Drones

[Mrs Dobbins]

 

On /vg/ MoMMIs (drones) can spawn on their derelict with a 0th law which means that they can't leave the derelict. In theory we should be able to work on the construction site as drones (if the mass drivers were working), but since drones can't drag stuff, then its hard to do atmos as it involves going back and forth.

I'd like a new Z-level for drones to build on, maybe with an asteroid to build their creation into. The drones would start on a ship that has an R&D facility to print off machine components and circuit boards and some fluff items (drones need a home). This would provide a nice thing to do for people that are out of the round and just want to build. When a dead player hits the "become a drone button, a dialog will flash up asking if they want to be a maint drone on the station or a construction zone on the new z-level. Drones that join on the construction Z level have a choice of

To encourage the drones to be productive little von-neumann machines when they start up, a message along the lines of "Nanotrasen has sent a construction ship out to this asteroid to build a base. Build a facility for use by humans in mining, R&D etc.

In order to exploit the asteroid and build more effciently, ship/asteroid drones will be able to pick module in a module machine- they can change module again every 5-10 minutes in order to continue with the building. All drones on the construction Z-level get bigger power cells Ideas for modules:

Mining: Drones who will excavate the space where the outpost/station will go, they get a drill, ore satchel, mesons and a gripper (hand slot).

Construction: the drone that does the main meat of the construction: Gets everything a maint drone gets, plus and RCD and Rapid Pipe Fabricator. These drones are designed for building stations from scratch, unlike maint drones who only have to repair the stations and do minor construction.

 

[SigholtStarsong]

Also known as: No drones ever choose to spawn on the station proper.

[fludd12]

Drones need to be made to MoMMIs - The lack of hands make proper repair absolutely impossible. Keep the same lawset, have internal supplies like they currently do, but hands are a must.

[Lars]

 

Eh, you can build APCs and many machines, and assemble tables, using the magnetic gripper. APCs only require one trip -- grab battery, drag power circuit.

 

The most annoying thing to me is that you can't examine the metal/tiles/rods/etc to know how many you have left, and if you run out you can't pick any more from the ground until you jump on a recharger. The last item shouldn't ever be used.

 

One issue is that taking power circuits and using the circuit printer is probably breaking the not using crew resources law, so having a supplies room for drones would be nice.

 

[Mrs Dobbins]

 

Also known as: No drones ever choose to spawn on the station proper.

 

On /vg/ MoMMIs have a choice of where to spawn and they still get drones on the main station.

 

[davidchan]

 

Having multiple spawn points across the station wouldn't be bad, but having a spawn point at the derelict would be. We never use the derelict much, few people even bother to explore z-levels when telescience can do it all anyways.

 

Drones do NOT need hands. This would just end up begging for griefers to drone their way into Head of Staff offices, the armory or toxins. Drone laws don't mean shit to someone trying to ruin someone else's round. And, legit uses for hands as a drone are slim. Plasteel is the only resource they don't have access to, for building things like reinforced walls (which irks me to no end they can't repair R walls), our drones could use a few updates or changes but I'm largely happy with the way they are save for 2 things.

 

1) Drones need resource synthesizers, so using metal, laying floor tiles and cable or what ever else they do takes battery charge, not some arbitrary stack count. Made even worse that synthetic resources don't recharge faster regarldess of the components in the Cyborg Charger, so Drones and Engineers have even more downtime than a sec borg, for example. The ability to create pipes as well would be nice, so that drones can properly repair and restore the station without having to do what they can and hoping the engineers will do the rest.

 

2) Drones need vent crawling. Mail tagging is fine and all and makes for a good rapid transport, but doesn't always let the drone go where they need to go, and our Disposals system is a large loop, rather than direct to like vents are. Giving drones back vent crawling would make them more useful, imo, and make it easier for drones to find busted pipes. Every room and corridor has vents, but disposal chutes are pretty scarce actually and being able vent crawl directly to a breach or fire without having to open airlocks would make them much more effecient at their jobs without putting undo danger to organics (going off a drone law, a drone basically is to ignore all life forms, their laws don't discourage or prevent them from opening the door to a breach or plasma fire if their intent is to fix it, regardless of who it might endanger. They just aren't programmed to care about organics.)

 

[Qinetix]

To be frank, there is a drone spawner on the engineering station, not sure how spawning as one works tough, I think you have to be on the zlevel in order to spawn.