BIOS Terminal

The BIOS Terminal, an equipment located in the, is where the (initially ) 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.

Normaly, only the has access to the settings. However, anyone using a or a  with  can also get access and change the settings however they want. The skill further allows to randomly scramble the settings, without having to be physically present in the.

As opposed to most other computer terminals, the BIOS can be accessed while.

Foodstuff Destruction
Defaults to: 'Yes'.

Recommended: 'No'

When activated, any perishable food will be destroyed on day change, preventing the risk of, but depraving the crew of what might be a vital consumable. It may also destroy alien fruit and you bring from expeditions before you get a chance to plant or superfreeze them (and planting is not even affected by decay).

Also the first stage of decay (Unstable) does not actually bring any drawbacks or risk of disease yet, which only sets in after 2 days. Therefore it is generally best to change this setting to 'No' and coordinate information about decaying food with a instead. (And finally, mild illnesses like Food Poisoning are not always a bad thing, as they show the patient to be human.)

CPU Priority
Defaults to: 'None'.

Recommended: 'Astronavigation'

When set to 'Research' or 'Project', research efficiency in these fields will be increased by 1%, which is not much except when researching the  or  with untrained crewmembers. When set to 'Astronavigation', one additional zone will be revealed with every Analyze action, which can often double the effectivity of a non-.

An agile Administrator can switch this setting to whatever is needed at the time. Otherwise it is wisest to leave this on 'Astronavigation' where it has the largest effect.

According to in-game tooltips, the CPU Priority can only be changed every 8 cycles.

Plasma Shield
Defaults to: 'Inactive'.

Recommended: 'Active'.

Becomes available when the Plasma Shield is researched. Only when set to 'Active' will the Shield start to absorb damage and regenerate, so this is obviously something that should be done as soon as possible. Only a could ever benefit from deactivating it.

Crew Lock
Defaults to: 'Piloting'.

Recommended: 'Piloting'.

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

'Piloting' is most useful here, as it prevents non-Pilot Mush from taking your ships, and less experienced non-Pilot crewmembers from performing inefficient to outright damaging actions they do not have the skills for, i.e. fighting Hunters. Not only do they aim badly, but take-offs and landings come with various dangers to the hull, the craft and the rookie pilot themselves.

Do switch this away from 'Piloting', however, for situations where you specifically want a non-Pilot to fly: Either to collect scrap in the Pasiphae (which can be worth it, even with a little accident) or to launch Expeditions where a Pilot is in the team but wants to conserve his for Hunters.

Vocoder Announcement
Defaults to: 'Unauthorized'.

Recommended: 'Authorized'.

When 'Authorized', the can choose to speak as NERON by typing /neron before a chat message. This can be used to open fun avenues of role-play, make important announcement more visible... but also to create fake NERON reports.

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

Because a  can authorize himself to use this feature very stealthily, it is better to just turn it on and use its advantages as well. In fact, a crew that is aware of this mechanic in the first place is less likely to fall for false messages.

Report Deaths
Defaults to: 'Yes'.

Recommended: 'Yes'.

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

Again, only the Mush can draw any benefit from disabling this, to obscure murders. However, the crew member gauge at the top of the screen will still be updated with a deceased crewmember, and any private channels the victim was in will explicitly declare their demise. So this option is of limited utility, even when combined with a forged death announcement.

Inhibit DMZ-CorePeace
Defaults to: 'Yes'.

Recommended: --

When enabled, only are able to use  aboard the ship, 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 less 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 unless you are afraid of Griefers.

Magnetic Net
Defaults to: 'Yes'.

Recommended: 'Yes'.

Becomes available when the is completed. Only when set to Active will the Magnetic Net automatically catch and dock any Patroller (including Support Drones) in orbit.

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

Cloaking Device
Defaults to: 'Inactive'.

Recommended: 'Active'.

Becomes available when is completed. Only when set to Active will the cloak take effect, reducing the number of Hunters in incoming waves and reducing the damage they inflict to the Hull. Launching a Patroller will automatically set this setting to Inactive, so coordination between and  is important to assure that the cloak will stay active during cycle change

This, once again, only benefits the when set to Inactive, as it allows Hunters to arrive in greater numbers and to do full damage to the ship's Hull. As it is automatically turned off whenever a Patroller takes off, a Mush can easily "forget" to turn on the cloak at the most critical moments

Spot2.png BIOS Terminal
Clicking on any setting will have immediate effect. This is completely free and, except for Inhibit DMZ-CorePeace, for which an  is made.