Guide to malfunction: Difference between revisions

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You are a malfunctioning [[AI]].

You have one goal: Assume control. How you go about that is up to you, but this guide will give you some helpful pointers.

 

As a malfunctioning AI you have to prevent the crew from killing you before you finish taking over the station's systems. If you win, you can either blow up the station, or let the station, and any survivors aboard it, exist in peace.

Your task is ultimately to take control of station systems. This takes time, but there are things you can do to improve your odds. You can hack APCs, use special powers, use regular AI-powers, task your cyborgs to help you, and trick the crew.

You can reduce the amount of time it takes you to take over the station's systems by hacking APCs under your control. Even if you've already activated your system over-ride, hacking APCs will continue to reduce the amount of time it takes to finish, so you should always be hacking an APC. The more APCs you hack, the less time the crew will have to retaliate against you, and the more control you have exclusively over the ship systems (but if a camera gets disabled in that area, you cannot control that APC's power functions anymore). You get a few special AI powers you can buy from a list in your AI command list called AI modules, which are very useful to defeat several people who have gotten wise to your actions.

* '''Robotic Factory (Costs 100 CPU and removes Shunting):''' Allows you to place a cyborg transformer in an area that has camera coverage and at least 3 tiles wide and 1 tile tall. Living humans go in the right side, and come out as loyal, 5000-charge borgs at the left. Has a 1 minute cooldown between transformations. Beware, this power removes shunting, and costs all of your CPU!

* '''AI Turret upgrade (Costs 50 CPU):''' Adds 30 hit points to every turret, and increases their rate of fire. Of minor use if you expect invaders, as most non-humans will take positions where the turrets cannot hit them. Consider it largely a waste of CPU.

* '''Destroy RCDs (Costs 25 CPU):''' This causes RCDs to explode, can be used multiple times, and doesn't affect the RCDs in cyborgs. Watch out for non-humans making more RCDs after you use this.

* '''Machine overload (Costs 15 CPU):''' This gives you two uses of the Overload Machine command each time you select it. Overloaded machines explode in a 1 tile radius, and may open that tile to space, possibly killing non-human targets. The explosion takes a second to happen after you initiate it, and there's a loud buzzing noise that gives any non-humans in the area a warning. This is your second-best tool for crippling the station's production capabilities. Be aware that you may need to Cancel Camera View and then go back to your chosen view to get the command to work correctly. Once you have the option, simply right-click on any machine to issue the command, or issue it from your command line and pick the target from a list.

* '''Machine override (Costs 15 CPU):''' This gives you four uses of the Override Machine command each time you select it. Overrided machines become creatures that will pursue everyone but the AI itself, including borgs. There's a loud buzzing noise that gives any non-humans in the area a warning. This is your best tool for crippling the station's production capabilities. Be aware that you may need to Cancel Camera View and then go back to your chosen view to get the command to work correctly. Once you have the option, simply right-click on any machine to issue the command, or issue it from your command line and pick the target from a list.

* '''Blackout (Costs 15 CPU):''' This hack gives every APC a chance to overload its lighting circuit. The exact chance is 30% for the first use, 60% for the second, 90% for the third, and 120% (certain) for the fourth use. This is very useful if the station is flooded with plasma, since overloaded lights cause sparks.

* '''Reactivate Camera (Costs 5 CPU):''' This fixes a broken camera in an area, and has 5 uses. That's it, but it's useful if the non-humans are proactive about cutting cameras.

* '''Upgrade Camera (Costs 5 CPU):''' This upgrades a camera in an area, and has 5 uses. Upgraded cameras have X-ray, sense motion, and are EMP-proof.

* Atmospherics can be tampered with. Plasma is a favorite, but nitrous oxide or carbon dioxide can be more subtle. CO2 in particular has very little warning. Be sure to have your cyborg clip the wiring on the atmospheric alarms though, since anyone on the bridge or in atmospherics can take note of station alerts. Be careful about using fire, since the sudden increase in gas heat and thus gas volume can bring the server to a crawl if it happens over a wide enough area. If the AI cut-out is engaged, you can assign an engineering cyborg to replace the valve with a straight pipe.

* Sabotage in general. Destroy research by deleting it from the research server. Stop bomb testing by turning the power to the mass driver off before the doors can open. Disable telecoms. Set the holodeck on fire. Delete stored DNA from the buffer in genetics, subject the subject in the DNA modifier to massive doses of radiation, and re-upload the ruined SE DNA under the same label the researcher was using.

* The most useful cyborgs are the Security bot and the Engineering bot. The Standard bot is a good second-tier choice. The Service and Mining bots are third-tier choices, and are good choices if you're a subtle AI. Janitor borgs are great too if you want them to slip someone and drag them to hot burning flames.

* Engineering bots can repair dents on other cyborgs, but they need a friendly human to repair fire-damaged cabling. Since any human who can do that probably also knows how to cut the AI control wire in the cyborg, you should instruct your cyborgs to avoid fire damage if possible.

* If you can no longer see a cyborg on the robotics control console, it has had its AI wire cut or it belongs to another AI. In a malfunction round this likely means that cyborg will be attacking you. Instruct your remaining cyborgs to attack it with their flashes and weapons. If you can, lock the enemy cyborg in a room that you can fill with fire and let it burn to death.

'''Space Ninjas:''' In a malfunction game, a Space Ninja may appear. Space Ninjas can emit EMP pulses, have a massively robust weapon, can steal you from your core instantly, can drain your APC in seconds, cannot be targeted with turrets if they teleport in, can instantly recover from stuns, can heal themselves, can teleport-gib any living creature, including you, on a tile, and can largely ignore everything you can do.

 

 

 

In either sort of game the best defense against aliens is a robust offense. Have your cyborgs hunt larvae down before they can mature. If the crew doesn't know you're a rogue AI, cooperate with them as well to quickly kill any aliens. Bolt off Genetics, Xenobio and Virology after you get a borg to weld the vents. It may not stop them completely, but it makes getting in that much more of a hassle.

 

'''Enemy Traitors and Revolutionaries:''' Enemy traitors don't appear in a real Malfunction mode, but in a normal traitor round where you are a traitor, or where you have a bad ion storm law, they pose a tremendous threat to you and your cyborgs. Emagged cyborgs won't report to you, and may actively work against you. The revolver does huge amounts of damage to cyborgs (and to AIs unlucky enough to be shot), and six shots are plenty to ensure a kill on a cyborg if all the bullets connect. Cyborgs have no defense against plastic explosives if some are planted on them. Traitors can also spawn the Binary Translator, a tool that lets them hear your private channel with your cyborgs. Revolutionaries have a free flash that can stun your cyborgs, and are inclined to work together, making them even worse than a lone traitor.

 

Either try to convince traitors and revolutionaries that you will cooperate with them (or at least take no action against them), or neutralize them quickly.

'''Captain and Command Staff:''' Among the crew of the station, the heads of staff are by default the most dangerous. They have free access to all the tools they need to kill you. Priority should be on the Research Director and the Captain.

'''Genetic Researchers:''' Of the regular crew, successful researchers are second only to a hacked cyborg in terms of the direct risk they pose to you, as Hulks can smash through walls and are immune to stuns. They can also see through walls via X-ray, and can become immune to space via Cold Resistance. Telekinesis allows them to flash cyborgs at range, and beat you or your borgs to death at range. If you disable or destroy their research tools they're about as dangerous as normal Doctors.

'''Shaft Miners:''' Shaft miners, by default, have a space suit very close in effectiveness to an Engineer's suit, a robust weapon, access to explosives via Gibtonite, and can supply minerals to Roboticists and Scientists, which allows them to construct both mechs and guns. Simply exploding the ore redemption machine eliminates both of those as major threats, though Miners and Scientists still have access to explosives, and Roboticists to flashes and cell removal.

'''Security and the Detective:''' The detective's gun is capable of doing as much damage as a thrown floor tile, but it can be fired quickly, and so makes him a mid-priority target. Security has tasers which will mostly pose a friendly fire hazard to each other, but they can gain easy access to real lasers and the ion rifle. They also have access to flashes and portable flashes, and should be prevented from using them.

* A malf or traitor AI can hack borgs via the robotics control console and give them the emagged equipment.

* Upgrading the cyborg recharge stations with better capacitors or power cell will increase the charging speed. Upgrading the manipulator will repair the cyborg! Convince the Scientists to do this as soon as possible if you are a rogue or malfuctioning AI. Self repair and fast charging for the borgs is critical for raising an army using the borging machine. It is also helpful for repairing the poor mining borgs that get trashed by the asteriod monsters.

* If an AI shunts into an APC, the pinpointer will begin tracking it instead of the nuclear disk.

* Complete deconstruction of a hacked APC will make a malfunctioning AI's victory timer go up, buying you some time.