unforum

[Anton P. Nym]

[SPEC] Mapping and modifying Melissa's behaviour

[Mazian]

Edit: Post removed.

[Astald]

Mazian, I think what Anton is proposing is a way to try and reverse the negative influence Melissa has received from whatever entity that changed her.
I think it might possibly work. I never really heard her saying anything good that we could reward her for though. After someone asks her a question, and she responds with "I ask the questions here!", that would be a great time to drudge up some of her painful memories. Kind of train her to accept questions.

[vortech]

She accepted my questions (though the answers were "can't remember") but I waited until AFTER she called me a crew member. I really think it's all about trust. We know she is very loyal and protective of crew. I would hate to turn her against us through pavlovian conditioning exercises.

As far as positive, calling her Melissa did a lot to endear her to me.

[Nightmare Tony]

Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?

[Anton P. Nym]

[SuperJerms]

About the time Melissa was finding a voice, she said something to the effect of, "The most important tool to engender the trust of people is a pleasant voice." She then started transforing the queen_piping wav into the "I love bees" mantra now playing on hives.html. If anything, this is a red flag that she is working very intentionally to get our trust. Sure, this one sign of a family member who wants to be close, but it's also the sign of a CIA member recruiting an "asset." One thing we know is that M has been hiding wavs from us. This could be the role of the knowing parent, or of the manipulating liar. A more recent change is her beginning to trust some of us. With this, she is releasing a very emotionally-charged series of discussions between Durga and Jersey. Without saying that Durga = Melissa, she is still releasing them to us, and they carry an emotional message of. "AI's need family to love them, too!"

Is this personal disclosure or manipulation? I dunno, you can make a case for reading these either way. Seeing how Melissa reacted to Weedy's conspiring with ONI in the pre-crash, it's hard to say how she'd react to us if we appear to be going behind her back. One definite positive is that Melissa will just eat up anything we do which smacks of affirmation or personal disclosure: Tell her more about your personal life, tell her how much you trust/are proud of/depend/love her.

And remember the "CIA agent developing an asset" scenario...don't let Melissa manipulate you into something bad. Above all, bee careful!

[WolverineMonkey]

If we are indeed worried about the safety of Dana when she returns perhaps we can convince Melissa that Dana is part of her crew. This could be done by having someone at an enhotenating axon to pose as Dana or upon Dana's return she could enhotenate an axon herself.

If this has been posted before let the trouting commence.

W
M

[Anton P. Nym]

It hasn't been posted before but I'm not certain that that's a good idea. A member of the crew would have recognized SPDR's warning and not tried to interfere... so I can't see Melissa believing that Dana is loyal crew. (Remember, during the Phase 2 monologues Melissa thinks she's a fifth columnist at one point.)

The idea doesn't seem to pan out, but thanks for the suggestion. It is going down the right path of working with what's in-game to try to convince Melissa. Maybe trying to convince her that Dana's just a dumb civilian who didn't know better? (Which is nothing less than the truth, at that.)

-- Steve is still cudgelling his brain for more ideas... and is hoping he isn't beating a dead horse by doing so.

[weephun]

We'll see what happens tomorrow, but maybe a "trusted" member of the crew *ahem* could convince Melissa that Dana is not a threat or that what she did was truly accidental.

I've got a HUGE list of things I'd like to get across to Melissa now. We'll see how many of them actually happen.

[halcpu]

FLEA WARNING

[OmegaX]

Weephun. What we really need to consider right now is not if Melissa trusts you, but if we can trust you. After all, you did give up the Princess, and you could have easily said you didn't know anything.

[Anton P. Nym]

[ hypothetical example]

Hey, OmegaX, what if we don't trust you. After all, we don't know anything about you. What if you're a plant?

[ /hypothetical example]

See where this line of thinking goes? I believe it's paved with good intentions, but Hell is Hell and I don't think we want to go there. So let's quit with the paranoia stuff, and keep on-topic for the thread.

-- Steve's still wracking his skull for more ideas. Dang... nothing yet... yet... yet... echo... echo... echo...

[OmegaX]

Anton P. Nym. It isn't paranoia if it can be proven true. Have you not listened to the files on the new 404? Weephun turned in the Princess when he could have denied knowing anything about her.

[Bobman]

OmegaX:

No.
Just no.
We aren't going to go there, there is no benefit to going there, and nothing good can come of going there.

If you listen to the other .wavs, Melissa asks the others the same sorts of questions. At the end of "Kamen.wav", Melissa asks Kamen if he will help her find the rogue process.

Weephun just happened to be thinking on his feet, and actually answered Melissa's question. So quit blaming him. He did a great job, and we SHOULD be thanking him.


So now to get back on topic:
I think convincing Melissa that Dana was just a civilian who didn't know better is a good course of action to try at least. Maybe trying to explain how a damaged AI has some similiarities to a virus would work for a start.

* joins Steve in the skull wracking *

* gets some advil for his rapiding worsening headache *