Give borg lockdown a time limit

[Balthusdire]

Borg lockdown is very powerful, a borg is only able to talk locally and in binary chat when they are locked down. It is very useful, however in it's current state it is over powered and very unpleasant for a borg player. A borg can be locked down, the person who did it could be killed or distracted, and the borg is then screwed for the rest of the round. This also is way too easy a way to mess up the AI if they are malf, or even just suspected. A simple idea (I don't know how simple the code execution would be though) is to give lock down a time limit. 5-10 minutes or something in there, after which a borg automatically regains control of itself. Maybe make it so a borg can resist the lockdown and can "hack" itself out. Another additional possibility is to add a cooldown to the lockdown so that you have to use lockdown intelligently, because if you use it too early you can't lock down that borg for a short time.

 

A lot of these ideas are minor though, the biggest thing is that it needs to be changed that borgs can be locked down and are left to rot for the rest of the round. The last round I played all of the borgs were locked down and we stayed that way for the rest of the round, until we got detonated. It was a very long time. One borg was on the construction station so he had basically no chance of ever being found. You are able to resist cuffs and welded lockers, you can break out of jail and perma, a locked down borg should be able to get themselves out or be released automatically. Permanently locking down borgs is super powerful, but much more importantly, is a HORRIBLE experience for a player and a fix should be implemented.

[Zciwomad]

It's interesting idea, that force those, who locked down borg, to act. If borg is locked down for more than 10 minutes, then it means that RD/Roboticists don't do their job. This is for gameplay.

For IC issue: It's hard to think that NanoTrasen would install such thing on borg vessel. Since there is a record of revolting AI in the lore and whole IPC liberation. It could be explained that brain of cyborg, or posibrain of android, work this out trough "willpower". 

[GunDOS]

It’s an interesting idea, but it means that Borgs would probably be just blown instead of locked down. And I think being stuck in one place, is far better then being dead.

[davidchan]

Could have a backdoor resist option, once the lockdown starts the Borg's internal CPU restarts and begins to override or bypass locked out circuits until it can retake control and restore movement? I'd argue 5 minutes but having been locked down and only passively questioned for nearly 30 minutes with nothing to is pretty painful, and if you open a new tab and entertain yourself people assume you're afk or SSD and just let you gather dust in the corner. Lockout definitely shouldn't be super-bucklecuff when self destruct exists.

[McRamon]

Never had any issues with lockdown as a borg before, but maybe only hacked borgs should have that option? Since normal borgs should not try to hack the lockdown

[Sonador]

As a non-malf borg that was locked down once for nearly a half hour before someone found me and managed to get it along the chain, yes, a maximum time for lockdown is a good idea.

On 4/19/2018 at 11:52 PM, GunDOS said:

It’s an interesting idea, but it means that Borgs would probably be just blown instead of locked down. And I think being stuck in one place, is far better then being dead.

If you can boink people for improper executions, you can boink them for unwarranted blowing (and already do.)

[davidchan]

6 hours ago, McRamon said:

Never had any issues with lockdown as a borg before, but maybe only hacked borgs should have that option? Since normal borgs should not try to hack the lockdown

If the lockdown is against their laws (which they usually are) then they definitely should. The sheer power that console has is ridiculous, its little wonder many AIs who are malf, hacked or otherwise not trusting the crew make sure that console disappears. With the number of weaknesses and handicaps borgs have, super-unbreakable-remote-buckle-cuffing should not be one of them.

[Spacemanspark]

People don't use lockdowns very often as it is, instead preferring to just blow them outright. They don't need less of an incentive to do so.

At least you can still communicate if you've been locked down (Usually).

[GunDOS]

12 hours ago, Sonador said:

If you can boink people for improper executions, you can boink them for unwarranted blowing (and already do.)

You’re not gonna get much support from the staff, if a feature requires admin supervision to work. We’ve a lot to do every shift. Babysitting one more thing isn’t something anyone, especially myself likes.

Edited April 21, 2018 by GunDOS

[Sonador]

6 hours ago, GunDOS said:

You’re not gonna get much support from the staff, if a feature requires admin supervision to work. We’ve a lot to do every shift. Babysitting one more thing isn’t something anyone, especially myself likes.

That's not really a logical argument. It neither requires admin supervision for it to work, nor does pretty much anything on the station have zero requirement for admin intervention if abused. People maliciously blowing borgs just because locking them down has a timer is not acceptable conduct just as executing a prisoner is not acceptable just because once their cell timer expires they're going to go back to greytiding. Borgs may be nonhuman machinery, but they're still players.

If anything, this provides *less* requirement for admin intervention as now if someone locks a borg and then forgets about it (or does it maliciously,) it no longer requires admin intervention to remedy and can be delegated to be handled ICly, instead of having to manually unlock the borg and confront the malicious player unless they do it repeatedly.

Blowing borgs without warrant is already against the rules and this suggestion doesn't change that. I get admins are *very, very* busy, I used to be one on many servers. In this case however, it's not a legitimate argument against this suggestion.

Edited April 22, 2018 by Sonador