Secure Armory, Gamma Armory, and Red Alert

[Psyentific]

 

Point 1) The Secure Armory's default access restrictions are adequate security for its contents.

Point 1a) Many rounds (Especially Blob and Nuke) have been lost entirely due to the Red Alert restriction on the secure armory.

Point 1b) Red Alert is seldom called when it is needed, due to the heads being too incompetent or too dead.

 

Point 2) The Gamma Armory's security is inadequate for its contents.

 

Point 3) The Gygaxes contained within the Gamma armory start unequipped. In the emergency that the Gamma Armory is intended for, it is unreasonable to expect a Gygax pilot to go from Security to a possibly non-functional, unstaffed, or hostile Robotics Bay to equip his mech before responding to the emergency.

 

Point 4) The standard armory features an exclusively energy weapon loadout, yet has no rechargers. The security force, despite relying on tasers for ranged stuns, has no readily accessible rechargers.

 

 

 

Objective 1) Remove Red Alert restriction from standard armory. If augmented security is required, motion cameras may be installed to the exterior of the standard and gamma armories.

Objective 1a) To be implemented instead of objective 1, remove dual-head keycard swiping for Red Alert. Allow one head or the AI to call red alert by standard comm. console alert setting.

 

Objective 2) Increase security on the gamma armory by thickening the reinforced walls to harden against breaching with C4 or by installation of motion cameras on the outside.

 

Objective 3) Make the Gamma armory Gygaxes a viable option, either by spawning them with weaponry and modules, or by providing lockboxes of standardized mech-weapon loadouts.

Objective 3a) Alongside O3, put Gamma Gygaxes behind locked doors, linked to a button with Command access. Fully equipped Gygaxes and Durands are powerful tools, far beyond the rest of the Gamma armory's contents.

 

Objective 4) Put at least two, preferably four rechargers in the Secure armory. Put at least two, preferably four rechargers in the Security equipment or meeting room.

 

 

 

Explanations:

 

P1) The secure armory contains three E-guns, three Lasguns, three sets of riot armor, two ion rifles, one ablative vest, and one bulletproof vest. Taken as a whole, such as in a murderbone loadout, this is an incredibly threatening combination. However, distributed throughout security as intended, it is a marked upgrade over standard kit, and is very necessary in the case of extreme emergencies, such as a Revolution, a Nuclear Emergency, or a Blob. This is counterbalanced by the Armory access restriction - By default, only the Warden, the Head of Security, and the Captain can enter the secure armory. All other entries are break-ins, either through the entirety of Security, or from space. The principle threat here is from space - On other servers, it's not uncommon to see an engineer deconstruct into the armory from space, or a spaceborne traitor C4 into the armory.

 

P1a) Unfortunately, the contents of the armory go unused in most rounds, and go unused even when necessary. In dire emergencies, Security's response times are often hampered by the necessity of having two heads co-ordinate calling Red Alert to open the armory. I've born witness to a fully staffed security department milling around for five minutes awaiting an armory unlock, while nuclear operatives track down and kill the captain. I've also born witness to an engineer deconstructing into the armory to acquire lasers to fight a blob, which took far less time than Command calling Red Alert to unlock the armory, despite the AI being under quarantine lawset. That engineer wound up doing more with his stolen lasers than all of Security combined, mostly because, due to uncalled Red Alerts, Security was forced to fight the blob with welding tools.

 

The solution to this is Objective 1 or Objective 1a - Requiring Red Alert, while a good concept and in-line with RP, does a great deal to hinder emergency responses in many cases, sometimes to the point of station destruction and/or great loss of life. Either remove the Red Alert restriction on the armory, or remove the two-head requirement on Red Alert.

 

P2) The Gamma Armory contains six C4, Six Stun Revolvers, three 9mm SMGs with six 9mm SMG Magazines, one L6 SAW with two magazines, three advanced energy guns, three smoke bombs, and two unequipped Gygax mechs. For organizations sake, I'll address the Gygaxes later. The security measures for the Gamma armory consist of one layer of reinforced walls and a secure airlock. From Space (ie. As Traitor or Nuke Ops), that is one C4 away from having all of the above at my fingertips. Considering the amount and power of the weaponry within, that is abysmal security. The Gamma armory should be ringed with at least two, preferably three layers of reinforced walls, or these walls should take at least one, preferably two or three C4 to destroy.

 

As a corollary to the above, Motion cameras can be placed along the exterior walls of the armory to alert the AI of spaceborne breakins. This is an acceptable alternative to thicker or hardened walls.

 

P3) Speaking as a seasoned robuster, an unequipped Gygax is the worst option I can take from the Gamma armory. Offensively, its only option is a highly lethal melee-only Mechpunch, and in the event of an emergency requiring the use of the Gamma armory's equipment, I wouldn't have the time or inclination to chance equipping my mech at a questionably-functional robotics bay. I'd much rather take the SAW or one of the various small arms. From a roleplaying standpoint, the Gamma Gygaxes are part of security, and are thus expected to have a non-lethal option available and to pursue that non-lethal option if available. Being punched by three tons of angry steel is definitely not non-lethal.

 

O3) The solution to this is to either spawn them with a Pacifier Mech-Taser, or to contain the two Gygaxes within a Gamma Robotics Bay, as a subset of the Gamma armory and have pre-selected loadouts available via lockbox. For convienence's sake, loadouts follow:

 

Standard Non-Lethal:

>Mech Mounted taser

>Energy Relay

>Armor Booster (Melee)

 

Riot Control, Non-Lethal:

>Mech Mounted taser

>Flashbang Launcher

>Armor Booster (Melee)

 

Combat, Non-lethal w/ Lethal:

>Mech mounted taser

>Mech mounted laser gun

>Armor Booster (Ranged)

 

Assault, Very lethal, no non-lethal:

>Mech mounted laser cannon

>LBX AC/10 Scattershot

>Armor Booster (Ranged)

 

 

Point 4 and Objective 4 are self-explanatory. Security needs rechargers and currently lacks them.

 

[Regen]

 

Quick note I need to make before I take on the rest of this thread

Gamma armory is unbreachable, unhackable and telescience proof

Try a welder on the walls, it won't work, try C4 on the walls or door, it wont work.

 

Now for the gygaxes, I agree with you, it is too much to rely on that the roboticists are able / capable / present to equip them, lockboxes would be a viable option for weaponry

As for charges, I can see two wall mounted in security, one in warden and HoS office and one at the shooting range

I think two more in security lobby would suffice

As for red alert, we did it because there were nobody using security alerts AT ALL, after we added the red alert restrictions more people used the codes because they were needed too.

After the recent surge I guess you could say we got a lot more new and inexperienced players, thus they are not using it as much as we would want them to, a fix for this is for admins to manually do it, send a message to centcom to let them know of the problems on the station and that you require assistance, thats a way for you to do it anyways.

An idea would be to add the ability of sending an emergency message to centcom as AI

 

[Psyentific]

 

Quick note I need to make before I take on the rest of this thread

Gamma armory is unbreachable, unhackable and telescience proof

Try a welder on the walls, it won't work, try C4 on the walls or door, it wont work.

I didn't know that.

 

Now for the gygaxes, I agree with you, it is too much to rely on that the roboticists are able / capable / present to equip them, lockboxes would be a viable option for weaponry

As for charges, I can see two wall mounted in security, one in warden and HoS office and one at the shooting range

I think two more in security lobby would suffice

As for red alert, we did it because there were nobody using security alerts AT ALL, after we added the red alert restrictions more people used the codes because they were needed too.

After the recent surge I guess you could say we got a lot more new and inexperienced players, thus they are not using it as much as we would want them to, a fix for this is for admins to manually do it, send a message to centcom to let them know of the problems on the station and that you require assistance, thats a way for you to do it anyways.

An idea would be to add the ability of sending an emergency message to centcom as AI.

 

 

If the root cause is inexperienced players in command jobs, have you considered time-whitelisting Command and Silicon jobs?

 

[Roland410]

Also as far as I know it isn't RCD proof, the door at least, saw borgs open it a lot of times, but the AI thing you mentioned would be great, the AI should be able to contact CentCom, because they have a connection to the AI too, so it could work the other way.

[DaveTheHeadcrab]

 

Here's my view on the issues presented here: The armory probably should not be bolted until Red alert. It very strongly hinders emergency response times unless the admins set the red alert (And most of the time we have to), and this is something we don't want to encourage, because it really is something the players should be doing themselves. The only head with any direct incentive to elevate to red alert in any situation that isn't immediately going to be the doom of the ship is the Head of Security, and there are situations that legitimately require armory access but can't be dealt with because all the other heads are off doing their own things and don't recognize the threat yet, or don't care enough to drop what they're doing and swipe for Red. I strongly believe that reverting to Warden and Head of Security access to the armory will be for the best. I rarely, if ever, saw the armory's contents abused before it was locked.

 

And as for rechargers? Security has four, as Regens said. Two in the sec locker area mounted on the wall, one in the Head of Security's office, and one in the Warden's office. Assuming there's six officers on duty (And there are only six security lockers, I believe six is the limit) that means one third of the officers can recharge their tasers/batons/lasers at a time. Assuming the officers aren't firing their tasers into the wall for entertainment, I think the amount of rechargers we have now is enough.

 

[Froststahr]

One alternative is to have the AI be able to help activate red alert in place of the other head, so one head plus AI can call it if needed.

[DaveTheHeadcrab]

 

One alternative is to have the AI be able to help activate red alert in place of the other head, so one head plus AI can call it if needed.

I disagree with this, as any Head can ORDER the AI to swipe for red, even if the shift has just started, effectively eliminating what the cardswipes for red were meant to create in the first place.

[Dawgas]

 

So when are we going to end up agreeing that areas that require special snowflake conditions to enter are a terrible idea?

 

Oh no, sec with laser guns oh wait its not like anyone on this server knows how to be robust anyway?

 

I damn well wouldn't be scared of an entire sec force with lmgs either.

 

[Earthdivine]

 

Also as far as I know it isn't RCD proof, the door at least, saw borgs open it a lot of times, but the AI thing you mentioned would be great, the AI should be able to contact CentCom, because they have a connection to the AI too, so it could work the other way.

Borg RCD's are different under Bay code, so i actually wouldnt be surprised if they could RCD the door away.

 

and as an Added note to the Rechargers thing, any of the stationary ones around the station? Wrench the sucker and you got a portable Recharger.

 

[Psyentific]

 

One alternative is to have the AI be able to help activate red alert in place of the other head, so one head plus AI can call it if needed.

I thought of that, then I realized "Serve Humans" was in the default lawset.