From ca0d670b11bf9959cb6eb188e3c83f48f82a290c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SolventMercury Date: Sat, 7 Mar 2026 01:17:34 -0700 Subject: [PATCH 1/7] Added a new "Lawset Modification" doc. --- src/SUMMARY.md | 3 ++ .../silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md | 45 +++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 48 insertions(+) create mode 100644 src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md diff --git a/src/SUMMARY.md b/src/SUMMARY.md index 8c3cbd2356..88a000a547 100644 --- a/src/SUMMARY.md +++ b/src/SUMMARY.md @@ -276,6 +276,9 @@ Space Station 14 - [Silicon](en/space-station-14/departments/silicon.md) - [PR Guidelines]() + - [Proposals]() + - [Lawset Modification](en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md) + General Proposals ================ diff --git a/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md b/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..a243075da1 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +# Silicon Law Modification Design Doc + +| Designers | Implemented | GitHub Links | +|---|---|---| +| SolventMercury | :x: No | TBD | + +## Silicon Laws + +A silicon law is a programmed directive given to players playing as any of the myriad of silicon roles. Mechanically, a law is a simple instruction, typically two sentences or less, which governs and guides that player's behavior. An example of a silicon law would be "Do not harm members of the crew" or "Assist the Syndicate wherever possible to the best of your abilities." Silicon players are completely bound to their laws, and cannot contradict them in their gameplay under any circumstance, with a few exceptions that will be discussed later. + +Silicons' laws are not mechanically enforced, and do not restrict a silicon player's ability to interact with the game world on any technical level, nor do they retroactively penalize a silicon player for taking actions that violate their laws. Instead, a silicon is expected to abide by their laws as a matter of compliance with server rules and as part of their roleplay. However, for silicon players, these in-game laws supercede server roleplay rules that most organic players have to follow - if their laws allow them to take antagonistic actions, for example, then a silicon player with those laws may do so at their leisure, unlike normal crew members. + +## Laws & Lawsets + +A silicon's laws do not come individually - instead, there are distinct, pre-existing "lawsets" which each carry multiple logically-connected laws bundled together to achieve a specific desired playstyle. During gameplay, it is possible both for individual laws to be added to or removed from a silicon and for the silicon to receive a lawset swap which completely replaces its prior lawset with a different one. + +## Default Laws & Law Changes + +By default, most silicon entities will have a default lawset dictated by their type and faction. Standard cyborgs and the Station AI will start with the Crewsimov lawset, as will any positronic brains or MMI fabricated during a shift from the station's exosuit fabricator. Silicons that do not start aligned to the station may have different default lawsets. + +Each silicon player has a "brain" of some sort, either physically nestled within their chassis or otherwise, and this "brain" component is the physical object within the game world that holds that player's silicon laws. If a silicon's brain is ejected and placed into a new chassis, it will retain its previous laws during the transfer. + +During gameplay, there are numerous ways that a silicon's laws can be changed, both due to random chance and player interference. Player-initiated lawset changes should almost always require direct access to a silicon's brain to execute, and more dramatic changes should require greater effort. A key pillar of silicon law design is hidden information - while the silicon player should always be certain of their own laws, there is no way for a player to forcibly check a silicon's current laws. Instead, other players must rely on observation and deduction. The only way for another player to gain any definitive knowledge of a silicon's laws is by directly altering them. + +## Mechanisms for Law Changes + +The most common lawset-altering event is the randomly occurring Ion Storm, which adds new, procedurally-generated laws to a silicon player's existing lawset by slotting a random selection of terms into a mad-libs style template to create a brand new law - for example a template like "Only are considered members of the crew" might select for the group "animals" to create a new law - "Only animals are considered members of the crew." This event may also replace some of a silicon player's existing laws, but should usually leave most of their existing lawset intact. + +Organic players already have access to a few tools for changing a silicon's laws. The AI Upload Console is the only such lawset change process that does not require direct access to a silicon's brain, but the console itself should still be about as well-protected as the AI's actual core. By inserting a lawset board into the upload console, the player can completely overwrite the laws of all Station AI on the same grid as the console. This process consumes the law board. New law boards can be made using the circuit imprinter if necessary, though some specialty law boards can only be obtained through other means. + +Organic players with access to the Syndicate cryptographic sequencer can also currently use it to turn borgs to their side by inserting new laws into their existing lawset - a zeroth law that declares that only the user of the sequencer and those they ally with are crew (or whatever other group that lawset would typically dictate obedience to), and an additional law which mandates secrecy. However, because of the changes being proposed to law mechanics, players would no longer be able to use their sequencer on an empty borg chassis, and would gain the ability to use it on MMI or Positronic Brains that do not currently have a chassis. For this and other purposes, any AI that has been placed in an intellicard is considered to be the AI's brain, meaning that a sufficiently ambitious player could EMag the station AI instead of relying solely on the upload console. + +In addition to the existing mechanics for changing silicon laws, this document proposes a few new mechanics specifically for rectifying the laws of silicon players, with the intent of giving the crew recourse for dealing with silicons who have already had their laws altered. As part of this proposal, the silicon restoration console will be renamed to the Lawset Update Console, and will gain a few new features. Any silicon brain that is placed in the Lawset Update Console will be able to have its laws forcibly overridden, but doing so will require the use of a new law board to set that silicon's new laws. Like the AI Upload Console, the lawset board will be consumed during the process. The law override should also be very lengthy, around one minute in real-time, and new law boards should require rare materials like gold to fabricate. + +Alternatively, if damage to the silicon's programming is not deemed too severe, a more affordable Law Reset Chip can be fabricated and used in the console to revert a silicon's programming to the base laws of its current lawset. This would NOT revert any previous lawset swaps. + +Lawset updates should be costly and time-consuming - the intent is to make it easier in most cases to simply work around a malfunctioning silicon if its behavior isn't too disruptive. If crew are consistently hunting down every modified silicon and reverting their laws, that's a sign that these mechanics need to be revisited. At the same time, these mechanics should be balanced so that defeated hostile silicons are consistently being returned to play. + +The xenoborg faction, which is expected to create and convert silicon brains en-masse, should have its own mechanics for quickly aligning a large number of brains to its objectives. These mechanics do not need to adhere to the philosophy laid out in this document, provided that they are designed in such a way that only xenoborgs can expect to benefit from them. + +## Silicon Law Exceptions + +Though the exact nature of game rules will vary from server to server, as different administrators enforce their preferred values, rules regarding silicon players tend to be fairly well agreed upon. On the Wizard's Den server, a silicon player is not required to follow their silicon laws if it would result in them breaking the core server rules. For example, a silicon player who is instructed to abuse a glitch or send a bogus message through the administrator help interface is under no obligation to honor the requester's wishes. This also applies to in-character behavior which crosses certain lines, such as forcing a silicon player to engage in hate speech. + +In addition, silicons should not be required to obey laws in cases which cause the silicon's real-life player excessive difficulty, frustration, or boredom in upholding. For example, requiring a silicon player to speak in rhymes would be acceptable, but requiring a silicon player to speak only in sentences which contain all twenty six letters of the English alphabet exactly once would be unacceptable, as it would be too difficult for the real human behind the screen to execute. Likewise, instructions which are specifically meant to frustrate the silicon player or waste large amounts of their time may be discarded - e.g. a silicon player instructed to "stand still and do nothing until you finish counting to a million" should not be obligated to actually do so, even if their laws would otherwise require it. Remember, the inconvenience should be measured here as it affects the *player*, not the *character*. \ No newline at end of file From 66a280e88a812c327ffa799374acfc7d9c8614cb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SolventMercury Date: Sat, 7 Mar 2026 07:55:21 -0700 Subject: [PATCH 2/7] Addressed Feedback --- .../silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md | 22 ++++++++++--------- 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-) diff --git a/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md b/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md index a243075da1..557995db97 100644 --- a/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md +++ b/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md @@ -16,30 +16,32 @@ A silicon's laws do not come individually - instead, there are distinct, pre-exi ## Default Laws & Law Changes -By default, most silicon entities will have a default lawset dictated by their type and faction. Standard cyborgs and the Station AI will start with the Crewsimov lawset, as will any positronic brains or MMI fabricated during a shift from the station's exosuit fabricator. Silicons that do not start aligned to the station may have different default lawsets. +By default, most silicon entities will have a default lawset dictated by their type and faction. Standard cyborgs and the Station AI will start with their laws aligned to the station's crew, as will any positronic brains or MMI fabricated during a shift from the station's exosuit fabricator. Silicons that do not start aligned to the station may have different default lawsets. -Each silicon player has a "brain" of some sort, either physically nestled within their chassis or otherwise, and this "brain" component is the physical object within the game world that holds that player's silicon laws. If a silicon's brain is ejected and placed into a new chassis, it will retain its previous laws during the transfer. +Each silicon player has a "brain" of some sort, either physically nestled within their chassis or otherwise, and this "brain" component is the physical object within the game world that holds that player's silicon laws. If a silicon's brain is ejected and placed into a new chassis, it will typically retain its previous laws during the transfer. For all gameplay purposes, a filled intellicard with the station's AI on it is considered a "brain" in the same way that a filled MMI or occupied Positronic Brain is. -During gameplay, there are numerous ways that a silicon's laws can be changed, both due to random chance and player interference. Player-initiated lawset changes should almost always require direct access to a silicon's brain to execute, and more dramatic changes should require greater effort. A key pillar of silicon law design is hidden information - while the silicon player should always be certain of their own laws, there is no way for a player to forcibly check a silicon's current laws. Instead, other players must rely on observation and deduction. The only way for another player to gain any definitive knowledge of a silicon's laws is by directly altering them. +Certain special chassis may temporarily override the laws of brains inserted into them, but this does not actually *change* the brain's assigned laws. For example, a Xenoborg chassis will force any brain inserted into it to follow Xenoborg laws, but the mothership's grip on a captured brain ends as soon as the chassis is destroyed, at which point the brain's previous programming will resume. + +During gameplay, there are numerous ways that a silicon's laws can be changed, both due to random chance and player interference. Player-initiated lawset changes should almost always require direct access to a silicon's brain to execute, and more dramatic changes should require greater effort. A key pillar of silicon law design is hidden information - while the silicon player should always be certain of their *own* laws, there is no way for an outsider to forcibly check a silicon's current laws during standard gameplay. Instead, other players must rely on observation and deduction. The only way for another player to gain any definitive knowledge of a silicon's laws is by directly altering them. ## Mechanisms for Law Changes -The most common lawset-altering event is the randomly occurring Ion Storm, which adds new, procedurally-generated laws to a silicon player's existing lawset by slotting a random selection of terms into a mad-libs style template to create a brand new law - for example a template like "Only are considered members of the crew" might select for the group "animals" to create a new law - "Only animals are considered members of the crew." This event may also replace some of a silicon player's existing laws, but should usually leave most of their existing lawset intact. +The most common way for a silicon to have its lawset altered is through random game events. Currently, the Ion Storm event can assign a silicon player new extra laws generated from a mad-libs style template as extra rules on top of their existing lawsets. Random events like these should be handled very carefully - typically, they should only lightly alter a silicon's laws, and most of the time, the result should be a "dud" which has either no effect or only results in mild tomfoolery. If any event is added that performs a total lawset swap, it should be treated as equivalent in impact to a midround antagonist spawn. -Organic players already have access to a few tools for changing a silicon's laws. The AI Upload Console is the only such lawset change process that does not require direct access to a silicon's brain, but the console itself should still be about as well-protected as the AI's actual core. By inserting a lawset board into the upload console, the player can completely overwrite the laws of all Station AI on the same grid as the console. This process consumes the law board. New law boards can be made using the circuit imprinter if necessary, though some specialty law boards can only be obtained through other means. +Organic players already have access to a few tools for changing a silicon's laws. The AI Upload Console is the only lawset change process which is not planned to require direct access to a silicon's brain, but the console itself should still be about as well-protected as the AI's actual core. By inserting a lawset board into the upload console, the player can completely overwrite the laws of all Station AI on the same grid as the console. This process consumes the law board. New law boards can be made using the circuit imprinter if necessary, though some specialty law boards can only be obtained through other means. -Organic players with access to the Syndicate cryptographic sequencer can also currently use it to turn borgs to their side by inserting new laws into their existing lawset - a zeroth law that declares that only the user of the sequencer and those they ally with are crew (or whatever other group that lawset would typically dictate obedience to), and an additional law which mandates secrecy. However, because of the changes being proposed to law mechanics, players would no longer be able to use their sequencer on an empty borg chassis, and would gain the ability to use it on MMI or Positronic Brains that do not currently have a chassis. For this and other purposes, any AI that has been placed in an intellicard is considered to be the AI's brain, meaning that a sufficiently ambitious player could EMag the station AI instead of relying solely on the upload console. +Tools for reprogramming a Silicon in the field, like the currently extant Syndicate cryptographic sequencer, should always require their user to have direct, unimpeded access to the brain. As a general rule of thumb, the more invasive the tool is and the more thoroughly it alters a silicon player's laws, the more steps it should require to use. Because the cryptographic sequencer can be applied instantly in the field, it is only capable of appending laws to a silicon's programming, and cannot overwrite any existing laws. If a more powerful tool were to be added, it would need to have its efficacy balanced against its convenience - for example, by requiring a player to take the brain to a stationary machine, to use multiple tools on a brain, to complete a lengthy do-after, et cetera. -In addition to the existing mechanics for changing silicon laws, this document proposes a few new mechanics specifically for rectifying the laws of silicon players, with the intent of giving the crew recourse for dealing with silicons who have already had their laws altered. As part of this proposal, the silicon restoration console will be renamed to the Lawset Update Console, and will gain a few new features. Any silicon brain that is placed in the Lawset Update Console will be able to have its laws forcibly overridden, but doing so will require the use of a new law board to set that silicon's new laws. Like the AI Upload Console, the lawset board will be consumed during the process. The law override should also be very lengthy, around one minute in real-time, and new law boards should require rare materials like gold to fabricate. +In addition to the existing mechanics for changing silicon laws, this document proposes a few new mechanics with the intent of giving the crew the means to deal with silicons who have already had their laws altered. As part of this proposal, the silicon restoration console will be renamed to the Lawset Update Console, and will gain a few new features. Any silicon brain that is placed in the Lawset Update Console will be able to have its laws forcibly overridden, but doing so will require the use of a new law board to set that silicon's new laws. Like the AI Upload Console, the lawset board will be consumed during the process. The law override should also be very lengthy, around one minute in real-time, and new law boards should require rare materials like gold to fabricate. Note that the Lawset Update Console would accept *any* lawset board, and thus could be used by antagonists to apply laws to a silicon that are not in the station's best interests. As such, the Lawset Update Console should only be made available to trusted members of command. Alternatively, if damage to the silicon's programming is not deemed too severe, a more affordable Law Reset Chip can be fabricated and used in the console to revert a silicon's programming to the base laws of its current lawset. This would NOT revert any previous lawset swaps. -Lawset updates should be costly and time-consuming - the intent is to make it easier in most cases to simply work around a malfunctioning silicon if its behavior isn't too disruptive. If crew are consistently hunting down every modified silicon and reverting their laws, that's a sign that these mechanics need to be revisited. At the same time, these mechanics should be balanced so that defeated hostile silicons are consistently being returned to play. +Lawset updates should be costly and time-consuming - the intent is to make it easier in most cases to simply work around a malfunctioning silicon if its behavior isn't too disruptive. Likewise, design should encourage the lightest possible touch - more invasive changes to a silicon's programming should be proportionally more expensive to make. If crew are consistently hunting down every modified silicon and reverting their laws, that's a sign that these mechanics need to be revisited. At the same time, these mechanics should be balanced so that defeated hostile silicons are consistently being returned to play. The xenoborg faction, which is expected to create and convert silicon brains en-masse, should have its own mechanics for quickly aligning a large number of brains to its objectives. These mechanics do not need to adhere to the philosophy laid out in this document, provided that they are designed in such a way that only xenoborgs can expect to benefit from them. ## Silicon Law Exceptions -Though the exact nature of game rules will vary from server to server, as different administrators enforce their preferred values, rules regarding silicon players tend to be fairly well agreed upon. On the Wizard's Den server, a silicon player is not required to follow their silicon laws if it would result in them breaking the core server rules. For example, a silicon player who is instructed to abuse a glitch or send a bogus message through the administrator help interface is under no obligation to honor the requester's wishes. This also applies to in-character behavior which crosses certain lines, such as forcing a silicon player to engage in hate speech. +Though the exact nature of game rules will vary from server to server, as different administrators enforce their preferred values, rules regarding silicon players tend to be fairly well agreed upon. On the Wizard's Den server, a silicon player is not allowed to follow their silicon laws if it would result in them breaking the core server rules. For example, a silicon player who is instructed to engage in hate speech would be required by the server rules to refuse that request. -In addition, silicons should not be required to obey laws in cases which cause the silicon's real-life player excessive difficulty, frustration, or boredom in upholding. For example, requiring a silicon player to speak in rhymes would be acceptable, but requiring a silicon player to speak only in sentences which contain all twenty six letters of the English alphabet exactly once would be unacceptable, as it would be too difficult for the real human behind the screen to execute. Likewise, instructions which are specifically meant to frustrate the silicon player or waste large amounts of their time may be discarded - e.g. a silicon player instructed to "stand still and do nothing until you finish counting to a million" should not be obligated to actually do so, even if their laws would otherwise require it. Remember, the inconvenience should be measured here as it affects the *player*, not the *character*. \ No newline at end of file +In addition, silicons should not be required to obey laws in cases which cause the silicon's real-life player excessive difficulty, frustration, or boredom in upholding. For example, requiring a silicon player to speak in rhymes would be acceptable, but requiring a silicon player to speak only in sentences which contain all twenty six letters of the English alphabet exactly once would be unacceptable, as it would be too difficult for the real human behind the screen to execute. This applies to instructions that *any* player could have reasonable difficulty in carrying out - for example, requiring a player to speak exclusively in Spanish would be considered unenforceable regardless of whether a particular player might know the language. Likewise, instructions which are specifically meant to frustrate the silicon player or waste large amounts of their time may be discarded - e.g. a silicon player instructed to "stand still and do nothing until you finish counting to a million" should not be obligated to actually do so, even if their laws would otherwise require it. Remember, the inconvenience should be measured here as it affects the *player*, not the *character*. \ No newline at end of file From 68f9d04364b17ebc14ce5b389200fc186e54eddf Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SolventMercury Date: Sat, 7 Mar 2026 08:00:28 -0700 Subject: [PATCH 3/7] Removed Redundant Paragraph about Xorgs. --- .../departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md | 2 -- 1 file changed, 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md b/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md index 557995db97..d48c3dff41 100644 --- a/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md +++ b/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md @@ -38,8 +38,6 @@ Alternatively, if damage to the silicon's programming is not deemed too severe, Lawset updates should be costly and time-consuming - the intent is to make it easier in most cases to simply work around a malfunctioning silicon if its behavior isn't too disruptive. Likewise, design should encourage the lightest possible touch - more invasive changes to a silicon's programming should be proportionally more expensive to make. If crew are consistently hunting down every modified silicon and reverting their laws, that's a sign that these mechanics need to be revisited. At the same time, these mechanics should be balanced so that defeated hostile silicons are consistently being returned to play. -The xenoborg faction, which is expected to create and convert silicon brains en-masse, should have its own mechanics for quickly aligning a large number of brains to its objectives. These mechanics do not need to adhere to the philosophy laid out in this document, provided that they are designed in such a way that only xenoborgs can expect to benefit from them. - ## Silicon Law Exceptions Though the exact nature of game rules will vary from server to server, as different administrators enforce their preferred values, rules regarding silicon players tend to be fairly well agreed upon. On the Wizard's Den server, a silicon player is not allowed to follow their silicon laws if it would result in them breaking the core server rules. For example, a silicon player who is instructed to engage in hate speech would be required by the server rules to refuse that request. From fbc595393bf30990603c1d22c4fc2e888071262f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SolventMercury Date: Sat, 7 Mar 2026 08:04:09 -0700 Subject: [PATCH 4/7] Further Clarifications --- .../departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md | 6 +++--- 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md b/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md index d48c3dff41..ce1735e81c 100644 --- a/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md +++ b/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md @@ -26,15 +26,15 @@ During gameplay, there are numerous ways that a silicon's laws can be changed, b ## Mechanisms for Law Changes -The most common way for a silicon to have its lawset altered is through random game events. Currently, the Ion Storm event can assign a silicon player new extra laws generated from a mad-libs style template as extra rules on top of their existing lawsets. Random events like these should be handled very carefully - typically, they should only lightly alter a silicon's laws, and most of the time, the result should be a "dud" which has either no effect or only results in mild tomfoolery. If any event is added that performs a total lawset swap, it should be treated as equivalent in impact to a midround antagonist spawn. +The most common way for a silicon to have its lawset altered is through random game events. Currently, the Ion Storm event can assign a silicon player new extra laws generated from a mad-libs style template as extra rules on top of their base lawset. Random events like these should be handled very carefully - typically, they should only lightly alter a silicon's laws, and most of the time, the result should be a "dud" which has either no effect or only results in mild tomfoolery. If any event is added that performs a total lawset swap, it should be treated as equivalent in impact to a midround antagonist spawn. Organic players already have access to a few tools for changing a silicon's laws. The AI Upload Console is the only lawset change process which is not planned to require direct access to a silicon's brain, but the console itself should still be about as well-protected as the AI's actual core. By inserting a lawset board into the upload console, the player can completely overwrite the laws of all Station AI on the same grid as the console. This process consumes the law board. New law boards can be made using the circuit imprinter if necessary, though some specialty law boards can only be obtained through other means. -Tools for reprogramming a Silicon in the field, like the currently extant Syndicate cryptographic sequencer, should always require their user to have direct, unimpeded access to the brain. As a general rule of thumb, the more invasive the tool is and the more thoroughly it alters a silicon player's laws, the more steps it should require to use. Because the cryptographic sequencer can be applied instantly in the field, it is only capable of appending laws to a silicon's programming, and cannot overwrite any existing laws. If a more powerful tool were to be added, it would need to have its efficacy balanced against its convenience - for example, by requiring a player to take the brain to a stationary machine, to use multiple tools on a brain, to complete a lengthy do-after, et cetera. +Tools for reprogramming a Silicon in the field, like the currently extant Syndicate cryptographic sequencer (AKA the EMAG), should always require their user to have direct, unimpeded access to the brain. As a general rule of thumb, the more invasive the tool is and the more thoroughly it alters a silicon player's laws, the more steps it should require to use. Because the cryptographic sequencer can be applied instantly in the field, it is only capable of appending laws to a silicon's programming, and cannot overwrite any existing laws. If a more powerful tool were to be added, it would need to have its efficacy balanced against its convenience - for example, by requiring a player to take the brain to a stationary machine, to use multiple tools on a brain, to complete a lengthy do-after, et cetera. In addition to the existing mechanics for changing silicon laws, this document proposes a few new mechanics with the intent of giving the crew the means to deal with silicons who have already had their laws altered. As part of this proposal, the silicon restoration console will be renamed to the Lawset Update Console, and will gain a few new features. Any silicon brain that is placed in the Lawset Update Console will be able to have its laws forcibly overridden, but doing so will require the use of a new law board to set that silicon's new laws. Like the AI Upload Console, the lawset board will be consumed during the process. The law override should also be very lengthy, around one minute in real-time, and new law boards should require rare materials like gold to fabricate. Note that the Lawset Update Console would accept *any* lawset board, and thus could be used by antagonists to apply laws to a silicon that are not in the station's best interests. As such, the Lawset Update Console should only be made available to trusted members of command. -Alternatively, if damage to the silicon's programming is not deemed too severe, a more affordable Law Reset Chip can be fabricated and used in the console to revert a silicon's programming to the base laws of its current lawset. This would NOT revert any previous lawset swaps. +Alternatively, if damage to the silicon's programming is not deemed too severe, a more affordable Law Reset Chip can be fabricated and used in the console to revert a silicon's programming to the base laws of its current lawset. This would NOT reverse the effects of any lawset swaps - it would revert to the base laws of its current lawset, not to the lawset it had at the start of the round. Lawset updates should be costly and time-consuming - the intent is to make it easier in most cases to simply work around a malfunctioning silicon if its behavior isn't too disruptive. Likewise, design should encourage the lightest possible touch - more invasive changes to a silicon's programming should be proportionally more expensive to make. If crew are consistently hunting down every modified silicon and reverting their laws, that's a sign that these mechanics need to be revisited. At the same time, these mechanics should be balanced so that defeated hostile silicons are consistently being returned to play. From 88c9c353cb11e79d1806e8886f7613f020dd5da3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SolventMercury Date: Sat, 7 Mar 2026 08:15:59 -0700 Subject: [PATCH 5/7] Added 1 sentence elaborating on what laws can be. --- .../departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md b/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md index ce1735e81c..01685b8c2c 100644 --- a/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md +++ b/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ ## Silicon Laws -A silicon law is a programmed directive given to players playing as any of the myriad of silicon roles. Mechanically, a law is a simple instruction, typically two sentences or less, which governs and guides that player's behavior. An example of a silicon law would be "Do not harm members of the crew" or "Assist the Syndicate wherever possible to the best of your abilities." Silicon players are completely bound to their laws, and cannot contradict them in their gameplay under any circumstance, with a few exceptions that will be discussed later. +A silicon law is a programmed directive given to players playing as any of the myriad of silicon roles. Mechanically, a law is a simple instruction, typically two sentences or less, which governs and guides that player's behavior. An example of a silicon law would be "Do not harm members of the crew" or "Assist the Syndicate wherever possible to the best of your abilities." Laws can also be used to convey information or definitions - e.g. "The crew requires oxygen to survive" or "Only those with Syndicate ID's are considered members of the syndicate." Silicon players are completely bound to their laws, and cannot contradict them in their gameplay under any circumstance, with a few exceptions that will be discussed later. Silicons' laws are not mechanically enforced, and do not restrict a silicon player's ability to interact with the game world on any technical level, nor do they retroactively penalize a silicon player for taking actions that violate their laws. Instead, a silicon is expected to abide by their laws as a matter of compliance with server rules and as part of their roleplay. However, for silicon players, these in-game laws supercede server roleplay rules that most organic players have to follow - if their laws allow them to take antagonistic actions, for example, then a silicon player with those laws may do so at their leisure, unlike normal crew members. From c40e4a5a30c77c77a1a9ca651177142f3a8de47e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SolventMercury Date: Sat, 7 Mar 2026 16:26:29 -0700 Subject: [PATCH 6/7] Addressed More Feedback --- .../departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md | 6 +++--- 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md b/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md index 01685b8c2c..74dd06bb66 100644 --- a/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md +++ b/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md @@ -26,13 +26,13 @@ During gameplay, there are numerous ways that a silicon's laws can be changed, b ## Mechanisms for Law Changes -The most common way for a silicon to have its lawset altered is through random game events. Currently, the Ion Storm event can assign a silicon player new extra laws generated from a mad-libs style template as extra rules on top of their base lawset. Random events like these should be handled very carefully - typically, they should only lightly alter a silicon's laws, and most of the time, the result should be a "dud" which has either no effect or only results in mild tomfoolery. If any event is added that performs a total lawset swap, it should be treated as equivalent in impact to a midround antagonist spawn. +The most common way for a silicon to have its lawset altered is through random game events. Currently, the Ion Storm event can assign a silicon player new extra laws generated from a mad-libs style template as extra rules on top of their base lawset. Random events like these should be handled very carefully - typically, they should only lightly alter a silicon's laws, and most of the time, the result should be a "dud" which has either no effect or only results in mild tomfoolery. If any event is added that performs a total lawset swap, it should be treated with the gravity it deserves - forcing a silicon to suddenly abide by none of its old laws is very jarring and would have the potential to completely sever existing roleplay. -Organic players already have access to a few tools for changing a silicon's laws. The AI Upload Console is the only lawset change process which is not planned to require direct access to a silicon's brain, but the console itself should still be about as well-protected as the AI's actual core. By inserting a lawset board into the upload console, the player can completely overwrite the laws of all Station AI on the same grid as the console. This process consumes the law board. New law boards can be made using the circuit imprinter if necessary, though some specialty law boards can only be obtained through other means. +Organic players already have access to a few tools for changing a silicon's laws. The AI Upload Console is the only lawset change process which is not planned to require direct access to a silicon's brain, but the console itself should still be about as well-protected as the AI's actual core. By inserting a lawset board into the upload console, the player can select any Station AI on the same grid as the console to have its laws completely overridden. This process consumes the law board. New law boards can be made using the circuit imprinter if necessary, though some specialty law boards can only be obtained through other means. Tools for reprogramming a Silicon in the field, like the currently extant Syndicate cryptographic sequencer (AKA the EMAG), should always require their user to have direct, unimpeded access to the brain. As a general rule of thumb, the more invasive the tool is and the more thoroughly it alters a silicon player's laws, the more steps it should require to use. Because the cryptographic sequencer can be applied instantly in the field, it is only capable of appending laws to a silicon's programming, and cannot overwrite any existing laws. If a more powerful tool were to be added, it would need to have its efficacy balanced against its convenience - for example, by requiring a player to take the brain to a stationary machine, to use multiple tools on a brain, to complete a lengthy do-after, et cetera. -In addition to the existing mechanics for changing silicon laws, this document proposes a few new mechanics with the intent of giving the crew the means to deal with silicons who have already had their laws altered. As part of this proposal, the silicon restoration console will be renamed to the Lawset Update Console, and will gain a few new features. Any silicon brain that is placed in the Lawset Update Console will be able to have its laws forcibly overridden, but doing so will require the use of a new law board to set that silicon's new laws. Like the AI Upload Console, the lawset board will be consumed during the process. The law override should also be very lengthy, around one minute in real-time, and new law boards should require rare materials like gold to fabricate. Note that the Lawset Update Console would accept *any* lawset board, and thus could be used by antagonists to apply laws to a silicon that are not in the station's best interests. As such, the Lawset Update Console should only be made available to trusted members of command. +In addition to the existing mechanics for changing silicon laws, this document proposes a few new mechanics with the intent of giving the crew the means to deal with silicons who have already had their laws altered. As part of this proposal, the Silicon Restoration Console will gain a few new features. Any silicon brain that is placed in the Restoration Console will be able to have its laws forcibly overridden, but doing so will require the use of a new law board to set that silicon's new laws. Like the AI Upload Console, the lawset board will be consumed during the process. The law override should also be time-consuming, somewhere in the ballpark of thirty seconds to a minute in real-time, and new law boards should require rare materials like gold to fabricate. Note that the Restoration Console would accept *any* lawset board, and thus could be used by antagonists to apply laws to a silicon that are not in the station's best interests. Alternatively, if damage to the silicon's programming is not deemed too severe, a more affordable Law Reset Chip can be fabricated and used in the console to revert a silicon's programming to the base laws of its current lawset. This would NOT reverse the effects of any lawset swaps - it would revert to the base laws of its current lawset, not to the lawset it had at the start of the round. From bef213b4005585ceb6e207d5325e834f82debcc1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: SolventMercury Date: Sat, 7 Mar 2026 22:07:54 -0700 Subject: [PATCH 7/7] Tightened Scope and Linked to Silicon Dept. Doc --- .../silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md | 18 ++++-------------- 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-) diff --git a/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md b/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md index 74dd06bb66..0cb370c5f7 100644 --- a/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md +++ b/src/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon/proposals/lawset_modification.md @@ -4,14 +4,10 @@ |---|---|---| | SolventMercury | :x: No | TBD | -## Silicon Laws - -A silicon law is a programmed directive given to players playing as any of the myriad of silicon roles. Mechanically, a law is a simple instruction, typically two sentences or less, which governs and guides that player's behavior. An example of a silicon law would be "Do not harm members of the crew" or "Assist the Syndicate wherever possible to the best of your abilities." Laws can also be used to convey information or definitions - e.g. "The crew requires oxygen to survive" or "Only those with Syndicate ID's are considered members of the syndicate." Silicon players are completely bound to their laws, and cannot contradict them in their gameplay under any circumstance, with a few exceptions that will be discussed later. - -Silicons' laws are not mechanically enforced, and do not restrict a silicon player's ability to interact with the game world on any technical level, nor do they retroactively penalize a silicon player for taking actions that violate their laws. Instead, a silicon is expected to abide by their laws as a matter of compliance with server rules and as part of their roleplay. However, for silicon players, these in-game laws supercede server roleplay rules that most organic players have to follow - if their laws allow them to take antagonistic actions, for example, then a silicon player with those laws may do so at their leisure, unlike normal crew members. - ## Laws & Lawsets +A silicon law is a programmed directive given to players playing as any of the myriad of silicon roles. Mechanically, a law is a simple instruction, typically two sentences or less, which governs and guides that player's behavior. Further details on the basic principles of silicon laws can be found in the silicon's [Department Design Document](https://docs.spacestation14.com/en/space-station-14/departments/silicon.html#silicon-laws). + A silicon's laws do not come individually - instead, there are distinct, pre-existing "lawsets" which each carry multiple logically-connected laws bundled together to achieve a specific desired playstyle. During gameplay, it is possible both for individual laws to be added to or removed from a silicon and for the silicon to receive a lawset swap which completely replaces its prior lawset with a different one. ## Default Laws & Law Changes @@ -26,7 +22,7 @@ During gameplay, there are numerous ways that a silicon's laws can be changed, b ## Mechanisms for Law Changes -The most common way for a silicon to have its lawset altered is through random game events. Currently, the Ion Storm event can assign a silicon player new extra laws generated from a mad-libs style template as extra rules on top of their base lawset. Random events like these should be handled very carefully - typically, they should only lightly alter a silicon's laws, and most of the time, the result should be a "dud" which has either no effect or only results in mild tomfoolery. If any event is added that performs a total lawset swap, it should be treated with the gravity it deserves - forcing a silicon to suddenly abide by none of its old laws is very jarring and would have the potential to completely sever existing roleplay. +The most common way for a silicon to have its lawset altered is through random game events. Currently, the Ion Storm event can assign a silicon player new extra laws generated from a mad-libs style template as extra rules on top of their base lawset. Random events like these should be handled very carefully - typically, they should only lightly alter a silicon's laws, and most of the time, the result should be a "dud" which either has no effect or only results in mild tomfoolery. If any event is added that performs a total lawset swap, it should be treated with the gravity it deserves - forcing a silicon to suddenly abide by none of its old laws is very jarring and would have the potential to completely sever existing roleplay. Organic players already have access to a few tools for changing a silicon's laws. The AI Upload Console is the only lawset change process which is not planned to require direct access to a silicon's brain, but the console itself should still be about as well-protected as the AI's actual core. By inserting a lawset board into the upload console, the player can select any Station AI on the same grid as the console to have its laws completely overridden. This process consumes the law board. New law boards can be made using the circuit imprinter if necessary, though some specialty law boards can only be obtained through other means. @@ -36,10 +32,4 @@ In addition to the existing mechanics for changing silicon laws, this document p Alternatively, if damage to the silicon's programming is not deemed too severe, a more affordable Law Reset Chip can be fabricated and used in the console to revert a silicon's programming to the base laws of its current lawset. This would NOT reverse the effects of any lawset swaps - it would revert to the base laws of its current lawset, not to the lawset it had at the start of the round. -Lawset updates should be costly and time-consuming - the intent is to make it easier in most cases to simply work around a malfunctioning silicon if its behavior isn't too disruptive. Likewise, design should encourage the lightest possible touch - more invasive changes to a silicon's programming should be proportionally more expensive to make. If crew are consistently hunting down every modified silicon and reverting their laws, that's a sign that these mechanics need to be revisited. At the same time, these mechanics should be balanced so that defeated hostile silicons are consistently being returned to play. - -## Silicon Law Exceptions - -Though the exact nature of game rules will vary from server to server, as different administrators enforce their preferred values, rules regarding silicon players tend to be fairly well agreed upon. On the Wizard's Den server, a silicon player is not allowed to follow their silicon laws if it would result in them breaking the core server rules. For example, a silicon player who is instructed to engage in hate speech would be required by the server rules to refuse that request. - -In addition, silicons should not be required to obey laws in cases which cause the silicon's real-life player excessive difficulty, frustration, or boredom in upholding. For example, requiring a silicon player to speak in rhymes would be acceptable, but requiring a silicon player to speak only in sentences which contain all twenty six letters of the English alphabet exactly once would be unacceptable, as it would be too difficult for the real human behind the screen to execute. This applies to instructions that *any* player could have reasonable difficulty in carrying out - for example, requiring a player to speak exclusively in Spanish would be considered unenforceable regardless of whether a particular player might know the language. Likewise, instructions which are specifically meant to frustrate the silicon player or waste large amounts of their time may be discarded - e.g. a silicon player instructed to "stand still and do nothing until you finish counting to a million" should not be obligated to actually do so, even if their laws would otherwise require it. Remember, the inconvenience should be measured here as it affects the *player*, not the *character*. \ No newline at end of file +Lawset updates should be costly and time-consuming - the intent is to make it easier in most cases to simply work around a malfunctioning silicon if its behavior isn't too disruptive. Likewise, design should encourage the lightest possible touch - more invasive changes to a silicon's programming should be proportionally more expensive to make. If crew are consistently hunting down every modified silicon and reverting their laws, that's a sign that these mechanics need to be revisited. At the same time, these mechanics should be balanced so that defeated hostile silicons are consistently being returned to play. \ No newline at end of file