[1.0](WIP) What The Hack?! - Mechanoid hacking

[Madman666]

I think having colonists follow mechs with a remote somewhat eliminates the point of having mechs, if you still stick fleshy dudes out to be shot. RW is harsh, you can get oneshot through a power armor with one unlucky brainstrike, so the main point is to have mechs take the hit. Raiders are kinda smart in later updates, always prioritizing people over mechs and turrets. If you are gonna replace weapons with mech-remotes - i feel i won't use that anytime soon. If however it will go into accessory slot and you can actually create mixed armored strike teams bolstered by mech meatshields - i am up for that.

And I would definitely use mechs with AI cores, since they are retriavable and some nice mods actually let you craft them (even though its crazy expensive).

If you ever decide to let us actually modify and upgrade mechs - like change\upgrade their weapons, add more armor and integrate movement\targeting modules - that would also a welcome change. This mod has crazy amount of potential, while already being so awesome. Future looks so bright.

[Roolo]

I think having colonists follow mechs with a remote somewhat eliminates the point of having mechs, if you still stick fleshy dudes out to be shot. RW is harsh, you can get oneshot through a power armor with one unlucky brainstrike, so the main point is to have mechs take the hit. Raiders are kinda smart in later updates, always prioritizing people over mechs and turrets. If you are gonna replace weapons with mech-remotes - i feel i won't use that anytime soon. If however it will go into accessory slot and you can actually create mixed armored strike teams bolstered by mech meatshields - i am up for that.

And I would definitely use mechs with AI cores, since they are retriavable and some nice mods actually let you craft them (even though its crazy expensive).

If you ever decide to let us actually modify and upgrade mechs - like change\upgrade their weapons, add more armor and integrate movement\targeting modules - that would also a welcome change. This mod has crazy amount of potential, while already being so awesome. Future looks so bright.

Yeah, the range of the remote should be large enough to keep your colonists out of combat range in most situations, but small enough to make it force the players to sometimes make risky decisions. And it will definitely be put in accessory slot. And like you put it so nicely the goal is indeed to have  "mixed armored strike teams bolstered by mech meatshields". Note that a nice thing about this is that your less battle hardened colonists can be assigned as the controllers, giving them an extra purpose.

About the mech modifications/upgrades, I definitely see the potential with that and it's something I'm definitely interested in looking into in the future, maybe as a separate add-on.

Plenty of possibilities to expand on this project to say the least

[Madman666]

Whats more is there to say? You made my day Some people that suck ass at shooting now can pretend to be useful by holding a nintendo gamepad, while mechs do all the hard work. AWESOME.

[Madman666]

Oh, actually remotes bring me another idea - a remote hacking tool! Since enemies bring mechs now - why don't use a remote tool to scramble their AI making them revert to being "hive" mechs shooting anything human in sight! That would be even more cool

[Roolo]

Oh, actually remotes bring me another idea - a remote hacking tool! Since enemies bring mechs now - why don't use a remote tool to scramble their AI making them revert to being "hive" mechs shooting anything human in sight! That would be even more cool

I would also love to see that. And for non hacked mechs this scrambling device could temporarily hack them. I'd make the range of this device pretty short, so it's really a high risk/high reward thing. Maybe use the intelligence (research) stat to determine the chance of success. But this will be a post-release thing, let's first get all the basics finished. But I'll put it on the list later this day (on mobile now)

[Madman666]

Cool stuff. And yeah either it needs to be a really hard to craft expensive one-time use tool (like insanity lances) or it needs to have other serious drawbacks, like short range.

[Canute]

This makes the colonists occupied while controlling the mech,

Hehe, that is the designated job for violent pawn's ! :-)

But what's about rideable Mechanoids together with the controller ?

[Roolo]

This makes the colonists occupied while controlling the mech,

Hehe, that is the designated job for violent pawn's ! :-)

But what's about rideable Mechanoids together with the controller ?

So what I think that makes sense is that I add a modification called "on-board controller". This modification can be applied to mechanoids that have their locomotion system hacked. The on-board controller allows riders to control the mechanoid while keeping their hands free.

I've actually already played around a bit with mechanoid mounting (got a rough version working today). The rider firing while the mech is firing while on the move using run and gun is a devastating sight to behold . By the way, mechanoid riding won't be part of this mod but will be a distinct Giddy-up mod that depends on both What the hack and Giddy-up Core.

[Madman666]

Wow, your mod makes for a strange synergy with Plucker's faction mods. Pirates bring tanks and APCs now since those are added as mechanoids, funny.

I wonder if an option can be added, that lets you choose what types of mechs pirates and other factions can bring with them.

[Canute]

Hehe, would be interesting if Tribe's could bring their Centipeds :-)
yeah yeah i know they don't have the tech to hack them, but maybe some shaman found a way with magic. :-)

[Roolo]

Wow, your mod makes for a strange synergy with Plucker's faction mods. Pirates bring tanks and APCs now since those are added as mechanoids, funny.

I wonder if an option can be added, that lets you choose what types of mechs pirates and other factions can bring with them.

That funny . Yeah, it would be good to have such an option. I'll think about how to create a nice user interface for that without spending too much time. I can probably re-use the animal selector from Giddy-up, and put a layer on top of it which let you select the faction.

Hehe, would be interesting if Tribe's could bring their Centipeds :-)
yeah yeah i know they don't have the tech to hack them, but maybe some shaman found a way with magic. :-)

Yeah, why not . Not as a default, but I don't want to limit people that come up with creative ways to justify tribal warlords with minigun wielding metal death machines.

[Roolo]

I just added the mechanoid control belt and mechanoid locomotion hacking!
- Added item: "mechanoid chip", a rare item that drops randomly when disassembling mechanoid. (credits for the sprite go to Orion, with his permission, I took the sprite from More Mechanoids, in which it is no longer used.
- Added research item: "hacking and controlling locomotion systems".
- After researching this, you can do the following:
  - Hack the locomotion system of a mechanoid. This does nothing directly, but opens up the possibility to manually control mechanoids with the mechanoid control belt
  - The mechanoid control belt is an item that can be crafted at the machining table. When a pawn equips it, it gets the option to control mechanoids (with a hacked locomotion system) from a distance. The pawn controlling the mechanoid will automatically follow the mechanoid to stay in the belts maximum range, while keeping distance. If you want to reposition your pawn, you can draft the pawn and move it (losing the connection to the mechanoid temporarely, but regaining it when the pawn is undrafted).

TODO:
- Add some visual feedback on the maximum range of the belt.
- Add mod options to configure the range of the belt and the distance the pawn should keep from the mechanoid.

[Canute]

When a hacked mechanoid from another faction enter your base area, you are geting the msg. that you don't got enough Plattforms.

[Roolo]

When a hacked mechanoid from another faction enter your base area, you are geting the msg. that you don't got enough Plattforms.

Ok thanks for reporting. When I implemented the warning I didn't take account the hacked enemy mechanoids yet (as that was implemented later). I'll add a check.

[Roolo]

Oops, I accidently pushed code this afternoon that makes mechanoids non-aggressive when activated, so hence the following update. It also fixes some important issues present in the latest update. 


- Fixed mechs not being aggressive when activated (no more sweet puppy mechs )
- Fixed warning that you don't have enough mechanoid platforms popping up when enemy hacked mechs arrive
edit:
- Fixed pawn bugging out when controlled mech dies or is downed
- Colonists that are controlling a mechanoid no longer flee from combat while busy controlling.