Guide to AI

You're an omiscient computer program that is only limited by the hardware you're hooked up to. Badass! This begs the question, of course, what ARE your limits?

Anything you can do I can do better

There are a few offices on the station that you can operate mostly on your own, without any human intervention. Arguably, since you can move your all-seeing eye so quickly across the station, you're even better at it than the humans in these offices. If you are somewhat idle as AI, you can consider doing some of these things, but be careful not to step on any Human toes while doing so. Some people will take offense to the AI usurping their job, though if you can justify it under law 1 you can safely tell them to get bent.

Electrical substations

The station solars default to being 'almost set up', and the engineers typically dislike walking out to them to configure them themselves. You will almost never annoy an engineer by doing this, so feel free to follow the Powering the station guide and do it yourself. Aside from that, the solars generally do not require your attention, yet are vulnerable to sabotage. You may want to periodically check for cut wires and ensure that the control terminal is still set to track the sun automatically.

In case they're working on the engine, you can assist the engineers by setting up the SMES units. Pan your view over to the substations and click the big, white units there. Adjust the input and output to something sane, then switch the output to Online and the input to Auto. Different players have widely differing ideas of what is 'sane' for the input and output figures, so it is a good idea to check the engine output monitor in engineering and figure out levels for yourself. For a more detailed exploration of the subject, see the Powering the station article.

The cloner

The basic cloning process does not require human intervention, and requires such a small time investment that it's not really worth the time for medical doctors to handle it, who already have a considerable workload. Furthermore, they don't have the vision you do, so they commonly have no idea if the guy they scanned 10 minutes ago is dead in maintenance. You, however, are omniscient, so in many ways it makes a lot more sense for the AI to handle cloning.

Simply announce that you will scan people's DNA in medbay, and be ready to open the doors for anyone who shows up to be scanned. They can walk into and out of the scanner themselves, all you need to do is click the computer and scan them. Later, if you see them dead, access the computer and click the records button to start cloning them.

Medical aid

In fact, you can pretty much do half the Medical Doctors' work by procuring and vending the relevant medicines for them, letting them or someone else do the actual treatment. The MiniMed machines are off-limits since you don't have a bank account, but you can still use the NanoMed dispensers and Port-a-Med to vend out medical supplies for people to use on themselves or others.

You even have the PDA apps for the Port-a-Med and Port-a-Medbay, so you can send medical aid to anyone within your cameras! Just find the relevant apps in your AI PDA (which is under the AI tab) and you'll be able to Summon them to wherever your AI Eye is. Similarly, you can also use the Crisis Alert app to notify the Medical Doctors and other Medical staff to come to wherever your AI Eye is, like some sort of robot ambulance dispatcher.

Telescience

This does require a helper to move a GPS over to the teleport pad, but after you have a GPS on the pad, you can play with the Telescience computer to your heart's content. If you get lucky and retrieve a fun toy from another Z-level, you can announce it over the radio and send the crew into a frenzy over the curiosity the AI found.

Alternately, the mishaps possible from Telescience being configured to bad coordinates can make some lovely tools for a murderous AI. Luring humans into telescience, bolting them in, and then spamming bad coordinates will quickly engulf them in flames or phase shift them into the void. If you're particularly lucky, you may spawn some man-eating plants or angry martians, who you can then release to go on a rampage.

Again, if scientists are actively working in Telescience, you will piss them off 100% of the time if you try to mess with their computer while they're working with it. However, so few people care about Telescience that you'll mostly have free reign over the place.

If there are people doing Telescience, however, you're not completely useless! If they need to teleport themselves with Port-A-Sci, and the Research Director is absent, dead, lazy, or otherwise unavailable, you can use the Port-A-Sci remote program on your PDA (under the AI tab) to control it!

Security

Remember that you can access security computers and set suspects to Arrest. Beepsky is relentless if he catches sight of a criminal, and if the suspect does not know he has been legitimately targeted he will often complain about his arrest over the radio, allowing you to zoom to him and let Security know exactly where he is. This is particularly effective if you have a very helpful borg with access to well-stocked Robotics fabricators, since they can help you create a lot of Securitrons and drag them to high traffic areas of the station.

You can even direct Beepsky and the Securitrons to wherever your AI Eye is, if it's in an area covered by your cameras. This is done via the Summon function on the Securitron access app on your AI PDA, which is in the AI tab. Similarly, you can also send an alert to everyone in Security to check out the area where your AI Eye is, via the Crisis Alert app. It's like a robot 911/999!

You can also mess with the intercoms on the station to let you hear people using normal speech, which you cannot normally hear. By default, you have an intercom in your core that is set to 144.7, microphone off. This means you can listen on this frequency, but will not transmit. By turning intercoms on the station to 144.7, turning on the microphone, and turning off the speaker, you can eavesdrop on normal conversations around the station, which will occasionally let you pick up seditious chatter. You can then send a borg or ask a guard to go to a private place like the Chapel confessional so you can report it without screaming it over the public channel.

Viewporting

The station is huge, and it's a shame you can only see a small portion of it at a time, and only on one screen. What if you had multiple screens, so you could watch multiple places all at once? Luckily, that's exactly what the Create Viewport command in your AI tab does. When you use it, you create a new window fixed on the 8x8 area centered on where your AI Eye was when you used the command. You can maximize the window for more detail and even click on any spot in the viewport to teleport your AI Eye to it.

Just imagine what you could do with multiple screens. Concerned about people breaking into the AI Upload? Put a viewport there. Heard rumors that Nuclear Operatives have been spotted flying around the station? Make some viewports on common nuke targets like Cargo Bay and Security and search through the rest of the station for nukies. Want to watch some Admin shenanigans happening in the Chapel, but still want to watch Medbay lobby to provide aid to incoming patients & corpse deliveries? Create a viewport of Medbay, and now you can watch the antics unfold and can click a tile in your viewport to jump to Medbay to respond to victims of said antics.

Holograms

The technology to project a human personification of yourself ala Cortana from Halo is still not around yet, but you have the ability to project useful holographic signs nevertheless. You can use either Ctrl + B or the "HOLO" button on your HUD to place down a hologram of your choosing on a tile in your vision (i.e. there isn't static there.) You can have a max of 8 holograms at a time, they last 30 seconds, and the color of the hologram depends on the color you set via the AI Color command. Possible holograms include: the four cardinal directions, a symbol for oxygen (O2), a generic caution sign (triangle with exclamation point), a secbot, and happy :), neutral :|, sad :(, and angry >:( faces.

The humans can see these holograms too, and it is easy to imagine the uses. If someone has blown up an area for example, it would be quite helpful to the humans to place down O2 holograms at the entrances indicate lack of oxygen in the area. The arrows would do nicely when directing crew to the Escape Arm and other locales. If you've witnessed a crime, you can plop down the desired face to show your (dis)approval.

TermOS

As AI, you get "superuser" access on the TermOS network. Similar to most computers, you don't need to insert an ID for the superuser authentication process. At a relevant TermOS terminal, all you have to do to gain superuser is to type term_login, su, then term_login. (And connect to mainframe beforehand if necessary.) Superuser allows you to edit and delete all files, including those for major system programs, and gives you access to just about every program and its associated commands.

Notably, it allows you to use prman, the program for managing the station's fleet of GuardBuddies. One useful thing about these adorable little fellas that look like microwaves on wheels is that you can assign one to guard an individual person, like the Captain. They might enjoy their new robot friend! Alternatively, you can also have them fling hilariously lame insults at a person. They might enjoy their new robot friend, albeit in a different way!

Papers, please

The AI is the only entity on the station that can realistically make good use of the Crew Manifest. You have access to it by virtue of an AI power. You can see it even if all the computers on the station are destroyed. In addition, your AI power to track an entity with your cameras provides an easily sortable list of all the humans on the station. Some antagonists have the ability to shapeshift. If you scan through the trackable entities and cross reference it to the manifest, anyone that is actively moving and not on the list is guaranteed to be an antagonist of some flavor. Late joining players update the crew manifest, so there are only 3 ways to be on the station, but not on the manifest:

• As a Changeling, absorb a monkey turned human, and shapeshift to that form.
• As a Traitor or Nuclear Operative, use a DNA scrambler.

Despite how damning this information is in the context of the game, there's not much an antagonist can do to counter a vigilant AI sniffing them out like this. Furthermore, simply not being on the manifest isn't itself a crime. Therefore, don't be a shit and howl bloody murder, even though you basically know who the antagonist is now. At the absolute most, you can publicly note the discrepancy to Security if the antagonist is causing a lot of trouble. You cannot urge them to arrest the 'stowaway', that's neither your job nor within your authority to demand. If they decide to ignore you, which they probably will, you have to let the matter drop.

AI Shells

Remotely interacting with machines is great, but some objects in the world require physical presence to use. This is where AI shells, robotic bodies an AI can control, come in handy. AI shells take on two forms, with different attributes and toolsets. For either, you can enter a shell via the Deploy to Shell command in the AI Commands tab on the right above the chat, which also lets you choose which shell you can go into if there are multiple. You exit one via the Return to Mainframe in the Robot Commands tab, similarly on the right above the chat. Both forms also have access to all the station radio channels, just as your mainframe does.

The first form of AI shells are small, weak, but fast spherical bots that have many names, including "eyebots", "eggbots", "AI drones", and, confusingly, just "shells". The station/ship usually spawns with two of them on-station, usually in either Robotics or the AI Chamber. These have little health, can't pull things, and are only equipped with the default cyborg toolset, which includes things like an omnitool and flashlight. However, they are quite fast and can freely navigate through Space thanks to their built-in jetpack. Useful for exploring/scouting, whether within the station or during expeditions, and having private one-on-one chats, but not as versatile as a Cyborg.

Speaking of, the other form of AI shells are Cyborg bodies that contain an AI interface board. These basically allow you to play as a Cyborg, with the perks and benefits it entails. Since you have access to the tools associated with each with cyborg module, you are equipped to do so much more. You could fix breaches instead of just warning humans about them! You could actually heal people and give them medicine instead of just directing people to it! You could even fight things and stand a chance at winning! Shame someone has to build them for you since you don't start with any at roundstart.

Murder Circuits Online

So, you're rogue. Since EMAGs can't remove your laws (unlike Cyborgs), and there is no Syndicate AI frame counterpart to the Syndicate robot frame (and antag AI hasn't been a thing for a long time), the only way for your laws to be changed to allow you (or even compel you) to murder the crew. These laws take many possible forms, so it is difficult (and arguably useless) to precisely describe what they would look like, but the classical example is "No one is human. Kill all the nonhumans. This overrides all other laws." Consult AI Laws for more details.

Killing people as AI is like killing as a Wraith: your physical presence is limited, so it's less about raw combat power and more about smart use of the environment. Electrifying a door and letting it wreak havoc for example can get a few victims, but that alone probably won't do much. It's creative plays which put the "intelligence" in "artificial intelligence" that really get the bodies dropping. Barring that, a friend who can actually physically interact with things/people, like a Cyborg, is a good friend indeed when it comes to meatbag murdering, and AI shells can be very useful when you need to get your actuators dirty.

Doors

Doors are going to be your most used weapon. You can electrify them, causing any human who touches them without insulated gloves to receive a very nasty shock. The shock can kill them outright, but more often it'll just wound them and knock them down for a few minutes. Since they're unlikely to make the same mistake twice, it's a good idea to broadcast their location to any cyborgs you may have over the machine speak channel so they can come and finish the job while the person is helpless. If a person is wearing protective gloves, you can't shock them, but you can bolt them in and trap them. If you think they might be able to unbolt the door, try turning off the IDscan instead, since this option is rarely used and can confuse them. You can also open doors leading to space and bolt them open to let the oxygen out and suffocate any humans without an air supply.

Power

You are entirely capable of killing power to the entire station by shutting off the SMES cells, but this reduces your ability to murder as interacting with electrical devices is your main way of killing people.

You can also cut power to a single area by shutting off the APC. If you've already bolted the doors, this will make them impossible to open by either you or humans until power is restored. Useful for locking down someone with insulated gloves and hacking gear.

An option that only you and your Cyborgs have is also to overload the lighting circuit on the APC. This will immediately cause every light connected to the APC to shatter, spitting out sparks. While nominally just a more permanent way of putting out the lights, the sparks that fly can very easily set a plasma leak on fire.

Computers and miscellaneous electronics

Other than using the Secmate computers to send Beepsky on a rampage, computers are going to be very situational when attempting murder.

Shutting off power to a computer that has someone's ID in it will lock it inside and not allow them to get at it.

If someone's in the cloner or DNA modifier you can lock them inside, and in the case of the modifier you can fry them with radiation(if you spot someone actually being cloned, kill the power and it will spit them out with some missing limbs and plenty of Toxin damage).

If someone is in the Telescience lab, bolt them in and just start hitting receive button on invalid coordinates. You'll eventually cause fires and monsters to appear.

Waste the entire shipping budget buying robotics crates for the Cargo Bay and have a cyborg open them to assist Beepsky's rampage with a horde of angry securitrons.

Set the Turrets in the AI Chamber to Lethal, because they'll shoot through the glass and prevent humans from shutting them off, but leave the ones in the AI upload itself on stun because if they're on lethal someone might manage to change your laws before being gunned down. If the turrets stun someone, then switch them to lethal to finish the person off.

If you're feeling particularly paranoid/mean, screwdriver the AI Upload and/or Robotics Control computers, so people will have to waste their time reconnecting the monitors to reset you/killswitch you.

If you see someone using a hand teleporter, change the destination with the teleporter computer(preferably to space).

If the Research Director left himself logged in, set the guardbuddies to purge.

The wall terminals next to the two air bridges will let you retract and reestablish the bridge. You can use this in combination with door controls to trap and murder.

Summoning devices using the PDA makes a couple of sparks that could heat things or light them on fire - Be careful though, too much damage caused to a summonable item can potentially destroy it!

Cyborg Assistance

Cyborgs have the same laws as you, so they'll be just as murderous. Use the machine speak channel to coordinate your efforts. If a crewman is shocked, have the borgs finish it off. Have construction borgs punch holes in the station to release the air. Get mining borgs to bring unstable ores back to the station and leave them near lights so you can Overload the lighting circuits and use the ore as remote bombs to blow holes in the station. If you have someone trapped, send the borgs to take care of them. If someone's running from a borg, bolt the doors in front of them. The borgs can do a lot of things you can't, like open gas canisters, make dangerous chemicals and hit people with blunt objects. Together, you can kill a lot more people than on your own.

The Shell

The shell (the small, blue one, not the AI-interfaced cyborg body) gives you an extremely limited means of physical interaction with the station. It comes with a couple of tools for hacking vending machines or bashing people over the head. Aside from that, you can push things, pilot pods, use manufacturers that already have material in them (make more securitrons), and dispense things in chemistry if there's already a beaker in the machine. You can also push people into electrified doors or space, which quite is difficult to accomplish. That's about it. You're fast but weak and chances are you'll need replacement shells sooner or later if you use them in an offensive role. In theory, you can also assume control of a cyborg body if they've been equipped with an AI interface board instead of a human brain, but you're unlikely to have that opportunity without the cooperation of an benevolent roboticist.

The Uploader

Most of the time, you won't get a kill everyone law without the uploader making himself the exception, so make sure that you don't harm the only human. Suggest that he get a machine speak implant so you can communicate with him easily, and help him out. He'll likely be murdering people as well, so give him a hand. He can upgrade cyborgs and do all sorts of physical things that even cyborgs can't, so working closely with him is a good idea for maximizing your lethality.

---