TL;DR
Advanced robotics which allow the ability to build programmable robots which carry out specific (and complicated) tasks, with the ability to also attach machines too those robots.What?
The ability to research advanced robotics, which in this example would be a Robotics Science Pack. Obviously you have to research robotics, and maybe a few others and then you get access to a robotics sub-tree which gives access to complex and advanced robots. However, instead of normal bots, these ones are much more customizable, and also programmable. So, first of all there's the customization aspect. You could equip the robot with guns, put stuff in it's inventory, (it could however do all that itself), but mainly you could add parts to the robot. It could start off as a simple rover, but you could add gun mounts, armour, legs, arms, fans or thrusters (for flying), larger vision radius, extra inventory spaces, even crafting abilities. The way you'd do this would be by attaching a machine too it, so by attaching an assembly machine the ability for crafting would become available, by attaching a chest too it it'd get more inventory space, etc. You could also attach modules to increase it's speed, etc. And as for the programmable aspect, which would be the main part, you could use two approaches:A. A simple interface like the trains, just with conditional logic, so If biter detected: Attack biter. So most of the logic would be handled through the game's system, not the player.
B. A very simple scripting language which could allow you to set advanced logic, for example:
Code: Select all
int pistolSlot
on weapons updated
{
for each Weapon weapon in Weapons
if weapon is Pistol
if weapon.GetSlot.type is SlotType.WeaponSlot
pistolSlot = weapon.GetSlot.ID
}
per 100 ticks
{
if GetEntity(Biter, return biter) is true
If GetEntity(Biter, return biter).distance < 10
Attack(biter, pistolSlot)
Move(biter.position, Random(5, 8))
}