Seriously? (gun cooldown, poison ship)

[Guilty Omelette]

Shot at a poison ship to trigger the bots to come out. They popped out and blew my head off before my firing cooldown finished. (so I couldn't move behind the wall)

Kind of bullcrap imo

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[Stormfox]

Never "open" a mech ship part without setting up a combat area first, and never with just one guy (or if you somehow feel the need to, do it with a sniper rifle from 40 spaces away).

I usually build at least a few quick mini walls - one space wall, 1-2 free, and so on - in medium distance so I do not get outranged by Scythers. Put a guy behind each of them, have someone with a short firing cooldown weapon fire at the ship, pause the second they appear and assess and target.

If you have one guy with a personal shield, have that one stand to the side, but closer to the mechs and run around like a headless chicken. This will draw most of the fire and is usually pretty safe to do as long as you run him out if his shield goes down and take care to not stand in fire if they pack inferno cannons (which is basically the one centipede weapon that is really problematic, since the other two miss about 99% of their shots).

I find the scythers to be the real threat with those precautions and target them first if at all possible. They die pretty quickly, but they are accurate and pack a mean punch.

[GiantSpaceHamster]

A couple notes. First, put sandbags at the edges of those walls your guy died leaning out from behind. If the square he leans over has a sandbag it will provide cover.

Second, use any other pawn (preferably one with a shield) and just run around randomly out in the open, but closer to the bots than your pawns that are firing at them. If you do it right you can avoid any damage. The runner should be either right at the cusp of the enemy's range or near an obstacle they can run behind when the enemy starts firing. It's important that you don't run behind cover or out of range until the enemy starts firing or else they'll switch to one of your other pawns as a target.

[AN7AG0NIS7]

I just put a few explosive IEDs around the ship and plink it once. Any scythers that spawn instantly die or get downed usually. Then I order my 8 mortars to fire a volley because explosions are fun even when they don't hit anything. Then I mop up with my sniper team that's waiting just out of range.

[Euzio]

What I did in the past with enough materials was to build a power line close by, surround the ship with turrets, and then hide my pawns behind walls and ping it. The turrets would wreck any that came out and the explosions from the turrets blowing up would usually knock them out. The rest would be so low on hp I'd have no problem mopping them up.

But that was pre-A16 though, haven had an encounter in my current playthrough yet since i'm still pretty early and playing on Phobe Basebuilder to get a feel for A16. Its been quite awhile since I last played.

[Stormfox]

What I did in the past with enough materials was to build a power line close by, surround the ship with turrets, and then hide my pawns behind walls and ping it. The turrets would wreck any that came out and the explosions from the turrets blowing up would usually knock them out. The rest would be so low on hp I'd have no problem mopping them up.

But that was pre-A16 though, haven had an encounter in my current playthrough yet since i'm still pretty early and playing on Phobe Basebuilder to get a feel for A16. Its been quite awhile since I last played.

That is the luxurious route when you are advanced enough that you can affort such shenanigans. 2 sandbagged turrets about 5-6 spaces in front of your guys are usually enough to soak fire until you are mostly done with them.

Similarly, the above mentioned explosive traps are a nice solution that costs a bit of tech and material.

[Ukas]

Nobody mentioned EMP nades, so I'm gonna: use EMP grenades, but put your good armor on those who you will send to throw them. And build good cover for them, as they need to be near the ship.

edit: And btw EMP nades don't kill them, they just stun them, so you'll still need shooters and some guys with normal nades. Usually I give grenades to melee guys, so I can keep firepower at max level.

[xrumblingcdsx]

All of these answers are bad. Just use a sniper to trigger the mechs and mop them up with his greater range. I've had a dozen or so ship parts on my sea ice playthrough its like a free steel silver and plasteel delivery.

[b0rsuk]

That was unlucky, but why do you send a person without a helmet or kevlar vest in 5501 ? Also, survival rifle has longer range and you start with it. It would help if you brought a decoy colonist with you, just in case someone needs to catch bullets it should be your least valuable colonist. And if not, you would have someone nearby to rescue a downed colonist. And it was a POISON ship in a DESERT, it should be low priority so you can take your time and prepare.

[GarettZriwin]

You just got URBed man.

Just open it from max range and let others do the job, it will be treated as raid. Or prepare brawler with shield to wreck them.

[RimworldOx]

Mad cuz bad.

[b0rsuk]

It's absolutely bullshit that assault rifle has cooldown long enough to get a colonist killed with charge lances. Assault rifles are known for their short cooldown, and mechanoid weapons - for long.

[AN7AG0NIS7]

This is the reason why I plant explosive IEDs around the clown car mechanoid ship.

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[LordMunchkin]

Send your least favorite colonist with a sniper rifle and armor to trigger the ship 40 tiles away. Make sure they're in good cover too and you have the ship surrounded with 4-8 explosive IED's. The mechanoids will spawn and trigger the IED's causing damage to themselves and the ship. When the ship reaches low enough HP, the mechanoids will attack your colony directly.

Mad cuz bad.

How about some suggestions for our friend instead of insults? 

[Shurp]

This setup works very well for a firefight against almost anything:

# <-- wall
= <-- sandbag
@ <-- pawn

  @    @     @    @
#=##=##=##=#

Inferno cannon shots, miniguns, heavy charge blasters almost always hit the walls.
Scythers and others can hit your pawns but usually don't because you have both hard cover from the wall and soft cover from the sandbag.

Melee attackers can be a problem.  Make sure to have a few melee weapons stashed in a stockpile behind you to grab and hack any brawlers.

And... why are you sending a lone colonist against a ship part?  Like suggested above, use a sniper rifle if you're going to pull that stunt.