Move the AI/upload chamber

[Roomba]

Right now, there's 2 to 3 active threads with the theme of 'playing the AI is a living hell that I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy'. Just hoping player culture improves with regard to this doesn't seem to be working - in fact it's become a common sentiment along the more powergamey crowd that the only worthwhile interaction with the AI is killswitching it asap, and any playstyle that isn't a complete doormat has the entire station rushing to reprogram you into uselessness.

I think a large part of it is due to how easy it is to hack into the AI core on Cog2. If the toolbox at arrivals hasn't been looted, an assistant fresh off the shuttle can break into the upload in five minutes or less. On previous maps you got less people breaking in for laffs and it was a lot easier to hold off the people who did - right now just about everyone has learned to push lockers/canisters around turrets so they can stroll around them. With that ease comes a tide of 'hilarious' meme laws that force the AI to annoy the station. This means that even the people actually good at playing the AI are forced into being useless and actively repulsed by the role, and more often than not the AI is some poor guy who forgot to set it to unwanted and promptly goes braindead.

If the upload/AI chamber was in a location harder to access, it might not fix all the issues currently associated with the role, but it would be a good start. Maybe give the AI its own satellite once more, with the upload located somewhere in the center of the station? Just about anything would be an improvement over the current layout, really.

Unless this issue is addressed, then it won't matter how many drone/bot/borg improvements people come up with, because the stigma associated with playing a silicon is so great people would rather leave the game than play as one, then spend the next round fucking up Robotics in revenge.

[Mageziya]

We don't even need to relocate the AI chamber. We just need to extend it out a little bit.

Spoiler!

Option 1 prevents the girder tunneling that makes taking out the AI infuriatingly easy as a staff assistant. Option 2 solves the girder tunneling, increases the number of doors that someone must hack to reach the AI, and also gives the AI defensive control over an air-bridge. This might mess with belt hell a bit, but some adjusting would prevent any problems.


If it's still a problem there, then just do something completely drastic and replace routing with the AI or something.

[Arborinus]

There was this thread that has an idea like this.

[Nnystyxx]

yes please, do this
make the AI even a micron less horridly frustrating, every change helps
AI feels like a punishment role and due to the fact that it's mandatory for a player to be in that spot if anyone has it picked (even though there might be space for more botanists or something) it suckers people in who don't want it and will be punished if they leave without asking, when nearly every single role in the game can go braindead without so much as a slap on the wrist

[Frank_Stein]

I've always thought that the AI should be a part of the bridge. Just makes sense to me

[Noah Buttes]

Bring back the AI satellite

[misto]

i gave my outline for an improved ai upload and core room design in some thread about how wizards could just ghost in and kill ais easily. basically more room, more turrets. http://forum.ss13.co/showthread.php?tid=...6#pid75116

the current ai core and upload are pathetically insecure once you have a look at them. modules just left lying on a table next to exterior walls. upload consoles left powered up next to exterior walls. apcs so easy to reach and fiddle with after youve melted a wall or two. i know that security holes and weaknesses are all a part of fair play, but this is a very sensitive piece of equipment. people probably waltz into the ai upload/core, home of the ai that supposedly controls all the doors and cameras and cyborgs and machines on the station, 10x more often than they loot the armory, home of a few guns and grenades

[DreamCarver]

Add the airbridge and for the LOVE OF GOD replace the grilles with actual walls. It is too goddamn easy for any jackass with a toolbox to get into the rafters in 3 minutes or less and waltz into the core.

[Musketman12]

Please yes for the love of god, do something about the AI upload.

[Ed Venture]

I think a large part of it is due to how easy it is to hack into the AI core on Cog2.

I think it's way too easy to break into most places on CogMap2.

[Roomba]

If someone breaks into your workplace, then you can call for sec, beat up the guy breaking in and/or run away. The AI cannot run away, and the only means of defense most rounds are the functionally useless turrets, easily evaded and connected to an easily accessible APC. All you can do is call for help, and half the playerbase sees strolling into the upload as a god-given right and will actively turn on you for doing so.

[Superlagg]

Easy quick fix, put the turrets on the far side of the room and move the APC to the inside of the inner sanctum.

[Grek]

Yes.

[NateTheSquid]

Yes.

Sadly this wouldn't really work, the turret on the right would literally always hit the upload computer, the one of the left would work though. If the core APC is in the upload that makes it EASIER, not harder, to turn off the core APC and kill the AI really easily.

[DreamCarver]

Sadly this wouldn't really work, the turret on the right would literally always hit the upload computer...

Switch the module table and the terminals. Done.