Post by winterblitz on Apr 18, 2012 13:19:26 GMT -5
Emergency Back-up Lighting
So, typical situation. It is a late night and not many players are on. The only engineer on board has decided to steal the only RIG suit and suck on his own sweet methane. After a short while, main power starts to fail across the station. Someone states that they can start the engine, but there is no lights to see where they are going and they are lost! Solution, Emergency back up lighting!
The Concept and Mechanics
The overall mechanics are listed below, with further detail of the main obstacles listed and discussed further on.
[/li][li] Toggle-able by AI or Captain/Head (Detailed Below)
[/li][li] Located in key areas around the station (Bridge, Arrivals, Brig, Escape, Some hallway areas, etc)
[/li][li] Minimal produced lighting - Enough to get an idea of where you are. (Color shade would be red/red-orange. Similar to Fire alarm lights but non-flashing)
[/li][li] Could come on automatically during a power-outage or only by Head/AI activation
[/li][li] Proc Check - If there is power available around the station, the lights will not activate (Detailed below)
[/li][li] Unique power system (Heavily detailed below. Key feature)
[/li][li] Unique emergency lights placement (Detailed below)
[/li][li] Power to be sent either wired or wirelessly (Wirelessly - Power is drained at a rate directly from source. This cuts down on excess wiring around the station. The downside is that the power can then not be re-routed)
[#] Proc Check - Activation [#]
My thoughts on a proc check for lighting activation are as follows:
- If the check takes place before the SMES is activated to send out power to the lights, it could be hooked into a dummy APC that would drain at a rate in which power would be available once most of the station would be in black out (IE: All APCs are charged, begin draining. Once 80% of the station is dark, the Proc check APC would be at 0% charge and emergency lighting would become available.)
- Localized Proc-checks could be available (So the emergency lights only activate in zones that the power is indeed out, not in those that are) if the lighting nodes are located within a reasonable distance of the zone's APC. Proc would check to see if the lighting state is set to OFF.
[#] Emergency Lights Placement [#]
My thoughts on the placement of the emergency lights are as follows:
- Placeable within Fire Alarms (already located around the station. No need for a new sprite/minimal coding to add lighting var). Fire alarms are usually located within convenient locations unlike APC's. Due to the sheer availability of fire alarms, only some would have the lighting var.
- Placeable within APC's. Due to most APC's inconvenient locations, lighting area would have to be increased; with a decrease to lighting level.
- Placeable within AI cameras. Limited to only a few. Usually placed in convenient areas.
- New wall-mounted sprite could be created
- Placeable within/under/or as a new floor sprite. Makes crating more emergency lighting feasible/hooks into power cables running under the floor
[#] Toggle-able Power Source & Toggle-able Activation [#]
This is the main problem I am facing with my idea. I have listed my thoughts and ideas below.
- Power is drawn from an independent SMES. At round start, this SMES could either be a) fully charged or b) charged to 10-20%. From the default round start state, lighting would last for roughly 5-10 minutes. If a), power drain would be quite high or the SMES power storage threshold reduced. If b), this enables the crew more time later on in the game should the singularity come loose. Allows for more time to fashion together an alternate power source or call the shuttle/wrap up the round. Activated by either one head of staff or the AI. Power from this SMES could potentially be re-routed.
- Power is drawn from the AI core SMES. This offers the benefit of having an added danger to using the system. The downside is it could kill the AI. Activated by either AI or Heads of staff (Two required). Two heads are required because this places the AI in danger, and the AIs laws state it must protect its self so long as it does not violate the other laws. As this is a non-life saving feature and purely cosmetic, power would be non-reroutable and primarily the AI's choice to activate with the option of a forced activation and AI control lockout by the Heads of staff. To prevent this as being used as an AI kill switch, this ability would automatically turn off at 10-20% (And not be usable until more than X% is available). In AI Malf rounds, the AI is not locked out of access if the heads of staff force-activate the feature.
- Potential feature where power is toggle-able from the AI core SMES or an emergency power SMES.
I must apologise for the wall of text/apparent ramblings. The main focus is to get the thought to paper and clean it up later. I welcome constructive criticism and suggestions/thoughts.
So, typical situation. It is a late night and not many players are on. The only engineer on board has decided to steal the only RIG suit and suck on his own sweet methane. After a short while, main power starts to fail across the station. Someone states that they can start the engine, but there is no lights to see where they are going and they are lost! Solution, Emergency back up lighting!
The Concept and Mechanics
The overall mechanics are listed below, with further detail of the main obstacles listed and discussed further on.
[/li][li] Toggle-able by AI or Captain/Head (Detailed Below)
[/li][li] Located in key areas around the station (Bridge, Arrivals, Brig, Escape, Some hallway areas, etc)
[/li][li] Minimal produced lighting - Enough to get an idea of where you are. (Color shade would be red/red-orange. Similar to Fire alarm lights but non-flashing)
[/li][li] Could come on automatically during a power-outage or only by Head/AI activation
[/li][li] Proc Check - If there is power available around the station, the lights will not activate (Detailed below)
[/li][li] Unique power system (Heavily detailed below. Key feature)
[/li][li] Unique emergency lights placement (Detailed below)
[/li][li] Power to be sent either wired or wirelessly (Wirelessly - Power is drained at a rate directly from source. This cuts down on excess wiring around the station. The downside is that the power can then not be re-routed)
[#] Proc Check - Activation [#]
My thoughts on a proc check for lighting activation are as follows:
- If the check takes place before the SMES is activated to send out power to the lights, it could be hooked into a dummy APC that would drain at a rate in which power would be available once most of the station would be in black out (IE: All APCs are charged, begin draining. Once 80% of the station is dark, the Proc check APC would be at 0% charge and emergency lighting would become available.)
- Localized Proc-checks could be available (So the emergency lights only activate in zones that the power is indeed out, not in those that are) if the lighting nodes are located within a reasonable distance of the zone's APC. Proc would check to see if the lighting state is set to OFF.
[#] Emergency Lights Placement [#]
My thoughts on the placement of the emergency lights are as follows:
- Placeable within Fire Alarms (already located around the station. No need for a new sprite/minimal coding to add lighting var). Fire alarms are usually located within convenient locations unlike APC's. Due to the sheer availability of fire alarms, only some would have the lighting var.
- Placeable within APC's. Due to most APC's inconvenient locations, lighting area would have to be increased; with a decrease to lighting level.
- Placeable within AI cameras. Limited to only a few. Usually placed in convenient areas.
- New wall-mounted sprite could be created
- Placeable within/under/or as a new floor sprite. Makes crating more emergency lighting feasible/hooks into power cables running under the floor
[#] Toggle-able Power Source & Toggle-able Activation [#]
This is the main problem I am facing with my idea. I have listed my thoughts and ideas below.
- Power is drawn from an independent SMES. At round start, this SMES could either be a) fully charged or b) charged to 10-20%. From the default round start state, lighting would last for roughly 5-10 minutes. If a), power drain would be quite high or the SMES power storage threshold reduced. If b), this enables the crew more time later on in the game should the singularity come loose. Allows for more time to fashion together an alternate power source or call the shuttle/wrap up the round. Activated by either one head of staff or the AI. Power from this SMES could potentially be re-routed.
- Power is drawn from the AI core SMES. This offers the benefit of having an added danger to using the system. The downside is it could kill the AI. Activated by either AI or Heads of staff (Two required). Two heads are required because this places the AI in danger, and the AIs laws state it must protect its self so long as it does not violate the other laws. As this is a non-life saving feature and purely cosmetic, power would be non-reroutable and primarily the AI's choice to activate with the option of a forced activation and AI control lockout by the Heads of staff. To prevent this as being used as an AI kill switch, this ability would automatically turn off at 10-20% (And not be usable until more than X% is available). In AI Malf rounds, the AI is not locked out of access if the heads of staff force-activate the feature.
- Potential feature where power is toggle-able from the AI core SMES or an emergency power SMES.
I must apologise for the wall of text/apparent ramblings. The main focus is to get the thought to paper and clean it up later. I welcome constructive criticism and suggestions/thoughts.
. sorry for the bad news, but i will always remember our time raping some whores and animals in ss13. nig