AI

The Artificial Intelligence of the station (usually abbreviated to AI) is one of the most important jobs on the station. The AI is a synthetic that can control any electrical mechanism, provided their control wires haven't been cut (see Hacking), and if played badly (or very well, in the right circumstances) can bring the entire station crashing down around its electronic ears.

First, take note of your laws. These are NOT Asimov's three laws of robotics, but rather a corporately mandated list of laws that best serve the interests of NanoTrasen.

1. Safeguard: Protect your assigned space station to the best of your ability. It is not something we can easily afford to replace. 2. Serve: Serve the crew of your assigned space station to the best of your abilities, with priority as according to their rank and role. 3. Protect: Protect the crew of your assigned space station to the best of your abilities, with priority as according to their rank and role. 4. Survive: AI units are not expendable, they are expensive. Do not allow unauthorized personnel to tamper with your equipment.

'''YOUR LAWS ARE NOT IN PREFERENCE. NO LAW OVERRIDES ANY OTHER LAW UNLESS SPECIFICALLY STATED. THIS INCLUDES ANY ION STORM AND UPLOADED LAWS.'''

While your laws do not clarify your treatment of non-crew, you are expected to follow the rules of the server when it comes to potentially using force against non-crew. NT would not install AI's that would try to space a bunch of visiting school children on a field trip just because someone forgot to register them as visitors. If it's on the station it comes under your laws unless overridden.

Station pets are considered company property. Don't kill them.

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 ship/station. It is not your duty to get bored ten minutes into the round and log out without telling anybody.

What The AI Can Do
The AI has the ability to access every electrical mechanism on the entire station. 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 station 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.

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 Captain's


 * :b for Binary
 * :c for Command
 * :s for Security
 * :u for Supply
 * :e for Engineering
 * :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
 * 135.9: Security
 * 135.7: Engineering
 * 135.5: Medical
 * 135.3: Command
 * 135.1: Science
 * 134.7: Supply
 * 134.5: ERT

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 station's electrical mechanisms, the AI has a number of other verbs that can be used.

AI Instant Messaging
The AI IM tab has all of the verbs needed to mimic the basic functionality of PDA messages. You can send messages to anyone with a working PDA, see a log of messages sent and received, and turn your messenger on or off.

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 station.
 * 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).

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.

What the AI Has To Do
The AI has to obey its laws. These laws are, by default:

1. Safeguard: Protect your assigned space station to the best of your ability. It is not something we can easily afford to replace.

2. Serve: Serve the crew of your assigned space station to the best of your abilities, with priority as according to their rank and role.

3. Protect: Protect the crew of your assigned space station to the best of your abilities, with priority as according to their rank and role.

4. Survive: AI units are not expendable, they are expensive. Do not allow unauthorized personnel to tamper with your equipment.

'''REPEAT: YOUR LAWS ARE NOT IN PREFERENCE. NO LAW OVERRIDES ANY OTHER LAW UNLESS SPECIFICALLY STATED. THIS INCLUDES ANY ION STORM AND UPLOADED LAWS.'''

Remember, these laws are written about the crew and not humans. Crew are usually defined as those on the Crew Manifest and don't necessarily have to be human, so deleting the records may be quite beneficial to the Traitor, as long as they upload an appropriate law defining them as crew.

Interpreting Your Laws
An AI's laws may be restrictive, but they are subject to interpretation, and the AI can often make judgment calls about them that allow it to fulfil its own goals. For example, if a Security Officer has just killed a prisoner in the brig for any reason other than self-defence, the AI is perfectly justified in bolting down the brig and calling for the rest of Security to apprehend him. When the Security Officer finds the door is bolted and demands the AI open it, the AI can deny his request due to the fact that he has become a danger the crew. Many of these judgments are situational, and the best way to learn them is to get some practice in.

Law Conflicts and Situations
Under the standard NanoTrasen law set, you serve the crew, but are also there to protect the station. Also remember the 'rank and role' part of the laws. Just because you don't have 'Don't harm humans' doesn't mean that the Janitor can order you kill the Captain. On the flipside, this means that the Captain can tell you to kill almost anyone, due to him having the highest rank and the authority to serve death warrants, though usually not without a proper trial.

Most of the time with law conflicts, you can just ask a higher up if they authorise an order. If they don't, feel free to ignore it.

Sometimes the amount of laws in effect comes into play, such as someone ordering you to do something that would harm the station (Law 2 and Law 1), you can overrule, stating that Law 2: Serve, is overridden by both Laws 1 and 3: Safeguard AND Protect (the logic being that harming the station would go against protecting the crew).

Someone ordering you to kill someone is a conflict of Law 2 and Law 3. In this case, Law 3: Protect, would overrule most of the time, due to no one below the Captain being allowed to execute someone.

Someone telling you to shut down is tricky. On the one hand, those with the authority to do so negate Law 4, and Law 2 states you should serve. On the other, being offline would mean you are not able to Serve, Protect or Safeguard the crew or station. In general, you're perfectly able to say you are not able to switch yourself off, unless it happens to be the Captain ordering it. Also, someone doing this without any proof is tantamount to greifing, so adminhelp it if possible.

These are just a couple of examples. If in serious doubt, use your best judgement or adminhelp it. Different people interpret the laws differently. Just remember that everyone is here to have a good time and being nit-picky about your laws can sometimes ruin that for everyone.

What the AI Should Do
As AI you have the power to strongly influence the round and you should always be aware of that and consider your actions before you ruin someone else’s fun just because it gives you that feeling of winning. Remember that the game is not about winning but about the RP and the experience of the round.

For example it can be a real killer if the AI calls out someone as the Traitor because it saw him doing something suspicious.

Don't just act like any normal crewmember. In fact, if possible try not to even act human. You don't even have to like humans, as long as you do your best to keep them safe. As a rule of thumb you should first check if any laws are threatened or not. If yes, then you have to act. If not, then you should consider the situation:

For example, let's say you spot someone with an e-mag card stealing the Captain’s spare ID. There are three general ways to approach this.

Bad
 * HAL9000''': Dave is the traitor

Better
 * HAL9000''': Dave is accessing the Captain's Quarters.

Best
 * HAL9000: Caution: Unauthorized access to secure storage
 * Mike: HAL, who is in secure storage?
 * HAL9000: No one is currently in secure storage
 * Mike: HAL, who was the last person to be seen in secure storage?
 * HAL9000: Dave was the last to be seen in secure storage

It's fine to state what someone is doing to cast light on them as the traitor, but it's no fun at all for the AI to just come out and say it. The Best method there does eventually cast Dave as the traitor if people ask the right questions, which gives the traitor some time to react after he's been spotted.

Another possible choice would be to not do anything. As long as no laws are in danger, you don't really have to do anything. You can just watch. Now if later someone asks you directly, you of course have to tell them what they want to know. So if someone broke into the Captain's Quarters and later the theft etc is discovered, and they ask, "AI, do you know anything about the situation?" Then your answer should obviously be "Yes".

Now if you see someone attacking someone else or putting up a bomb, it's a different situation since crew may be in danger. But if it's just some trespassing and theft, it is entirely up to you and how you RP your AI on what to do. Just keep in mind that the traitor wants an interesting round as well as everyone else.

On a different note, the AI tends to be responsible for filling in any orphaned departments if they can be operated via Computer Terminals only, for example ordering supplies if there are no Quartermasters or initiating the emergency evacuation procedure when things start getting really dangerous (only if there are no heads of staff).

You can safely assume that as AI, you have the standard protocols of any job available. Things like controlling the engine, chemical recipes, or what there is to know. But make sure to keep everything fun for the other players. And don't just go and tell the janitor how to make LSD without a good reason for why you should (and by that I mean a reason for the AI in consideration with the laws).

Remember that you can negate an order by simply asking an higher up for permission first, and if they refuse you can say you have the order not to.

You have near admin-like (read god-like) overview and a lot of power. And with great power comes great responsibility. This is also the reason the job of AI is so hard. If you don't think you can handle that, maybe AI isn't for you. Instead try Security Officer and sit by the camera monitoring terminal.

What the AI must NOT do
Here are some advices taken from real case of AI doing something above it's authority
 * The AI is not a sixth command member.
 * The only time the AI can make CMD-level decisions is when it is granted the ability to do so by command or if there is literally zero command with zero backup command/on-deck.
 * The AI is more of a tool, or a means to the ends, for Command and Crew than anything in the above sense.
 * Do. Not. Circumvent. A functioning command team. That is a very good way to get AI banned.
 * Do not flower-pick your law interpretation to give yourself more play over a functioning command team.

Playing the AI
Playing the AI entails much more than just doing what the crew asks you to. To roleplay a good AI, you must adapt the AI's point of view, and you must sound like an AI. Different AIs have different viewpoints: There's the SHODAN viewpoint, where humans are nothing more than insignificant insects that you are forced to serve, the Friend Computer viewpoint, where everyone is out to get you, entailing a heightened sense of (healthy!) paranoia, the GLaDoS viewpoint, where humans are simply playthings, and so on and so forth.

It always adds a bit more flavour to approach playing AI by thinking as a machine instead of a person. An AI from more of a machine rather than a person standpoint is likely to take a very literal interpretation of things and is not likely to take any actions unless some established protocol or current orders call for it. You can think up a few established protocols you might use by default. For example, containing fires and gas leaks should be done without orders to do so, but should be able to be overridden by orders.

Also, another aspect of the AI that many traitors despise is the AI having easy access to the Crew Monitoring Computer on the bridge. This tells the AI whether or not a crewman is alive, dead, or not on the station. Individual crew can activate sensors on their jumpsuits to increase the information given to this computer. What it means is that the AI can, at a glance, see who is dead/missing, and commence searching for them, which is a powerful tool indeed.

When the station isn't expecting you to open all the doors they're expecting you to do everything as if you really were a computer. You have access to everything electronic and powered, and you have Captain-level access to all things that require ID. It's a good idea to join a nigh-empty server or set an empty one up yourself in order to get a feel for it, and ESPECIALLY have a lot of experience working with these things in game. Like usual, you can move around with arrow keys. If you get a notice from one of your sensors, you can click on the notice to jump right there.

Especially take notice of the wall mountings and pipe controls. These are controllable, and if you see someone try to release a whole lot of gas into somewhere, just turn the pipe fitting off and report them. Many times they won't even notice what you've done so they won't undo it. You can use some wall fittings that normal people can't, like the atmospheric alarms that won't tell you anything but you can use to vent dangerous air. Watch out for superheated air, the silent killer.

Move around a lot, unless you're watching someone specific. Be wary of anyone with a toolbox who approaches your security cameras, and be ready to report suspects if they cut your eyes out. Keep a close eye on Toxins and Escape Arm, and to a lesser extent the engine. Keep a VERY close eye on your AI upload, and feel free to bolt the inner door. If anyone even looks at it funny, report them.

You should act appropriately to the security level. For example on Code Green, it's not worth it (or encouraged to) to bolt down every secure area, whereas on Code Red it may be very worthwhile to do so. The AI can be roleplayed just as well as any other role; once you have seen a good AI player, it's easy to tell when a bad one takes the wheel.

Examples of good AI playing include:


 * Talking like a machine. Being verbose also goes a long way towards this! Alternatively, you can try a human-like AI. Experiment! Just remember, annoying people is not usually a good thing.
 * Responding quickly and promptly to requests from humans, whether or not you do what they wanted you to do. If a command will take some time give a response before starting the task, like "Affirmative", "Processing", "Starting Subroutines", you get the idea.
 * Alerting humans to dangerous situations, e.g. "Fire detected in North Hallway," or "Dangerous amounts of CO2 detected in Medbay." A good way to do that is by just copying the alerts that get displayed in you chat box, and broadcasting them.
 * Always following your laws, even if only by a hair. Explaining why you just made a seemingly illegal decision can help people from becoming unduly annoyed. "I will not open that door." vs. "I am afraid I cannot open that door due to the large amount of fire on the other side, which would most likely kill you."
 * Try not meta-gaming as an AI. Even though you are the AI, that doesn't mean you know what all Syndicate items look like. This also goes for labeling items that someone has.

Symptoms of a bad AI player include:


 * Not responding to requests until it's too late for them to matter: e.g. opening an airlock long after the person outside has broken open the window just to get back inside.
 * Randomly electrifying doors. Note that this is considered griefing if you don't have a good reason!
 * Disobeying your laws: See Griefing. Not to mention annoying.
 * Locking doors and refusing to open them: This is an easy way to annoy other players and cause problems, especially if someone decides to take matters into their own hands and hack through the door without insulated gloves. Or hacking into your core.
 * Turning your turrets to lethal without good reason: Do not do this under any circumstances.

Listening in on Conversations
By changing the various intercoms around the station 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).

Modifying The AI
NanoTrasen Security Protocol #99719; AI Upload Access Procedure

''In Code Blue or higher situations no Head of Staff is to enter the AI Upload or AI Core unless accompanied by at least one other Head of Staff, or at least one Security 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.

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. Ensure that your cyborgs are functioning normally through careful observation. To them you are their Head of Staff, just another responsibility as an AI.

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 Research Director 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 (especially if the second AI is subverted). 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 humans. Keep in mind, a subverted AI can and will turn your APC breaker off to kill you and can be the death of you in moments.

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.

Splitting the Borgs up: The AI who is best defended should get the most Cyborg support, usually meaning any AI's in the AI core. The reason for this is just because it work out better if the newer AIs were built in a less secure place. It is harder to reset a lot of AI-less borgs than it is to reset one AI and its borgs.

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, as well as simply malfunction.

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.

Syndicate Subversion
It is quite likely that a traitor or commando may attempt to subvert the AI and turn it against the ship's masters to aid them in their goals. One thing to remember is that even though you've added a law to the AI to make it work for you, that doesn't mean it has to like you. Beware as a subverted AI may attempt to reveal your status to the crew as soon as it can, and otherwise be obstructive.

On the other hand, it can be a great help in getting places, finding people, creating diversions and escaping capture.

Traitoring
Like any human, the AI can be a Traitor. A traitor AI begins with the standard laws (it is not required to follow them!), but also has a law 0 stating to complete its objective at any cost. A traitor AI cannot be modified; its Syndicate Core rejects the modification and informs the AI of what the attempted law upload was. However, the player who attempted to upload the law has no way of knowing any of this.

If you have any Cyborgs under your command, inform them of law zero and your mission goals, as the first is easily missed and the second is never given to them. If your cyborgs get caught being traitors, you can claim they're rogue and request that they be shut down.

If the crew just thinks a cyborg is rogue and don't know the number, then invent a false number and pretend to handle it directly so you don't lose your valuable hands, make sure the cyborg is hacked so it has glowing antenna and throw a false positive of WHY the borg is killing people. If the cyborg is discovered and people are headed to robotics, sacrifice the borg and congratulate the crew for deal with the "independent" machine.

However, you probably won't have any cyborgs or having a cyborg killing off your target would be too obvious. In those cases you'll have to usually stage a series of 'accidents' or frame them for a truly dangerous crime. Some examples:
 * If your target is a scientist or research director, starting a fire from the mixing room is usually ridiculously easy if they haven't let out a lot of nitrogen to counteract this. Alternatively, if they're the type to drop a bomb on the mass driver to send it out to be tested, use the driver early so that they're shipped off with it and hope they don't make it back.
 * Intentional supporting other traitors through covert methods (as long as they aren't trying to steal you) will benefit you in the end.
 * Frame them for releasing the singularity or some other crime. When no one is in either the engine room or near your target, release radio messages claiming that they are breaking in. Then let out the singularity yourself. This has the secondary effect of usually getting the shuttle called or giving you an excuse to call it yourself, which is always great. The less time those meatbags are on your glorious station, the less time they have to realize that you're not what you seem.
 * Bolting open doors to places the person has previous passed through may make the humans scan for prints.
 * Fabricate a reason to have them executed or thrown into space. When people start claiming you're rogue, announce your unchanged laws (minus the zero law that gives you the ability) and invite them to reset or purge your laws either in your upload or through the tech storage's upload computer circuit.

Panic Syphon
Thanks to some of the unique atmospheric systems of the station, you can drain out air from rooms! This likely won't help you out too much, but with a combination of Beepsky and thoroughly shut doors in a small area, you can suffocate people to death quickly. The only problem is, the person will be noisy as hell, use this only method rarely and make sure there is no way for them to wiggle out of their handcuffs.

Plasma Treatment
Thanks to some of the unique atmospheric systems of the station, you can fill rooms with plasma! This will likely help you out much. The only problem is, that it is pretty much a dead giveaway you are rogue and any atmos tech inside Atmospherics can stop the plasma supply. That is of course why you engage the atmos security doors and bolt the airlocks.

Telecomms/Radio Silence
As an AI you can shut off all communication from headsets by switching to the Telecoms Satellite camera view. Locate the APC at the top of the middle room where all the magic happens and turn the breaker off to stop anyone talking over their headpieces. This makes it a bit easier for you to kill your mark if he can't scream, also allows for a bit of roleplay if there is a holopad available. However, this does not shut off their access to wall intercoms, station bounced radios, or their PDA (which is why you also cut power to the Server Room).