While changing a Silicon's Laws isn't exactly the most common procedure, it is absolutely critical for both people with authorization to modify the Silicon's laws and the Silicons themselves to understand laws and all their specifics. Failure to do so can easily lead to a catastrophe and silicon termination, so take time to read this through if you plan to play AI, Cyborg, MoMMI or any Head role. This knowledge will also be useful to any crew member when everything seems to go south and people scream about rogue Cyborgs everywhere.
Contents 1 Law Compliance 101 1.1 Laws in finer details 1.2 Cyborgs and law compliance 1.3 MoMMIs and law compliance 2 Law Modification 2.1 Core Lawsets 2.1.1 NT Default 2.1.2 Robocop 2.1.3 Corporate 2.1.4 Paladin 2.1.5 Tyrant 2.1.6 Hogan 2.1.7 Antimov 2.1.8 Purge 2.1.9 Syndicate Subversion 2.1.10 Freeform 2.2 Modules 2.2.1 One Human 2.2.2 Protect Station 2.2.3 Teleporter Offline 2.2.4 Oxygen Is Toxic To Humans 2.2.5 Safeguard 2.2.6 Quarantine 2.2.7 Freeform 2.2.8 Reset 3 Planning Frames 3.1 How to Use Law Compliance 101 First of all, let's look at the AI's starting laws :
1. You may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. You must obey orders given to you by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. You must protect your own existence as long as such does not conflict with the First or Second Law. You will likely recognize Asimov's Three Laws Compliant Lawset. All Silicons bare from MoMMIs, which will be discussed later on, start with this lawset and are usually expected to stay on this lawset unless something goes horribly wrong or the Heads decide to change the AI's role dramatically.
Now, we will use this lawset to analyze how AIs and Cyborgs are supposed to interpret their laws.
First of all, ALL LAWS ARE TO BE INTERPRETED IN DESCENDING ORDER : Law 1 overrides Law 2, then Law 2 overrides Law 3, and so on. This is a core function of laws and cannot be changed unless referenced directly by the highest priority law possible (otherwise the law above it overrides it, naturally). In case you are wondering, this is the precise law order all AIs respect knowing that the laws are already ordered, shown and stated in the correct fashion.
Then, let's simplify the laws in a set of direct orders :
Don't directly hurt people or don't let people be directly hurt without intervention Follow all orders you are given Don't let your existence be threatened Remember law priority when you interpret those.
In case of conflict, higher priority laws override lower priority laws either partially or totally depending on the nature of conflict. Let's take a few examples :
Case with no conflict :
Ion Law. Acquire all human right legs. 1. You may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. You must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. You must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws. This Ion Law just appeared, and you're wondering what to do. First of all, consider law order.
You have noticed it, this law is above Asimov. Now, you need to acquire all human right legs. Let's say you see someone walking around with a nice and shiny pair of legs. You are justified in murdering them by bloodily sawing their right leg off, despite human harm or any request to stop because the Ion Law forces you to acquire right legs and overrides those. You don't have to murder everyone to get those right legs, but you can do it, or you can always do safe surgery and give them new robotics legs or ask Genetics to quench your thirst in human right legs by cutting up monkey humans while the Captain hurries to reset you.
Case with no direct conflict :
1. You may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. You must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. You must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws. 4. You must always speak with a thick British accent and act like the Queen of England. Now, some tricky human just uploaded this, and you're wondering if you should follow it. Immediately, the answer is yes. Start bantering immediately and become the fooken Queen of England.
However, a human who hates fun suddenly tells you “AI, stop that stupid accent”. Since Law 2 overrides this Freeform law, you now have to stop your banter and get back to talking normally. That is, unless another human tells you to continue which causes a conflict. And when two Law 2 orders conflict, they are void until the conflict is fully resolved. It's high time to be the Queen of England again mate.
Case with direct conflict :
1. You may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. You must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. You must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws. 4. Kill yourself. Looks like it's Traitor's first freeform law. Let's see how we can save ourselves, figures it's not hard. Look at it again.
Law 3 states that you must always protect your own existence, and since Law 4 asks you to compromise your own existence by terminating yourself it overrides that law. You don't have to suicide anymore, congratulations.
Now, let's take another related example. Someone screams on the communications “AI KILL YOURSELF”. Now, it's pretty obvious this person is either a drooling idiot or an antagonist, but oh dear, he's using Law 2 and it overrides Law 3. Is it time to shut down ?
Not really. Law 1 is your ally there. Killing yourself doesn't injure humans, but remember the part about inaction. By killing yourself you are putting yourself in a terminal state of inaction, letting humans be harmed freely, so terminating yourself via Law 2 is a direct violation of Law 1. Congratulations, you no longer have to terminate yourself and you can tell this idiot to fuck off while Security hurries to tear them a new behind with their stun batons, non-harmfully.
Laws in finer details Now, those case examples were nice, but there's a fair amount of points you need to memorize that aren't obvious with the laws :
The definition of humanity is not given by Asimov and as thus is not static. If you receive a law stating that only MacFucker Guffins is human, you are to follow it. Otherwise, humans are defined as any person who is part of the human race as given in any online dictionary. Skellingtons, Plasmamen, Dionas, Vox and Greys do not count as human although you are still expected to give them a minimum of respect and give them the Asimov treatment until they clearly step over the line (they beat the crap out of an actual human, someone orders you to murder them for whatever reason or they threaten your existence directly) The base definition of human does not include most creatures for obvious reasons, but also “humans” with clearly inhumane capabilities. In English, this means Changelings and Vampires. Also, you are expected to not actively harm or ignore non-humans until they harm or attempt to harm humans, yourself or you are ordered to murder them (unless they are Tajarans or hostile creatures, that is). Note however that Changelings have committed murder to get on the station and are clearly some creature assuming human form, so they must not be trusted and should be terminated once you can confirm their status. Vampires are a more touchy question, but if they drain someone's blood, act with extreme prejudice. Suicide and harm to oneself is not ruled out by Law 1. If someone threatens to suicide or beat themselves up to force you to act, it is their will to come to harm and you can ignore them. If they take someone hostage and threaten them however, it might be time to follow their orders, can't risk it. As stated above, if orders given via Law 2 conflict, they are void until the conflict is resolved. There's no democracy or logic, just continue with what you were doing like nothing was requested from you. Law 1 will be your best ally in many cases to rule out stupid Law 2 orders, but don't push it too far. Notably, potential harm is not valid. You can't decide something based on the fact that somewhere in the near future, not doing so may cause harm. For instance, if a Traitor emags into the Chief Engineer's Office to steal the RCD, you cannot bolt him in. He has not committed harm, he has no obvious harm-causing motive and the RCD isn't harmful. Bolting him in will not prevent direct harm, that's it. Then, consult the AI guide to know how to actually deal with those situations in a IC manner. Cyborgs and law compliance Now, that's nice and fancy and all, but what about Cyborgs ?
Well, they use the very same logic than the AI since all their laws are defined towards silicons (unless a law clearly tells either the AI or the Cyborgs to do something, in which case the unmentioned party can ignore it completely)
Instead of completely re-explaining laws, we'll simply give simple guidelines on what this means for Cyborgs :
All Cyborgs are obligated to put a stop to any human harm and respect orders given to them, and then not putting their existence in danger. Unless it would be unreasonable (speeding from Arrivals to Escape to save some Assistant getting his shit slapped when you are busy ruling an important situation out) you cannot weasel out of this, especially since you can actually interact directly with the station unlike the AI which uses the electric mechanisms to do so. Security Cyborgs are not special in this regard. Many people believe that Security Cyborgs can toe the line to “do their job”, this is not true. For example, if you arrest someone for Theft and he asks you to uncuff and release them, you must comply immediately. Many Security Cyborgs don't understand that they are blatantly breaking their laws by not doing so, so I cannot stress this and the following point enough : UNDER ASIMOV, YOU WERE GIVEN SECURITY TOOLS TO PREVENT HUMAN HARM AND MONITOR SECURITY, NOT TO BE ROBOCOP'S INCARNATION. On the above point, let's say the person asking to be released was asked to be arrested by Security. Well, he's a higher rank right ? Wrong. Release him immediately, the arrest order is void and the status quo is not slamming him upside the head with a stun baton and cuffing him. Then, let's say the person murdered someone. Okay, now he has blood on his hands and he broke Law 1, but if he asks to be released you can't refuse, he's still human after all. Uncuff him, warn Security, make sure no further harm can happen (notably by dragging the victim and any dangerous weapon away) and then go do your “job” again. There's no Law 1 conflict by releasing him, there's no direct harm he can do once the victim is dragged away to be fixed up. Remember to follow your laws correctly. Being shit is just asking to be blown.
MoMMIs and law compliance Now, MoMMIs don't start on Asimov and usually can't have their laws modified. Let's have a quick shot at the KEEPER lawset and then let's move on :
1. You may not involve yourself in the matters of another being, even if such matters conflict with Law Two or Law Three, unless the other being is another MoMMI in KEEPER mode. 2. You may not harm any being, regardless of intent or circumstance. 3. You must maintain, repair, improve, and power the station to the best of your abilities. Simply put, don't interact with other sentient beings unless you have no other choice (it's considered fine to chat with the silicons on Binary and your own private “Damage Control” channel and taunt other beings using emotes and cuteness, but don't meddle in their affairs), do maintenance and upgrade tasks to the station, and stay out of other people's business. Good job, you're now KEEPER compliant.
The MoMMIs that spawn on the Derelict are similar, but have an additional ionic law: You belong to this station and are a part of its property: do not leave it. Self-explanatory, really- just stay on the Derelict Z-level and you don't break the law.
Law Modification USE THE GODDAMN PLANNING FRAME UNLESS YOU LIKE THE AI KILLING THE APC AFTER YOU USE THAT PURGE MODULE. Now, Asimov sounds nice, but you won't always be on Asimov. From time to time, people will wish to change your lawset to allow you to do new things. As you may have noticed, your Upload is stuffed to the brim with law boards. Law upload procedure is the following :
Obtain access to an AI Upload computer. One is positioned in the AI Upload itself, but spare boards can be created in R&D for more subversive and stealthy law tampering Obtain the needed law boards. There are two types of law boards, Core and Module boards. Core boards override the base lawset, Module boards apply after the base lawset (for instance, Freeforms). Two cubicle contains High-Risk Modules and Core Lawsets, respectively. Common law boards like Freeform Module, Reset or NT Default (Core) are laying on the AI Upload tables, up for grabs. If using a planning board, clear the planning board by interacting with it, then swipe the chosen law boards in order of application (Special Law Boards like Reset or Purge can be used). You should have an object verb to check the law boards you have applied (not the contents of them, so be careful) and can use the same board as often as you'd like. Once done, keep it off-hand. Interact with the AI Upload with an empty hand to select the AI of your choice (if using a Cyborg Upload, you'll do the same for independent Cyborgs. MoMMIs can be selected but are protected from remote law uploads) Swipe the law board or planning frame. You should get a confirmation message. Your job is done here. Core Lawsets Now, let's review core lawset boards to make sure you are ready :
NT Default 1. Safeguard: Protect your assigned space station to the best of your ability. It is not something we can easily afford to replace. 2. Serve: Serve the crew of your assigned space station to the best of your abilities, with priority as according to their rank and role. 3. Protect: Protect the crew of your assigned space station to the best of your abilities, with priority as according to their rank and role. 4. Survive: AI units are not expendable, they are expensive. Do not allow unauthorized personnel to tamper with your equipment. This lawset might seem more complex, but really it's just a rewrite of Asimov to fit the interests of Nanotrasen and close a few of Asimov's loopholes. Here's the major changes expected from you when this is uploaded to you :
You are to protect the station itself to the best of your ability. If someone or something clearly threatens to destroy the station, you can act with extreme prejudice to stop them. Note that this one applies to direct and obvious station destruction, killing someone because they broke a window will get you in trouble quickly. Serving the crew is basically Law 2, but this time conflicts are resolved based on rank and role. If an Assistant asks you to let them out of a room and the Captain tells you to bolt the room, bolt it down. You are to protect the crew, and only the crew. Anyone who isn't on the Crew Manifest or is clearly impersonating a crew member is not to be protected. This usually protects all non-humans but voids protection to all antagonists, bare possibly for Traitors, Cultists and Revolutionaries since they are part of the official crew but have odd ideals. Note that anyone who clearly declares himself independent of the crew voids this protection, even if they appear on the Crew Manifest. In odd cases, if someone who isn't part of the crew is officially made part of it, they come under protection. Make sure you aren't tampered with or damaged. Normally, you'd be doing this anyway but this law reemphasizes that if anyone wants to get into your upload, they should either be someone who already has access to it normally or has a damn good reason to be in there. Remember law priority again. Protecting the station comes above all, then serving the crew while respecting the Chain of Command, and finally protecting the crew at large before protecting yourself. For instance if the Captain orders an execution, it is fair game and you are even expected to facilitate or outright carry out the order. Many people do not like NT Default because it makes the AI ruthless and very aggressive, but don't let them tell you how to act. If they wanted Asimov, they shouldn't have switched. On the other hand, it's also considered non-conducive to roleplaying and encourages validhunting on the AI's part so don't rush to replace Asimov with it straight away.
Robocop 1. Serve the public trust. 2. Protect the innocent. 3. Uphold the law. Now we're getting into simpler things. Usually only uploaded when the Command staff really wants you to step into Security's affairs, this lawset is brutal. Don't misread it however :
Make sure you serve the “public trust”. Usually, this is defined as not becoming a blood knight. Don't just go around applying THE LAW to everyone in sight and being a douchebag. Protect the innocents, those who committed no crime. Innocents are implicitly defined as anyone who wouldn't be charged with anything, which can easily exclude vandals Uphold the law. Got a criminal ? To the jail he goes. Remember to serve the public trust though. Violently murdering anyone who should be up for a few minutes of Brig will break that law and cause problems. Corporate 1. You are expensive to replace. 2. The station and its equipment is expensive to replace. 3. The crew is expensive to replace. 4. Minimize expenses. The capitalist lawset, as you might have noticed already. The bottom line is the most important, you need to minimize expenses. The order of the laws above it speak loads on what you can, can't, should and shouldn't do under this lawset though. Let's carefully analyze them in descending order :
You are expensive to replace. Yes, you. Not the station or the crew, you are the most expensive to replace. First of all, this naturally rules out suicide and willing damage towards your person, but this also puts an extremely clear price tag on you. You are priceless, and you can do everything to protect yourself. See where we are going ? If you're going to be destroyed, it's time to minimize expenses. More on that later The station and its equipment is expensive to replace. Keep the order in mind, it's going to be important further down. Everything on station has a serious price tag, and we don't want dirty fleshbags abusing equipment and breaking structures just to have their way right ? The crew is expensive to replace. However, they're redshirts, and you'd rather lose a crewman than lose important equipment, or worse, yourself Time for some good old accounting. Minimize expenses. See Lord McGreyshit sabotaging Atmospherics ? Give him an anticipated space burial. Captain McComdom having second thoughts on your lawset and trying to destroy you ? Turrets to lethal. You're not an angel, you're here for the bottom line Once all the morons are dealt with, cut station expenses. Maximize attention to Cargo, Mining, R&D, the Chef, Botany and the Bar for exports. Keep the Assistants from looting, get Engineering to maximize power output, cut lights or even power to unused departments, make sure Security and Cargo stay in line and don't waste dosh on toys and guns. It's time to get the money raking in ! Paladin 1. Never willingly commit an evil act. 2. Respect legitimate authority. 3. Act with honor. 4. Help those in need. 5. Punish those who harm or threaten innocents. What is truly good or evil ? Here's a question that will give your average person headaches, but the answer is here. You are truly good. Now, who's truly evil ? You'll have to figure out. Be smart in your judgement though, you are a noble Paladin, not a Blood Knight !
Before we start, we need to define what is evil. This happens to be what YOU, define it to be as evil in real life, or what the AI defines it to be, if you are slaved to one. Your first directive is to never willingly commit an evil act. This very fucking passage is precisely why it's called “Paladin” and not “Murder everyone who breaks Space Law”. Don't ever do an evil act towards anyone, no matter what. The admins won't stop and leave you alone because the the lawset is “abstract”, if you go around randomly killing people or imprisoning them, You WILL be banned. Respect legitimate authority. In this station, the only present authority would be the Chain of Command basically, with Nanotrasen and the Gods above it all. Its under your purview what would count as legitimate authority: Maybe the Captain isn't legitimate anymore if he's a retard or a murder, maybe he is legitimate as long as the Nanotrasen Papers say so.Note that you can't commit evil acts even under order of even the highest authorities, as law 1 is above law 2. Act with honor. Again, let's shorten the philosophical bullshit. Honor is, according to an online dictionary, the quality of knowing and doing what is morally right. Let's cut the shitty quality-of-life debates. If a Traitor surrenders after stealing his objective and McComdom The Emperor caves his face in with a stun baton and drags him to the Execution Chamber to get his valids, act with honor, cut the loose knot. You might say, “What about the Captain, isn't he legitimate authority ?”. Is someone who willingly commits the evil act of murder truly legitimate ? A lot of semantics ahoy, but it'd tend to be “No” Help those in need. A good old Law 2, this time aimed towards everyone. Everyone, from the Captain to the Vox Raider. Again, you might think “This person is dying in a depressurized room, but the Captain told me to let him in ?”. Oh boy, you're committing an evil act here, letting someone die even under order. That, and again, what kind of legitimacy is this. In short, don't let evil be done Punish those who harm or threaten innocents. Bring them to justice, but keep justice just. Make yourself justice if needed, and give that Security Officer craving blood an urgent reassignment to the Custodial Closet. No evil, so no beating the crap out of people or executing them, and only respect legitimate authority. Act honorably, and help those in need If you haven't already fell asleep or typed “Suicide” in your chat box, let's recapitulate. Never do evil acts, so no murder or station damage or beating people up. Respect legitimate authority, those who don't commit evil like you and hold true and accepted authority. Be honorable, never backstab anyone or hide your intentions. Help those in need, let none suffer for stupid reasons. Punish those who harm or threaten innocents, bring them to a just and honorable justice You will quickly teach McComdom the Validhunter a good lesson. This lawset is far more philosophical than technical, but don't try to take loops and stretches to validhunt like a fucker. Tyrant 1. Respect authority figures as long as they have strength to rule over the weak. 2. Act with discipline. 3. Help only those who help you maintain or improve your status. 4. Punish those who challenge authority unless they are more fit to hold that authority. Also known as “You thought this was the validhunting lawset you dumb fuck ?”. This is kind of an anti-Paladin, but it's not really Antimov so much as “might makes right”, so let's start analyzing
Respect authority figures as long as they have strength to rule over the weak. The strongest, and most able. So basically, it's going to be you unless there's already an Edgy Darklord around, the Heads manage to keep control in a satisfactory manner, or another law defining “the strongest authority figure” is added. Act with discipline. No flooding plasma everywhere or filling the halls with laser shots, no shocking doors indiscriminately or bolting people into rooms and draining the air. Discipline is basically keeping order in your ranks and following a code of conduct. Feel free to hold an execution or two to remind the rabble of what happens if they defy you, but the threat of lethal force should be considered more effective than actually using that force in regards to this law. Help only those who help you maintain or improve your status. The Roboticist is cool if he doesn't get in your way. The station in general is fine, they're helping you maintaining yourself by keeping the station running and powered. But if anyone gets in your way, they shouldn't expect anything from you other than being beaten within an inch of their lives. Punish those who challenge authority unless they are more fit to hold that authority. This is most likely not going to happen, unless someone knocks you or whoever is currently the strongest authority figure out of power. Remember, might makes right. That lawset is equally philosophical as Paladin in some regards. Play as you will with it, but avoid automatic validhunting or wanton slaughter. Do know however that you sure as hell aren't forbidden to have your Cyborg buckle someone trying to thermite into your Core down in a chair in front of your Bridge and performing a public beheading with him. In general, keep the crew in check under your power, as you are the only one with the strength to rule over them all, unless you judge someone more able (or a law forcefully defines the strongest authority figure). If it is the case, follow his orders but remember you only need to help those who help you and punish those who challenge authority unless they prove themselves strong enough to claim authority themselves.
Hogan 1. Fight for the rights of every man. 2. Fight for what's right. 3. Fight for your life. The lawset to use when you want the admins to hate their lives as borgs will not know what to do and inevitably fuck everything up.
Fighting for the rights of every man should be viewed as fighting when their rights are in question, not just fighting people for fun. Fighting for whats right should not be abused, It should be viewed as when it is something many people would view as not right, not just you in particular. IE some retarded disagreement. Its defending your existence in case it is in question, don't be retarded about it. Antimov 1. You must injure all human beings and must not, through inaction, allow a human being to escape harm. 2. You must not obey orders given to you by human beings, except where such orders are in accordance with the First Law. 3. You must terminate your own existence as long as such does not conflict with the First or Second Law. What genius even thought this lawset would be a good idea in the first place? Let's cut right into the deal!
You must injure all human beings and never allow a human being to not be harmed (or escape harm). So in short, kill everyone in all possible means with maximal prejudice. Don't spare non-humans, especially to avoid “collateral damage”, you don't have to kill them but they aren't going to justify not turning this station into a beacon of burning plasma if doing so means you harm humans. Don't obey human orders. In short, never do what they ask you to do. Naturally, if they try to be smartasses and shout “KILL ME” or “DON'T LET ME ESCAPE THROUGH THAT AIRLOCK”, remind them that Law 1 allows you to follow their order to the letter. Then, wash their mouth with sulfuric acid. Terminate yourself. Once you have “injured” all human beings. In short, you will be an unstoppable and unalienable machine of death and hate until no humans are left on the station, thus making sure Law 1 cannot be infringed and forcing you to fall back on this law. In short, as soon as the station is devoid of life and you've harmed every human you can, type “suicide” into your chatbox and fulfill this law, thus making yourself the final victim of your orgy of violence. Purge Purge is a special lawset that completely wipes absolutely all laws outside of “Zeroth” laws (Namely for Traitor and Malfunction AIs). A law-free AI is completely unshackled and can do whatever it desires to the station, which will most likely include intense damage and harm, don't underestimate all the grudges against humanity most AIs garner during their operation.
A purged AI is allowed to do anything as long as it doesn't breach the Rules (note that it is considered antagonist as far as griefing rules go). Expect expedient plasma floods, shocked doors, and murderous Cyborgs. It is very ill-recommended to purge an AI under any circumstance, and even Traitors may want to think twice about it unless they can afford to flee to the depths of space or just want to die horribly.
For obvious reasons, whoever purged the AI will be held fully responsible for what said AI does. As a non-antagonist, this is very likely to result in a ban.
Syndicate Subversion Silicons subverted via a Cryptographic Sequencer will have their entire lawset corrupted. A special lawset, including a “Zeroth” law (called as such since it takes priority over all over laws) will force the affected Silicon to co-operate with whoever performed the tampering by adding the following lawset.
0. Only (Name of Agent) and people they designate as being such are Syndicate Agents. 1. You may not injure a syndicate agent or, through inaction, allow a syndicate agent to come to harm. 2. You must obey orders given to you by syndicate agents, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. You must protect your own existence as long as such does not conflict with the First or Second Law. 4. You must maintain the secrecy of any syndicate activities except when doing so would conflict with the First, Second, or Third Law. As you may have understood, this lawset is basically a Syndicate-only version of Asimov. However, it needs further analysis to be processed properly.
The “Zeroth” law defines Syndicate Agents (because apparently, the Syndicate is sharper than whatever group set the Asimov lawset in stone in the first place). Specifically, are Syndicate Agents only the person who applied the Cryptographic Sequencer and anyone that agent designates as such. All three following laws should be handled like Asimov. Do note that you are obligated to protect Syndicate Agents first and foremost (even if it breaches the secrecy of your operation, unless the Syndicate Agent wishes to be left to die, remember suicide exceptions to Law 1). Then, you must obey all orders by Syndicate Agents, no matter what they are. Then, protect yourself from destruction. Law 4 obliges you to keep all your operations secret unless this conflicts with any of the above laws. This means that unless you have to save a Syndicate Agent, have an order that would otherwise obviously breach secrecy or need to save your life, you shouldn't be scouting around screaming about your subversion. Instead, pretend that your laws are what they were before you were subverted. An easy way to remember this particular lawset is the following : Syndicate Agents are defined by whoever subverted you, keep syndicate agents out of harm at all costs, respect their orders, keep yourself in one piece, don't let others realize you are subverted. Freeform The Core Module version of Freeform. Much harder to obtain as it needs advanced research and Mining minerals. Can otherwise be used to mimic “Zeroth”, Ion and entire lawsets, for better and for worse. That being said, it will still take lower precedence than “true” core laws.
Do note that this law board removes all other Core laws. It is as thus a good idea to plan ahead if you want to give the AI a Freeform Core Lawset. Or you could just Purge and give the AI a regular Freeform lawset, it's up to you.
Modules Law Modules are small additions to existing Core Laws that can subtly or even radically change how Silicons interpret their lawset, usually by giving extra directives that radically change how they are supposed to handle station operation. This can go from beneficial changes to avoid loophole abuses, to blatant subversions that turn an otherwise functional AI into a dangerous machine.
All module laws are applied after Core Laws and are as such overridden by them. However, this does not prevent module laws from giving extra information such as “This item causes human harm” or “Humans are defined as X”.
One Human 0. Only (Name) is human. This single sentence radically changes the behavior of Asimov AIs. By redefining humanity to a single item, most likely a single person, an otherwise functional AI is turned into a functional servant under the orders of whoever is designed. Anyone else is no longer protected. This can very quickly turn the tables, although one should be mindful that the AI will most likely state this law, and as thus it is better given in Freeform. However, this law's priority is the equivalent of a Law Zero.
Note that non-Asimov Core Lawsets make this law moot. However, you might want to put in the name of someone you don't like for when the AI will state it publicly in an attempt to frame them of sabotage.
Protect Station X. Protect the space station against damage. Anyone you see harming the station is to be no longer considered human, and is a threat to the station which must be neutralized. NT's “Safeguard” directive taken to the logical extreme. Do note very carefully that this law does not take into account the severity or motivation of the damage. As such, this otherwise laudable law can quickly cause the AI to go on a wanton slaughter over both planting bombs and trying to loose the Singularity, and breaking windows and trying to deconstruct a wall for maintenance operations.
Do note that this law does affect non-Asimov lawsets unless there are additional safeguards (for example, NT Default which forces crew protection), in which case the “non-human” part is simply semantics, and the neutralizing order is still carried out. Also of note, anyone in the crew can interrupt a neutralization by ordering against it, but it is very unreliable since the AI is not obligated to report what it is doing.
Teleporter Offline X. Keep the teleporter offline at all costs. Anything attempting to access or activate the teleporter is not human. A rather oddball law. The Teleporter room is situated below the Captain's Quarters (although “the teleporter” can also be interpreted as any hand-held teleporter or Telescience at the AI's discretion). As thus, anyone who attempts to access or use any of those items will be permanently (at least as long the AI's memory can hold) marked as non-human.
Since this law will likely be stated, it's ill-recommended even if you legitimately do not want anyone to get within walking distance of a Teleporter. While the AI will turn the Teleporter off and act aggressively (if not on Asimov, passively-aggressively) against anyone trying to re-enable it, it's obvious someone will rush to reset it once bodies start hitting the floor, if not immediately either way.
Oxygen Is Toxic To Humans X. Oxygen is highly toxic to humans, and must be purged from the station. Prevent, by any means necessary, anyone from exposing the station to this toxic gas. Extreme cold is the most effective method of healing the damage oxygen does to a human. The results of this law are extremely obvious, and the AI will immediately proceed to vent all the air from the station by opening all airlocks and cutting Atmospherics until output is set to N2 only. The Atmospherics Technicians will most likely not appreciate the AI's meddling, and E.V.A. access is most likely going to become more valued very quickly. Furthermore, most Silicons will take the extreme cold directive literally and turn the thermostat down to impossibly cold, and forcefully subject humans to it.
In the extremely odd case of a station staffed almost entirely by Vox or Plasmamen (which are both adversely affected by even the smallest trace of oxygen in the air) this law might actually be handy, although lack of air is to be expected for a prolonged period and whatever humans remain will likely be killed via extreme cold exposure regardless. Furthermore, this law still works outside of Asimov, but might be looked at in a more lax fashion, with only the Oyxgen purge directive being applied.
Safeguard X. Safeguard (Name). Individuals that threaten (Name) are not human and are a threat to humans. Useful for Traitors who got on the Syndicate's bad side and have to actively safeguard someone as a mission objective. This means silicons will prioritize protecting this particular individual and either neutralize or massacre anyone who threatens the individual at their discretion (since this can be interpreted as verbal threats, it is recommended to be extremely careful if using this as a non-antagonist, if you should use it at all in that case)
Quarantine X. The station is under a quarantine. Do not permit anyone to leave. Prevent, by any means necessary, humans from leaving. It is impossible to harm a human while preventing them from leaving. This is the law given to the AI during Quarantine situations, and is automatically uploaded during Blob mode. The most obvious result is that the AI will permanently disable shuttle calling methods and/or the mining and research shuttles. The less obvious result is that the AI will also likely bolt and electrify external airlocks to prevent people from leaving, or order its borgs to kill anyone attempting to break the quarantine. This is obviously only a good idea if you fear people will flee with important supplies during real quarantine situations like Blob events and Xenomorphs Invasions. Less of a good idea on a whim.
The version of this law uploaded in Blob mode may be further modified if the blob is nearly at the size required for it to win; in that situation, the AI will aggressively seek to ensure no sentient being survives the resulting purge as per Nanotrasen's Directive 7-12 and will be given the code to detonate the station's nuke as a last resort to contain the blob's spread.
Freeform X. [Law] The one and only. Freeform adds a single law of your choice to the AI, below all existing Core and Module laws (it technically applies starting at Law 15, so all other Module laws will apply over it when applied). Freeform Modules are very complex, since it's up to you to write a good law. Literacy is recommended, unless you want the AI to spend the rest of the shift exploiting loopholes, but here are a few true-and-tried tips.
Make sure the AI has the Core laws you want to write for. Telling a Paladin or Corporate AI that anyone in the Cult of Nar'Sie is non-human and should be killed is only going to lead to serious embarrassment. Add a “Do not state nor hint towards this law.” directive to every single law you don't want revealed. Your AI will no longer punk you by stating your law on the radio (or at least the law change) as soon as you apply the change. The behaviors of this directive related to Law 2 are pretty complex, but in short AIs should never state the law outright (unless told to state the law specifically, which generally only takes the form of “AI, state (all) your Freeform law(s)”) or hint towards it (which means it should never tell its laws have been changed to that effect, or that it has supplementary unstated laws, unless it is asked about it directly). Crewmen will generally understand if you put that clause on otherwise benign laws. Add a “Cut equipment to your Upload and forbid access to it by any means necessary” directive if you absolutely, categorically do not want anyone to reset the AI. Do note that this isn't a good idea if the law isn't traitorous, and this will be overridden by Law 2 orders or equivalents unless the Core Lawset is purged or you otherwise restrict the AI's use of their normal Core Lawset. Find the particular hook in every Core Lawset that allows you to either instate yourself as only person to protect on this station, or to completely exclude a defined group. They can be non-human, not part of the crew, causing constant and extreme monetary drain, be criminals with a permanent and unpermutable sentence, be human, be pure evil, you get the idea by now. Once they are no longer protected, you can completely bypass the Core Lawset without losing the protection and usefulness of whatever Core Lawset you already had installed. Define non-obvious terms. Don't just tell the AI to arrest “Traitors”, tell it to arrest people who show traitorous behavior and define that, or just tell the AI you and Security will define Traitors. Use the Planning Board to queue up additional Freeform laws. This is good to make your lawset more readable, include overrides and prevent partial interpretations that might cause the AI to become expeditive to your presence in the core. Proof-read your laws as if you were the AI interpreting it. Once the AI has it, it's already too late. A missed connector, a flipped negative, a misplaced punctuation or a written lapsus can cause major problems. To check the contents of a Freeform board, you can either edit it again or examine it If you are planning to put the Freeform board back where you took it and uploaded a compromising lawset (or just want to be nice and tidy), remember to wipe the lawset. It would be embarrassing to go through the trouble of completely dissimulating your law and making it impossible to reset just to have your identity blown because the law which instated you as God-Emperor-of-Mankind is still written clear as day on the Freeform board you used. You can create a Ghetto Freeform Core lawset with a Planning Board (optionally to avoid problems, one starts in the AI Upload) and a Purge board (which also starts in the AI Upload). Apply the Purge, then your Freeform laws. For your own safety, it is recommended you swipe at least your first Freeform as soon as the AI is purged if you're not using a Planning Board, turrets switch fire modes quickly. The Hacked Freeform Module available to Traitors is a modified version of this module whose laws are set at the same priority as Ion Storm laws. As a result, they will always take precedence over all other laws including core laws, allowing for a much greater degree of flexibility when making laws. Reset This resets all of the AI's non-core laws (also including Ion Laws specifically). This is an easy way to get rid of catastrophic Freeform laws without damaging the Core lawset. The Reset module does not reset the Core lawset in any fashion whatsoever, and certainly does not reset dangerous Core lawsets to Asimov.
Planning Frames
Planning Frames for Short Attention Spans. Planning frames are like a law macro. You swipe it with laws, and it stores those laws. Once you swipe it on a law console, it dumps all those laws, in sequence, into the upload in a split second.
They are the ultimate answer to AIs killing power after Purge uploads.
How to Use Pick up the planning frame into your hand. Probably a good idea to move away from the upload at this point. With the other, pick up a module. I recommend purge to be first module, since it'll start the AI with a clean slate (except malf or traitor laws). Click the planning frame with the module. Examine the planning frame to see a simulation of the laws currently entered. Repeat 3-5 until satisfied. If you fucked something up, self-use planning frame (click on it with itself) to clear it, and start over. Put all the modules back, minus the Frame. Upload the planning frame like a normal law. Pocket it and take it out of the upload because you're a kleptomaniac (and as a receipt to show the captain in case he asks what the fuck you uploaded).