and besides, one can still add extra clauses to bolt the room with the Robotics Control and such, i.e. you can still do it, just with a bit more work. And for the silicons aware enough to notice they're being killswitched and start screaming their voice synthesizers off, it's not much of a difference from previously.
When a killswitch is activated, the game plays to the cyborg/AI a series of sinister beeps and boops and codephrase said in Dectalk, then the killswitch starts shortly after. Codephrase is in the general format of "literary reference/past author related to technology" + "noun", so like:
- Clarke circuit
- Bradbury process
- Vinge timer
- Laputan machine
- Capek unit
It's mostly a flavor suggestion, but it does have a few effects on gameplay.
-First, it adds some an extra ten seconds, give or take, between the killswitch's activation and the killswitch going into effect, which I think is alright. Ten extra seconds is not too significant.
-Second, the sound cue is lot more noticeable than the red "KILLSWITCH ACTIVATED" message, so cyborgs are gonna be a lot more aware they're being killswitched. (AI already gets a honking big red KILLSWITCH TIMER over their UI, so I don't think the extra sound cue will affect their awareness much. If borgs get this too, ignore me on this part.) I think this is fine too; the red message gets lost in the chat easily, and all the possible interactions from trying to turn off the switch is more engaging to everyone than "oh, I was switched? I didn't see the message."
On a tangent, another idea that's best saved for when the above gets implemented: make killswitching a lot more involved by having it require assembling parts of the passphrase. Killswitching requires swiping an ID with Upload access and entering the killswitch passphrase into the Robotics Control Computer. One part of the phrase requires using an ID with Upload access on the AI Upload computer; the other requires requesting it from CentComm through the Comms Console (and of course, it's logged).
In an emergency, the nuclear auth disk can activate a killswitch without an ID or passphrase. It can also deactivate one.
The other idea is make this new killswitch message also broadcast to everyone and/or possibly make an announcement.
Now this makes killswitches a lot less stealthy. You can't give the silicons a law to keep quiet and then killswitch then, 'cause everyone'll still know they're being killswitched from the sound cue and/or announcement but I think that's fine. That tactic shuts down interactions and thus engagement, and besides, one can still add extra clauses to bolt the room with the Robotics Control and such, i.e. you can still do it, just with a bit more work. And for the silicons aware enough to notice they're being killswitched and start screaming their voice synthesizers off, it's not much of a difference from previously.
