Difference between revisions of "BIOS Terminal"

Revision as of 16:31, 2 July 2014

The BIOS Terminal module screen

The BIOS Terminal in the Nexus.

The BIOS Terminal, an equipment located in the Nexus, is where the NERON Administrator (initially Janice Kent) performs their duties. It contains a selection of settings that change the way certain things on the ship are performed, and control efficiency bonuses and specialist locks for certain actions.

BIOS Settings

Foodstuff Destruction

Defaults to 'Yes'.

When activated, any perishable food will be destroyed on day change, preventing the risk of Food Poisoning, but depraving the crew of what might be a vital consumable. It may also destroy alien fruit and Alien Steaks you bring from expeditions before you get a chance to plant or superfreeze them.

As the first stage of decay ( Unstable) does not actually bring any drawbacks or risk of disease yet, which only sets in after 2 days of decay, it is generally recommended to set this setting to 'No' and coordinate information about decaying food with the Chef instead.

CPU Priority

Defaults to 'None'.

When set to 'Research' or 'Project', research efficiency in these fields will be increased by 1%, which is useful when researching the Plasma Shield or Retro-Fungal Serum with untrained crewmembers. When set to 'Astronavigation', 1 additional zone will be revealed with every Analyze action, which essentially doubles the effectivity of a non- Astrophysicist.

It is recommended that an agile Administrator switches this setting to whatever is needed at the time. Otherwise, it is wisest to leave this on 'Astronavigation', where the effects are most noticable.

Bug: Despite in-game tooltips saying that CPU Priority can only be changed every 8 cycles, this is inconsistent at best. Some report being able to change it immediately, others can change the setting after a page refresh, and for others it works as advertised.

Plasma Shield

Defaults to 'Inactive'.

Becomes available when the Plasma Shield is researched. Only when set to Active will the Plasma Shield start absorbing damage, so this is obviously something that should be done as soon as possible.

Crew Lock

Defaults to 'Piloting'.

This setting determines which field of work should be exclusively available to its experts. When set to 'Project', only Designer characters can access NERON's Core. When set to 'Research', only Biologist and Medic characters can access the Research Lab. When set to 'Piloting', only Pilot characters can launch the various craft on the ship, including Patrollers, the Icarus and the Pasiphae.

Only switch this away from 'Piloting' when you really need a non- Pilot to fly a ship such as the Pasiphae, as non-Pilot take-offs and landings come with various dangers to the hull, the craft and the rookie pilot themselves.

Vocoder Announcement

Defaults to 'Unauthorized'.

When 'Authorized', the Administrator can choose to speak as NERON by typing /neron before a chat message. This can be used to open fun avenues of roleplay, as well as falsify various NERON reports.

Note that this will work for new chat threads as well as chat replies.

Report Deaths

Defaults to 'Yes'.

If activated, NERON will automatically announce the death and cause of death of any crewmember.

Only the Mush can draw any benefit from disabling this. It helps to obscure murders, however the crew member gauge at the top of the screen will still be updated with a deceased crewmember, giving this option fairly limited utility.

Inhibit DMZ-CorePeace

Defaults to 'Yes'.

When enabled, only Mush are able to use Grenades, and NERON is forced to use short, informative language in his announcements (with short psychotic outbursts once in a while).

Disabling this allows all crew members to use Grenades onboard of the Daedalus as well as unleashing NERON's highly intelligent, sarcastic and spiteful personality. NERON Announcements will become much longer and more coherent, hinting that moral and functional constraints have been removed from the AI. As Mush can cause harm with Grenades either way, this option is largely a matter of taste.

Magnetic Net

Defaults to 'Yes'.

Becomes available when the Magnetic Net is researched. Only when set to Active will the Magnetic Net automatically catch and dock any Patrollers in orbit.

This should only be set to 'No' if you want to deliberately leave somebody behind.