can’t believe i’m quoting a transformers fanfic but here we are…
“Hang on,” Wheeljack said, “I’d worry about passive systems, not active. This mech wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about where he was going. I’d bet on some kind of system he wouldn’t be able to control at all—better yet, something that doesn’t rely on power or signal at all. Something he couldn’t rip out, or block by hiding—”
Hook and Scrapper had come over. “Exterior composition,” Scrapper said instantly. “I’ve thought of doing something of the sort for transport containers—stripe the cladding with varying amounts of a neutrino-scan-visible material for tracking, even underground. Megatron, if that’s the method they’ve used, we don’t have enough appropriate materials to block it. They’ll be able to locate him with satellite scanners, and they’re certainly sweeping for us already. We’ve got to dispose of him at once. Ideally, by melting him down.”
“Hey!” Ratchet stood up. “How about we don’t jump to slagging one of my patients!”
Hook stared at him as if he was insane. “What melodramatic nonsense. You’ve never even spoken to him!”
“He’s on my table, he’s my patient!” Ratchet said.
“Enough,” Megatron said. “Offer me a rational alternative, or shut up.”
Great, that wasn’t pressure or anything. “Fine, how about this: destroying him is stupid,” Ratchet said. “We still don’t know basically anything about this planet, we’ve nearly been taken down twice already, and now they know for sure we’ll be trying for the Excelsior, which means they’re going to be waiting for us there with everything they’ve got. We need intel, and he’s probably got it.” Megatron’s face didn’t change, but he kept listening, at least. “And we don’t need to cover him head to toe with palladium sheathing. We just need to make sure he doesn’t match the pattern they’re scanning for.”
“Well?” Megatron said to Scrapper.
“We’d have to isolate the material they used… but I suppose Mixmaster could analyze a panel of his frame,” Scrapper said grudgingly. “We could disguise him…”
“Except then they will find a pattern here that doesn’t match anything in their database,” Hook said.
“Yeah, but they can’t have a negative-match process,” Wheeljack put in. “They’re not energy-bound, right? They’re materials-bound. That’s why they—recycle instead of smelt down. Any one of their mechs is probably carrying a dozen old parts, and you’d get a negative match any place two patterns overlap. They probably just make sure each new mech gets at least some parts in a unique pattern, and that’s what they’ll be looking for.”
but if there’s also cameras everywhere then every time a negative match comes out then it just triggers the cameras to pick out those cars. best bet would be collectively agreeing to use one set of specific id for everyone, not a randomized id and thus unique id’s
It’s just that games should have a balanced ‘just the story’ mode where you both feel like you’re actively playing the game but not be frustrated at the hardness. If some impossible perfectly execute or die versions of a campaign exist, then it should also have a leisurely immersive stroll. choose your own adventure movies should be an option. Like those game books that used to exist (Lone Wolf etc); some people roll the dices and play, but just going through the options is no less fun.
I can see why someone would want an AI helper to help ‘finish the game’ because there are games that are locked away by skill when all you want to see are the stories and options. but it’s the fault of developers and gaming culture as a whole if ‘games are supposed to make you feel powerful’ are the only demand that are being catered to. Why should enemies in Core Keeper get stronger in multiplayer when it’s just a local game; sometimes you just want to coop marauding through the biomes, and that’s not a vanilla option.