Automated Units.

[Galileus]

I, for one, am not a big fan of MULE, neither name nor design.

[Trensicourt]

Gal.... stop mocking us... 

[Galileus]

What, I can't dislike it? ;/

[Untrustedlife]

Gal.... stop mocking us... 

Come on now
Galileus and I were having a great discussion on the last page.

Mule does look good, and as long as it is tiny i t would still fit. I just prefer beepsky

the literal robotic mule was my attempt at  a joke. I actually love starcraft.

I think what me and Galileus brainstormed on the last page should be what "drones" In this case would be added to the game. We just need some art now.

[Trensicourt]

Hmmm, drones. I've thought about it, but what kind of difference you are suggesting? They are basically robots with much more specific tasks or just smaller size.

By the way, on the M.U.L.E. part, i think we should add a research that involves the construction of an A.I. Command Center. Where you can only have so much robots. So........ I don't know how to make this even more balanced, but eventually we will have A.I. nevertheless.

[Galileus]

By the way, on the M.U.L.E. part, i think we should add a research that involves the construction of an A.I. Command Center. Where you can only have so much robots.

Eh, robots need a special building to operate. You're limited to one building with 2 slots (frequencies), upgradeable by research. Colony full of robot is no more

[Pakislav]

I don't like artificial limits.

It would be better if the limitation was economic, by making up-keeping too many robots take more work than they are worth.
A charging station I suggested - which take a lot of energy and space, holds only one robot and needs to be used regularly, would be enough of a limitation I would think.

[Galileus]

A charging station I suggested - which take a lot of energy and space, holds only one robot and needs to be used regularly, would be enough of a limitation I would think.

If it's linear it wouldn't be a limitation
If it wasn't... let's say charging a slot (station) in a charging station with n active slots for drones takes X^(1+(N-1)*0.3) hours to complete. Let's say X is 5h and drones can work for 5h without charging. This means:

With 1 drone, it can work non-stop (5h charging, 5h work - so new battery is ready when it needs to recharge), which means 100% efficiency.
With 2 drones, loading of each battery takes 8h. Each drone can work with 62,5% efficiency, overall 125% efficiency of single drone. A drone rolls out every 4h and there is no down-time.
With 3 drones, loading of each battery takes 13h. Each drone can work with 38% efficiency, overall  115% efficiency of single drone. A drone rolls out every 4,3h. And there is no down-time.
With 4 drones, loading of each battery takes 21h. Each drone can work with 24% efficiency, overall 95% efficiency of a single drone. A drone rolls out every 5,25h, there is a 0,25h of down-time
With 10 drones, loading of each battery takes 385h. Each drone can work with 1,3% efficiency, overall 13% efficiency of a single drone. A drone rolls out every 38,5h, there is a 33,5h of down-time.

Now, what is cute with this example is how elastic it is. You want to get rid of busywork and have constant monitoring by drones? You're best off with 2, max 3 drones. But it doesn't mean getting them 10 drones is not an option - of course, your monitoring will be absolutely awful as there is more time when no drones are on the field than when they actually work. But if you switch charging station to release drones manually (I assume auto would be with best coverage in mind), you can get 10 drones in the field at once per every 16 days. And it would be absolutely amazing to have that ability right after a raid, where you know another group is already staging for an attack.

Damn, I'm actually pretty happy with that solution

[Trensicourt]

Gal.. then that means drones would be useless in a larger colony.

[Galileus]

Useless? Hardly. It's still an additional pair of hands. Or ten pairs when you need em. And even 3 drones when you have 20 colonists make a huge difference.

Able to replace colonists? Nope. Exactly

[Trensicourt]

I'm talking about populations up to 30. Those drones would be useless, it would be more like a 1 time use if it takes a long time to be use again and at a really bad efficiency(even though it is better than 1 robot).

[Galileus]

There are no populations of up to 30 in RimWorld.

And even with 30 colonists, 3 drones are a 10% increase in hands on the field. Or ability to unleash massive repair waves every now and again.

Also, what bad efficiency?

[Trensicourt]

You just pointed out the problem, it is a once in a long time use.

[Galileus]

You just pointed out the problem, it is a once in a long time use.

No it's not! It's either a once-in-a-while ability to have massive boost OR a constant boost of considerably lower magnitude. I've mentioned that in all of my 3 posts, not to mention this was precisely outlined in my breakdown.

Do you even have a problem with this formula, or are you arguing for the sake of arguing? :/ Because you know, if you just want unlimited drones, it's fine. It doesn't mean other suggestions need to be flawed. And so far you throw some imagined problem at me every post, never sticking to one idea and throwing another ridiculous "problem" out as soon as I address the last one. So, please, either formulate your points well and think what you write, or stop "contributing" :/

[Ender]

A charging station I suggested - which take a lot of energy and space, holds only one robot and needs to be used regularly, would be enough of a limitation I would think.

If it's linear it wouldn't be a limitation
If it wasn't... let's say charging a slot (station) in a charging station with n active slots for drones takes X^(1+(N-1)*0.3) hours to complete. Let's say X is 5h and drones can work for 5h without charging. This means:

With 1 drone, it can work non-stop (5h charging, 5h work - so new battery is ready when it needs to recharge), which means 100% efficiency.
With 2 drones, loading of each battery takes 8h. Each drone can work with 62,5% efficiency, overall 125% efficiency of single drone. A drone rolls out every 4h and there is no down-time.
With 3 drones, loading of each battery takes 13h. Each drone can work with 38% efficiency, overall  115% efficiency of single drone. A drone rolls out every 4,3h. And there is no down-time.
With 4 drones, loading of each battery takes 21h. Each drone can work with 24% efficiency, overall 95% efficiency of a single drone. A drone rolls out every 5,25h, there is a 0,25h of down-time
With 10 drones, loading of each battery takes 385h. Each drone can work with 1,3% efficiency, overall 13% efficiency of a single drone. A drone rolls out every 38,5h, there is a 33,5h of down-time.

Now, what is cute with this example is how elastic it is. You want to get rid of busywork and have constant monitoring by drones? You're best off with 2, max 3 drones. But it doesn't mean getting them 10 drones is not an option - of course, your monitoring will be absolutely awful as there is more time when no drones are on the field than when they actually work. But if you switch charging station to release drones manually (I assume auto would be with best coverage in mind), you can get 10 drones in the field at once per every 16 days. And it would be absolutely amazing to have that ability right after a raid, where you know another group is already staging for an attack.

Damn, I'm actually pretty happy with that solution

so, i quite like the formula, andit works pretty well, yet you seem to be suggesting, that we can only have one charging station, (correct me if im wrong) so whats to stop you from having multiple charging stations? which then eliminates all the complaining about "once in a while uses oof large amounts of drones" with multiple charging stations, it simply gets better, in my opinion our society is already starting to replace humans with robots in many jobs, but yet jobs will still go up at the same rate for humans, just different types of jobs. now with 20 robots, your colonists are simply doing different jobs, they are all now maintenance personnel for the robots, letting the robots do the 'dirty work' and the colonists be safe and sound behind the walls.