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RimWorld => Ideas => Topic started by: cappie on November 06, 2013, 01:53:04 PM

Title: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: cappie on November 06, 2013, 01:53:04 PM
Why Maintenance Droids?
Simple droids that can do limited things, for example: "only repairs, hauling and cleaning". However, droids use up metals whenever they repair themselves, thus forcing the player to choose between the short term solution of adding a Maintenance Droid that eats through his non-renewable resources, or waiting for that extra colonist (which is faster and better than the droid, since it can do a lot more, a lot faster).

Development info
Droids could be programmed like normal pawns, but with the following defining characteristics based off the pawn class:
I really hope something like this gets implemented.. I think they could prove to be an interesting game mechanic.
Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: Renham on November 07, 2013, 02:31:24 PM
sounds cool, but maybe...
droid should be expensive, need a robot master (person in charge to give orders to them)
they will perform whatever task is given by the master.
fixing them takes time and resources.
they have a durability that is reduced thorugh time.
need to recharge their batteries, althou it wont take too long, still requiere the robot master to work.

can be specialized, common droids will perform below the average level of a colone, but, with an specialization, they will perform at the same level.
droids will requiere special buildings and forniture to operate properly

-Droid pod, will be used to contain droids and recharge their batteries.
-Maintenance table, used to repair and upgrade electronics.
-Radio control anthena, used to operate the droids.
-mechanical assembly machine, used to build some devices and droids.
-metal printer, used to make components for electronics and machines.

therefore making droids would be good for production and even combat, thou droids are expensive, but better risking some soul less machines than the lives of tour colones.

some events for the droids would be a robot revolution, all your droid seek freedom, they will ask your for freedom if not they will become aggresive.

and
selfconciusness, the droid in particular will be able to learn a socialize with other colones, may suffer metal breakdowns too.


Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: Robitski on November 07, 2013, 04:35:22 PM
You'd need to make them have a big research project, like 20,000 to unlock them. I dunno though, if these refugees would have such technological capabilities... oh well, it's early days yet.
Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: Darkfire9825 on November 07, 2013, 05:17:30 PM
Maybe if you need to use large amounts of power to recharge them every day? I think that this should definetely be endgame if implemented.
Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: Renham on November 07, 2013, 07:28:17 PM
maybe not endgame but expensive technology...
if you consider my addition to the suggestion, you will find that having battledroids can save the life of your colonists
althou you will need to work hard to maintain those droids.

having a long research tree to have droids is a posibility.
starting with the ai development and mechanical components research to finaly droid building and mass production.


Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: NephilimNexus on November 07, 2013, 07:30:40 PM
Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: Renham on November 07, 2013, 07:46:11 PM
or maybe some spaceship looking for certain droids.

a militar spaceship has started a massive broadcast, they are looking for a couple of droids, they demand to give some of your droids to them for further study.

barther: for 10.000 we may do
cientist: I can send you their memory database
soldier: you will have to pay in iron then

high charisma: these are not the droids you are looking for.

negative: ignore broadcast.

Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: Darkfire9825 on November 08, 2013, 01:56:42 AM
Or maybe raiders reprogram your droids?
Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: Cyclops on November 08, 2013, 02:30:24 AM
Quote from: NephilimNexus on November 07, 2013, 07:30:40 PM
  • Droids have random chance of wandering off to look for someone called "Ben Kenobi"

GIVE THIS COMMENT A COOKIE!
Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: Aisomasu on November 08, 2013, 04:53:39 AM
With all these restrictions/disadventage I prefer to reseache jetpack strong enought to raid raider's spaceship directly and enslave some of them... looks easier ^^
Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: Antares [UK] on November 08, 2013, 05:04:43 AM
It is a dream colony - Just me, mad-scientist, and army of my droids: protecting the base, growing crops, mining uranium and building more droids!
Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: willow512 on November 08, 2013, 05:53:01 AM
I love the idea... But why make droids hard to work with? I don't think they'll imbalance the game if you make them a common occurence.

Basically a robot is a colonist who doesn't eat, moves slowly, has no social skills, sleeps only a short time and has a very very limited skillset.

Clearly The technogy required means you can't make them yourself, no matter how smart your lab guy is he just does not have the equipment. So you purchase them from robotics sellers who are like slave traders, only they're more expensive (10k per droid?) ;)

They are bound by Asimov's rules of robotics, so they cannot fight. They have a tough skin (200hp, but get incapacitated at below 100hp) Any minor damage means they might short circuit in the rain so a colonist needs to go out and repair them. They have no social skill and can only do dumb manual labour. A robot requires a bed, which is a robotics recharging bay, but sleeps only a quarter of the time. Alternatively you might have a "replace batteries" task for your colonists.

Basically you'd use them to sweep, and to haul, maybe to farm, If you want to go fancy, give them the rescue colonist/capture incapacitated/feed prisoner jobs too, I'd leave repairs to humans as it requires more intelligence.

Research projects might increase their speed, hauling capacity, or reduce their energy consumption.
Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: Robitski on November 08, 2013, 06:26:30 AM
Quote from: Antares [UK] on November 08, 2013, 05:04:43 AM
It is a dream colony - Just me, mad-scientist, and army of my droids: protecting the base, growing crops, mining uranium and building more droids!

I think you're looking for a city-building game with contracts, missions and droids, not an isolated getusoutofhere colony simulator :L
Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: Renham on November 08, 2013, 08:21:39 AM
what we havent consider yet in here is...
solar flares, droids may get seriusly damaged during solar flares, therefore depending solely in your droids wont be a realistic solution to your problems, if you get a raider attack during a solar flare or when your droids are recharging you will have a bad time.

no seriously..., also developing droids I dont think would be that hard considering the context, those guys may have access to advance technology, even components of droids to study. and you have naval cientists, phd in things that doesnt even exist yet... they can build a fucking robot from nothing.
so dont tell me dudethe context you couldnt do that... they can mine build solar panels, generators, batteries, so droids isnt that hard to imagine.
Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: Sky_walker on November 08, 2013, 10:38:46 AM
How about that:
- Make them obtainable only though trade, and the chance of having them offered will drop by the amount of droids you have (eg. you got 0: 75%, you got 1: 50%, you got 10: 5%)

Another way to balance them would be to do what Renham said - instead of limiting the availability make them break down during solar flare if they weren't powered down when event occurred.
Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: willow512 on November 08, 2013, 10:47:04 AM
Quote from: Renham on November 08, 2013, 08:21:39 AMso dont tell me dudethe context you couldnt do that... they can mine build solar panels, generators, batteries, so droids isnt that hard to imagine.
That's actually a good point. :)

Still game balance wise it might be better not to be able to produce your own "colonists".
Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: Sky_walker on November 08, 2013, 10:53:13 AM
Yep. Trade might be a better option.
Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: Renham on November 08, 2013, 11:06:31 AM
in terms of balance yes, but as they are not as strong as colonist requiere maintenance constantly and an energy source to function... they wouldnt perform as a normal colonist.

consider this, a droid performance would be lower than the average person performance, untill, you especialize the droid to do a certain job... when you do this their performance will be as good a normal colonist, thou they wont perform any other task than that.

the other thing is a low chance event in which the droid becomes self concius and becomes a sort of colonist.
or become rebel to your negative to release them.

Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: nja on November 08, 2013, 01:19:00 PM
Quote from: Robitski on November 08, 2013, 06:26:30 AM
I think you're looking for a city-building game with contracts, missions and droids, not an isolated getusoutofhere colony simulator :L

Granted, a lot of people have widely varied expectations for what they're looking for in the game.
Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: NephilimNexus on November 08, 2013, 02:44:11 PM
Quote from: Antares [UK] on November 08, 2013, 05:04:43 AM
It is a dream colony - Just me, mad-scientist, and army of my droids: protecting the base, growing crops, mining uranium and building more droids!

This will end badly (http://www.droidforums.net/gallery/data/504/Cylon-Droid-WP.jpg)
Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: Renham on November 08, 2013, 04:52:05 PM
so... lets summ up

(http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/5456/0id0.jpg)

Droid technology: will need lots of research to reach a point in which you can build your own.
most likely to have to study some other droid first or other technology before starting.
*will take lots of time, so you will need to dedicate various cientists to increase research speed.

droids will be sort of expensive, need maintenance and not be as strong as a normal colonist.
droids wont be as good as a colonist in performance.

they can be upgraded to perform a single work but properly.
so you can have

-miner droid
-combat droid
-science droid
-medical droid
-construction droid
-field droid

when a droid is specialized in a certain type of job, they wont perform any other unless they suffer a modification

(http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/231/b1i0.jpg)

-droids will requiere to recharge their batteries to work and a handler, a sort of robot master will be in charge to give orders to a group of droids

*they will have some events considered

1- 0.5% they have a very low chance to group in two and wander off looking for some guy called ben kenobi, they may return some time with a good story to share.

2- 0.5% they will start a revolution, they will demand their freedom, if you refuse to give them their freedom they will arm themselves and fight their way out.
*once free and this even occurs you will have some visit of a droid trade ship selling stuff very cheap.
   you may also contact a droid colony at some point after this event.
*if they scape in a violent way, you may suffer a droid raid attack at some point.

3- 0.5% a military ship will contact you asking you to surrender all your droids because they are looking for a couple of fugitive droids containing critical information.
*if you character has high charisma can answer, these arent the robots you are looking for.
*you may also start a combat if you give a hostile answer
*with a high level scientist you may trade technology in exchange for the droid memory database.
*with a high level of commerce you may sell all your droids for a good price.

4- 0.8% one of your droids will become self concious, he will be able to learn and socialy interact with the colonists, this may increase the chance of the robot revolution event in a 3%

*self concious droids auto upgrade themselves to become self powered therefore wont need to recharge their batteries but will need to shut down for 3 hours a day.
*they may suffer metal breakdowns

Droids may get damaged during solar flares, they will be shut down and may also get permanently destroyed, even the self concious ones.

Badly damage droids may cause big explotions due to battery performations.


Some variations or alternate droid type:

maintenance droids, they will only repair stuff, not much other than that. they are chaper and can repair themselves and other droids, althou they will need resources to do so.

stationary defense droids, they will roam arround the perimeter and attack the hostile, not much firepower, and kinda weak, they just float arround looking for trouble, also they are cheap and dispensable.
Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: cappie on November 09, 2013, 12:17:50 PM
This community is soooo full of good idea's.. we really need a better way to channel all this creative information, maybe in the form of a wiki or something similar to 'getsatisfaction' (that system Mojang used to find out which new feature should be implemented first by having users pitch their ideas and others voting it up or down).
Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: cappie on November 09, 2013, 12:27:17 PM
Quote from: NephilimNexus on November 08, 2013, 02:44:11 PM
Quote from: Antares [UK] on November 08, 2013, 05:04:43 AM
It is a dream colony - Just me, mad-scientist, and army of my droids: protecting the base, growing crops, mining uranium and building more droids!

This will end badly (http://www.droidforums.net/gallery/data/504/Cylon-Droid-WP.jpg)

looool
Title: Re: Maintenance Droids (slower than normal pawns, can break down, use metals)
Post by: Sky_walker on November 09, 2013, 04:17:05 PM
Quote from: cappie on November 09, 2013, 12:17:50 PM
This community is soooo full of good idea's.. we really need a better way to channel all this creative information, maybe in the form of a wiki or something similar to 'getsatisfaction' (that system Mojang used to find out which new feature should be implemented first by having users pitch their ideas and others voting it up or down).
Forum is good enough. Wiki == edit wars.
And we already had a discussion about "what should be implemented first" - last time I checked a final conclusion was to leave it up to Tynan. It's his game, let HIM follow his needs and wishes. Last thing we want is huge pressure from community demanding feature X or feature Y implemented.