Downed mechanoids

[Trylobyte]

Why is it important to have a downside to leaving them alone once they're downed?  Because they don't decay?  They don't decay if I shut them down and drag them to an indoor stockpile, either, so all that change would mean is I have to remember to shut them down relatively soon after the fight ends.  It's just adding a few more clicks to raid cleanup.

[giannikampa]

even it is not that essential i like both the 2 ideas in this tread: either mechs constantly repair themselves (when they are still alive if you ask me and when they are downed too) thus "resurrect" when downed. but resurrected mech..explodes on death! so better be fast and go disable them when you can. Only centipedes imo, so to differentiate.

[SpaceDorf]

Another thing could be, if they bleed some kind of radiation.
Similiar to the ships that they poison the soil around them, as long as they are active.

[b0rsuk]

Another proposal.

It's strange that your settlers are the only people that have any idea what a mechanoid is. After all, they're made of juicy components, steel and plasteel. They can be thousands years old. We can't expect wild animals like vultures to dine come and dine on them. But outlanders might come with a card and carry them home to disassemble. Pirates might specialize in extracting mechanoid weapons, which could be bad news in future raids if you let them do that. Tribals might want to throw them into a volcano, take home and worship them, or sell them to a shaman.

[twoski]

i like the idea of mechanoids being equipped with SOS beacons which they can use to call down a reinforcement mechanoid in a drop pod.

[Aerial]

Another proposal.

It's strange that your settlers are the only people that have any idea what a mechanoid is. After all, they're made of juicy components, steel and plasteel. They can be thousands years old. We can't expect wild animals like vultures to dine come and dine on them. But outlanders might come with a card and carry them home to disassemble. Pirates might specialize in extracting mechanoid weapons, which could be bad news in future raids if you let them do that. Tribals might want to throw them into a volcano, take home and worship them, or sell them to a shaman.

I like this idea.  Downed mechanoids become raid magnets - especially if the raids target "kidnapping" the mechanoid rather than attacking your base - and if successful the raiders get to up their wealth with the items they would presumably get from deconstructing the mechanoid.

[Gohihioh]

I'm up for mechanic that removes possiblity to leave them forever without them decaying. I abuse it as well.
But I don't like self healing idea.
Beacon is better idea in my eyes.

[Toast]

Oh god please no self-healing downed mechs. Even if it makes sense from a lore perspective, there's nothing tactically engaging about having anyone who goes to shut down a mech be at risk for surprise murder. It's just a recipe for tedium and frustration.

Generally I'm not enthused about adding disincentives to letting downed mechs sit there forever. Sure, it allows you to not have to haul and store them, but that's a minor advantage at best, and you're also not getting the benefit of any of their juicy materials while they sit there. It's just not a mechanic that really seems to influence the game very much.

[erdrik]

Downed Mechanoids being Raid magnets, having SOS Beacons, emitting radiation...
All good ideas. Hell, Id pick one of them before auto-Healing.

Still, I don't see auto-healing as being all that bad either.
They don't even have to fully recover. Just looking at auto healing, what if:
Auto Healing is less a "Recover HP and stand back up" and more a "Recover Consciousness and become an immobile melee turret". That way they can still become a threat if left alone, but anyone you send out to "turn them off" would flee rather than walk blindly into "Surprise! Fully functional Mechanoids".

This would kind of legitimize the exploit. You are technically still leaving it in a non dead state that will not deteriorate, but now you have to put in extra work to pay for the benefit.

EDIT:
And just to clarify, I also considered that the healing would be slow.
Slow enough that if you wanted you could send someone to "turn it off" via operating with plenty of time to spare.
Like maybe 2 or 3 days to fully recover "consciousness".