TL;DR
Automated Combat Drones that can be programmed to group, sweep, and provide a non static defense to players and their creationsWhat ?
As with most things in Factorio, Automation is essential! From setting up supply lines to construction of large facilities via blueprints, we as Factorio players rely heavily on the setting up and improvement of Automation in nearly every aspect of the game to date. So what I would like to propose is to provide automation in an aspect of the game that is currently lacking in Automation: The Eradication of the alien menace! I envision a game where I can setup factories that produce and deploy heavily armed and armored robots (Think Terminator type ground robots, or perhaps more automated / independent versions of the current flying drones that do not have a timed expiration) that can be automatically set (based on factory settings, or other control panel settings) to do things like:- Join A patrol group (with setup patrol routes for the group to patrol to prevent the advance of aliens)
- Begin roaming outward from the factory randomly, engaging any hostile aliens it encounters
- Group at a predetermined Rally point (the Rally point which then could assign the gathered robots once a particular condition or set of conditions is met to one of the previously mentioned features)
- Travel as passengers on trains to provide that train with constant defense
- Set to a particular "Team" (Ex: Red Team, Blue Team, Green Team) to allow for multiplayer battles or single player bot arenas where combat bot teams can battle each other for the players amusement
- and much much more!
Why ?
I think that providing this sort of automation would allow for a better experience, especially later in the game when a player may have large, sprawling facilities and resource outposts connected by large stretches of railroad track, when the player may need to clear out hundreds, sometimes thousands of alien threats in a particular section of map in order to build what they wish to build in that area without alien harassment or threat. This would also add automation into something that is still very much a manual thing that, even with multiple personal laser defense turrets, a tank, and deploy-able combat drones, Might take a considerable effort for the player where they could be directing their attention elsewhere.Also, the current static defense in the form of turrets, while effective against aggressive aliens attacking at defenses, can hinder expansion beyond those lines of defense and would need to be taken down in order to make room for more factory space when expanding, which would open that section up to attack if the nearby aliens had not been fully dealt with by the player directly. A more dynamic and mobile offensive force of automated combat robots can be used to help bolster static defenses, and eventually eliminate areas beyond static defenses of any alien threat which would allow for the player to more easily move in and setup new facilities.