Friendly turrets on swipe/hack

[ghost]

Summary

SUMMARY: Features "friendly turrets instead of despawning them on hack/swipe"

Purpose of change

When swiping card reader or hacking some consoles nearby turrets vanish without trace, this is rather peculiar behavior. I would expect any linked turrets (and potentially other robots) to update their IFF databases and turn friendly.

Describe the solution

turn turrets friendly in both cases
additionally future-prof the code by using generic checks instead going trough the turret variants

Describe alternatives you've considered

Turning turrets into disabled versions and dropping remaining ammo, friendly-ing all robots in range, further expanding the code to give a chance of not friendlying/disabling/damaging when hacking (much like control laptop functions).

Testing

Additional context

I will likely follow up with doing something (once I figure out what) with the respective doors, as disappearing into the floor, whilst very sci-fi-ish, doesn't really cut it.
Then expand on hacking cases as mentioned in alternatives.

[Ramza13]

So realistically this makes sense but I wonder if having friendly turrets you can lure monsters too wouldn't make it too easy. Not to stop this PR just a thought about maybe future balance.

[ghost]

So realistically this makes sense but I wonder if having friendly turrets you can lure monsters too wouldn't make it too easy. Not to stop this PR just a thought about maybe future balance.

If you want to spend time doing that, and/or even lug that turret around - sure. In game balance terms I'd say it just gives you more options and takes away pressure of having to dig trough the door so you can kill the turrets and loot their ammo (and finding yourself never using any ID's in the process).

[SirPendrak]

Change makes sense but this means that anyone who finds science ID card and a lab can get a working rifle and 2k ammo, and that should be adressed at some point.

[ghost]

Change makes sense but this means that anyone who finds science ID card and a lab can get a working rifle and 2k ammo, and that should be adressed at some point.

Ideally I envisioned to have only industrial ID's turn turrets friendly, whilst sci/mil ID's would only make them ignore player, but since there is no direct way to set attitude that way, it would require special casing and likely cause issues with NPC's. I will (probably) revisit this at some point, but until then - to the (lucky) victor go the spoils.

[I-am-Erk]

I don't think this makes a ton of sense. The turrets aren't programmed to recognize anyone with an ID as friendly: you still don't pass any of the built in recognition codes. Otherwise, carrying an ID card would trivializes labs.

The current behaviour is that the turrets retract wherever they came from, which makes more sense since they then simply can't recognize you to shoot you

I don't think we should change this. It's imbalancing, doesn't make any more sense than before, and it is going to be obsolete anyway once the old lab entrances die off.

[Zireael07]

Is the "retraction" thing described anywhere? I always was under the impression that they poof, disappeared :P

[I-am-Erk]

They do just poof disappear, but in game they're moving to wherever they're usually stored, not dematerializing.

[Zireael07]

In that case, the descriptions should make it more explicit. I +1'ed this proposal since it made more sense than just "disappearing" which is what it looked like.

[I-am-Erk]

What descriptions are you talking about?

[Rail-Runner]

Maybe just spawn "inactive turret" items where turrets were then, along with ammo, rather than making the turrets friendly or disappearing without trace?

[I-am-Erk]

I don't think a science id card providing you with mountains of ammunition at no risk or complication is at all reasonable.

[ghost]

The current behaviour is that the turrets retract wherever they came from, which makes more sense

Well then, how do I get to 'wherever they come from' to get their ammo, because if I can't - it maybe makes for good theatrics but no sense whatsoever.

since they then simply can't recognize you to shoot you

• "The %s emits an IFF beep as it scans you." - all robots have internal database
• reader/console turrets get disabled collectively (if there are more than one on submap)
• there must be a way for maintenance personnel to work even on such 'hidden' turrets

From that we can conclude that if they have enough connectivity to be deployed and retracted (ie. controlled) by a system, they will either be using that system over their inbuilt database or be able to receive updates propagated by it, especially if they are somehow hidden in compartments in 'on' state - ready for action, since otherwise our maintenance personnel would be unable to work on them. And if they are powered down (disabled) whilst in compartments, even forgetting that our maintenance guy can't run proper maintenance for a moment, there should be a way to get to them.

[Zireael07]

@I-am-Erk: Messages, descriptions, whatever, on swipe/hacking.

[I-am-Erk]

If you want to program a concealed turret storage compartment and a protocol for hacking into it, with potential to set off the turret while you're going for it, go ahead. That's not what this currently is.

Remember, you're entering a facility on total lockdown currently. I'm not even personally convinced swiping an ID badge should be sufficient to let you in, myself, but within the scope of what currently exists (which, remember, is slated for removal) it is still more reasonable to retract the turrets than to make them friendly.

To me it sounds like you want the ammo from the turrets more than gameplay changes. That's not at all what they're there for and the goal is generally to reduce their role as an ammo pinata, not make it much easier to use them that way.

[ghost]

If there is something that shoots there will be people that want its ammo, so care should be taken to ensure that the ways of obtaining it are not only present but also logically consistent - as some, like me, happen to want both. But good to have that reasoning cleared up.

Also I would agree, if they are supposed to be in 'total lockdown' swiping an ID should not let you in, nothing short of sizable shaped charges or thermal lance should get you past proper blast doors, but since it does they obviously aren't ;)