Why does the mechanoids weapons dissapear upon death/downed?

[SpookCrow]

How come I can't get a charge lance from the Scyther? The weapon "magically" disappears once the scyther is killed/downed. I could use that weapon to make killing raiders and animals a bit amusing because of the fact it blows their limps off.

[Bozobub]

Perhaps because they're biomechanoid and you have no way of powering OR firing them, even assuming they're human-scale devices (unlikely, at best)?

[TheMeInTeam]

Perhaps because they're biomechanoid and you have no way of powering OR firing them, even assuming they're human-scale devices (unlikely, at best)?

It's very unlikely that they're not human-scale.  You can pack minigun heat from much larger centipedes and put scyther blades on colonists arms.  Scyther graphical representation indicates they're roughly human-sized, which implies a human could probably find a way to fire such a weapon from a physical aim-and-shoot perspective.

Powering and firing something on that tech isn't necessarily the case though.  Presumably it's akin to glitterworld tech and colonists just don't have the means to use it.

[ITypedThis]

I would be nice to at least break them down for parts and resources if they can't be used.

[Bozobub]

Powering and firing something on that tech isn't necessarily the case though.  Presumably it's akin to glitterworld tech and colonists just don't have the means to use it.

Makes sense to me.  Even if you CAN fire it, it very likely has authentication requirements of some sort, I'd imagine, that would be quite difficult to circumvent.

Town mayor:  "Here, figure out this complex, encrypted alien language/math/software, while you simultaneously suss out how to make a focused neutrino generator.  And don't forget that other research!"
Scientist:  *punches mayor in face*

[BetaSpectre]

Honestly powering and firing a weapon is easy, the problem is the lack of an interface.
Which can be handled with the AI core.

[Bozobub]

Honestly powering and firing a weapon is easy, the problem is the lack of an interface.
Which can be handled with the AI core.

You're making several unsupported assumptions that lead to several problems:
- You don't know how the weapon is powered.  For all you know, it requires specific, unknown biochemicals.
- Identifying a "trigger" to an energy weapon that was part of a creature is problematic, at best.  It could even be a psychic trigger (which seems likely, from their attack methods).
- Their technology doesn't have to have much, beyond the base physics, to do with ours.  It could be entirely organic, for example.

[erdrik]

If your looking for lore reasons, one could be that the weapons are designed to self destruct when the Mechinoid is destroyed. The minigun is not a mechinoid creation but the Charge Lance/Blaster, and Inferno Cannon might be. Hence why you can pickup the minigun and not the others.

Read the CryptoSleep Revival Briefing. Specifically the entries near the bottom about "Archotech".
Near as I can tell, Mechiniods are apparently a "bridge tech" that spans between the last tech era before Archotech and Archotech.(There are even two mechinoid types described that we have yet to see. ... Or have we?)

[erdrik]

Honestly powering and firing a weapon is easy, the problem is the lack of an interface.
...

According to the CryptoSleep Revival Briefing if the Mechiniods come from an Archotech, we couldn't even comprehend how the weapons power supplies work.

[O Negative]

I think the real answer is: Balance

Having mechanoid weapons at our disposal would be OP, and we all know it lol

As far as lore is concerned, it's whatever you want to believe At least, that's the vibe I get with RimWorld lore.

[ProjectXa3]

I kinda figured it was one of those gameplay and story segregation points, they're integrated into the being of the bots, so while it's alive, it shows what its armament is, and once that's no longer an issue, it's not displayed.

Like, I feel like if it says the thing's armed with a minigun, then that means its integrated weapons system is *functionally analogous to* a colonist's minigun, it fires comparable bullets at comparable rates and velocities, but from a very different, very not-easy-to-use weapons system that is part of its mechanical body.

[Perq]

If your looking for lore reasons, one could be that the weapons are designed to self destruct when the Mechinoid is destroyed. The minigun is not a mechinoid creation but the Charge Lance/Blaster, and Inferno Cannon might be. Hence why you can pickup the minigun and not the others.

Read the CryptoSleep Revival Briefing. Specifically the entries near the bottom about "Archotech".
Near as I can tell, Mechiniods are apparently a "bridge tech" that spans between the last tech era before Archotech and Archotech.(There are even two mechinoid types described that we have yet to see. ... Or have we?)

Miniguns are specifically Mechanoid made - it is even stated in their description.
One can imagine that it isn't impossible for these weapons to have some sort of encryption mechanisms that prevent them from being shot without authorization. And while energy weapon is way easier to restrict (since it may not be a simple case of apply voltage here), minigun is a simple ballistic weapon that can be easily stripped down from those systems and fired "manually".
At least this is what makes sense to me.

A more obvious explanation is of course balance.

[erdrik]

Miniguns are specifically Mechanoid made - it is even stated in their description.
...

I feel like the description is out of date. I mean, regardless of who made the ones on the Mechinoids, Miniguns can be built by colonists. Thats specifically what the Multi-Barreled Weapons Tech lets you do.

[TheMeInTeam]

I think the real answer is: Balance

Having mechanoid weapons at our disposal would be OP, and we all know it lol

As far as lore is concerned, it's whatever you want to believe At least, that's the vibe I get with RimWorld lore.

Balance?  I would only buy that argument for the heavy charge blaster.  In most regards that thing beats out minigun, and would be excessive in player hands if you had 5+ people with them (legit killboxes despite no turrets more than plausible).

Charge lance has less DPS than the survival rifle and identical range (it does more damage per shot at less accuracy and slower RoF).  If you want more damage/time bolt action wins, and if you want to blow your load on enemies at maximum range the sniper has both more range and more damage/shot...in fact the sniper has more DPS than the charge lance too.  Charge lance actually loses to great bow until 16 tiles out.  The only reason you have to take it seriously is that when a shot does land, it can incap or kill a pawn.  It's like a long-range pila with a bit more dps at range.

[mumblemumble]

I will say, mentioning size in the UI being similar is redundant : a thrombo is maybe 3 times the size of a human, but hp wise, several fold bigger.

The current system just doesn't do "scale" of pawns justice.

DPS is also less important in this game than burst damage, and incap chance : for instance, a mini-gun has a pretty good dps, but is NOT good for centipedes, because the bullets do such tiny damage, and have little chance of in-capping : while a sniper round, or charge lance in this case, instantly destroys most things. So comparatively, if you compare a survival rifle in cases of torso shots, leg shots, head-shots, neck shots, ect, the lance is more powerful, because each of those is deadly (or incaps) while the rifle isn't.

As for balance, balance was already bad before with getting charge rifles and power armor on year one, imagine getting heavy charge blasters and inferno cannons...that would be balance breaking.