Borg/Drone Improvements

[Deanthelis]

 

Firstly:

-Give Engiborgs wood, wood tiles, and magnetic gripper.

-Give them both, and let them pick up with and manipulate with the gripper, Airlock/APC/Air Alarm/Fire Alarm Electronics. It's bananas that they can open and bolt/unbolt literally every door, but can't change the access on them or put in new ones in the event a traitor emags and tells them to break it/breaks a door with a bomb and they have to fix it. Also, the RCD only puts in unsecured airlocks, so it'd be good to be able to modify the access for those that way.

-Give Engiborgs disposal and atmos pipes. Let them be manipulated with the magnetic gripper too, if necessary.

-Give Engiborgs metal rods. Why do drones have this but not borgs?

 

Secondly:

Limited resources in terms of item stacks needs to go away. Make all the borg/drone tools consume power instead. For all borgs, not just Engiborgs and drones, though they need it the most. Assign a charge value to the different tools available, kind of like how the Secborg's taser and flash use up charge value, and Engiborg's RCD does - the more you use it, the faster you run out of power. This will give borgs more incentive to use their resources wisely - if every action they take consumes valuable power, then making inefficient actions would indirectly break their laws most of the time, as actions that unnecessarily force a borg to go to the charger means they have taken actions that endanger the crew due to their inaction during that time.

 

This also means that bigger power cells are worth far more than just a longer time between charges - an Engiborg with a hyper-capacity cell can repair MUCH more at a time than a default one in this system.

 

This also makes borgs more dangerous in malf AI rounds, which is good - They're pretty easy to disable as it is.

 

On a mildly related note, one can generate infinite metal and glass as a borg by placing it on a surgical operating table. I discovered this by accidentally clicking on the one in Robotics as a drone. While they were delighted, I don't think this should be abusable.

 

[Bone White]

 

1) Omnipotent machines vs human safeguards, especially in reference to the airlocks.

 

2) Cyborgs do need a way to replenish their supplies (including having a storage for fuel for their welder?). I would favour limited stocks with a resupply station over materialising materials out of power.

 

[Deanthelis]

 

At the VERY least, put more recharge stations. Minimum one in the Security and Engineering areas for Sec and Engineering borgs respectively. Or just a little dispenser on the walls here and there that replenishes their materials with a click, but not their power cell. Having to run all the way to the AI core, dorms or robotics room when fixing a breach from a meteor in, say, Arrivals, is awful.

 

I still think metal rods and wood should be on both regardless.

 

[Fj45]

Giving borgs atmos pipes? Fuck no! The only way that ends is plasma. So much plasma.

[Deanthelis]

No more often than shitmos techs or AIs with no sense of fun.

[Fj45]

Talking about subverted or malf borgs. Anyway, the rare competent atmos tech that DOES properly setup atmos is then pretty much useless. Malf AI should have no way of sabotaging a properly setup atmos system.

[Habalabam]

 

The dilemma with emagged airlocks is more pronounced with drones since it cannot interact with humans.

 

It would make sense that the drone would replace the door (/electronics) and leave the door bolted for the external world to fix (ie organics).

 

This is one of the instances where I would wish that the :b communication option was in place. Sometimes, the drone will need to flag an inability to fix a detected problem. Elevating the concerns to whatever handles it. Most automatons in factories do this. It doesn't mean that it "interacts" with the any more than an atmos alarm does.

 

[chechico]

Maybe a small ability the drone can use that pings the AI "[Drone 879] uses it's alarm" and it can jump to the drone

[Fj45]

That would be rather useful, although easily abused.

[VampyrBytes]

 

Yeah, unfortunately any drone communication with the AI would end up being abused

 

eg - drone sees murder in progress which it should ignore... how many will ping the AI who then looks to see what's going on?

 

[Habalabam]

 

I do not agree.

 

If a drone uses it to spoil plot, then this is bannable.

A safeguard would be that the action can give off a distinct error sound from the drone that would cause the antag to adminhelp it.

 

[Habalabam]

I just had another round where I would like to being able to see wiring/piping through walls. There was an explosion by the bridge and the whole area that is normally grills had been partially replaced by walls. However, there is wiring there, too. There were cable pieces in the debris, but bismantling the walls to inspect the cabling would cause loss of atmo.

[VampyrBytes]

 

I do not agree.

 

If a drone uses it to spoil plot, then this is bannable.

A safeguard would be that the action can give off a distinct error sound from the drone that would cause the antag to adminhelp it.

 

Yes, it would be bannable. Unfortunately that wouldn't stop it happening. Shuttle grief is bannable too, and yet I'm betting you've seen plenty of that, I know I have... hell, I've seen it plenty even when the admins have said in ooc that any shuttle grief will lead to a ban as the shuttle arrives.

 

Unfortunately there's times when we can't have nice things because there are people who will misuse them. The only way around this would be to have drones as a karma job, and I'm likely to get lynched for even mentioning that possibility.