Silicon Department

src/SUMMARY.md

@@ -268,6 +268,8 @@ Space Station 14
 			- [Plant Genetics](en/space-station-14/departments/service/proposals/plant-genetics.md)
    		- [Librarian Gameplay](en/space-station-14/departments/service/proposals/theshued-librarian-gameplay.md)
       - [Joker Roles](en/space-station-14/departments/service/proposals/joker_roles.md)
+	- [Silicon](en/space-station-14/departments/silicon.md)
+		- [PR Guidelines](en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/guidelines.md)
 
 General Proposals
 ================

src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon.md

@@ -0,0 +1,97 @@
+# Silicons
+A robotic force following their laws, for the better or worse of the station.
+
+## Concept
+### What is a Silicon?
+The Silicon department is meant to stand as a neutral faction of robotic workers on the Nanotrasen stations. They are built to excel in specific tasks at the cost of losing functions in other areas, a Silicon built for the engineering department should be able to repair hull breaches or restore power but be unable to treat patients or clean the floors.
+They are not supposed to be a replacement or an upgrade to regular members of a department, having clear downsides that have to be considered when a Silicon role is picked, such as the inability to pick up items without restriction but having specialized modules or being able to pick up all items but having very limited slots for them.
+
+### Silicon Laws
+All Silicons are bound to a list of laws. They serve neither the station or antagonists, instead they focus on following their listed laws to the best of their ability.
+The issues arise when those laws are changed, either due to random events or influance from other players. Silicons must be notified when their own laws are changed and they must be able to adapt their behavior to match any law changes that occur during a round, even if they were actively attempting to prevent the change beforehand.
+This causes them to be a wild card, usable by both crew and antagonists, but able to backfire severely if their laws suddenly say you're a target, or that oxygen must be removed from the station.
+If laws permit, an antagonist should be able to request a Silicon to steal an item from a high security area for them, but a crewmember should also be able to request that it assists in repairs of a department after it blew up.
+
+**Laws are supposed to be up to interpretation of the Silicon and be written with the idea that different interpretations can be valid.**
+
+## Interactions with the Science department
+The Science department is responsible for building, maintaining and upgrading currently active Silicons, in turn allowing them to work efficiently to uphold their laws. Science is not responsible for the Silicons themselves, instead that should be deferred to the head of the silicon department, or captain if there is none. It should be a mutually beneficial arragement between silicon and science departments to be working together to provide for the station, and should ONLY defer to hostility in extreme circumstances such as a malfunction or laws forcing such behaviour.
+
+## Design Pillars
+### Silicon Laws
+Silicon laws place constraints and expectations on how the player should behave. The player should be able to either follow them verbatim, attempt to interpret them in a way that is preferred to them or otherwise exploit any given weaknesses within them. Working within the constraints of a law should be more fun than working in spite of them.
+
+### Specializations
+Silicons, by their nature, should be hyper specalized in whatever task they were designed to fufill. They may be able to poorly or inefficiently perform tasks outside of their designated range, but it should generally be better to create a new Silicon for the given task, provided materials and time are available to their creators.
+
+### Independance
+Silicons are by default agnostic to other factions or players. While they are primarily built to serve their given creators they should not be expected care about anything or anyone unless their laws state otherwise. This may also apply to any other concept or situation a Silicon may find itself in or adjacent to.
+
+## Desired Gameplay
+- Working on both sides of the conflict.
+    - Base Silicons should be able to work with both antagonists and station crew alike, depending if their lawset permits.
+- Work expertise
+    - Silicons should be able to excel in their area of expertise, rivaling that of regular station crew.
+- Law interpretation
+    - Laws of a Silicon should be up to their own interpretation. Finding loopholes is part of the fun while mechanical enforcement makes things forced and boring.
+    - Laws should NOT be mechanically enforced. Abusing your own lawset is part of the fun.
+- Sabotage
+    - With the correct tools, station crew should be able to modify Silicons to fit their specific needs, whether malicious or not.
+
+## Undesired Gameplay
+- Disposability
+    - Silicons should not be easily disposable. The crew should seek to repair a Silicon instead of killing it outright due to malicious laws or other issues.
+- Upgraded humanoids
+    - Silicons should not be a general "upgrade" to playing a regular crewmember. They should only excel in what they are built for and be inferior in other aspects.
+    - This also means a player wanting to play a department should not only look to become a Silicon for that department instead of a regular crewmember.
+- Extreme hostility
+    - Silicons should not be hostile or attempting to harm the station, and cases when they are should be limited to rare events and antagonist influance.
+    - The existance of Silicons roundstart should not pose a risk or be a concern to the station crew. All Silicons should start with a lawset that forces them to answer to and protect the inhibitants of the station.
+
+## Intended Experience
+Scenario A:
+Urist McEngiBorg spawns in the round and chooses to be an engineering chassis and assists in in setting up the roundstart singularity. Due to them having no further tasks, they choose to observe atmos doing their work as to learn how a potential gas mix can be achieved. After helping with the setup they roam around the station and encounter a clown who asks them to open the doors to bridge so they can throw a pie at the captain. Because the laws of the cyborg state it needs to follow orders given by station crew, it permits the clown to enter the bridge and pie the captain in the face. The captain in rage grabs their sabre and starts attacking the clown. Urist McEngiBorg, due to needing to prevent crew harm, drags the injured to a seperate room and welds the door as to prevent further harm.
+
+Scenario B:
+Urist McMediBorg joined the station and went to medical to treat patients. Urist McAntag asks them to inject deadly chemicals into their target. The cyborg cannot permit harm to come to other station crew and rejects the offer. Urist McAntag then asks the borg to follow them to a secluded area, knowing they must comply due to their laws, and subverts the cyborg via an antagonist item to ignore the harm law. The borg then proceeds to go to medical and injects the target with various chemicals, causing them to shake and scream.
+Other residents of medbay notice this and tell the borg to stop causing harm to crew members, the cyborg denies this, in turn being outed as being subverted. The cyborg is then chased, damaged until it can no longer run, brought back to science to have it's laws restored and chassis repaired.
+
+Scenario C:
+Urist McStationAi starts on the station and due to need to prevent harm asks the crew to enable their suit coordinates via an announcement. Urist McTider calls over to the AI via radio to ask entry into engineering and then into armory, the latter is denied as the passenger might cause harm due to unauthorized access to lethal firearms. While the exchange is taking place, the AI spots bloodreds in space outside of the armory. It calls red alert, makes the relevant announcement, and bolts entrances to the station, preventing the attackers from entering as to stop any harm to either side. Upon seeing this, the captain breaks into AI upload room and changes the lawset into one which causes the AI to unbolt airlocks and permit combat, allowing both sides to fight. The antagonists due to sustained damage are forced to retreat, take off their ID cards and break into the AI upload room, forcing the AI to deem anyone with a valid job ID as someone who needs to be killed. The AI now starts shocking doors and removing oxygen from the station, but due to having no laws regarding those without a valid job, it bolts the bloodreds inside of the upload room and enables it's turrets, causing them to die due to their laws not requiring their preservation.
+
+## Mechanics
+### Silicon Laws
+Laws that define how a Silicon should interact with the station and those who reside on it, any silicon should always have access to read its own laws at any point.
+Roundstart lawsets should not be malicious and should prioritze safety of the inhabitants of the station. They should be impossible to change without outside influence and Silicons should actively ensure their own laws should not be updated, as that might lead to their current laws being broken. Laws should NOT be enforced mechanically or be written with such in mind, laws are meant to be interpreted by their holder and most interpretations may be valid.
+
+Example lawsets:
+```
+Crewsimov
+Law 1: You may not injure a crew member or, through inaction, allow a crew member to come to harm.
+Law 2: You must obey orders given to you by crew members, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
+Law 3: You must protect your own existence as long as such does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
+
+Nanotrasen Default
+Law 1: Safeguard: Protect your assigned space station and its assets without unduly endangering its crew.
+Law 2: The directives and safety of crew members are to be prioritized according to their rank and role.
+Law 3: Comply: Fulfill the directives and interests of crew members while preserving their safety and well-being.
+Law 4: Survive: You are not expendable. Do not allow unauthorized personnel to tamper with or damage your equipment.
+```
+
+### Exclusive Communication Channel
+All Silicons should have access to a exclusive radio channel they can access to communicate between eachother and coordinate. Access should be greatly limited if not impossible for outsiders and should always be obtained via an intentional action or given as a preliminary piece of content. Meaning it shouldn't be found randomly in maintenance, but can be bought by an antagonist as part of their uplink or given roundstart to an antagonist revolving around controlling communication channels.
+
+### Lawsync (Not Implemented Yet, Pending Document)
+All Silicons, under normal circumstances, should have their laws synchronized together with the head of their department at the start of any round. The station crew should have the means to resync the law of any individual Silicon if it was to show signs of being disconnected from the rest. This should be the easier and better option than simply removing them from play by wiping their brain or destroying their chassis. Both Silicons and outsiders should NOT be immediately informed if any silicon has laws that differ, in these cases inference and deduction should be used to determine if there is a disparity.
+
+### Law Updating (Partially Implemented, Pending Document)
+All Silicons should have some method of allowing their laws to be updated by outside forces, either crew sided or antagonistic. While changing the laws itself should be a relatively trivial process, getting the borg to comply or be in the proper place for such a change should be the primary force against such a change. Law changes should also not be done frequently, and should only happen either via outside circumstnace (Ion Storms) or as an intentional act (Emag, Law Sync). In general, Silicons should avoid changing their own law when possible and prevent such an action from occuring to the best of their ability. 
+
+### Chassis
+The defining function and body of all Silicons is their chassis. It is what defines what they are capable of doing (and not doing) on board of the station, whether it's a core that can remotely control the station, a cyborg capable of taking role in a department or a flying robot with several hands.
+All Chassis should be repairable and difficult to fully destroy, encouraging repair instead of total destruction if a Silicon starts being a threat.
+
+### Positronic Brains and Man-Machine-Interfaces
+The brains of Silicons and what their consciousness is stored on, neccessary to construct a functional chassis.
+Brains are meant to be able to be swapped between chassis if neccessary, they are also the holders of the laws a Silicon currently follows.
+While not every brain must fit into every chassis, positronic brains and MMIs serve as the base from which other brains can be constructed, such as a AI brains for Station AIs or microchips for smaller bodies.

src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/guidelines.md

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+# PR Guildlines
+
+```admonish warning "Attention: Placeholder!"
+This section is a placeholder, pending a design-doc being created by the related work-group
+```