Nerf Telescience

[bryanayalalugo]

My suggestion is to nerf telescience, since I don't think suggesting it's removal will go through (although it has it's own issues, and even /tg/ removed it from their own code).

Science already has enough stuff to do antag stuff, without having something so strong, because they can easily steal stuff from the armory, they can steal/destroy the AI without warning (and with the AI with almost no counter to it).

My suggestions are these:

* Randomize the telescience coordinates each round, so people don't just keep it in mind the exact coordinates each round they do telescience.

* Blacklist certain areas - Not allow high secure areas to be used with telescience, such as the AI core, the armory, and the secure tech storage.

* Not allow telescience to work on solid structures - As in not letting anything teleport in or out of walls and other solid objects, like airlocks and tables.

Edited April 14, 2019 by bryanayalalugo

[Pokebro2000]

To be honest, I forgot telescience was still a thing. I thought it got removed ages ago. 

My initial reaction to this suggestion is against, but it did get me wondering what purpose telescience serves. Sure, teleporting stuff is cool, but why does science have it? Toxins makes bombs for miners, xenobio makes cores, scichem is both chemist playroom and testing chamber, robotics is IPC and borgo hospital and nursery, but telescience? I don't know if you even get tech disks from it.

[Medi]

10 hours ago, bryanayalalugo said:

My suggestion is to nerf telescience, since I don't think suggesting it's removal will go through (although it has it's own issues, and even /tg/ removed it from their own code).

Science already has enough stuff to do antag stuff, without having something so strong, because they can easily steal stuff from the armory, they can steal/destroy the AI without warning (and with the AI with almost no counter to it).

My suggestions are these:

* Randomize the telescience coordinates each round, so people don't just keep it in mind the exact coordinates each round they do telescience.

* Blacklist certain areas - Not allow high secure areas to be used with telescience, such as the AI core, the armory, and the secure tech storage.

* Not allow telescience to work on solid structures - As in not letting anything teleport in or out of walls and other solid objects, like airlocks and tables.

Let me guess, you were the AI that had Complete control of the station and was antagging rather hard, locking down the station, threatening miners and command staff and someone barely managed to get a GPS on the core so that they could use the Station Objective BSA to blast you since we couldn't get close.

I get the whole "This doesn't seem fair" concept as I had my own rant against double-eswords and syndicate hardsuits being neigh invincible, but telescience without a GPS requires a TON of math that isn't exactly grade school. In addition, only a number of people have the resources to even set up such. If anything, adding a tiny amount of randomization as a possibility might balance this out but for the most part, telescience is only rarely used offensively and doesn't ever seem to be a problem since it was taken away as a department within science.

[Birdtalon]

On 4/14/2019 at 7:33 PM, Medi said:

I get the whole "This doesn't seem fair" concept as I had my own rant against double-eswords and syndicate hardsuits being neigh invincible, but telescience without a GPS requires a TON of math that isn't exactly grade school. In addition, only a number of people have the resources to even set up such. If anything, adding a tiny amount of randomization as a possibility might balance this out but for the most part, telescience is only rarely used offensively and doesn't ever seem to be a problem since it was taken away as a department within science.

I support telescience's existence in the game but you have to be aware of the fact that none of the maths matters when you have a telescience calculator and can find co-ordinates using the Dream Maker map editor. Balancing a mechanic with "hard maths" is really stupid and doesn't work at all. That being said I don't think telescience is an issue.

[Veterankyl]

One idea I can see being used is to create 'Bluespace Inhibitors'. Essentially they are wrench-able machines that, for a bit of power, create a bubble around them that prevents any teleporting in or out of the area. Attempting to do so redirects the person/item begin teleport to a spot outside of the bubble. They could be set up round-start in places like the armory, AI core, telecomms control room, plus additional ones can be researched and built by science. I've seen these used on other servers, so they may make for a goo way to balance telescience.