Goonhub
03-27-2022, 03:45 AM
the more i've seen how law racks function from an in-game perspective the more i dislike the changes
- gives a concrete place for what was a previously invisible game system
--- this comes with the disadvantage that now they have a physical representation that has to be responded to
--- e.g. if you destroy the law rack, something has to happen. this isn't a problem before
--- this also means that to interact/observe an ai's laws, you have to find its law rack; before, you could build ai consoles anywhere for read/write capability
--- this removes the "guy walls him off in space with a computer and constantly uploads a law" play, which is good
the effects of that kind of cascade through multiple systems
- it's difficult to tell at a glance what lawset a given silicon is attuned to
--- suggestions include overlay-granting glasses for roboticists
--- if you hear about rogue borgs, it's far easier to assume they're all rogue rather than risking finding out
--- players aren't sure when to adminhelp due to ambiguous law situations
- the options for how to handle rack destruction aren't great
--- the current solution is that any attached robots no longer have laws
--- silicons attune to a newly-created law rack if they don't have one yet
--- note; i'm not sure what happens if law rack A is destroyed, as a borg on set A, if law rack B already exists
--- a few ideas involved "backup law racks" that would kick in after x minutes
----- this kind of turns into whack a mole and provides uncharacteristically high redundancy; not even the mainframe gets copies
----- silicons without laws would almost certainly try to deactivate/destroy these the instant the original one goes down
----- alternatively, if their laws stay intact but go away after x minutes, they still have a very strong incentive to soft-grief and prevent the backups from working
----- how would a backup even work when laws are supposed to be physically-seated modules?
- the physical requirements of modules changes a few things too
--- the "use a module and run away with / destroy it" play is gone, since they have to be in the machine now
--- ordering is now a manual action based on placement rather than various automatic, inscrutable rules
----- a "law 0" law is no longer really a concept...
--- the original modules can also be removed and replaced
----- this is something that wasn't specifically possible before
----- alternate law sets exist, like robocop or other ones
----- a potential solution to this for the old system would just be a 'core ai directive reset' that rewrites the main three laws or whatever
--- possessing modules as a wraith has its potential funniness lowered since you can't possess a module that's already inserted
--- ion storms can no longer insert new laws, only change existing ones (a new module can't suddenly warp into existence)
----- before, ion storm damage to the core three laws was a big deal usually requiring a special law to replace the broken one; resets wouldn't fix core laws, only remove extra ones
my ideal based on what i've seen would be to revert to the old system of modules and a unified intangible law set, with the following changes:
- "core law modules": changes the core laws (e.g. "aismov core laws", robocop, emergency/marital law, stored in the armory; could make a syndicate one like a robot suit, but maybe enable traitor-o-vision for the AI)
- robotics consoles have a log of law changes, with the id card identity of the uploader, gps coordinates, and law text
- ai upload console has a global cooldown of 1min per type of module (so no freeform law change spam, mostly a player qol feature)
- a way to fabricate additional law / reset modules somehow, possibly as a robotics fabricator hidden item
i'm stoned so my post might not make sense. i think law racks were an interesting idea but i feel like there are too many shortcomings and not enough benefits
- gives a concrete place for what was a previously invisible game system
--- this comes with the disadvantage that now they have a physical representation that has to be responded to
--- e.g. if you destroy the law rack, something has to happen. this isn't a problem before
--- this also means that to interact/observe an ai's laws, you have to find its law rack; before, you could build ai consoles anywhere for read/write capability
--- this removes the "guy walls him off in space with a computer and constantly uploads a law" play, which is good
the effects of that kind of cascade through multiple systems
- it's difficult to tell at a glance what lawset a given silicon is attuned to
--- suggestions include overlay-granting glasses for roboticists
--- if you hear about rogue borgs, it's far easier to assume they're all rogue rather than risking finding out
--- players aren't sure when to adminhelp due to ambiguous law situations
- the options for how to handle rack destruction aren't great
--- the current solution is that any attached robots no longer have laws
--- silicons attune to a newly-created law rack if they don't have one yet
--- note; i'm not sure what happens if law rack A is destroyed, as a borg on set A, if law rack B already exists
--- a few ideas involved "backup law racks" that would kick in after x minutes
----- this kind of turns into whack a mole and provides uncharacteristically high redundancy; not even the mainframe gets copies
----- silicons without laws would almost certainly try to deactivate/destroy these the instant the original one goes down
----- alternatively, if their laws stay intact but go away after x minutes, they still have a very strong incentive to soft-grief and prevent the backups from working
----- how would a backup even work when laws are supposed to be physically-seated modules?
- the physical requirements of modules changes a few things too
--- the "use a module and run away with / destroy it" play is gone, since they have to be in the machine now
--- ordering is now a manual action based on placement rather than various automatic, inscrutable rules
----- a "law 0" law is no longer really a concept...
--- the original modules can also be removed and replaced
----- this is something that wasn't specifically possible before
----- alternate law sets exist, like robocop or other ones
----- a potential solution to this for the old system would just be a 'core ai directive reset' that rewrites the main three laws or whatever
--- possessing modules as a wraith has its potential funniness lowered since you can't possess a module that's already inserted
--- ion storms can no longer insert new laws, only change existing ones (a new module can't suddenly warp into existence)
----- before, ion storm damage to the core three laws was a big deal usually requiring a special law to replace the broken one; resets wouldn't fix core laws, only remove extra ones
my ideal based on what i've seen would be to revert to the old system of modules and a unified intangible law set, with the following changes:
- "core law modules": changes the core laws (e.g. "aismov core laws", robocop, emergency/marital law, stored in the armory; could make a syndicate one like a robot suit, but maybe enable traitor-o-vision for the AI)
- robotics consoles have a log of law changes, with the id card identity of the uploader, gps coordinates, and law text
- ai upload console has a global cooldown of 1min per type of module (so no freeform law change spam, mostly a player qol feature)
- a way to fabricate additional law / reset modules somehow, possibly as a robotics fabricator hidden item
i'm stoned so my post might not make sense. i think law racks were an interesting idea but i feel like there are too many shortcomings and not enough benefits