New Types of Mechanoids

[Penguinmanereikel]

So far, we only have the Scythers and Centipedes, with Scythers having charge lances and Centipedes having miniguns, charge blasters and inferno cannons. But I feel like that's not enough variation for a race of war machines.

So I'm curious as to what other kinds of mechanoids that the community thinks Tynan should add into the game.

Remember, in the universe of Rimworld, mechanoids are supposed to be "Autonomous intelligent robots built for domestic, industrial or military purposes."

[Penguinmanereikel]

I have an idea that mechanoids could have an engineer unit that acts like a nurse to repair downed mechanoids, but it would need to search for steel, plasteel and/or components to heal wounds. If it can't find any nearby lying around, then it'll deconstruct the nearest building in range containing that stuff. It only has some melee damage.

I also think that we should robotic colonists, which the lore labels as "Subpersonae" and "Personae," which would be, in some degrees, better than normal colonists, but Subpersonae would be more along the lines of animals or slaves and be limited to what they can do. Both would need to recharge, though, and would be affected by solar flares. Perhaps, instead of having a backstory for Subpersonae, they would have like a "Purpose" which indicates what they're supposed to be used for, and maybe "Modifications" in place of adult backstories. Tynan could even take it a step further and make the descriptions of these sound like advertisements or reading a user manual.

Another, possible type could be infiltrator units, which would disguise themselves as humans. It would work like this: you get a notification saying that a refugee is running away from some mechanoids. If you choose to help this person, they would show to have pretty useful stats on par with most of your colonists. However, when the battle is still ongoing, or when it's over, or maybe some time after it's over (whatever Tynan implements, if he does, but I think after the battle would be best since your guys would all be recovering) the refugee would reveal themselves to be a mechanoid infiltrator and start attacking your people from the inside with your own weapons! This infiltrator would also have the means to keep turrets from seeing them as hostiles! (The whole situation would kind of feel like Terminator.) But to balance this out, inflitrators would only come 5% of the time and any normal human refugees would also have relatively good stats, so you're incetivized to take a risk.

[Snafu_RW]

There's a mod that does this ICR what it is or wo posted it, but I remember watching a yubtub vid where an escape pod victim turned out to be a Terminator; the surprise & shock in the author's voice was superb when it tried to assassinate a colonist

[Harold3456]

maybe non combat robots. Planting robots, who come onto the map and plant local flora for awhile before leaving. You can kill them before they leave for valuable metals and AI cores, but they take a lot of shots and then they won't plant. Like the opposite of an alphabeaver event,

Similarly, maybe a termite-style robot who deconstructs buildings but doesn't harm people. They'll attack in large groups, like the opposite of a man hunter pack since you need to use your people to protect your buildings, not the other wha around.

I would say something about robot servants, but I feel like that would make the game too easy. At most, some kind of trawler-bot that hauls for you and rescues, like a pet, but needs fuel to run instead of kibble.

[Bozobub]

Actually, most of the mechs/bots I see suggested here sound pretty decent.  I also agree that they shouldn't be usable by players w/o mods.

[A Friend]

Some sketches I made

[MarcTheMerc]

Those pictures are really awesome. I feel like I kinda need them in game now.

[Penguinmanereikel]

Some sketches I made

These look amazing! Especially that flamethrower one and angelic-style one! But I'm not sure how a flame thrower could be properly implemented in Rimworld. There's nothing like a flame thrower animation in the game yet. All fires happen in tile-based bursts, and then just spread.
Also, I see that your designs are either big, sluggish, tanky designs or semi-humanoid designs. While they do look very cool, I feel like there could be more creative variation in base design, as these look very similar to centipedes and slightly like scythers, making it look like there are only two categories of mechanoids. You could do something like a mechanoid designed like a tree or flower or something like that.

maybe non combat robots. Planting robots, who come onto the map and plant local flora for awhile before leaving. You can kill them before they leave for valuable metals and AI cores, but they take a lot of shots and then they won't plant. Like the opposite of an alphabeaver event,

Similarly, maybe a termite-style robot who deconstructs buildings but doesn't harm people. They'll attack in large groups, like the opposite of a man hunter pack since you need to use your people to protect your buildings, not the other wha around.

Interesting idea, but it's not exactly like a reverse Alphabeavers. We have to fight Alphabeavers or we lose all the trees. It's actually quite similar to Thrumbos, where we get a chance to kill something to profit. But Thrumbos are hardy animals that fight back, thereby incentivizing us not to attack it. The planter bots should either give some necessity to fight or incentive to not fight it, perhaps related to the fact it restores trees. If it fought back, however, then it's just a Thrumbo with 1 step less (trading the horn).
But the termite robot idea, now that's pretty creative! It's especialy cool since it even ties with the lore with "mechanites," microscopic robots, existing in this universe. But how exactly do we fight them, though? Also, it would be interesting to have them sometimes attack with mechanoid raids, so that the mechanoids don't only fight us with brute force. They could act like sappers for the mechanoids. They probably shouldn't exist as a standalone event, because then it wouldn't need to be robot termites at all.

Some of you have said that you agree that controlled robots would unbalance the game, but maybe the chance for getting robot colonists would be 1/100 to balance them out.

[Nainara]

I think some mechanoids should come equipped with a self-destruct for when they get downed.

[erdrik]

I think some mechanoids should come equipped with a self-destruct for when they get downed.

^ I like this Idea.
But since most fight Mechanoids at range, maybe the self destruct should toss flaming explosive debris instead of a normal boom.

[Blastoderm]

I'd rather see mechanoid colonies, with some drone units and guards. I mean if they land they should wipe some colonies, like tribal ones, so there must be some mechanoid presence on the planet. Nowthey are mostly entombed in various locked areas.

[Penguinmanereikel]

I think some mechanoids should come equipped with a self-destruct for when they get downed.

Not a bad idea. Plus it actually makes "Shutting Off" Mechanoids actually useful.

I'd rather see mechanoid colonies, with some drone units and guards. I mean if they land they should wipe some colonies, like tribal ones, so there must be some mechanoid presence on the planet. Nowthey are mostly entombed in various locked areas.

Not a bad idea either. Plus, it would be interesting to put Mechanoids on the defensive. Maybe every Mechanoid base could house a special object, like an AI Persona. But if they were a colony-based faction like Outlanders and Tribes, that would mean that you could wipe them out.

[dkmoo]

FLYING MECHANOIDS!!!

Can move thru any terrain or structure but receives no cover bonus. Its attacks can also partially bypass target's cover bonus. Targets get cover boost from roofed area 

[Razzoriel]

- A scout-like mechanoid with a weak attack, but fast movement speed that uses shock to disable pawns (i think there was a mod that added this).

- Zerg-like mechanoids, with weak firepower and more fragile, but quicker than a scyther.

- Androids.

- Shielded, melee scyther-like mechs.

[Penguinmanereikel]

FLYING MECHANOIDS!!!

Can move thru any terrain or structure but receives no cover bonus. Its attacks can also partially bypass target's cover bonus. Targets get cover boost from roofed area 

I see what your vision is, but there's nothing in Rimwold that actually flies. I think we need flying birds before we try to wait for flying enemies. lol

- A scout-like mechanoid with a weak attack, but fast movement speed that uses shock to disable pawns (i think there was a mod that added this).

- Zerg-like mechanoids, with weak firepower and more fragile, but quicker than a scyther.

- Androids.

- Shielded, melee scyther-like mechs.

I feel like melee mechanoids will be the first out of any of the other ideas we come up with that will be implemented in the game first. They're a pretty simple concept. Also, I understand that only shocking pawns would keep them from being OP, but it doesn't really make sense why they would only shock you and not melee you to death.