Roboticist
Roboticist
Superiors: Research Director
Difficulty: Medium
Guides: Guide to Robotics, AI Modules, Research Items, Guide to Paperwork, MODsuits
Access: Robotics, Tech Storage, Morgue, Research Division
Duties: Repair, build and upgrade cyborgs, maintain and repair IPCs, construct bots and exosuits.
Departmental Head
Research Director
| R&D • | Adv. Construction • | Robotics • | MODsuits • | E.X.P.E.R.I-MENTOR • | Chemical Research • | Xenobiology • | Toxins • | Genetics • | Teleportation • | Research Items • | Autolathe • | Anomalies • | Science SOP |
Primarily, the Roboticist's (Or rather, a Biomechanical Engineer or Mechatronic Engineer) job is to make cyborg bodies, and generally maintain activated cyborgs. Secondarily, roboticists create helpful robots like Medibots and Floorbots. Roboticists also shoulder the responsibility of providing and maintaining artificial limbs on the crew. Since the regular introduction of Integrated Positronic Chassis' (IPCs) into the crew, Roboticists often also provide an effective Medbay service for these incredibly squishy yet easily repaired crew. A skilled set of roboticists can even build a powerful set of mech suits, primarily useful for miners, but sometimes useful for security or medical personnel as well.
The Assembly Line
Robotics is your home as a Roboticist. Some of the more important contents are the Exosuit Fabricators for the creation of any robotic component you require, a Circuit Imprinter, a few cyborg recharge stations, one of few robotic storage (cryostasis chambers), a few mech suit recharge stations, and scattered across tables you will find multiple sheets of metal, power cells, a coil of wire, multitools, and a few flashes, a few proximity sensors, a cell charger, the beginnings of some medibots, and a robotic brain. It contains a small surgery area for IPC repairs, implantation, and brain removal, also equipt with an N2O tank for organics (note: non-oxygen breathing species cannot use this, so you will either have to ask medbay for a bottle of morphine or send the person over to medbay where they have the proper adaptations for those species).
For Standard Operating Procedure for this role and other science roles, please see Standard Operating Procedure (Science).
THIS HAND OF MINE GLOWS WITH AN AWESOME POWER
You are going to be building some of the most powerful things on the station. There are a few things you should do once you spawn in your nice and clean Robotics office.
Cyborgs, being one of the most important parts of your job, are one of the very first things you should work with at the start of the shift. Take that robotic brain and turn it on, then make a cyborg shell for when the brain gets inhabited, or if someone wants to be borgified. Some cyborgs may also come into robotics to ask for a bigger cell, as the power cells they start with are 10,000, while yours are 15,000 at the start.
After this, R&D will have most likely done some research and uploaded it to the servers. If they haven't, nicely remind them over radio to do so, as research is crucial for your job after a certain point. Without research, you can only make the most basically upgraded mechs, you have no implants which people will want at some point, and you have almost no cyborg upgrades, which will not make the borgs happy when they go an hour and a half without VTEC. Aside from research, there's one other department you rely on, cargo! Without cargo, it's even worse than a lack of research. You can't even make cyborgs or simple bots. Your shift quality can vary greatly depending on mining. No materials in the ORM? Get ready for a shift of sitting around, praying that at least one miner is alive.
To get mining more productive, you can help them out by making an APLU "Ripley". Some miners may prefer this to traditional mining, and possibly motivate them to get some stuff in the ORM for you. If all of mining is dead, you could request that one of the cyborgs that you create takes a mining module, so that you will have a semi-reliable miner who won't spend the whole shift looking for mining gear. Once you get materials, your shift should be smooth-sailing from there.
A good thing to do is to make an autolathe for yourself and the rest of science, as it benifits everyone to not have to go all the way to cargo for a single proximity sensor. Other things which are generally good to do are setting up a Protolathe, so that if the scientists forget to upgrade something then you can print the parts, or if you want better tools later in the shift you won't have to wait in line for the rest of the shift also trying to get tools like the whole rest of the crew. Cleaning up surgery, renovating the office, shoving E-N in the locker (or better yet, disposals), all good things you can do at the start of the shift.
After this, your shift should consist of making the occasional mech, giving implants to people, making and upgrading cyborgs, and trying to not get arrested for that H.O.N.K mech which you completely legally made. If you get bored, making simple bots can be fun, especially the rarely seen honkbot, which will earn you the praise of the clown and the hatred for everyone who isn't the clown.
Transplanting Brains
Cyborgs won't work until the roboticist transplants a brain into them. To do so, you need some basic knowledge of Surgery. There are two ways to extract brains from a person or victim. You can either amputate the head and then crack open the skull with the bonesetter or if you want to do it properly (and not get questions like "why are there so many corpses with missing heads" from the coroner). You have to make an incision at the head area (organ manipulation), then follow the guides on the surgery monitor until you get to the part of manipulating organs. Pick up your hemostat and scoop up the brain from the now-empty skull and you have yourself a brain for cyborgification. You don't need to bother yourself with mending the incision as it would only be a waste of your time.
When taking the corpse to the morgue it is also a good idea to take out your pen from your PDA and write on the body bag that the person was borged and not murdered in some gruesome fashion.
Job Objectives
Additionally, certain tasks will reward the player with credits for completing them.
No extra work is required, the fulfilment of these tasks will immediately reward the player with the stated credit amounts.
Make a Cyborg or Android
- Construct at least one cyborg for the station to increase workplace productivity
Payout: $100
Make a Ripley
- Construct a Ripley Mech for station usage
Payout: $200
Notes
- Do
- Make cyborg bodies and install MMI's or synthetic brains in them.
- Cut AI control when the AI is rogue.
- Make useful bots and leave them around the station.
- Make a Ripley before combat mechs, mining usually likes this (and hopefully will like you).
- Put beacons in all mechs lest they get stolen.
- Remember to periodically sync your R&D console to get the most out of their research data.
- Lock mechs when left outside robotics.
- Make sure to get the proper paperwork for cyborgification.
- Don't
- Put an MMI in a borg without making sure it isn't braindead (the MMI's can speak, you know).
- Take every single piece of ore out of the ORM, science needs it too.
- Blow all the borgs because one was emagged.
- Immediately blow all borgs in malf- instead, tell the RD to lock down the cyborgs then remove their Robotic's console screen to prevent the AI from unlocking them.
- Try to make a mech you don't have materials for, nothing is more useless than a pile of Durand limbs while you beg for metal and silver.
- Go on mech rampages 'because you can'.
- Make a Cyborg and Exosuit Control Console, 'just in case'.
- Build a mech for anyone who just comes by and asks for one.
- Give combat implants to anyone, including sec, unless they have explicit permission from the HoS or Captain.
- Be an asshat.
Other Tips
- People will come to you with requests for artificial limbs if they lose theirs in an accident or on purpose. Borg arms and legs serve as your main prosthetics to transplant onto people and it can be a good idea to make some spare borg parts for missing limbs in advance.
- You might need to repair damaged artificial limbs on people. Cables heal burn damage and you use a welder to heal brute damage. Just make sure that you're targeting their artificial limbs and not their natural limbs.
- Keep your materials organized, and understand how much each machine will take. (You will always need more materials.)
- Some materials or bot parts are more difficult to get than others, such as security bot parts, or bluespace crystals. Don't waste them.
- Have a plan before you start building anything huge, like a mech suit. (Without the circuitry or materials, they are useless.)
- Make sure to perform maintenance and power cell upgrades on cyborgs that come in; NanoTrasen usually doesn't load them with anything but the minimum required power cells.
- Ensure you have proper eye protection when you weld, or you'll become blind quickly.
- There can be some shifts which make roboticists very busy (such as revenants going crazy over the IPC crew, or spiders killing everything in sight). If both of the roboticists work together efficiently it's a good chance that they won't be overwhelmed so make sure that you form a good working relationship with your colleague. It's usually best to split your tasks up.
- If you're being overwhelmed by people asking for things at your desk, you can, in fact, slow this process down a little by requesting that they fill in and stamp the proper paperwork before you begin your procedure. You're supposed to do this anyway but not everyone likes a pencil-pusher and when they come back, with the filled-in paperwork, you pretty much have to drop everything you're doing and take care of their request. Many people who stop by your desk won't know how to create paperwork themselves so you should make some yourself if you want to push paperwork on people.
- For the love of Darth Vader, unless you want people to get pissed off and break into your lab, (leading to a scuffle along with death, serious injury, and/or more death) listen for when someone calls you to your desk!
Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik 
Traitoring as a Roboticist is fun and easy, especially since you spawn with flashes, and an expectation of building very dangerous machines. Your high station access and access to tech storage will allow you to get pretty much everywhere. And, of course, emagging any of your basic creations serves to cause havoc and chaos. Emagging the cyborgs can make them do what you want. If you do this, it's easy all access, plus a slave to do your bidding.
Mechs as well, of course, can be a great help, but you need to be careful about how you use them, as there's a thin line between attacking who you must and attacking everyone even slightly in your way, which is not fun. If you want to help your fellow antagonists, hijackers or malfunctioning AIs may appreciate that one extra bit of gear. If it's for a malfunctioning AI, all you need to do is add an AI control beacon, and the AI will have a mobile core with attached guns of choice to defend itsself with incase people are trying to card it and needs to escape.
Lastly, the best thing you can do as a traitor roboticist is clearly emagging a honkbot, are you really a good roboticist if you don't do this?