destinycall

As someone who has been playing as a cyborg pretty often recently, I'd like to add my thoughts and perspective on this subject. First off, there are only one or two cyborg slots available at round start, while the average number of borg players at the end of the shift is closer to four or five borgs (very rough estimate). Even if you set-up your occupation preferences to have Cyborg at HIGH, you are far from guaranteed to land the position. If you have the preference set to medium or lower, your chances of rolling borg at round start approaches zero. There's obviously a fair bit of demand for this role in the current playerbase. Not everybody wants to play as a borg and not everyone will play a borg every round, but the competition is definitely there, despite the drawbacks of being borg. So what about observing at round start and going into a robotic brain? Maybe I am missing something obvious, but this doesn't appear to be a valid alternative at all. I've been dead a fair bit and I've started the round as an observer many times, and never seen a prompt to occupy a robotic brain. I've seen a prompt for joining as a pAI a few times, but that's a different situation. Perhaps your ghost must seek out an activated brain in Robotics rather than waiting for a prompt? Or maybe they are getting scooped up too fast or not getting activated often enough by the working roboticists? I don't know. I'll have to look into this the next time I die and my body is irretrievable. If you desire to play as a cyborg after round start and you don't want to gamble on the existence of an activated robotic brain, then your options are pretty much limited to requesting cyborgification. I can't speak for everyone, but I have one particular character that I play when I feel like being a cyborg who has a pretty extensive IC rationale for why he is okay with becoming a disembodied human brain in a metal slave shell. I don't necessarily spend fifteen minutes explaining my motivation to the roboticist every time I ask to be borged, but I do actually care about the morale/ethical ramifications of being borged and enjoy the RP side of this situation. Sometimes, I will seek out the Psychiatrist or Chaplain to discuss my desire to become a borg before I go through with the procedure or research cyborgs in the Library, talk about it with existing borgs or confess my wishes to other crew members. The interactions are interesting and varied. In my opinion, if you have a strong personal distaste for people becoming borgs on a whim, you should make your preference known in character. It's okay to say "no" when something bothers you on an ethical level. Just don't send people on a paperwork scavenger hunt if you intend to deny them - when someone asks you to turn them into a cyborg, let them know point-blank that you do not borg the living. Looking over the SoP, it says "3. The Roboticist is freely permitted to construct Cyborgs and all assorted equipment". There is nothing in your SoP that says you MUST comply when someone brings you a signed consent form. You are allowed to freely construct borgs, not required to do so. I've signed a LOT of cyborgification consent forms and they are pretty much all worded as liability waivers, not service contracts. Basically just a way for NT to cover their butt in case someone comes asking why they are turning all their employees into robotic slave labor. If you do decide to take a stand against rampant cyborgification, I would recommend notifying the relevant heads of staff (HoP and RD, most likely), so they are aware of your intentions, before it becomes a problem for them. The other roboticist might be willing to handle borg requests in your stead, or the RD might step in to handle the procedure if he has the free time and cares enough to do so. Or maybe nobody gets to become a cyborg that round - tough luck, so sad. By letting the HoP know in advance, he can deny the requests for consent before they even reach Robotics. You can expect some push-back from upset cyborg applicants and I strongly recommend making some extra robot brains to compensate for the lack of living victims ... I mean, volunteers ... but I don't think you are actually obligated to honor a stamped consent form under the current SoP. If you get demoted for denial of service, then I would take it to IAA or an NT rep, because you have a legitimate right to NOT want to kill people, scoop out their brains, and slave them to a cybernetic master. On a related note, I don't see a requirement for written consent prior to borging in the Robotics HoP, but I thought that was a legal requirement. Shouldn't that be added? Most of the roboticists I have dealt with seemed to be aware of this requirement and expect a signed and/or stamped consent form prior to the operation, so I just assumed it was standard operating procedure. Feels like something that deserves to be spelled out in black and white, both for new players and to provide in character grounds for dismissal or arrest if someone is caught borging without written consent. With respect to the number of borgs in the round creating a balance of power issue with the AI - this feels like something that should be considered by the HoP when signing off on consent to be borged paperwork. They already do this for other departments - limiting the number of people added into each position, unless approved by heads of each dept. I don't have any Command experience so I don't know how this information is handled, but there could be a recommended number of borgs that the HoP is expected to pay attention to as a way of discouraging excessive borg production on station. And it is something to consider, in case the AI should turn out to be malfunctioning. The roboticist could also check the number of active borgs and possibly confirm with the Research Director before making more cyborgs, if the number of active robots is becoming a legitimate concern. Sorry about the long rambling post. I am pretty fascinated by SS13 cyborgs and give this kind of thing way too much thought.

If you insist. One.

Add a 1% chance for the pinata to detonate on death, releasing a wave of vengeful plasma fire, and I think that idea is perfect.

Now that is a truly evil idea.

Yeah, sorry about that. It started as a horrible idea, since a powerful gremlin could mess up the station in many horrible, horrible ways. Then I thought about it for a little too long and fleshed it out in my head as I considered how I would pitch the idea as a real suggestion. Now I'd really like to try playing as a bluespace gremlin! I like non-lethal antags and being stealthy.

I really like the look of EclipseStation. It looks big and well-designed. The circular layout appeals to me in a way that the current station's layout never has. And I like the little touches - like the park and little windows in the library. I think it would be a nice station to live, work, and occasionally die in.

New Antagonist Role: Bluespace Gremlin A mischievous creature that loves tinkering with machinery and laughing maniacally. It is physically weak but fast and has the ability to randomly teleport itself short distances, like using a bluespace crystal. Gremlins lack hands and speak in gibberish that can only be understood by other gremlins. The gremlin's abilities are all related to causing electrical/mechanical chaos on the station - a small EMP blast, an ability that causes lights to flick and then blow-out in an area around the gremlin, and an ability that will randomly cut wires on a targeted hackable device, like a vending machine, airlock, or APC. The gremlin can hide under objects and run under tables, like a drone or cortical borer. However, they will randomly giggle when standing still for long periods of time and laugh hysterically when using their abilities, which might alert people to their presence. It's goals would be related to sabotaging key machinery or causing a certain amount of disruption aboard the station. For example, break 100 lightbulbs, fry the APC in the CMO's office, reset the RnD database, or shut-off the gravity generator. A single gremlin isn't that dangerous, but they rarely occur alone. An invasion of gremlins can cause significant distractions for the crew. A much less common, more powerful version could have the ability to e-mag objects to cause some serious damage or stun/shock attackers, but the main focus of gremlins should be on non-lethal mischief and equipment breakdown rather than killing crew or delaminating the engine.

New ghost role: Space Koi You take control over one of the docile space koi surrounding the station. Swim for the stars, sweet fishy!

4 weddings and a funeral.

Indeed so - It's important to multi-task. Especially in a game like SS13.

Hey, look at that. We are making good progress. High-Five!

A botanist, you say? Is that even allowed!? Also, welcome to Paradise, Xevli. I look forward to being healed and/or arrested by you in the future.

Two's company, but three's a crowd.

One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do.

3.

four and a half

That was my thought. Like drowning an accused witch. Either way, they are super dead, because if you are wrong, their corpse will just blow up. Pretty horrible way to hunt for changelings.

More than 1 and less than 100.

The rarity of bandages/gauze has little to do with their medical value so I don't understand why that is relevant. Unless I am mistake, they are one of the weakest medical items available to organics. Even basic medkits don't carry them, in favor of heal/burn patches. When you think about it, all healing items are "rare" compared with the common items used to repair robots and cyborgs. You can find cable coils and welding tools just laying around on the floor or in any random closet or maintainance tunnel It isn't a fair comparison - treating a welding tool as equivalent to a similar medical item for organics will always end up with the welder looking OP, since organic healing items are harder to find and limited-use. I don't see the problem with giving IPCs an "emergency repairs" box with a weak welder and some cable coils. It is NOT the same as filling the box with nanopaste, which actually IS a rare healing item for robots. An oxygen box for IPCs doesn't make sense, just like it makes no sense to give an oxygen tank to Vox or Plasmamen, unless you are trying to hurt them. But simply removing the entire box is the least interesting solution to the problem. I would much rather see a species-specific box provided that takes into account the special needs of mechanical crew and helps players stay in the round a little longer. It is not possible to give IPCs an exact equivalent to the oxygen tank/mask and emergency epipen because they do not suffer oxygen damage. But an emergency repairs kit is in the same spirit, offering the crew member emergency protection from common space hazards so they can get back to work, more or less in one piece. The weak tools provided in the emergency box would be inferior to standard tools/supplies that are readily available around the station at round start. I do not see how this can be seen as an unfair advantage for IPCs. Most players would probably upgrade to something better very quickly, since the small fuel supply won't last long if you actually end up using it. The emergency repairs box is just a nice insurance policy, in case you are caught off-guard and need urgent repairs or find yourself in a location far from aid and supplies.

I was going to suggest the emergency welder as a good alternative for an IPC emergency kit. For robots, a welder is not just a tool. It is equivalent to a medical device for borgs/IPCs. They do not need oxygen, so a tank of air and face mask are useless to IPC players. Why would Nanotrasen waste corporate funds giving them useless supplies for free? And why would they completely neglect IPC crew by giving them nothing? Crew are expensive to replace and space is a dangerous place. A few cable coils, an emergency welder and a glowstick does not seem particularly over-powered to me and would provide similar support as the emergency epi-pen and oxygen gear for fleshy crew members.

Two words. Lava moat. The Captain must be protected.

Become a bridge hobo and quickly discover that laying on hard metal tiles all day is hell on your back.

I've been thinking about ways to redesign or improve the station lately, so I figured I would add my thoughts regarding department upgrades. For Botany, the biggest simple improvement would be adding a chem dispenser. You go through so much unstable mutagen as a dedicated plant mad scientist that it is ridiculous to keep bugging the chemist for buckets of the stuff. The most common work-around is taking one of the dispensers out of the Science dept, which solves the problem for botany at the expense of SciChem. Or you take the slow route of fertilzer-based mutation while waiting for R&D to provide a circuitboard to Engineering, so they can build a new dispenser for your dept, if you want to maximize cross-dept interactions. I think it would be better if Botany had its own dispenser at round start. Ideally, it would be the custom botany-chems-only dispenser, like the one that spawns in the diona lab on Lavaland (Lifebringer/Living Terrarium). It provides plant chems, like salt petre, ammonia, and unstable mutagen, instead of all the basic elements. It would make sense in a botany lab and provide everything you need to do your job really well, but would not be as versatile as a standard chem dispenser. This might also encourage more people to explore the chemistry of plants, since they can't easily get at basic elements using the chem dispenser. And it might inspire people to play around with some of the other "plant chems" that are rarely used.

Regarding map redesigns, I recently played a shift as a "freelance enigneer" (citizen with a toolbelt) and I spent my time constructing a new hallway to help connect the Dormitory area to the rest of the station as a "proof-of-concept" test. There is already a nice double-wide, straight maintainece tunnel between botany and the library. I added lights and flooring, then extended the hallway to the west until I reached the maintainence door under the Holodeck. I kept the hallway two tiles wide, instead of the usual three, because I didn't want to encrouch on existing rooms. I opened up both ends and moved the airlocks to allow access into the remaining maintainence areas on either side of the new hallway. Then added some decorative features, like vending machines, plants, and windows into adjacent rooms. .... I really liked the results. It looked natural and acted as a nice little shortcut between major areas of the station. Best of all, it did seem to increase foot-traffic in the dormitory area. If anyone is looking into features to add to an updated station map to improve flow and discourage bridge hoboing, this would be a pretty simple change. One side-effect of this change is that the maintainence areas for the bar/kitchen/botany/mime/clown become more isolated and cut off from the rest. This is both good and bad for antags. Less foot traffic, but less room to run/hide if someone catches you there. It also does carve out a chunk of maintainence space and reclaims it as active crew space, for better or worse. As a balance, it might be a good idea to add a direct connection between the security maintainence area and the maintainence area below the fore-starboard, in the area east of the holodeck. This would give antags greater mobility without exiting into a potentially busy corridor.

This question has been puzzling me, so I thought I'd ask to get some other opinions. I am relatively new and have been slowly exploring the various roles. Recently I played as a maintenance drone for the first time after dying in a way that left my body completely unrecoverable and found that I rather liked it. I haven't played much as cyborgs yet, because I find the laws a bit intimidating. I don't want to forget my laws and act inappropriately as a robot. My first life as a drone, I didn't do a very good job of staying out of the way of crew and others. Finally figured out that I could vent-crawl and started to get a better handle on my drone abilities in my second life and did my best to maintain the station while avoiding any attention or interaction with other lifeforms. I am not terribly good at engineering, but I know the basics and used my time as a lowly drone to practice essential repairs. I started to feel like I could be a useful addition to the station and mostly managed to not accidently hit myself with my own tools. Things were looking up! However, in my third life as a drone, I bumped into a fellow in the maintenance tunnels and was swiftly e-magged. My law set changed to be loyal to the person who emagged me and follow his orders. If I remember correctly, I was also not to work against his goals or endanger/harm any of his allies. After e-magging me, my new master commanded me to "Be free!" and immediately left. Now, my question is ... how should I act based on this new directive? My initial thought was "I guess I'm evil now. Better go do some evil stuff". But then I started seconding guessing, because nothing in my laws actually told me to do any harm to anyone on the station and I didn't know what my master's objectives were or even who is allies were, so if I started causing problems on the station, I might act against my other laws. My laws say that I must obey my master and my master had told me to be free. So what does "freedom" mean to a simple maintenance drone who has only ever known keeper laws and station repair? His command to be free doesn't remove my new laws so I am NOT actually free. I am still very much bound by the new set of laws that guide my behavior as an e-magged drone. Plus I am not convinced that the in-character drone would be able recognize that being e-magged means they are now one of the "bad guys". From the drone's perspective, the rules have changed, but they are still a maintenance drone with little interest in human affairs and a focus on repair/construction/clean-up. I doubt that a drone could really understand the nuances of being "free". They just don't seem like they would be designed to be that sophisticated or self-reflective. Anyways, while I was having a evil drone existential crisis in the maintenance tunnels, a random engineer spotted my glowing red eyes and robusted me into a pile of broken parts, so I never got the chance to do anything evil or not evil that round. Still, I am left wondering what I could have or should have done in that situation. With such an open-ended command, could I have gone and hung out with civilians in the bar and let them wear me as a hat? Should I have chucked myself out the nearest airlock to "be free!" of the station? Should I have started dismantling random things? Broken airlocks? Removed semi-important or very important walls to free myself from the confines of the station? Opened up floor tiles to space? Reprogramed the AI to be MY slave so I could be more free than all the other robots? What would you do as an e-magged drone after being given the command to "be free"?