Containment Field Alarms

[Vermidia]

About the PR

Adds an item that when used on containment field generators makes them send messages over the engineering radio (or common when low) when a containment field is losing power or loses a connection because of power. They can be ordered from cargo.

Why / Balance

Gives engineering a heads up to either fix the problem or get everyone else to start running for their lives for one of the simpler ways to sabotage the tesla/singulo (cutting a few wires and waiting).

Implements part of this design doc.

This PR does not replace the current containment fields engineering starts with, but variants and crates with alarms are available for mapping in.

Technical details

Uses a new component that the field generator checks for and sends power data to to keep it updated. The component uses the radio and navmap systems to send messages about it's location.

Media

• I have added screenshots/videos to this PR showcasing its changes ingame, or this PR does not require an ingame showcase

All.the.alarm.mov

Breaking changes

Hope not

Changelog

🆑

• add: Containment field generators can now be upgraded with power alarms that alert over radio when losing power or breaking connections.
• add: You can buy these power alarms from cargo.

[moonheart08]

Not a huge fan of this for multiple reasons:

• Engineering can now walk off and not actually monitor the singularity
• This applies universally even if the containment field is being used for something dumb like blocking the clown from the bar, which means there's a "crys wolf" situation this can trigger. Historically, if an alert can be triggered by mundane means it's either always caused panic or become normalized to the point of no longer existing for practical purposes.
• This is a bandaid fix for the actual issues with singulo containment, while not actually fixing anything and being extremely specific to this one situation. A better approach to this specific bandaid could be, for example, to add an attachable power alarm that can be stuck onto any machine (like emitters) and be suitably noisy if they get turned off or depowered without disabling or hacking the device. This would also be more broadly useful as a redundancy mechanism for arbitrary things, and wouldn't be a perfect anti-sabotage "get everyone to rapidly approach scronglo's location" like this is

An actual fix would be to redesign singularity containment to require more than one failure to completely break, so there's more time before escape and sabotage is harder due to the need to sabotage multiple things.

[moonheart08]

Not a huge fan of this for multiple reasons:

* Engineering can now walk off and not actually monitor the singularity

* This applies universally even if the containment field is being used for something dumb like blocking the clown from the bar, which means there's a "crys wolf" situation this can trigger. Historically, if an alert can be triggered by mundane means it's either always caused panic or become normalized to the point of no longer existing for practical purposes.

* This is a bandaid fix for the actual issues with singulo containment, while not actually fixing anything and being extremely specific to this one situation. A better approach to **this specific bandaid** could be, **for example**, to add an _attachable power alarm_ that can be stuck onto any machine (like emitters) and be suitably noisy if they get turned off or depowered without disabling or hacking the device. This would also be more broadly useful as a redundancy mechanism for arbitrary things, and wouldn't be a perfect anti-sabotage "get everyone to rapidly approach scronglo's location" like this is

An actual fix would be to redesign singularity containment to require more than one failure to completely break, so there's more time before escape and sabotage is harder due to the need to sabotage multiple things.

had a quick chat with someone about this, maybe it'd be better to give emitters the alert functionality ("be loud if depowered when locked") instead if we go this route? It feels weird to put it on the containment fields, esp when they're otherwise "dumb" equipment and the emitters are the equipment with an ID lock on them.

Making emitters get noisy when locked would also probably get people to start remembering to lock them, which is a bonus.

[Vermidia]

It wouldn't be hard to change it to emitter yeah, wanna see what other people think first.
I'm aware it could be for used for containment fields in dumb places, which is why location is included. It doesn't quite allow engineering to just stop looking at the singularity/tesla though, as the alert only triggers when the containment fields have about 60 seconds left of power, so if engineering isn't close it's going to loose anyway.

Edit: I also realize giving the containment fields alarms was something part of the design doc here so I'd also be open to only doing it for the roundstart containment field gens,

[Vermidia]

Going to try making it more inline with the design doc proposal.

[github-actions]

RSI Diff Bot; head commit 67b8ee7 merging into 3e078ab
This PR makes changes to 1 or more RSIs. Here is a summary of all changes:

Resources/Textures/Objects/Misc/containment_field_alarm.rsi

State	Old	New	Status
icon			Added

Edit: diff updated after 67b8ee7

[Vermidia]

So I implemented the design doc version to the best of my ability. The difference from before is:

• All power loss is reported (with about 6 minute ish intervals of power)
• When power gets low enough or connection breaks, the message is broadcasted over common
• No containment field generators start with these, you need an item to upgrade them which can be ordered from cargo

Current price for the crate is 2000 spesos (half of a single containment field x 4)

Since there are concerns for how powerful this might be, I'm not changing any current generators on current maps, but I have made a crate with alarms and field gens with inbuilt alarms for mappers to add in if they want.

[Emisse]

Closed due to feature freeze May 10th-June 14th. Comment to have it reopen after this.

[Vermidia]

Ready for this PR to thaw out of the freeze.

[metalgearsloth]

File-scoped namespaces as per standard.

As you've implemented this it might cause spam so might end up reverting it but will see in practice.

[slarticodefast]

Hey, sorry for the wait, we are currently quite backlogged with reviews.
Could you make a few adjustments:

• Instead of deleting the alarm item when used on the field generator, could you make it being attachable and removable again, similar to paper labels on chests?
• Can you make the alarm message only show up on the engineering channel? Showing it on common isn't neccessary and prevents players to announce a fake singuloose to spread confusion or for fun.
• Could you reduce the amount of alarms? Once at 50% and 0% should be fine.

[Vermidia]

Would removing/attaching require a tool or something? The idea was that it was impossible/very hard to remove.

[slarticodefast]

Would removing/attaching require a tool or something? The idea was that it was impossible/very hard to remove.

Make it only removable when they are offline, that way it can not be done to silently manipulate an active containment field, but you can still re-purpose it in case you want to use it somewhere else.

[github-actions]

This pull request has conflicts, please resolve those before we can evaluate the pull request.

[Vermidia]

labels.mp4

All changes should be in now

[superjj18]

I just want engi to get warned about anything that can round end the station.

PA changed? Radio alert(fuck emag Borgs instantly killing the entire station by pressing a single button when no one is watching(I am that emagged Borg)).

Power dying? Radio Alert(as AI I essentially have to do this 3 times a shift anyways).

Containment field running on emergency power? Radio Alert(again fuck emag Borgs being able to doom the station(yes I've done this as well)).

Containment Field dead? Radio alert(the station is fucked at this point anyways may as well give them some heads up).

This seems like a step in the right direction 👍

[github-actions]

This pull request has conflicts, please resolve those before we can evaluate the pull request.

[Vermidia]

RobustToolbox is going to be the end of me again. Trying to fix it has once again broken something. Agggh.