Limited Use Upload Boards

[SkeletalElite]

This idea came from comments on https://github.com/tgstation/tgstation/pull/51076 but I thought about some more of the details of how it would work.

Law Boards would have limited number of uses varying from board to board, probably a number between 1-5.

Roundstart upload has 3 uses of asimov, but also another 4-8 uses of other non grief (but not necessarily ideal) lawsets.

Reset should get a moderate number of uses, for dealing with syndicate laws and ion anomalies.

Syndicate upload board is capable of uploading numerous laws with a single use of the board. Basically activating the board could bring up a UI where you can set up the laws you want to upload. The hacked upload board is only capable of adding ion level laws, which are removed by the reset board, the syndi upload board must also be given a limited number of uses. You could potentially lower the amount of TC the board costs when doing this depending on how many uses the board gets. Possibly make this board regain charges slowly.

AI subversion syndi bundle can get buffed with a unique stronger upload board that recharges it's uses over time and can modify regular laws in addition to adding ion level laws. This would encourage using the toy AI from the bundle which would also recharge it's uses and is meant to be a filler to keep the AI doing bad stuff while you wait on your other board to gain a charge. Using the toy AI should randomize its law so you can't get 1 law you like and just use that as your filler law.

Freeform also gets a limited number of uses but works similar to the syndicate upload board, except the laws aren't ion priority laws and it removes the laws it replaces. Essentially just a custom lawset board, you bring up a UI where you write up the lawset you want, then when you use it on the upload it gives the AI the lawset you made in the UI. Freeform should probably have a very low number of uses.

Purge gets a high number of uses, if not unlimited. It acts as a kind of backup since completely unlawing the AI is better than AI being lawed to murder everyone, and I don't want killing it being the only solution.

Numbers are just kind of a guess on what I think would be good, but I recommend keeping the numbers low and if they're too low they can be buffed up later, which is better than them being too high and needing to be nerfed down later in order to accomplish the goal of the change.

Overall the goal is to create situations where non ideal lawsets may need to be used because of law board scarcity, and also having a side effect of ending law change spam. Edit: For clarity, running out of boards isn't something that should be happening every round, but a persistent traitor using the upload board should probably make you run thin on your law boards until you are able to print new ones. Two or more traitors working together to subvert the AI should run you through your law boards very quickly, forcing you to just keep the AI purged until you're able to get more law boards.

Edit 2: Maybe consider a cooldown (at least 20 seconds or so) on uploading laws to the AI so there's never a situation where you just blow through all your boards at once. Also add some law boards to cargo, with less ideal boards being cheaper, and good boards being more expensive. Perhaps the cheapest option could be a "surplus AI law board crate" that just has a few random law boards in it.

[Jack7D1]

AIs have it rough, and divinas Google doc thingy makes many good points.

[Flatulent]

it’s not like you can print them or anything

[SkeletalElite]

it’s not like you can print them or anything

All law boards should have high resource costs and come later in techwebs, with more ideal law boards being more expensive/later tech than less ideal lawsets.

[Flatulent]

you just need freeform and reset to fix/subvert ai

[SkeletalElite]

you just need freeform and reset to fix/subvert ai

That's why freeform should be the most expensive board and farther in techwebs than other boards, in addition to being single use.

[Tlaltecuhtli]

>Overall the goal is to create situations where non ideal lawsets may need to be used because of law board scarcity, and also having a side effect of ending law change spam. Edit: For clarity, running out of boards isn't something that should be happening every round, but a persistent traitor using the upload board should probably make you run thin on your law boards until you are able to print new ones. Two or more traitors working together to subvert the AI should run you through your law boards very quickly, forcing you to just keep the AI purged until you're able to get more law boards.

im gonna just upload kys once and never bother again

[stan_albatross]

I think a good solution to this, and all the maint upload problems people have been complaining about is to simply remove the ability to print ai upload boards and upload modules from the circuit imprinter and move it to the security techlathe, like the comms console board.

[Ayy Lemoh]

May as well make it so that telling the AI to kill himself is allowed when the traitors inevitably spam the crew out of upload boards while RnD is being done by a crack team of literal monkeys.

[zxaber]

This still seems like a solution searching for a problem to me. I don't really know why the current system needs to be changed.

Making the default law boards limited use will probably just result in more purged-and-done fixes, since purged AIs aren't allowed to act as antags. Maybe they won't give up the name of the subverter if they're not law-bound to, but it'll stop them from actively killing everyone.

[terranaut]

This still seems like a solution searching for a problem to me. I don't really know why the current system needs to be changed.

Making the default law boards limited use will probably just result in more purged-and-done fixes, since purged AIs aren't allowed to act as antags. Maybe they won't give up the name of the subverter if they're not law-bound to, but it'll stop them from actively killing everyone.

[trollbreeder]

one freeform is all i need to make the AI my slave

[MisterPerson]

This wouldn't actually solve the underlying issue since most situations with many uploads involved someone printing an upload board. If they can make one, they can almost certainly make more.

EDIT: The cooldown idea is interesting.

[nianjiilical]

limited uses/cooldowns would also have to come with the ability to upload multiple freeform laws at one time, otherwise youd have to blind trust the ai to let you finish giving it a gimmick lawset if you want one that requires multiple lines