General's Roboticist teir list/also partial guide

[Generaldonothing]

So, you wanna be a Roboticist? Well, I got news for you! 

Don't

Roboticist is a job that is infuriating on so many levels, some rounds will be going on at breakneck speed with you just barely making it out unscathed, and other rounds will have you finish your job in under 30 minutes and make you wish that you went any other role. Point is that Roboticist (and its difficulty) is entirely context dependent, which normally wouldn't be a problem if you weren't in charge of the most powerful gear on the station. Your creation of mechs (Exosuits) and simplebots (bots) is second to your actual job, gauging the situation and adapting accordingly, the most powerful gear on the station is located in your exosuit fab, and it is your job to make sure that people don't powergame using them, lets go over an example

 

Let's say that you are in the middle of a shift and a security officer come up to you and asks for some implants, specifically CNS and Thermals, the current condition of the station is Blue alert, Confirmed traitors, and a command staff have gone missing, what would you do in this situation?

Spoiler

Answer? Actually it's a trick question, you don't have enough information to properly know if giving them these implants will actually benefit the station or not, however if you wanted to be fully by the books the answer is a hard no, as robotics SOP states rather clearly that you are NOT to implant security with combat implants unless it is code red

This is just an example of a situation that might come up during a round of robotics

 

Now, it's not very common to be forced to deal with implants, rather combat mechs tend to be the bigger (and often, much more impactful) problem that pops up from time to time.

 

When should you actually create a combat mech?

Do create a combat mech if-

A biohazard is spiraling out of control quickly (Ex: A blob is quickly reaching critical mass and the crew is struggling to properly deal with it)

You get proper authorization by the HOS to make one and create exactly what they asked for (Ex: The HOS asks for a gygax with a repair droid, disabler, and a close combat armor piece, you build him that, you don't just add scattershot instead of the disabler because you can)

Oh god everyone is dead this is our last option

 

Don't create a combat mech if-

You just want to ("But muh SOP" isn't going to help you much, trust me, it's a dick fucking move over preping for antags by building combat mechs just because you can, constantly doing this WILL net you a jobban)

The HOS (or any command member) asks for a durand (or any other combat mech) with lethals on green alert (For the love of god don't let shitsec get near a mech, they WILL cause more damage than they will fix and they WILL pin the blame on you) 

Now, something that isn't often covered and is more seen as common sense is what you put on mechs, so I'll be going over that now in a tier list 

 

WORTHLESS, DO NOT PRINT-

Plasma energy relay (Charges FAR too slow)

Exonuclear reactor (Using this is basically self antaging at best, and it's not even good at charging....)

Localized wormhole generator (It's a meme, nothing else)

CH-PL "Firedart" laser (Objectively worse solaris, NEVER use)

Tesla cannon (We don't talk about the tesla cannon[Used for research upgrades and nothing else])

C tier-

PCMK-6 Bola Launcher (It's... fine, you likely won't be using this ever)

SGL-6 Flashbang Launcher (Worse clusterbang, but it gets the job done)

SRM-8 Missile Rack (Friendly fire the weapon)

Gravitational Catapult Module (It's not really used, but it has some applications)

B tier-

ALL EXOSUIT ENGINEERING GEAR (It's pretty alright)

Drill (Just worse than the diamond one)

Rescue jaw ( I mean, it's a jaws of life, just less)

Taser (Good enough, just kinda eh) Removed in the combat update, no electrode spam

Immolation (Alright against vamps, just use solaris)

A tier- 

Clusterbang launcher (Blob counter, still funny otherwise)

Solaris (Pretty good laser)

Disabler (Very solid weapon overall and could be S-tier EDIT: After the combat rebalance this is a solid A teir, it has been nerfed to only shoot one disabler which is very reasonable as before it was a little too spamable)

 

Syringe gun (Hey, memechem on the go!)

Ion (Very nice overall, amazing to counter other mechs or a malf AI)

LMG (Pretty good, but not scattershot good)

Both armors (Reflective and reactive) (Hey, it's armor, not much else)

S tier-

Scattershot (best combat tool by far, this thing puts people down and KEEPS them there)

Exosuit sleeper (Very underused, a "any chemical" sleeper on the go will keep people on their feet)

Diamond tipped drill (this thing KILLS, the counter to all fauna in lavaland)

Quiet carbine (Only special item I will mention, VERY strong for both antags and non antags)

 

What mech builds you will likely be using

Mining mech-

Ripley, Diamond tipped drill, Auto Repair, Mining scanner, Reactive armor, Plasma cutter, Clamp

 

Atmos/engineering panic button mech-

Firefighter, Cable layer, auto repair, Extinguisher, Clamp, RCD

Medical mech-

Oddy, Syringe gun, 2 mounted sleepers

 

Non Lethal combat mech-

Gygax, Disabler, reflective armor or reactive armor, auto repair

Biohazard control mech-

Durand, Solaris or scattershot (depending if it's blob or terror spiders respectively), auto repair, reactive armor (IF THE BLOB IS REACHING CRITICAL MASS REPLACE WITH A CLUSTERBANG)

Oh god oh fuck panic button-

Durand/gygax, scattershot, reflective, auto repair

 

Alright, we are now done with the basics of mechs, except how to pilot them (Which is more security if anything, so I will not be going over it)

Now, here comes the other huge part of your job, making simplebots!These small little things have basic AI and can do alot of good tasks around the station and can be a huge boon to the crew.

Lets just talk about the ones you won't be making first

ED's, this bot is actually just a joke, it does jack all most of the time and if it does help someone it's probably not security New combat update made them NOT garbage

Honkbot, also a joke

Floorbot, you need... maybe 1, they aren't as good as they seem

General griefsky, another joke

The bots you will be making

Securitron, actually kinda crazy if you stack these, basically a stun baton with legs at most you need like 5 running around

ED's, shoots disablers and is very strong at doing nonlethal take downs on most antags, can sometimes struggle with clings but are nearly a hard counter to the umbra subtype of vampire. DO NOT SPAM THESE, IT IS POWERGAMING, make 3 at most

Medibots, godsends, you want like 10-15 of these running around, a real help to keep the unlucky alive

Cleanbots, the one you are gonna be spamming out the most, when janitorial isn't doing their job like ~20 of these can fully clean a station, aim for 20-25 by the end of the shift

All of these should be made through the crafting menu, no exceptions 

And, that's the basics of robotics, this should cover everything that isn't on the wiki, the wiki already explains cyborgs well enough so I'm not gonna go over them in full, just give em vtec and self repair and they should be happy also give everything that can use a battery a yellow slime core

General tip for traitor roboticists, mechs get the job done and NEVER buy a syndi MMI, just use an emmag

So, this is the end of the guide portion of this post, got any questions? Just ask em

Tierlist in spoiler

Spoiler

F tier- Mr. Mechspam

VERY likely to get job banned 

Only spams mechs 

Does nothing else

Known as a dick by the majority of the playerbase

Also grabs everything from the ORM, refuses to share with anyone 

That's it, that's all he does

D tier- The new mechanic

Does not understand robotics, assumes making mechs is their only job, doesn't even know how to make mechs

IPCs hate him! doesn't know IPC surgery and leaves them to rot

"What the hell is a borg?"

Gets fired by the RD 45 minutes in

C- The metal fan

Grabs everything from the ORM, but is still willing to share with RND and engineering, this pattern of behavior will eventually stop

Knows how to make cyborgs, actually makes cyborgs, actually cares about the cyborgs, still doesn't upgrade the cyborgs

still doesn't know how to repair IPCs

Makes a few simplebots per round, doesn't really help that much but it does do something

Implants anyone who asks

B- Understanding of the arts

Makes mechs when requested in a somewhat timely fashion 

Can repair IPCs... just slowly

Upgrades borgs into reasonable condition, actually knows what xenobio is and wants their damn yellows

Says "No" to security wanting every implant on the station on blue

A- The stations godmother

 

Says no to absurd mech offers by security, and gets the non combat mechs to every department that needs them

Can do IPC repair and makes IRCs for robobrains who don't want to be borgs

makes sure the borgs are in proper condition and actually checks in on them

makes sure that by the end of the round the station is full of simplebots and single handedly puts medical and janitorial out of a job

Also likely very robust with mechs, knows that they are not indestructible, although very strong

 

And, that's about it, so if you read through this, cool I guess

(Might update the formatting later) EDIT 1: Updated with combat reworks, taser removal does almost nothing and the disabler nerf makes it a solid A instead of an S teir pick, ED's are no longer a joke and are VERY strong now

Edited December 9, 2021 by Generaldonothing
Combat rework P1 was merged, mech section and ED were now outdated, also amendment on cleanbots, don't make like 40

[Samman166]

Simplebot spam is bad for the server and making actual swarms like suggested will make a significant impact on the server, I've found you should never go above 20 simplebots or you can start to see performance issues. I'm not a maint and this is just from my personnal experience but I have seen bots be removed by admins several times for performance issues. I would say like 10 janibots and 5 medibots if you want to be more mindful of the server. Good guide though and I realize you are probably not entirely serious about making that many bots but best people who read this mind think you mean to seriously build 50 bots.

[Generaldonothing]

9 hours ago, Samman166 said:

Simplebot spam is bad for the server and making actual swarms like suggested will make a significant impact on the server, I've found you should never go above 20 simplebots or you can start to see performance issues. I'm not a maint and this is just from my personnal experience but I have seen bots be removed by admins several times for performance issues. I would say like 10 janibots and 5 medibots if you want to be more mindful of the server. Good guide though and I realize you are probably not entirely serious about making that many bots but best people who read this mind think you mean to seriously build 50 bots.

Simplebots are often fine for the server, with these bots only impacting performance at around the 70-80 bot threashhold. 50 bots in a round should do basically nothing. 

[AffectedArc07]

58 minutes ago, Generaldonothing said:

Simplebots are often fine for the server

You clearly don't know anything about simple bots.

 

Their pathfinding process is one of the most expensive systems in the entire game (yes, beating out atmospherics), and given that bot pathing is not regulated by the MC, just 30 bots total is enough to bring the server to its knees.

 

Do not encourage levels of 80 simple bots or more. You will be job banned.

I have done this before and will gladly do it again. 

[Generaldonothing]

43 minutes ago, AffectedArc07 said:

You clearly don't know anything about simple bots.

 

Their pathfinding process is one of the most expensive systems in the entire game (yes, beating out atmospherics), and given that bot pathing is not regulated by the MC, just 30 bots total is enough to bring the server to its knees.

 

Do not encourage levels of 80 simple bots or more. You will be job banned.

I have done this before and will gladly do it again. 

Oh, I have had this never actually come up before, guess I'll make an amendment then

[procdrone]

im quite late here, anyway, i find it criminal to not even mention that robotics is medbay for IPCs, and no tips regarding fixing mechanical palls, especially considering how many roboticists simply have no idea how to

[Generaldonothing]

32 minutes ago, procdrone said:

im quite late here, anyway, i find it criminal to not even mention that robotics is medbay for IPCs, and no tips regarding fixing mechanical palls, especially considering how many roboticists simply have no idea how to

Both of these are on the wiki, and I'm redoing this in video form anyways