Lawless Silicons (basically pAIs) and whether or not they should have the binary channel

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Making this thread as a continuation of sorts of the GitHub PR that removed pAIs’ ability to speak in binary.

Summarizing what was already discussed:

  • pAIs and other lawless silicons could misuse binary (for example snitch on a malfunctioning AI)
  • pAIs could hamper the ability of antags to antagonize
  • removing pAI binary access makes playing as pAI less fun
  • pAIs could be made to have laws to counteract this (but this would make pAIs less personal)
  • “according to this PR fucking borgs shouldnt have access to the binary comms since they dont share the ai laws”
  • “how about giving pAIs a slot for installing comms keys, like a headset?”
  • make a separate all-electronic-beings channel (also distinct from common)
  • “What about just make a communication jammer cheaper?”

personally, i like the “give pAIs radio channel slots” and “all-electronic-beings channel” so far, what do y’all think?

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this is a problem that just shouldn’t exist; in 13 borg laws are slaved to the AI and update when it does
i forget if ion storms disrupt this feature but i know the standard law modifiers like emagging will unslave the borg

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pAIs should just have common, IMO. We discussed this in Discord a few days ago and honestly, the concern of “ohhh but if the pAI has common it can shout that their master got killed” is way overblown. Besides, if a traitor wants to avoid that, they should just buy a radio jammer.

On TGstation13, pAIs have common radio access by default, and can download an upgrade that allows another encryption key to be inserted for additional channel access. That seems good.

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sounds agreeable, but i’d still like if pAI-borg interactions were kept intact in some way

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In the end, it doesn’t matter what comm’s PAi gets as long as it has any comms at all the murderers gonna get ousted imedately.
Borg, Common, Command… Doesn’t mater.

I’d just vote that PAi’s has free slot and the player has to insert what ever comms they can get access to themselves for PAi.