How to repair tcomms from alien damage.

[Jroinc1]

Okay. This is intended as a general guide to DAMAGE TO the tcomms system, and methods of repairing such.
The main tcomms system is FAR too complex to go over specifically here, BUT if you're interested in learning how to operate the equipment, add in scripts, or route around simulated battle damage while angry RO's scream into comms b/c I'm using their server as the cutout one, PM me and I'll play a round and spend an hour showing you how to.

I'm apparently the server's resident and ONLY tcomms expert, so I figured I'd put this here for WHEN an alien commonly slashes/melts wires, OR the far-less-common scenario of tcomms being messed up by HUMAN damage.

XENO DAMAGE

From the alien side-
-ALL tcomms equipment is un-acidable, or breakable, except for 2 things. The tcomms APC is slashable, and the tcomms APC wires can be acided. That's it.
From the CE side-
-If the APC is slashed, be robust. You have like 3 real jobs as CE. Get power up, fix breaches, and keep tcomms working.

So few people bother with tcomms, and aliens can only do 2 things to it...

Your flowchart to fixing tcomms from ANY alien sabotage (as anyone, though an engineering job is required for IC justification...).
HAS COMMS GONE OUT? Y/N?
-----If YES, RUN, DO NOT WALK TO START THE REPAIR. Do NOT assume someone else will get it, that's how it stays broken for 3hrs out of a 4hr round...
-----If NO, everything's sat, check again in 5 minutes.
Grab a SPACESUIT, a TOOLBELT(w/ multitool), WIRE, and INSULATED GLOVES.
DO YOU HAVE ACCESS? Y/N?
-----If YES, GREAT! NEXT STEP!
-----If NO, beg, borrow, or steal the appropriate access, OR a piece of C-4. NEXT!
DO YOU HAVE OTHER PEOPLE WITH YOU? Y/N?
-----If YES, GREAT, NEXT STEP!
-----If NO, yell at random marines until you get someone to follow and save your ass when the xeno who disabled it doubles back. NEXT!
DID YOU HEAR ABOUT ALIENS BOARDING THE SULACO? Y/N?
-----If YES, check the ladders to see if any marines are holding the hangar. Y/N?
----------If YES, get down dat ladder, AND GET TO TCOMMS. RUSH, YOU HAVE LIMITED TIME.
----------If NO, and the hangar is lost, give up, xenos won, tcomms is their rightful prize, and await your death.
-----If NO, it's a single SNEAKY XENO, get your ass to tcomms.
You are now outside tcomms. PUT ON YOUR SUIT, SET INTERNALS, and EITHER use your access to open the monitoring door, OR use C-4 on the wall next to the monitoring room door.
You are now inside tcomms MONITORING. Is there a xeno? Y/N?
-----If YES, SHOOT IT. (why would you not?)
-----If NO, Weld dat vent. No one wants a xeno surprise.
IS THERE AN OBVIOUS HOLE INTO THE MACHINERY ROOM? Y/N?
-----If YES, step through.
-----If NO, use the buttons till you find the viewing window one, and press it (It SHOULD not require access), then shoot out a window (Beware the pressure difference).
You are now staring at the ruined APC. IS IT SLASHED? Y/N?
-----If YES, use your l33t wirecutter hacking skills to repair it, and wait 10 seconds.
----------DID TCOMMS POWER UP? Y/N?
----------If YES, YOU DID IT! YAY YOU!
----------If NO, proceed to next step.
-----If NO, FULLY DECONSTRUCT AND RECONSTRUCT THE APC ON THE SAME SPOT (The APC terminal was acided). Use your engineer access, or multitool hack to set the main breaker to ON, and tcomms will power up.
IS TCOMMS WORKING? Y/N?
-----If YES, great. Now set a guard, wall it off, hunt down the xeno, or flee the SWARM taking over the hangar, you're done.
-----If NO, ... what did you do? Either you messed up the instructions, or a human mob (Griefer, iron bear, survivor) fucked with it. Adminhelp, check to see that the APC is ON and with a charged cell, and forget about fixing it, unless you have prior tcomms experience.

HUMAN DAMAGE

Well, shit. You walked in and found a wasteland with destroyed machines and explosion scars, and everything has power but no sounds come out.
THE ROOM IS SLAGGED OH SHIT THERE'S LIKE 2 MACHINES AHHH
CALM DOWN. Is it REALLY that bad?
OF THE REMAINING, NON-EXPLODED COMPONENTS, IS THERE A MINIMUM OF ONE of EACH of these components: RECEIVER, TRANSMITTER, PROCESSOR, BUS? Y/N?
----- If YES, GREAT! NEXT STEP!
----- If NO, is there at least a receiver, and transmitter? Y/N?
---------- If YES, yeah. This is gonna suck, but you can get SOME, real shitty comms working.
---------- If NO, well, shit. I can't help you with this guide. Either PM me, and hope, or use your leet researcher skills to make the required 2 machines, and hopefully all 4.
Is the HUB intact? Y/N?
----- If YES, your job should be "easy".
----- If NO, you MAY still be able to fix it, but you'll have to go planetside. Get escorts, this is gonna be an UNDERTAKING.

Okay. If the hub's intact, use a multitool on it. This will open up a menu. Don't concern yourself with the stats, just clear any filtering frequencies and ONLY FILTERING FREQUENCIES, and scroll to the bottom where it tells you what it's linked to. DO NOT DELETE ANY LINKS. IF YOU DO, YOU WILL LOSE GROUND COMMS PERMANENTLY unless you take a trip down. Save the machine's info in the multitool's buffer. Go to all of the machines that you ensured that you had previously. Click on them with the multitool to open up the menu. For these machines, and ONLY THESE MACHINES (RECEIVER, TRANSMITTER, PROCESSOR, and BUS), CLEAR ALL FILTERING FREQUENCIES, THEN DELETE ALL LINKS, then use the multitool's data to link it to the HUB. Once that's done, go to the BUS, save it's data to the multitool, and link it to the transmitter, processor, and receiver. Comms should be FULLY back now

If the hub's NOT intact, grab a crate. Dismantle the 2-4 machines that I mentioned previously. Stuff the parts in, and catch a ride downwell. Pick a powered room, and assemble the machines. Link the BUS to all the other machines, and set the network as tcommsat. If you don't HAVE a bus, link EVERYTHING, ank enjoy your barely-intelligible gibberish, but hey, comms!

Will be updated more once I do more "experimentation".

[KingKire]

I dont know if anyone can expand on this for rebuilding a broken communications room, which would be nice. Somedays the CL or random explosions destroy the communications room or you might need to just build a new comms room, and the info on how to do that would be great.

[Jroinc1]

I COULD, but honestly, if tcomms has been sabotaged by human actions, it's unfixable. As researcher, I've tried to make a backup tcomms, and the amount of research and material needed makes it unfeasible, plus, certain components can't be properly linked because planetside comms is hidden. Anyone who knows what they're doing can utterly break tcomms permanently while leaving no visible evidence, aand... yeah. I could show how to re-arrange damaged components into a semi-functional shipboard net, or if certain components haven't been slagged, establish partial comms with groundside if you're interested, but I'll have to map it out first.

[Neray]

If NO, FULLY DECONSTRUCT AND RECONSTRUCT THE APC ON THE SAME SPOT (The APC terminal was acided).

Actually all you have to do is to remove a cell, unscrew a circuit, add wires, screw it back, place a cell back, bingo.

I COULD, but honestly, if tcomms has been sabotaged by human actions, it's unfixable.

To be fair, tcomms CAN work with just 1 broadcaster, 1 reciever, server, processor and for other z-levels - hub. It'll be slow, but it'll work. Ground tcomms on the other hand can't be connected if original hub was destroyed, since they're located off map in space.

BUT! You can construct a new relay down there and then connect it to a new hub. Ta-da!

Also, if you can't build a new hub, deconstruct one of recievers and place it on z-level you need tcomms on. Then connect it like that 2nd one to original tcomms machines.

[Jroinc1]

Actually all you have to do is to remove a cell, unscrew a circuit, add wires, screw it back, place a cell back, bingo.
To be fair, tcomms CAN work with just 1 broadcaster, 1 reciever, server, processor and for other z-levels - hub. It'll be slow, but it'll work. Ground tcomms on the other hand can't be connected if original hub was destroyed, since they're located off map in space.

BUT! You can construct a new relay down there and then connect it to a new hub. Ta-da!

Also, if you can't build a new hub, deconstruct one of receivers and place it on z-level you need tcomms on. Then connect it like that 2nd one to original tcomms machines.

For your first point, valid. I just gave the full process to stop people from messing it up, and was tired when writing it.

For the second point... I can't make tcomms TECHNICALLY unfixable... but with unlinking, I can do a pretty good job of it. As for ghetto tcomms, I'm studying the sulaco network setup right now to come up with an efficient setup for both partial destruction (asshat with c-4 and grenades), aand engi done herped-a-derp (Supermatter went off on outside of tcomms, RIP). Some components are duplicated for parallelism (4 processors, 4 busses, could use one of each, but each handles signals separately, so unlinking one will only scramble 1-2 channels, so you can use 3 for parts and lose nothing with careful linking), aand some are duplicated for redundancy (2 Subspace Receivers and Transmitters... that do the same job... connected to the SAME COMPONENT... yeah. Break one of each up for parts if needed, ya aint losing nothin).

As for constructing a new relay... yeah. Ain't happening. I remember going researcher with the intent of making a backup tcomms net. Due to material and research limitations, I was barely able to build a transmitter and receiver. Couldn't get the research for ansible crystals or subspace amplifiers. I don't doubt it's POSSIBLE... but yeah. That was a 4 hour round. I built 2 new cloners in half the time it took for the limited array. (Maybe suggest a few of the rarer tcomms parts added to tcomms storage?)

[Jroinc1]

I'm gonna edit the original post to give tips on fixing tcomms from HUMAN damage, if it's been partially slagged.