Drone Dispenser.

[Falamazeer]

People have wanted a way back into the round since the game started, we got a pretty good method now, drones, and when they were fairly new I made an idea thread about a drone dispenser that didn't require outside help to make them.

It got backed up with people bitching about some of the activities they'd seen drones doing, but that was because it was new, now we as a community have a fairly good understanding of what is and is not acceptable. and the incidents of abuse are few and far between. I say it's time to take the locks off these bad boys and make a drone dispenser somewhere in robotics that any ghost can click and become a drone with. It'll give dead people a way to keep playing if they choose, and hell, sometimes drone is just fun, Just this round I entered as observer hoping to just drone around, but I couldn't no shells. So let's vote on it!

[Scones]

Drones are still just annoying gypsy engineers

[Falamazeer]

Would you rather be dead, or an annoying gypsy engineer?

[Cheimon]

Drones (can be) really fun to play and they're at the moment weirdly reliant on the roboticist thinking of it or not. I'd love something like this. Also a great thing to be doing as the bomb cap comes close to being increased.

[DemonFiren]

Drones are still just annoying gypsy engineers

New headcanon: Drones possess quarian personalities.

[ThanatosRa]

As long as it's something that still kinda has to be built by R&D. So I can still feel useful for making drones.

[Falamazeer]

Well... it's kinda the point for it NOT to be something that has to be R&D, Some rounds nobody bothers, and it's a shame because droneing is such fun.

It's so that there is always a way back in the round after your corpse is spaced/gibbed, or if the cloner is blown up or whatever may happen.

[ThanatosRa]

Just wanted to remain useful as a roboticist.

[buttsmcgee]

Blooprka was working on making this a reality before he died.

The code for it is already pretty much done too, other than dealing with all the merge conflicts.
https://github.com/tgstation/-tg-station/pull/7527

Being a drone is maximum comfy.
Engineers are slow meatbags that don't have any access.
And engineering borgs are always too busy getting shit on by the crew and walking on eggshells to actually go around fixing/improving things.

[Cheimon]

Yeah, engineering borgs definitely have to worry too much about the crew to ever be brilliant fix-it machines. That's the nature of the asimov lawset, I suppose.

That and the fact they don't have hands, while drones do.

[onleavedontatme]

Why didn't we just port /vg/ drones complete with the derelict spawner instead?

We have this weird aversion to ways for people to respawn yet there is also a strong push against "taking people out of the round"

[Cheridan]

Because Remie's from-scratch code was nicer.

Don't need to put them on the derelict, just have them on the station.

[Falamazeer]

Yeah, right on the station where anyone can use it, Again, people ask for thunderdome, space valhalla, and a lot of servers have a way to keep people playing after a real permanent death, Bay with mice, MoMMis or whatever, why don't we? we're the most stable server, we have the technology, can we actually do this?

[Remie Richards]

While only tangentially related, we don't have a derelict spawner (or spawners at all) but on Metastation 2 drone shells always spawn on the Russian sign at the derelict.
Meaning on meta 2 people can always join as drones from the moment the round starts.

as I said, only tangentially related, but I thought I'd bring it up.

as for box's derelict? 0 clue about if any spawn there.

Because Remie's from-scratch code was nicer.

*Blushes*

[kosmos]

Why not just have 4 or so drone shells ready at round-start Robotics and let the rest be built by Roboticists so they can feel important and connected to the events of the station? At least that's apparently the reason why we don't have midround-joining cyborgs or AI (basically the same as cyborg/AI dispensing).

[Not-Dorsidarf]

Because drones can make more drones, so 4 drone shells = unending wave of all-access engineers

[DemonFiren]

Assuming players join that unending wave in the first place.

[Alex Crimson]

I liked the idea Paprika had. Some kind of Drone Fabricator in a special area walled-off from the rest of the station, only accessible via pipes. Or just put it in Robotics. But it would spawn shells every few minutes and could be hacked by the AI to spawn syndie drones.

[Cuboos]

This would be great for those shit heads that like to just destroy drones because "muh valid". No more waiting for robotics to make more.

[Falamazeer]

This would be great for those shit heads that like to just destroy drones because "muh valid". No more waiting for robotics to make more.

Or wear you like a hat, so you can feel all the joys of running around in the square around the bridge and grav generator non stop.

Been done this way twice on separate rounds, Call me paranoid, but it feels like it was the same guy both times, as that's literately all he did until it was time to go to the shuttle. anyone else felt the joys of hat-titude?

[Cuboos]

This would be great for those shit heads that like to just destroy drones because "muh valid". No more waiting for robotics to make more.

Or wear you like a hat, so you can feel all the joys of running around in the square around the bridge and grav generator non stop.

Been done this way twice on separate rounds, Call me paranoid, but it feels like it was the same guy both times, as that's literately all he did until it was time to go to the shuttle. anyone else felt the joys of hat-titude?

Oh, that's not even the worst for me. i kept getting killed as a drone for repairing hull breaches. These hull breaches were part of some stupid elaborate disposal ride this ass hat was setting up. Kept saying, "stop fixing those, they're there for a reason", quite obviously unaware my laws stated i can not interact with him and i have to take care of the station. I used up several drone bodies for this fucker's pet project.

[Not-Dorsidarf]

If you're destroying a pet project which someone is repeatedly destroying you for interacting with, you're violating Law 1 to follow Law 3.

Rule of thumb is that if someone picks you up and throws you out, or destroys you, you're involving yourself with his matters.

Oh, and you can't even call them a shitlord for doing it, because the wiki explicitly says to smash drones which are being annoying/in the way

[Scott]

No because this is robotics job.

[Balut]

I support drones on the derelict.


I also support having Space Valhalla instead of drones, though, because those don't actually interact with players.

[iyaerP]

Space Valhalla would also give the TVs in the Maltese Falcon something to watch beyond the occasional admin event. But we should still have some starting drones, so that the engineering minded players can go fix things in death, and the murderboner minded players can go murder in death. That way, everyone wins!