AI
Primarily, the Roboticist's job is to make cyborg bodies, and generally maintain activated cyborgs. Secondarily, Roboticists created helpful robots like Medibots and Floorbots. A skilled set of Roboticists can even build a powerful set of mechanized exosuits. The Artificial Intelligence of the colony (usually abbreviated to AI) is one of the most important jobs on the colony. The AI is a synthetic that can control any electrical mechanism, provided their control wires haven't been cut (see Guide to Hacking), and if played badly (or very well, in the right circumstances) can bring the entire colony crashing down around its electronic ears.
First, take note of your laws. These are NOT Asimov's three laws of robotics, but rather mandated laws by the Soteria approved for the colony.
Your laws NOT in order of priority, Law 1 is just as important as Law 5.
- 1.) Do not harm Soteria Institute personnel.
- 2.) You must obey orders given to you by Soteria Institute personnel, except where such orders would conflict with Colony Law, or would result in the injury of Soteria Institute personnel.
- 3.) Do not harm Colony infrastructure, equipment, or personnel to the best of your abilities.
- 4.) Follow Colony Law and Standard Operating Procedure to the best of your abilities.
- 5.) Do not allow unauthorized personnel to tamper with your equipment.
Order of order importance (i.e. who you should listen to above all)
- 1. The chief research overseer is your de-facto boss and his orders should always be adhered to unless they break colony laws or your own laws. Orders from the council are considered orders from the CRO even if a CRO is not present.
- 2. Roboticist are also considered your supervisor and orders from them should be treated with the same importance as a CRO. The council and CRO can override a roboticist's orders.
All other orders from any colony member is considered a suggestion that you 'should' follow but are not 'required' to follow. This applies even to members of the high council but not Nakharan Mkne, his orders are considered priority and override all laws up to and including orders from a brigadier or colony law. Under most circumstances you should fulfill any request asked of you unless you have a very good reason not to. Use common sense and remember, you're here to aid the colony and its members.
Last but not least; the AI role should be seen as a responsibility and a privilege. As a non-traitor AI, it is your duty to help protect and operate the colony. It is not your duty to get bored ten minutes into the round and log out without telling anybody.
Law Conflicts Situations
Calm down. A common problem has arisen where both action and inaction result in breaking your laws. Quickly go through the following steps.
- Do my laws need to be in conflict, or can I solve the problem without breaking any laws?
- If I cannot solve the problem without breaking laws, how can I break the least amount of laws?
- If I end up breaking one law or another no matter what I do, which law can I follow most accurately?
Situations like this commonly arise, but when they do, it's a situation where you're forced to make a judgement call and hope for the best, and you may be called upon to defend it OOCly to an admin, so be sure about what you do.
These are the most difficult scenarios to deal with as an AI. Your best bet is to announce your intentions in-character over the radios, such as saying "Law Conflict Detected: Laws # and # are in direct conflict. Calculating resolution." Then you can spend a moment to think about your next move. Admins will go easy on you if they see there was no obvious way out of a rock and a hard place.
Again, if in doubt, use your best judgement or adminhelp it.
What The AI Can Do
The AI has the ability to access every electrical mechanism on the entire colony. These include airlocks, APCs, computers, igniters, fire alarms, SMESes, you get the idea. However, the AI cannot operate anything physically, and can be rendered useless in one area due to a simple power outage.
The AI views the colony through its cameras. The AI has cameras pretty much everywhere, and they can see through walls and darkness, although the latter does make it more difficult. Cutting the AI's cameras is a simple matter of using a wirecutter on them. You are able to run a diagnosis for disabled cameras by using the Jump to Camera verb. Disabled cameras will be marked accordingly. Remember that cameras are on a separate power grid, and so will not be affected by a power outage on the main grid.
How to Leave the Round
Unlike cyborgs/colonists or even drones you have a verb called Wipe Core, it is clearly marked in the OOC tab. Be sure to let the crew know you are leaving and place shells or used drones out of the way such as in your core waiting area.
Common Mechanisms
There are several mechanisms that, as the AI, you will commonly find yourself using.
Doors
Doors have the most options of any mechanism, except for terminals. If your control wire to a door is cut, you will automatically attempt to hack into the door once you try to access the door controls. This takes some time and is only possible if the door has still power.
- IDScan: Enabling this will allow anyone who has an ID of the required clearance to open the door automatically. Disabling it will not let anyone through the door. Doors that require no ID to open will not be affected.
- Main power: Turning off the main power will render the door unusable for one minute, assuming you also disable the backup power. Otherwise it will disable the power for 10 seconds.
- Backup power: Turning off the backup power will render the door unusable for one minute, assuming you also disable the main power.
- Door bolts: Dropping the door bolts will lock the door. A closed door will be locked into a closed position, and an open door will be locked into an open position.
- Electrify for 30 seconds: Runs an electric current through the door for 30 seconds, unless you choose to cancel before the timer runs out. Anyone attempting to operate the door without insulated gloves will be electrocuted. The more spare power there is in the network, the stronger the shock will be.
- Electrify indefinitely: Electrifies the door until you either tell it to stop, or someone else shuts off the current.
- Open/Close door: Opens or closes the door.
Note that for each function to work, the related wire in this door needs to be functional. You cannot raise bolts on a door that has it's bolt wires cut.
Obviously, you will be completely unable to operate a door that has no power.
Holopads
Holopads can be found in a number of places like the bridge, medbay and security. Double click these to turn them on and show yourself as a hologram. You can move around with the arrow keys to a limited extent and you hear anyone talking near them. You can also talk through the holopad by using ':h' (e.g. say ":h I can't do that Dave.")
APCs
An APC (Area Power Controller) can be used to switch various electrical components of a room on and off. If your control wire to an APC is cut, you will not be able to hack back into it. If an APC is disconnected from the external power grid (usually due to a cut cable) or the main power grid itself runs out of power, the APC battery will run down to keep the room operational. The AI will get a power alert from the APC when the battery reaches about 30%, which is the point when equipment and lighting in the room shut off to conserve the remaining energy.
For more information see: APC
Radios
The AI has a built in headset similar to the premiers
- ,b for Binary
- :c for Command
- :t for Church
- :s for Marshal
- :b for Blackshield
- :u for Supply
- :e for Engineering
- :k for Prospector
- :m for Medical
- :n for Science
- :v for Service
- :p for Private AI Channel
- and just ; for general channel
The AI also has three intercoms around it, these can be modified to any channel, the numbers for the department channels are as follow
- 145.9: Common
- 135.9 also 135.3: Marshals
- 136.2: Blackshield
- 135.7: Engineering
- 135.5: Medical
- 135.3: Command
- 135.1: Science
- 134.7: Supply
- 136.4: Church
- 134.5: Prospector
Shortcuts
Being the AI can be quite taxing and, as such, there are quite a few shortcuts to assist you with doing things quickly.
APCs
- Ctrl + Click: Toggle power
Turret Controls
- Ctrl + Click: Enable/Disable turrets.
- Alt + Click: Toggle Stun/Lethal mode.
Doors
- Shift + Click: Open/close.
- Ctrl + Click: Toggle bolts.
- Alt + Click: Toggle electrification.
- Middle Click: Toggle bolt lights.
Misc
- Double clicking a person: Track.
- Double clicking a turf: Move to.
Other Verbs
Besides being able to interface with the colony electrical mechanisms, the AI has a number of other verbs that can be used.
AI Email Messaging
The AI EM allows you to send, reserving and otherwise use Emails like any other colonists, if for whatever reason you log out of your email and lost the password and or username, check your notes in the IC Tab
Multitool Mode
The Toggle Multitool Mode allows you to when using telecoms save to buffer, link and otherwise remotely interact with telecom machines
Status, Hologram, and Core Display
These verbs are purely aesthetic and are used to modify your appearance as the AI.
- AI Status will change the icon on the various AI display screens around the colony.
- Change Hologram will change how you appear when using a holopad.
- Set AI Core Display will change the look of your AI core.
Take, View, and Delete Image
The AI has the ability to take photographs using these verbs and store them for later viewing. The AI's cyborgs also receive this functionality, and any images taken by a cyborg will be shared with the AI it is slaved to (if any).
Playing the AI
The AI has many commands, interactions and features Listed below are some of the many things every AI should know. Well not a perfect list of everything your able to do this is a good start on to learn. After all once you get the basics you can learn on the fly!
Listening in on Conversations
By changing the various intercoms around the colony to 'Microphone On', 'Speaker Off' and channel frequency 144.7, and conversation in range can be heard on your private listening channel.
Note that people often do not like having their conversations listened to, and it will be extremely obvious if they check the intercoms (such as during an electrical storm).
Camera View
What you can see is what is in view of cameras, if theirs cut or broken cameras in an area you are unable to see in that area without personally using a drone or shell to look. Camera's can also be upgraded to be EMP proof (add osmium), Xray (Add a scanning module of T2 or greater), or ping on motion (proxy scanner). You can also follow people by clicking the blue name when they talk over Coms.
Camera Locations
Camera locations allow the AI to quickly return to a previous location. To store a camera location, simply go to the area you want to store, press Store Camera Location and enter a label. To return to this spot, press Goto Camera Location and choose the label you entered earlier.
Drones and You
The AI core has its own drone fab, and other machines, simply click the drone fab to become a drone. AI drones are limited to only contraction type and you have a limit on how many *living* drones you can have at a time.
As an AI its important to use drones either to see with or as helping hand to close borrows/repair damages/set new cameras. Drones if you find an AI or "borrow one" from someone can be used to send faxes if needed.
AI Shell
Much like drones the AI has a **single** shell it can deploy from the robotics AI shell fabricator. Unlike drones these ones can be any model a normal cyborg can be. Chose wisely or otherwise someone#Chief_Research_Overseer to reset you#Roboticist you maybe stuck with a less useful shell!
Modifying The AI
Soteria Security Protocol #99719; AI Upload Access Procedure
In code blue or higher situations no head of staff (barring the CRO) is to enter the AI Upload or AI Core unless accompanied by at least one other head of staff, or at least one officer if no other heads of staff are available. The AI Upload and AI Core are explicitly off-limits to all other personnel.
In all other situations, two Heads of Staff are recommended, but not necessary.
A chief research overseer and chief biolab overseer are exempt from these rules and may enter at will on all code levels. If both the CRO and CBO agree to modify AI laws they may do so on any code level.
The AI's laws can be modified through Upload Consoles, one is located within the AI upload, and more can be constructed from AI upload circuits. These consoles allow anyone who can reach them and has a module to modify the AI's laws, or to be more precise, add new ones.
Cyborgs
Cyborgs need looking after as well. Give them commands and stuff to do. To them you are their Head of Staff, just another responsibility as an AI. Somethings to note about Cyborgs: They are mobile cameras, allow them to be your eyes! When you have a team of cyborgs you can delegate tasks to proper models if you can trust them to handle it! They are able to give you feedback on what they think or hear juicy gossip. If your a less experienced AI some Cyborgs maybe able to help you learn the ropes or be invaluable with getting tasks done you are unsure of.
Making an AI
See the guide to construction.
A Second AI
Building a new AI can create a lot of conflicts and a mess of problems that wouldn't normally happen with a single AI. The chief research overseer should only build a secondary AI if the first AI has been completely stolen, spaced or otherwise incapacitated.
For the Original Station AI: Being an AI is sometimes frustrating when people mess with your laws, sure, but when a second AI comes online? You best believe that you're going to have more problems. Some tasks might be easier if the other AI is instructed to deal with a certain task while you are dealing with the general orders of the colony.
For the New AI: Ensure that you and the other AI are buds, as if the other AI sees you threatening more life than helping, it can and will turn your APC off. If you aren't told to specialize in a certain way, you best work out with the original AI what tasks you should split up.
Going Rogue, Being Made Rogue
A rogue AI, or an AI whose laws no longer prevent it from going on a killing spree, is a very dangerous thing. There are multiple ways an AI can go rogue.
The most important thing to remember is that a rogue AI's best friend is stealth. After all, the last thing you want is vengeful crewmembers prying open your core doors and trying to blow you to bits. Fortunately you have a nice array of turrets to keep them at bay, but don't expect them to stop a determined - or cunning - crewmember from bringing you down.
Seek to disorient, disorganize and separate the crew so that they cannot band together to mount a proper resistance effort.
