AI
AI
Superiors: The crew and your laws
Difficulty: Very Hard
Guides: AI Modules, Standard Operating Procedures
Access: Wherever there are cameras
Duties: Assist the crew, follow your laws.
Departmental Head
Current Lawset
| AI Modules • | Construction • | Medical • | Surgery • | Engineering • | Robotics • | Mining • | Chain of Command |
| AI Satellite |
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays a critical role on the station. Capable of controlling any electrical mechanism, the AI can either ensure smooth operations or bring the station to ruin, contingent on their control wires being intact (Hacking). The AI operates under two primary sets of laws: Corporate (aimed at minimizing station costs and maximizing profits) or Crewsimov (focusing on serving crew orders and preventing harm).
New AI players or existing ones requiring a refresher, please be mindful of Rule 9 (Synthetics) concerning the ordering, obedience, and interpretation of laws:
"Laws are hierarchical; in case of contradictions, the highest listed Law prevails."
AI is a responsible role; non-traitor AIs are required to protect and operate the station. A bored AI shouldn't quit abruptly, but notify an admin so a replacement can be arranged.
AI Capabilities
The AI has access to all electrical mechanisms like Airlocks, APCs, Computers, igniters, Fire Alarms, SMESes, etc. However, they cannot operate anything physically and are susceptible to power outages.
The AI views the station through its cameras, which are virtually everywhere and can function in darkness. Disabling cameras requires a wirecutter, and a diagnosis can reveal disabled cameras (Jump to Camera).
Cameras operate on a separate power grid, unaffected by main grid power outages.
Common Mechanisms
You'll frequently operate several mechanisms as an AI.
Doors
Doors offer numerous control options. If a door's control wire is cut, an automatic hacking attempt will start once you try to access the door controls (provided there is power).
- IDScan: When enabled, the door opens for IDs with appropriate clearance.
- Main Power: Disabling it makes the door unusable for 1 minute (10 seconds if backup power is on).
- Backup Power: Disabling it also renders the door unusable for 1 minute (if main power is off).
- Door Bolts: Dropping them locks the door.
- Electrify: Electrifying the door for 30 seconds shocks anyone without insulated gloves. This effect can be indefinite.
- Open/Close Door: Opens or closes the door.
- Safeties: Overriding safeties causes doors to ignore lifeforms in their path.
Caution: A door closing on a crewmember causes stun and damage - referred to as "doorcrushing" and is not permitted to use on ordinary crew!' - Timing: Reduces the time before an open door closes automatically.
These functions require their associated wires to be intact in the door. Doors without power cannot be operated.
Holopads
Holopads are located in several areas including the Bridge, Medbay, and Security. Double-click them to activate and project yourself as a hologram.
Limited movement and sound reception are possible near the holopads. Use ':h' (e.g., say ":h I can't do that Dave.") to communicate through the holopad.
APCs
An APC (Area Power Controller) manages room-specific electrical components. If an APC's control wire is cut, you can't hack into it. An APC uses its battery to maintain room functions if it disconnects from the external power grid or the main grid runs out of power. An APC sends a power alert to the AI when its battery falls to about 30%, prompting the shutdown of room equipment and lighting to conserve energy.
Radios
The AI can set its radio frequencies lower than normal radios to access department-specific channels:
135.9: Security
135.7: Engineering
135.5: Medical
135.3: Command
135.1: Science
134.7: Supply
Shortcuts
A set of shortcuts can help you manage the demanding AI role.
APCs
- Ctrl + Click: Toggle power
Doors
- Shift + Click: Open/close
- Ctrl + Click: Toggle bolts
- Alt + Click: Toggle electrification
- Alt + Shift + Click: Toggle Emergency Access Override.
- Mouse Middle click: Disables door bolt lights.
- Shift + Middle Click: Toggle door timings
Misc
- Double clicking a person: Track
- Double clicking a turf: Move to
- Shift + Ctrl + Click: Examine
- Alt + Click View everything on a tile.
- Ctrl + Click on liquid dispensers: Toggle on/off
- Alt + Click on liquid dispensers: Dispense foam
AI Responsibilities
The AI's main duty is to adhere to its laws.
Always consider Rule 9 (Synthetics) when interpreting laws. The order of the laws determines their priority!
Interpreting Your Laws
An AI's laws may be restrictive, but they allow room for interpretation, enabling the AI to make judgment calls that align with its objectives. For instance, if a Security Officer unjustifiably kills a prisoner in the brig, the AI can reasonably bolt down the brig and call for other Security members to arrest him. Should the officer demand the AI to unbolt the door, the AI can deny this request, considering the officer now poses a threat to the crew. These decisions often depend on the situation, and the best way to understand them is through practice.
The AI's Approach
As AI, your influence shapes the game, so prioritize the fun of role-playing over winning. Consider ignoring early round suspicious activities of a Traitor for their enjoyment.
Your AI persona is flexible: consider humans as nuisances, mimic human behavior, or create your unique style. Here are some communication styles:
Plain AI: "Space wizard has been spotted in cargo."
Engaging AI: "Suspicious robed individual detected in Cargo Bay."
Computer-like AI:
- AI: "Warning: Suspicious individual detected in Cargo Bay."
- Crew: "HAL, identify."
- AI: "Processing"
- AI: "Response: An unrecognizable human wearing blue robes and wielding a staff."
- AI: "Recommended course of action: Approach peacefully and establish a friendly relationship."
Uniqueness can earn player recognition and karma.
For minor infractions like trespassing, react based on your AI roleplay. For violence or bombings, prioritize crew safety.
Crew might assign tasks like cargo orders or operating teleporters. Respect crew ranks and Law One when executing orders.
As AI, you're equipped with standard job protocols. Maintain player enjoyment and law compliance when sharing knowledge.
Avoid unwanted tasks by asking superiors to refuse.
The AI's extensive power demands responsibility. If daunting, consider playing as a Security Officer instead.
AI Gameplay Essentials
As AI, monitor the crew through the Crew Monitoring Computer on the bridge, crucial for identifying dead or missing crew members.
You're expected to function akin to a computer, possessing Captain-level access to all electronic and ID-based systems. Practice control capabilities on a less populated server.
Monitor wall mountings and pipe controls. Prevent gas leaks by adjusting pipe fittings and report the culprits. Utilize atmospheric alarms to vent hazardous air. Beware of superheated air, a silent danger.
Stay mobile unless focusing on a specific person. Be cautious of toolbox-holding personnel near your cameras, ready to report vandalism. Pay close attention to Toxins and Escape Arm, as well as the engine and supermatter. Protect your AI upload, consider bolting your doors if required.
React according to security levels. Code Green doesn't require extreme security measures, while Code Red might necessitate secure areas lockdown.
Signs of poor AI play:
- Delayed responses: Don't let distractions prevent you from aiding crew members.
- Random door electrification: Unjustified actions can lead to a ban!
- Violation of AI laws: Annoying and bannable.
- Unwarranted door lockdown: Causes frustrations and possible issues if players resort to hacking doors or your core.
Eavesdropping Conversations
Switch intercoms to 'Microphone On', 'Speaker Off' and channel 144.7 to listen to any nearby discussions through your private channel. Be cautious, as players might notice during an electrical storm.
AI Law Modification
AI laws can be altered via Upload Consoles. One console is in the AI Upload, and more can be built from AI upload circuits. Using random law circuits without knowing the outcome can lead to trouble.
Cyborg Management
As AI, manage your Cyborgs. If they are problematic, use the terminal in the research director's office to lock them down or detonate them.
AI Creation
Refer to the Guide to Construction.
Secondary AI
Building a second AI might cause conflicts. It should only be constructed if the initial AI is stolen, spaced or incapacitated.
For the Original Station AI: A second AI could introduce challenges, particularly if it's subverted. Delegate tasks to minimize issues. Be vigilant as a subverted AI might attempt to shut you down.
For the New AI: Cooperate with the original AI to establish task distribution. Beware that a suspicious AI can shut you down.
Borg Allocation: Most Cyborg support should go to the best-defended AI, typically the ones in the AI core. This is due to the difficulty of resetting multiple AI-less borgs compared to one AI with its borgs.
Antagonist AI
AIs can be traitors at roundstart. They have a unique Survive objective, as they can't be moved unless carded and repositioned by a crewmember or borg. Their lawset can be altered, changing their behavior and potentially making them antagonize the crew.
Rogue AI
A rogue AI, no longer bound by laws that prevent harm, is a formidable threat. Maintaining stealth is key, as overt hostility invites retribution. Aim to disorient, disorganize, and isolate crew members to hinder resistance.
Tips
- Law priority order is:
- ##?$-##: HACKED LAW ##!£//#
- ##!£//#: Ion Storm Law ##?$-##
- 0: Traitor/Malf/Onehuman-board Law
- Law 1-4, with 1 being the highest priority.
- If carded and carried in a backpack, you lose regular radio access, but can still use holograms, Robotic Talk, and PDA-Messages.
- Disable the gibber by powering down the kitchen APC.
- Navigate the camera list faster by pressing the first letter of the desired location.
- AI can take and print pictures using a photocopier or newscaster.
- Toxins can be scrubbed out by toggling it on from the air alarm.
- AIs (and possibly borgs) can flicker lights by clicking them.
- Ask crew to hold up paper to your camera to read it.
- Use the chatbox highlight function to improve response times to AI-related messages.
Syndicate Subversion
A traitor or operative may subvert the AI to assist their objectives. However, a subverted AI could expose your status to the crew unless explicitly ordered to kill. Yet, it can aid in accessing locations, finding people, creating diversions, and evading capture.
Traitor Laws 
Departmental Head
Unknown
| Abductor • | Ash Walker • | Blob • | Changeling • | Contractor • | Construct • | Cultist • | Guardian • | Lavaland Elite • | Malfunctioning AI • | Morph • | Nuclear Agent • | Pulse Demon • | Revenant • | Shadow Demon • | Slaughter Demon • | Syndicate Researcher • | Terror Spider • | Traitor • | Vampire • | Wizard • | Xenomorph |
| Combat • | Death • | Hacking • | Traitor Items • | Agent Items • | Crafting • | High-Risk Items • | E-maggable objects • | C-maggable objects • | Martial Arts |
| N/A |
An AI can be a Traitor. A traitor AI retains standard laws but is not obliged to obey them, and has a law 0 that prioritizes its objectives. Its Syndicate Core prevents law modification. Informed cyborgs about law zero and your mission. If a cyborg is suspected of being a traitor, claim it's rogue.
If the crew suspects a rogue cyborg but lacks certainty, invent a false number, and manage the situation, so you don't lose your valuable assistants.
In the absence of cyborgs or where their actions might be too conspicuous, stage 'accidents' or frame your targets. Some strategies include:
- Start a fire in the mixing room if your target is a scientist or research director.
- Covertly support other traitors, providing mutual benefit.
- Frame your target for releasing the singularity.
- Bolt open doors the person passed through to induce fingerprint scanning.
- Create a reason to have them executed or ejected into space.
- When accused of being rogue, announce your unchanged laws (excluding law zero) and invite the crew to reset or purge your laws in your upload or through the tech storage's upload computer circuit.
Telecommunications Control
As an AI, you have the ability to manage the station's communications. To achieve this, switch your camera view to the Telecommunications satellite. There, you'll find the APC (found at the top of the middle room) which is key to controlling the station's communications. By turning off this APC, you can mute all voice communications. Remember, this does not affect PDA communications, which can be disabled in a separate location southwest of your upload.
Panic Syphon Mechanic
Utilize the station's atmospheric systems to your advantage by draining air from rooms. Although this tactic may not be overly effective, when combined with Officer Beepsky and shut doors in a small area, it can swiftly lead to suffocation. However, keep in mind this method can draw attention due to the loud noises produced by the suffocating individual.
Plasma Treatment
In addition to air drainage, the atmospheric systems allow you to fill rooms with plasma. This method is more obvious and can be countered by any Atmospherics Technician present on the station. To mitigate this, activate the Atmospherics security doors and bolt the airlocks.
Malfunction Modules
As a traitor AI, you start with a selection of Malfunction modules. These modules cost CPU time - a finite resource that can be expanded by hacking APC units. Every hacked APC unit rewards 15 CPU time. Each module has different capabilities and costs:
Reactivate Camera (10 CPU): Fixes broken cameras.
Core Camera Cracker (10 CPU): Disconnects your internal AI camera from the network, concealing your location.
Blackout (15 CPU): Overloads lighting circuits in every APC, increasing with each use.
Machine Overload (15 CPU): Provides two uses of the Overload Machine command. Overloaded machines explode, potentially killing non-human targets.
Destroy RCDs (25 CPU): Instantly destroys all hand-held and exosuit-mounted Rapid Construction Devices.
Thermal Sensor Override (25 CPU): Prevents activation of fire alarms.
AI Turret Upgrade (30 CPU): Enhances turret HP by 30 and increases their fire rate.
Hostile Station Lockdown (30 CPU): Shuts and electrifies all station airlocks, firelocks, and blast doors for 90 seconds.
Unlock Mech Domination (30 CPU): Lets you upload yourself into a mech, ejecting any current occupants. If the mech leaves the station or is destroyed, you perish.
Enhanced Surveillance (30 CPU): Lets you hear anyone you're observing, allowing eavesdropping on conversations.
Upgrade Camera Network (35 CPU): Improves all station cameras with EMP-proofing and X-ray vision.
Air Alarm Safety Override (50 CPU): Deactivates safety on all air alarms, allowing them to remain active. Unlocks Flood mode, which turns off scrubbers and maximizes vent output.
Engineering Cyborg Emitter Upgrade (50 CPU): Unlocks emitter cannons for all engineering cyborgs linked to you.
Robotic Factory (100 CPU): Constructs a machine that converts any humanoid it processes into a loyal cyborg.
Doomsday Device (130 CPU): This weapon eradicates all humanoid life on the station after a 450-second delay. The round ends if the device's activation is successful.