Advance Roboport & MK2 Robots

[Filtiarn]

Logistic Robot Mk2 | Construction Robot MK2

#recipe:
+ = Construction Robot Mk2

+ = Logistic Robot Mk2

#suggestion:
-robots energy consumption will be halved during daytime the portable solar panel providing the robot with some of the energy needed to function
(effect) --> robots will work longer and use less energy during daytime



Advance Roboport

#recipe:
//undecided

#suggestion:
(S1)has 6 recharging ports, 4 more slots for robots and a larger coverage area
(S2)has 6 more slots for robots, and 5 module slots
[Efficiency module] --> robots recharge faster and drain less power
[Speed module] --> robots drain more energy and after recharge will receive a speed boost for (n?) sec
[(*)Productivity module] --> robots drain more energy and after recharge will consume less energy / sec for (n?) sec
-has a slider for each type of robot; the slider defines the number and/or type of robots that will either prioritize buildings in the area or only respond to requests in the Advance Roboport area; as a sub-option each slider will have one "either / or" button [O1: prioritize area] / [O2: respond only to area] and one check button that will enable or disable if the robots will respond to requests made by player
(effect) --> mitigates some of the robot recharge queue in more active areas and offers more control to the player

(note: numbers are unspecified due to balance reasons / (S1) or (S2), implementing both at once would, in my opinion, not be recommended / (*) if MK2 Robots are implemented with (S2) of Roboport then specified module shouldn't be allowed due to balance reasons)

[bobingabout]

Well, when I saw the name of the subject for this forum, my first thought was "you can do this with mods", for the most part, you still can.

when actually reading your sugestion, my first thought (while still reading) was Why solar panels? why specifically the power suit's portable solar panel? when reading on, I see that the reason you use solar panel, is because you want the advantages to only take place during the day. Although this could possibly be done with modding, it likely isn't worth the effort, and possibly desyncs in multiplayer, just make the drone more efficient over-all, though energy consumption dependant on time of day is something the devs could add to the game if they were going to add this, my guess is the likelyhood they will is pretty low.

looking down at the roboport, this looks even less likely to happen. the first sugestion is easilly addable by modding. The implementation of modules to roboports in itself is actually a task for the devs to add in itself(a small one to be fair), because currently you can't use them in roboports.

Having the modules effect the entire robot network(you mentioned robots should consume more power simply because you put a module in a roboport at all) would be kind of awkward, and imagine if you filled every roboport on a 100+ roboport network with modules that iincrease running costs of robots per module, I can imagine a robot leaving the roboport, and because consumption costs have been inflated so much, the first thing they do is go back to recharge, then basically get stuck in a "I need to recharge!" loop. I could have mis-understood what you meant by this, but thats what I get out of it.

The next point of reducing running costs or increasing speed for a short time after charging would need some kind of buff system adding, I'm not sure what exists already, but I imagine there is a debuff system from the slow down capsule, but I know the poison capsule is just a persistant AOE damage, so is not a debuff, basically you're asking for an entire new game mechanic to be added just because you like to play with drones.

[Filtiarn]

MK2 Robots shouldn't be hard to implement if my understanding of the equations in use is correct, but that doesn't equate directly too: "let the community mod it in, because why not?". If that is the case why bother to make game at all? Just make a engine and be done with it.

Yes indeed you misunderstood what I said, and indeed there would be a need to implement a buff system in case there is none. Only the robots that leave/recharge at the station will benefit from the boosts dictated by the modules inserted in that specific station. In other words you can, and most likely will equip every Advance Roboport differently; maybe one is just for transit, in that case you might want to equip it with 3 [Speed module] and 2 [Productivity module] so that the robots will reach their destination faster or maybe another is in a dense production area, in that case if you have power issues you equip it with 3 [Efficiency module], 1 [Productivity module] and 1 [Speed module].

[bobingabout]

First, I don't think I did say that it should be available for mods to do, just that mods already have. and the only problem with implementing it (devs or otherwise) is that there currently isn't a mechanic for power consumption to change based on time of day.

second, I think I see what you mean about the changes now, the down side of the increased power consumption, is purely while they are charging, so they spend a bit more time at the roboport charging(or just draw more power), then have the buff when they leave.


I didn't say any of it was a bad idea, just a lot of work