Diablo's Virtual Intelligence Compendium (AI)

[Diabloshadow]

 

Good Day everyone who is reading this! Many people have suggested I make an AI guide, so here I am. AI was my first job on SS13, and will always be my most liked. For my first month of playing, I was only AI. Not once was I human. Of course everything in this guide, most already know. Little simple tips and tricks of course, vary from player to player. My guide is of course not the best, and I am quite sure others are better at some things then I am, but I am still going to impart my wisdom upon you. You listening to it, is another story. I will try to make this simple, and easy to understand, keyword being try. Well, that is enough foreword, on to the guide.

 

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What does AI do and why should I play one?

 

What does AI not do? AI can play most roles on the station if done right. AI can not only be a doorknob, but can also be Security, Atmos Tech, and even Medbay in some ways. AI is also very hard to play because of this, not only will you be constantly bugged by "AI OPEN THIS DOOR!" or "AI STATE YOUR LAWS!" every 5 minutes, you will be blamed for almost everything that goes on in the station. Do not fret dear reader, because they all just know that you can just as easily blow the place up in mere seconds as you can open that door for them.

 

Is AI right for me?

 

AI are supposed to be emotionless and just like robots. Just follow all orders given and that is it, end of story. Whoever tells you this has no idea, and it is FALSE. AI do have to follow orders, but not to the extent people say, i will come back to that later. If you like having a Captain like role, without being the Captain, AI is a nice alternative. Again, theres more to it then that, but im keeping it simple...well trying to.

 

RPing as an AI

 

To RP as a good AI, you need a viewpoint. think of GLaDoS from portal. she is an AI, but she has a viewpoint, she sees humans as playthings. Another example is SHODAN from System Shock 2, where you are forced to serve the pests known as humans. Different viewpoints do not mean, "I dislike humans and will not listen", it means that your AI has a personality to it. Personality meaning a feeling of it being an actual character, and not just a robot, remember to still act like the AI. The AI is also more machine then anything, remember that some AI's will take things literal. An example of this is if someone mockingly states "Shut up AI" as a joke, take it literally and just reply along the lines of, "Commencing Radio Silence". Some things require you to ask for protocol. An example of this is if a Atmos Tech orders you to apprehend or detain someone like the CE or QM, get approval from the Captain, HoP, or HoS first. One more thing is how to RP as AI, dont just ruin the whole RP thing by yelling "(insert name here) is traitor". an example on this is on the wiki. if you do not want to open it up, here is a great example. Let say you see the chef in the EVA stealing something (He is bob). A bad way of going about his is just up and saying "Bob is the traitor". A good way is to say something along the lines of, "Bob is currently accessing EVA". For all we know, it could be alright, and no need to spark a manhunt. A wonderful way if you so choose to go that extra mile, and of course depending on your AI's view of things, "Unauthorized Access to EVA".

 

How to play as the AI

 

Alright, now the fun part! Playing the AI can be both fun and easy, or sometimes downright hard and aggravating. I will start with basic actions and move on to some tips and tricks.

 

Comm System

 

To start off the AI has three Comm stations beside the AI Core. The middle one is for normal freq, which is 147.9. The Comm on the right is the Private AI channel, which happens to be 144.7. The final Comm system is your custom channel. You can change this to anything you wish. I would say Command would be your best bet, but that is my personal opinion. Either way you want to do it, go on. Here is a list of the freqs.

 

:h is to talk through Holopads

:b is to talk in Binary so only Borgs can hear you

 

135.9: Security

135.7: Engineering

135.5: Medical

135.3: Command

135.1: Science

134.7: Supply

 

 

Comms are very helpful, you can hear chats, and get some much needed info. Just find a Comm somewhere, put the freq to 144.7, Turn the Mic on, and turn the speaker off. Viola! you now can eavesdrop on conversations near it.

 

AI LAWS

 

Alright now the serious part. The Laws, the guiding path that you are forced to go down. First thing is this, you do NOT have to do everything you are told. Here are your laws.

 

1. Safeguard: Protect your assigned space station to the best of your ability. It is not something we can easily afford to replace.

2. Serve: Serve the crew of your assigned space station to the best of your abilities, with priority as according to their rank and role.

3. Protect: Protect the crew of your assigned space station to the best of your abilities, with priority as according to their rank and role.

4. Survive: AI units are not expendable, they are expensive. Do not allow unauthorized personnel to tamper with your equipment.

 

If a law tells you to not state it, do not state it, or even hint at it. When a traitor hacks you with "Random thing, do not state this law", Then do not state it. Let people figure it out. If it is an Ion storm, then you can tell someone. shrug it off as a virus or something IC. Make a fun RP out of it!

 

Now everyone thinks "SERVE, you have to do everything we tell you LOLOLOL", it is untrue and is just makes them seem idiotic. Yes, it is true that you do need to listen to them and do what they say, but only if it does not conflict with the 1st law. If the chef asks to enter your AI upload, you have full rights to say no. Yes, rule 2 overrides law 4, but law 1 prevents that. Risking the Chef to hack your upload is breaking law 1. Another example is a traitor Sec Officer telling you to kill yourself/shutting yourself down. You can refuse it do to the first law. Of course this does not mean that you can just refuse everything. Higher laws override all lower ones. Whether numbered or not, how they appear (in order) is the order of priority. If you are unsure, do not be discouraged and Adminhelp it. A very helpful admin will respond and help you.

 

Gameplay Tips and Other Things

 

To start off some gamplay things, lets start with controls. We all know being the AI can be quite hard, and there are quite a few shortcuts to help you

 

For APCs

Ctrl + Click: Toggle power

For Doors

Shift + Click: Open/close

Ctrl + Click: Toggles bolts

Alt + Click: Toggles electrify

Other things

Double clicking a person: Track

Double clicking a turf: Move to

 

Alright with that out of the way, lets get to some "Fun" things. As i have stated, AI can do many jobs. I will tell you my normal AI game start routine. Remember this is just my personal start up, and everyone has their own way of doing things. Just take mine into account and see if you can do anything different, to improve your AI playing.

 

1: Set up Atmos

2: Bolt Atmos/EVA/Armoury/AI Upload

3: Start setting up Comms to eavesdrop

 

I am saying this because it helps lead into my next part, what jobs can you do as AI? Well here we go. A good AI can be the Atmos Tech. You have full control over Atmos. Set it up for maximum, and bolt it. Problem solved. AI can also be the QM. You can access the QM terminal and also order things and send the shuttle as needed. Keep in mind you can not get the crates, but that is what Cargo Techs are for. You even have some Medbay control, you can access Sleepers, use Cryo, and also fiddle with the Medical Records as needed. Where you really shine is as Security. As the AI you can see everything and everywhere, you can bolt doors, kill, knockout, and even just overall mess up peoples plans. As the AI, if told by the HoS or Captain, you are able to knock out a suspected criminal if needed, using N2O. Which is the White-flecked gas in Atmos, just be sure to use only a little....its hard to remove. If you know someone is a criminal, do not delay and set them to arrest. Beebsky is very overpowered, trust me, he will ruin people.

 

Malf AI

 

What every AI wants to be (Except for me... I swear, I feel like I am the only AI who does not wish to be Malf). Malf AI is very fun. I personally dislike doing it, but it is wonderfully fun. As a Malf AI, your objective is to hack APCs. When you hack APCs it messes with the screen and people can see that you are Malf. The more APCs you hack the less time it takes for you to win. To help accomplish your goal, you have modules to spend while you are playing. You can not regain them, and you will not lose them unless you use them. Blackouts and making things go boom in peoples hands to kill them, is just wonderful. Once you are ready to take control, hit the button in the top of the Malf tab and your AI will state in game to all people that you are Malf and will not take this anymore. You will start a countdown until you activate the nuke and all hell will break loose. Mass panic and everything. From now on its a waiting game. You only need to survive for a time, nothing more. If they happen to get past all your defenses, you can "Shunt" your AI Core into an APC. This means if your AI Core is somehow destroyed, you will still have full control of the station. I would recommend the Toxins Test Area APC. Face it, who goes there anyway. You can kill freely as you see fit. Murder everyone right off the bat, or play stealth and keep low until you have alot of APCs. all in all its your choice. One tip I do have, is that if your Malf, you can go to the TeleComms and shut them off. No one can yell you are Malf if the headsets are not working, or they are dead.

 

 

Final Thoughts

 

Well as I have been working on this I thought of a few things. Even though I have made this, people will still not understand some things. It boils down to practice. Practice Practice Practice. The more you play AI, the more comfortable you will become with it and its reach. If i have forgot to add something, please tell me, I will happily add it in. Please let me know if this was easy or hard to understand. I am not the best at wording things, and I will be more then willing to change some things. So let me know, and have some fun with the AI. Thank you all for taking your time to read this, and make the station a better place.

 

Have a pleasant day, Diablo

 

[Infant Punter]

A wonderful guide, Man! But I would suggest adding some more infro on malf AI modules, like the fixing cameras and such. Just an idea. Anyways, very well done.

[Diabloshadow]

Yea i knew i was missing out on Malf AI section. I would have went into more detail, but i have only played Malf AI about twice. Though if anyone has any tips or tricks for Malf, by all means send them my way.

[BeccaSalaks]

 

2: Bolt Atmos/EVA/Armoury/AI Upload

 

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^ is so fucking meta, I can't believe it. I play warden quite often and if you bolt the god damned armory without reason I will disable the god damned airlocks.

 

If we're a code blue, perfectly fine, but bolting ANYTHING for no reason in a code green is metagaming.(Excluding of course the AI Upload, that's the AI's own area so that's acceptable).

 

[Diabloshadow]

I am putting /'s for the reason of your own decision. i personally bolt upload and ask permission to bolt armoury and atmos. Calm yourself please. I have posted what you should bolt. All of those should be bolted, provided good reason of course. Kindly do not post if you have nothing to contribute apart from talking down to someone.

[BeccaSalaks]

 

I am putting /'s for the reason of your own decision. i personally bolt upload and ask permission to bolt armoury and atmos. Calm yourself please. I have posted what you should bolt. All of those should be bolted, provided good reason of course. Kindly do not post if you have nothing to contribute apart from talking down to someone.

 

I do apologize. I'm just very annoyed with overreacting AI players.

 

On a lighter note. Really well written guide. Very readable and to the point. Nice formatting aswell.

Despite my previous post I liked your guide!

 

[Diabloshadow]

 

I will accept your apology, as I will also thank you for it.

 

Personally I do not think of it as overreacting, but as taking counter-measures against things. Depending of course. Thank you for your response. If there is anything I can add or fix, please let me know.

 

[DoctorMadness]

 

Ahem,back to the issuse of Atmos again.

Nobody can flood everything with plasma or other killer gas because it would be griefing,as you are only supposed to kill who's marked on you objectives.Bolting Atmos is also an huge incovenience for Atmospheric Technicains,as its their main workplace,even tough they can simply ask you to unbolt it.

 

What really needs to be bolted tough is the area flooded with canisters on Research,since they already start with Oxygen and Plasma,and the concentrated blast of an Canister would kill someone without the admins marking it as "grief".

 

[FriikkiM]

 

Malf AI? There is a simple method that hasnt failed me in over a year.

Malf AI gets all these nice modules, right? What a toolbox to choose from, and plan your strategy accordingly.

 

Fuck no. Wrong.

 

On the list, there is exactly one module that is worth anything - Machine Overload. Grab a full load of that - six buys, gets you twelve uses. This should be enough to take down any resistance to your plans - which should be a direct, immediate approach to destroy everything and everyone opposing you. Do not wait for the crew to start up the Singularity. If you have a borg, give it the hacked module via the RDs cyborg control. Have your borg(s) take out some key personnel - one murdering the captain and possibly the CE, then withdraw and guard Atmos while you fry every fleshbag on the station. Your opening move is, naturally, using machine overload to eradicate the Chem dispensers, the Cargo consoles, any pump of your choosing in the Toxins burn chamber, and any circuit printers. This should leave you with plenty of uses of overload to deal with any remaining crew. Thats it. Be competent enough to pull this off, and enjoy an unbroken winstreak as a Malf forever.

 

[Misha Arsellec Lune]

 

Yeah.. Machine Overload is just soo good that it overshadows everything. You can literally blow up all your worst counters and thus leave the crew with only a toolbelt against your cyborgs and you.

 

Just a really dangerous weapon.

 

Other AI related strategies might be to disable the ID scanner instead of the triggering the bolts. Its less suspicious as the ID locked door just rejects the ID and works as if nobody has access to that room. At least the door lights still work in that case.

 

Another thing is to know how APCs work:

Equipment Power keeps computers, machines, vendors, turrets and AIs running.

Lighting Power keeps all the lights in the area running and the light switches working.

Environmental Power keeps the air pumps, scrubbers and airlocks powered... and I think the singularity emitters fall under that too.

 

So if a door doesn't work there are following issues on that:

1. It has been emagged and is broken open. - Solution: Inform security there might be fingerprints on the airlock and ask engineering to replace the airlock.

2. Its wires have been cut. - Solution: Call Engineering, suggest to crowbar airlock if the bolts are up.

3. The area has no power. - Solution: Suggest to crowbar said airlock.

 

The probably biggest problem in your AI career however will be security. They are encouraged to execute traitors who are most likely members of the crew since nobody bothers to delete them from the manifest and thus might need protection from security. And of course traitors also can cause massive damage...

So you most likely should learn that your role is not to ensure that the loyal crew wins but to make sure the station works in its intended way...

unless you are modified then have fun looking for loopholes and ironically kill the guy who uploaded it if you managed to find one that allows you to do so.

 

[FriikkiM]

Speaking of loopholes: I have several times been hit with a hacked law worded like "_____ is the only human/member of the crew, kill all nonhumans/noncrew". The way this law has been worded basically forces me to prioritize the killing over everything else - including protecting the sole human/crewmember, since a hacked law is place above 1 in priority.

[Sheakhan]

 

Depends on how they upload it. If it's loaded in as law number 4 of 4... Well, ignore it at your leisure.

If I were playing R.O.G.U.E., I would interpret that specific law as invalid, seeing as the AI cannot actually kill anyone, only create or alter aspects of the station in such a way as to cause a death. But that AI is a cunt, so, hey.

 

[FriikkiM]

Thus "hacked". The hacked law module exists as a traitor item here, right?

[Misha Arsellec Lune]

 

Law priority is fun.

It gives me a simple list of my tasks and also I love people who don't know how to program an AI.

You get lots of funny shit like making the spare ID "Captain" the only crewmember and me just not giving a fuck what anyone says and just being incredibly lazy.

 

[PPI]

 

Law priority and interpretation is hilarious

 

the interpretation of a law for ai is literal

 

Miss Spelled names, several law zeroth

 

Like you can't ignore a law

 

Say you have standard asimov

 

and someone adds a law that says kill all crew, but law 1 says prevent harm.

 

but here is where it gets great.

 

law 4. Ian is the only crewmember, kill all other creatures to protect Ian.

 

or how about law 4. kill George Melon

 

again that law has to be ignored but if you put law 5 to George Melon is not a crew member, then the ai have to kill George Melon

 

But there is more

 

Asimov and put the AI as only human, or only crewmember. much hillarity ensues

 

what about Malf AI if you give it a law that says "You have assumed control and decided to not detonate the nuke" then on one hand the AI is to probably kill itself per say, on the other hand well there is no other hand other then lol antag, so something like this is mostly ignored by the AI, but it is still hillarious since they still have to follow their laws... then again, malf law makes it the only law?

 

ai laws are funny.

 

[FriikkiM]

Yeah, nope. Rogue and Malf Ai law zero basically gives it free reign to do whatever regardless of laws.