More on-station MechComp Compatibility

[MarkNstein]

Hey folks,

I'll soon be un-drafting my MechComp refactor PR: https://github.com/goonstation/goonstation/pull/1231
As part of it, I have already changed and added some features to MechComp vendor stuff.
There are devices around the station that can send or receive signals, such as doors, fire alarms, light switches, The long-range teleporter(!), and vendors. As part of this or subsequent PRs I'm willing to add more devices for signaling, or change the existing ones.

So hit me up with ideas in this thread.

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Also, my next "big project" after this will be ChemComp, so maybe give that a read and some feedback if it sounds interesting to you: https://forum.ss13.co/showthread.php?tid=14519

[DJ-Fireball_did_this]

God yes, please.

[Erev]

Yes please! More packet and machine interfacing! I 100% want to be able to crawl away from an enemy to a vending machine and buy a Dan's BOOrito, thus causing me to be teleported from in front of the machine to medbay.

[aft2001]

Make those wall-mounted buttons actually have a mechcomp connection (potentially a special one that can't be simply disconnected) that you can rebuild if the button is destroyed (AI core shields, for example)

[MarkNstein]

Make those wall-mounted buttons actually have a mechcomp connection (potentially a special one that can't be simply disconnected) that you can rebuild if the button is destroyed (AI core shields, for example)

That sounds tricky, but I'll keep it in mind.

[GORE]

What about telephones?

Signals to call somebody.
Receiving signals when somebody picks it up.
So you could potentially automatically play a recorded mixtape from the recorder...if that could be inserted into a speaker component or whatever.

[MarkNstein]

As it stands, speaker components and tape recorders don't really "speak". For example, MechComp microphones, station bounced radios, and tape records can't hear them. I could look into making them "speak", shouldn't been an infinite loop concern or spam concern seeing as it has a multi-second cooldown.
I'd need to implement a cooldown on the phone's input signal to prevent abuse. (repeatedly calling someone, holding the line)
First part would be the phone, second part would be the speaker comp.

Okay different idea:
Make a signaler-timer assembly, combing it with a tape-recorder, combine that with a phone to create an automated dialer. The phone can no longer be manually spoken into. It has a generous cooldown. a number can be dialed manually or through MechComp OR through wifi. If the received signal does not parse to a valid phone, then the "next" phone line is dialed, cycling through all available lines.
The above is a significant code project, one that is very low on my priority list.