Zero.Platform's habits of Highly Effective Roboticists

[Ziiro]

Felt like writing this, because I remembered a few things when I was doing robotics that made things go smoothly, or just less stressful/wasteful in general.

 

• DON'T BORG AN SSD BRAIN. After removing it (but before putting in the MMI), examine it to see if it has a spark of life! If you fuck up and have an SSD Borg on your hands, the only solution is complete deconstruction.
• ALWAYS HAVE A CYBORG BODY READY TO GO You never know when Security is going to knock on your door and tell you to borg someone, immediately. But don't forget to check if the brain is active first!
• ONLY ACTIVATE ONE POSIBRAIN AT A TIME. This limits frustration on the part of people who sign up. Which, in tandem with the above mentioned rule, means that you should always have a Posibrain in activation mode next to an empty Cyborg body, if possible.
• YOU DON'T ALWAYS NEED TO ORDER RIPLEY BOARDS. If R&D is doing their job, you should be able to print them fairly quickly. Additionally, you should only make these on demand if a miner requests one. There are better mining tools.
• COUNT YOUR RESOURCES BEFORE YOU MAKE THAT MECH. Yea, I know you want to make that Gygax/Durand, but check that you have the Diamonds/Uranium for the entire project. The armor takes a fuckton. You probably don't have enough. You probably shouldn't be making it anyway.
• DON'T EVEN TRY TO MAKE A PHAZON. It's bugged, it's awful, it's difficult to use and there's a very unique piece that is required to finish it. Don't waste resources on one unless the RD hands you the anomaly core and asks you to build him one.
• DO NOT PUT MMIs/POSIBRAINS IN MECHS. Yes, I know you can, but you shouldn't. They're unlawed and dealing with door access for them is obnoxious.
• UPGRADE A MECH'S BATTERY BEFORE IT LEAVES YOUR WORKSHOP. The stock battery for all mechs is 7500 (Thanks davidchan) and that's terrible. Here's how.
• UNDERSTAND HOW TO REPAIR IPCS. IPCs break. Constantly. Read the guide on how to put them back together. Please.
• IF A BORG IS EMAGGED, THE ONLY SOLUTION IS TO DECONSTRUCT IT. DO NOT RE-ACTIVATE EMAGGED BORGS. I mean it's hilarious when it happens, but still.
• THE TEXT "THE INTERFACE APPEARS TO BE DAMAGED" WHEN UNLOCKING A BORG WITH YOUR ID MEANS THE BORG IS EMAGGED/UNLOCKED BY THE AI. You should probably tell someone that your fellow Roboticist or RD is probably traitor. (Note: This may also appear if illegal mods have been legitimately installed through extensive R&D. Use common sense.)
• GET YOUR METAL AND GLASS WHEREVER YOU CAN. Scour maintenance (If it's safe!) Ask the AI for permission to take materials from EVA! Take them from wherever you can! You can also use a welder on metal rods to turn them into metal sheets. That way even if mining sucks, you can still build borgs instead of having to cryo out of boredom/shame/stress.
• REMEMBER THIS ORDER FOR BRAIN REMOVAL. Scapel, Hemostat, Retractor, Saw, Retractor, Hemostat.
• REMEMBER YOUR S.O.P.: Get paperwork for Cyborgification. (Signed by the victim subject, stamped by HoP or Captain, AND GET THEIR ID TERMINATED) Do not make un-approved Mechs. Remember Anesthetic for your patients. (Tell them to drag their old body to the morgue afterwards, too)
• DO NOT MAKE A HONK with tracking beacons. Give it a charged slime core and a mounted teleporter. Nothing bad will happen I swear.  Without the expressed permission of both the Captain AND the RD

Edited March 25, 2017 by Ziiro
Corrections

[davidchan]

The Stock Mech battery is 7500, not 15000. They start with basic Power Cells, not High-Caps. I scream at my fellow roboticists every time they fail to do this.

Additionally: Avoid firing up your fabricators until RnD has gotten at least level 6 Engineering. This shouldn't take more than 10 minutes for any competent Scientist/RD to do, and you can get the boards from Tech Storage (legally) to help them boost their other RnD levels up so they can print and decon the Pacman boards. The higher your sync'd engineering level on your fabricators, the less materials they use.  For those in RnD this can be accomplished by destructing the following: (Parenthesis indicate alternate item that gives same level and is reasonably easy to get if you can't get the primary)

Micro-Manipulator, Analyzer, Capacitor, High Cap Cell, Super Cap Cell, Flamethrower (Oven/Grill), Plasma Sheet (Plasglass), Circuit Imprinter, Pacman, SUPER Pac and MRS Pacman boards.

 

Tada, Level 6 engineering.

Edited March 9, 2017 by davidchan

[Crazylemon]

If you take a trip over to tech storage (by engineering, roboticists have access to that room), grab the autolathe, protolathe, and if R&D seems unreliable, destructive analyzer boards.You can temporarily deconstruct a borg recharger and a mech fabber to get the parts needed to construct the protolathe, which you link with your console - then print out several matter bins and another manipulator, with which you can construct an autolathe using the console screen from the mech fabber. Finally, you can print out duplicates of all the parts you've borrowed (and extras, if you want to make other things), and now you've got a fully-stocked fabrication room of your own, without having to wait for R&D to respond to your requests to do things.

[Kyet]

Re: Phazon being bugged, I actually fixed this recently: https://github.com/ParadiseSS13/Paradise/pull/6742

Re: 'The interface appears to be damaged', don't illegal upgrade modules also do this? Before screaming that a borg is rogue, it may be worth checking that your partner, or the RD, did not upgrade the borg with an illegal module.

Possibly worth adding: "don't steal all the minerals". R&D should get first dibs on minerals, both because they are necessary for higher tech levels, and also because they are used to print parts for upgrades - upgrades that can also benefit Robotics. Robotics needs more minerals overall, most shifts, but R&D should always get minerals *first*.

Edited March 15, 2017 by tzo

[Ziiro]

Re: Phazon: Oh shit, nice. Thanks for that!

Re: Borg Illegals: I'd have to test that - I feel like the system probably isn't nuanced enough to tell the difference between emagging/AI illegals enabling vs applying it via module - but SS13 has surprised me in the past. I'll make a note of it for now though.

Edits with corrections have been made. I'd add the things about doing R&D yourself, but those seem more on the advanced side - obviously welcome in the thread, but what I aim for here is mistakes/problems that might be run into for the newer/middle experience player.

[Anticept]

AND GIVE THE DAMN IDS TO THE HOP FOR TERMINATION!