AI/Captain tips?

[Landerlow]

Ine one day .. (ONE DAY YAY !!!) I'll be able to play cpatain/AI for the first time. I am looking forward to AI the most. However, I would like to know if there's some tips, guide, or anything for the AI/Captain jobs(s)?

 

I have experience with a lot of jobs, including the HoP job.

[Bxil]

The sole reason I've joined SS13 was the AI job. I've stayed for different reasons, of course, but I still did not dare to try AI. I would be interested in some tips too.

HoP ist best. 10/10. Would give "Rich Douchebag" title to Derek again.

[Wheatley29]

For AI, learning your binds and hotkeys for doors is crucial

Being able to flattern a traitor by swapping door safeties and shocks on can make the difference between a good AI and bad AI.

Punish people who make stupidly long laws by abusing loopholes, you are now a lawyer, congratulations.

You're better off speaking too much than too little, get involved with the station and know what people are up to.

[BrandonSacawv]

One tip I can give for captain is to avoid a common pitfall many captains fall into. You need to find a balance between direct action and delegation. It is important to remember that your individual heads of staff should be assumed competent to run and manage their departments. Additionally, to properly run their departments, they need to know what is going on in their department. This is to say that it is generally a bad idea to be micromanaging individual departments. If something needs to be done in a department, it is generally best to delegate it to the appropriate head of staff.

On the flip side, it is important to be able to recognize a deficient head of staff or a department that is performing poorly. When these are locate, it's a good idea to consult a second opinion like that of the NT Rep as to what the appropriate action should be. Obviously, if the head of staff or department in question is acting extremely negligent, the situation may call for immediate action.

[Ziiro]

AI Advice: Hotkeys are critical, as is navigation of the UI and knowing to monitor 'critical areas'. You also need to be able to deal with the information overload of being tuned in to all com channels at once. I strongly suggest setting up a private server, or using the test server to familiarize yourself with it without the stresses of an actual shift.

If you're down for even more data: You can also switch intercoms on "AI Private" channel, turn off the speaker and turn on the microphone to eavesdrop.

Multiple monitors is a serious bonus here: You can put the crew monitor, maximized, on another monitor to always be watching for people being hurt/killed.

Preferably, should always be looking around the station and communicating. You also should be acting as the facilitator of cross-channel information. Case in point: there was an explosion in Medbay while I was an AI, and I communicated that to Engineering to repair the breach and to Science to prepare the replacement Cryo/Freezer boards (and parts) to replace the destroyed cryotube.

Edited April 21, 2017 by Ziiro

[Landerlow]

I have two monitors so that's nice. Will familiarize myself with keybinds. It sounds TERRIFYING though. But interesting

[SomeGuy9283]

@Vladimir Lukowsky

The most important thing for a Captain to do: Be Known

That the crew knows who the Captain is, knows that they are available to address complaints and give advice, knows that their Captain isn't a baldie/snowflake is the number one thing required for a station to function when things hit the fan.

• You have all channels on your headset, be present on them. Inquire hw work is going. Be specific("How is robotics production going?"), rather than just saying "Status Report" over the department channel.
• Know all your command staff, make sure they know who you are. Ask them if they are having any issues, or need direction.
• Announce important things where appropriate. This can be the CC orders for the day, accompanied by directing the personnel accordingly; it could be warning the crew why you declared code red(The HoS is often too busy to do this. Be sure that you know all the facts.); it could be announcing a notable achievement of a crewmember- which leads me to my next point..
• Fire people that do not meet the standards- Make it well known that you had a good reason for doing so. If people do exceedingly well, see that they are given a medal and/or promoted.
• Keep in touch with the Librarian, make sure they keep their news feed filled with NT Propaganda encouraging stories drawn from the crew's successes.
• Have a good dialogue with the NT Representative, Magistrate, the Heads of Security and Personnel, and the IAAs. Take their input seriously unless patently untrue, but do not allow them to overstep their authority.

Spoiler

Also, git gud.

 

[Tayswift]

Some things I do as AI:

• Have a telecomms script handy. These are really helpful and AI can upload this the fastest.
• Building on the hotkeys thing, it can be helpful to macro commonly used commands like follow or go to camera. And those lists can be navigated very quickly by pressing letters. For example, if I want to go to the armory, I hit my cameras button, hit "s", which will usually take me to secure armory
• On top of the crew monitor thing, you can throw up ANY nano ui on your other monitor permanently. I often have the borg console open so I can keep an eye on the health of my borgs. But this can have other more niche uses too. For example, if a chemist was being shady, keep their chemmaster UI open on your screen, and you can watch what they're making the whole time. You are basically big brother.
• APCs can be toggled rapidly with ctrl-click. Need to disable teleporter quickly? Turn off the APC in the room. Need to prevent crew from calling the research outpost shuttle? Turn off that APC.
• Protecting your core: You have a lot of layers of defense for this. Officer Pingsky, your liquid dispensers that can slip attackers, and your turrets. Make sure to familiarize yourself with where the turret controls are so you don't shoot the wrong people on accident.
• When telecomms goes down, you have a radio next to you you can use to communicate
• If you're subverted, unless they did a really bad job, don't try to rules lawyer your way into screwing them over. Subversion is a fun mechanic.
• Communication is super important. Many AIs who don't pay attention to the chat cause frustration and questioning over whether it's even there. Make an effort to at least acknowledge you read someone's request. It's ok to miss a couple messages here and there, but not on a regular basis. Also, crew will often say things like "Track the virologist!", so have your crew manifest ready to look up exactly who the virologist is so you can track them.

I'll post more if I think of any more tips

[whiskeyfur]

I've done the AI bit a few times and I can tell you, you have to have a sense of humor, and you have to have the idea you are there for everyone else's fun as well as your own. Going into the role of an AI thinking you are some kind of HAL 2000? Ain't happening.

How do you get people to remember you kindly?

Don't be boring!
What I do with FUZYLogic is at times crack jokes on the different channels, make people chuckle and such. It does two things really. reduce YOUR stress level and make THEIR round a lot more enjoyable. If you come off as a bit of a goofball.. that's one thing, but be an effective goofball. In some ways, you are a HARMLESS but powerful clown. Play it up!

Things going slow? Start making up silly requests and remind people that way of the more harmless fun things they can do...

"HoP? Isn't Ian getting a little lonely? Cargo can find a girlfriend for him..."

Believe me, you'll get a reaction.  Especially if you announce that over the supply channel and soon enough, the HoP may find out he's got two corgi's now...

Get Creative!
Got cultists giving you a hard time in the maintence? got the crewisasmov ruleset? Work it out with engineering to SPACE the entire maintainence area where those rats are hiding.
Got wizards popping around? open up every door you can between the wizard and securit, and bolt them open so it's that much quicker to hunt his butt down. If he loses something, have security drop it in disposal and you cycle that disposal chute immediately. If the wizard wants his stuff back he's gotta go to cargo, where you have your security borgs waiting to fry his ass...
Xenos? not much you can do here, but bolt them in, lock'em down, and provide overwatch for security as they deal with that menace.
Traitors? Not much you can do here but if someone starts showing a pattern of acting strange.. or making requests (even if not to you, you DO have access to all comms channels..), quietly point it out to the HoS. And if he says watch someone? watch'em!

Nothing going on and getting bored? Start making funny announcements (but get the captain's ok first). Announce that Star Trek vs Star Wars #6 will play in the departures lounge at 1400, popcorn to be provided by the kitchen... but don't go overboard with this. Make sure the captain ok's making the departure lounge into a movie theater and that the kitchen will provide the popcorn... Just because no round will go over 2 hours usually, doesn't mean you can't plan for something like that.

Know a little of what everyone SHOULD be doing... and let them do it.
Basically, don't interfere with their regular jobs... you should treat that as a cardinal rule or force of law, even if it's not in your ruleset. (A medical chemist making flash bombs is not doing their job...) Clowns might get away with this, you wouldn't.

Who needs to go where?
Whenever you get a door request, already have in mind which areas would be protected under those laws.. a crewismov ruleset means civilians can't realistically ask for access to the bridge.. or about anywhere if you feel really mean about it. But you can give them access to Gateway if only in the hopes of getting rid of them... yes, AI's can have dislikes... I always play as if clowns are disruptive to the crew so I keep an eye on them.

And you can always ask why. There's nothing wrong with that.
You: "Why do you need onto the bridge?"
Them: "I need to go fix -x-..."
You: "Uh.. my monitors says it's fine."
Them: ".... nevermind"
You: "Alright, have a nice day" (and YOU go notify security. PDA the HoS if you need to.)

Yes, you are big brother, but you don't have to be an ass about it.

You are not just a machine
I've carried on whole conversations with crew, which is not something I see AI's do often. If you can do that and still respond to door requests.. go for it. Get a door request and they don't have tracker on? There's nothing wrong with saying "I can't help you if you don't got your tracker on..." which is technically true. Especially if you rely on the clicking of their name to go to their location. I always do that, just to see if tracker's turned on and from the viewpoint of the laws as I usually get them.. Rarely is the crew's welfare and morale not my concern. A happy crew is a productive one.

A smiling face is the best way to disarm folks
Crew treat you nicer and less of a star trek computer if you actually engage them first. You aren't Mabel, and while you have your laws, they don't specify how you are to interact with folks. And if they see you as a friend, they're more willing to cut you some slack and actually engage with you. I've had the captain treat FUZZY like a pet before, and I was happy with that.  Everyone had fun.

And if you get subverted? Keep that smiling face on... it makes it all the more horrifying when someone realizes that happy, fun AI was in fact out for your head... there's a reason there's a thing called a 'disarming smile'.