[Mod idea/request] Rimworld: Drone Warfare

Started by AKillerCoconut, March 01, 2015, 10:36:19 AM

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AKillerCoconut

   Long gone are the days of strong heroic colonists rushing into battle risking life and limb (and organs). It is time for a new breed of hero, and a new kind of warfare... Drone Warfare! A new use for the elderly, unskilled, cowardly, or weak bodied pawns of the Rimworld universe in terms of combat.
 
  I imagine a sort of console that pawns can use in the safety of their bunkers to control very expensive technologies like fast dangerous aerial drones, efficient work drones, tough turret drones, deadly kamikaze drones, tenacious bulky mobile defense drones, and other [intimidating adjective] [task] drones! Maybe a new skill for drone operating that could be leveled up through playing simulation games.

   The possibilities and uses are limitless. This could add a new lucrative level of warfare good for hordes of strong enemies in late game when you don't want to risk losing crucial colonists or you have an excess of otherwise combat useless colonists. I've seen the new mod by Justin C for Wave Survival gameplay and this could be a fun addition to that kind of fast paced game where every playthrough you will want to make it further through the increasingly tougher enemies.

  Yes I can see some people saying this idea is ok but it would take some of the fun from the game, not needing colonists to risk their lives in defense of the colony. I would say to them that the point of it is to add another level of late-game or even end-game content that will require a large amount of research and resources in order to use it.
 
   I can also see people saying why not just use robots, why need colonists to control them, just let them control themselves they are strong independent AIs who don't need no operator. I would say to those people WHY NOT JUST MAKE THE ENTIRE COLONY ROBOTS AND YOU JUST GET TO SIT THERE AND WATCH THEM WALK AROUND UNTIL SOMEONE ATTACKS. The name of the game is balance. You have a bunch of robots who only need to be charged and well-oiled and the game will get old as soon as you finish building your generators.
 
  The colonists will still need to eat sleep and stay sane like normal, but when danger strikes instead of running into the fray loaded down with assault rifles and grenades, risking gun wounds and explosions they run to their computer room with a cup of coffee and a donut risking eye strain, arthritis and thousands of silver worth of equipment.

  I want to clarify this is only an idea, I have mediocre coding skills at best, and about 3/10 artistic skills. I can do copy and paste work all day long but I have no clue when it comes to writing new code. I'd guess we would need a terminal to assign colonists to that would then activate the ability to control the drones like normal colonists themselves depending on what kind of drone it is. Maybe a new skill and we will definitely need a couple textures depending on how many drones we are thinking, I'd like to keep everything very vanilla feeling. I'm willing to work with anyone who is willing to work with me.

  I know this is all pretty possible and reasonable, I would start on it myself right now if I had any clue what I was doing. I might be able to do the drone operator skill on my own I'll check it out when I get a chance. If anyone who is interested checks these suggestions and has any ideas or skills in coding or textures please let me know!

Monkeysaur


OmG_PotatoeZ

If someone does make this into a mod, please add a jihad drone. I would love to see a drone that just flies into a group of enemies and explodes. (Of course with disadvantages, slow, low health, no weapons other than the self destruct) with maybe a 4x4 explosion radius?

SteenMachine

Epyk mod pack has drones you can make. They are categorized into something like Combat, Mining, Construction, Gathering and logistics? Something along those lines and you can gear them out with equipment. There isn't a 'Jack-of-all trades' sort, kind of sucks but its kind of cool too. Also a crematorium drone, just moves around cooking bodies....

Dragoon

Quote from: faltonico
I truly can't understand that sense of balancing a LOT of modders have, pouring more resources on something doesn't make it more difficult, but more annoying. It is not engaging, even if i'm swimming in silver at late game ¿why to bother?, why all the effort to get there?.

AKillerCoconut

Quote from: SteenMachine on March 28, 2015, 09:07:39 PM
Epyk mod pack has drones you can make. They are categorized into something like Combat, Mining, Construction, Gathering and logistics? Something along those lines and you can gear them out with equipment. There isn't a 'Jack-of-all trades' sort, kind of sucks but its kind of cool too. Also a crematorium drone, just moves around cooking bodies....

Yeah, I've seen them that is very similar to what I was thinking except those are more droids than drones.
  Also, if anyone was wondering, I started to work on this mod and then realised I had no idea what I was doing and abandoned it. It's been sitting in a folder on my desktop for a long while and has maybe .002% work done on it.  8) If anyone with coding skills decides they want to take this idea then go ahead, maybe throw in my name as a 'based off an idea by' but other than that, don't expect this to pop up in releases any time soon