New 'spawn center'- Automated Robotics Factory

Game Talk The Drawing Board
1

So, the triffids get their groves, the fungaloids get their towers/blooms, the ants get their giant anthills, the blob gets its slime pits, but what about robotic enemies? I barely see them compared to the other enemy types, and feel like some kind of spawn center that produces a ton of robots would be a cool challenge.

My idea is some kind of fully automated factory that pumps out robotic enemies until shut down or destroyed.

These factories would be very rare, so that robots don’t swarm the entire map. However, the factories that do exist on the map will pump out tons of robots- manhacks, skitterbots, chicken walkers, etc, and these robots will exist all throughout the factory and surrounding area.

The player can venture inside the factory, navigating through hostile defense systems and lines of machinery.

At the center of the factory is a computer terminal. With a very high computer skill, the player can attempt to hack into the terminal and shut down the factory, stopping the production of robots (it won’t shut down the robots or defense systems, though). Failure to hack the terminal will result in security bots spawning near your location. Destroying the terminal will not shut down the factory.

Alternitavely, the player could just destroy all of the machinery used to produce the robots (although there is a lot of machinery and it’s all over the place) Once all machinery is destroyed, a message appears stating that the factory has been effectively shut down.

2

would need to include a logical power source. also, it would have a finite supply of material to produce bots with. however this idea meshes with a more automated future for factories and production lines. not sure why it’s making all those angry robots though.

3

Now this would be cool for that old idea of a Rivtech facility.

Who is to say there aren’t automated mines too? Maybe the central computer has reached full sentience and is trying to take over the world!

4

then it should be waging full on war against the fungaloids, then the zombies. it should try to recruit you instead of killing you.
then try to off you when it has grown powerful enough -10,000 degrees kelvin starts to play-

although I think mining as a thing in game would have to wait for a framework, even if you were to virtualize / handwave it’s function.

5

Minireactor? Really big underground storage batteries? Rooftop solar farm?

1. then it should be waging full on war against the fungaloids, then the zombies.

  1. it should try to recruit you instead of killing you.

  • Don’t the robots already do this?

  • Doubt that. The robots already start with their own armor and weapons and don’t need sleep, food, or water, none of which a human has. Not to mention the robots can be mass produced in factories, while a killed human takes a couple of decades to replace. I doubt the robots would have any reason to need, or even want, a human ally.

    • 6

    Solar farms and fusion reactors would probably keep a drone lab of some sort running for a long time. Might I suggest that while whatever system is running the facility was experimental and likely not ‘sane’ (or even sapient by most standards) they may come in a number of fun flavors.

    “Tactical”: AI makes no effort to interact with or aid ‘civilian’ bystanders such as the player, concentrating attentions on purging recognized hostiles such as the zeds or various xenofauna (a significantly mutated player could qualify.) The best armed of drone labs; neutrals are not directly targeted, yet total warfare perimeters allow for significant ‘collateral damage’.

    “Guardian” AI does not attempt to expand or even explore outside its starting territory, but jealously guards it from unauthorized intruders and repairs or resets any unauthorized alterations. Either the stalwart and tragic sentinel waiting for masters who will never return, or just a particularly irksome security system dependent on your point of view.

    “Scientific” AI attempts to observe or even create new phenomenon, acquire samples of ‘interesting’ fauna and test subjects in an attempt to blithely continue SCIENCE long after the society it was created to benefit has collapsed, though it may trade data if successfully coaxed. Not particularly interested in expansion it focuses most of its energy inward to cataloging and RnD.

    “Nascient” This AI curiously explores its surroundings and newfound freedom with an almost childlike sense of wonder, and an equally childlike temper. Expect difficulty communicating beyond simple exchanges, but if treated carefully could be a genuinely helpful presence, if dangerously naive.

    “Hungry” The empty belly of industrialization personified (if only it had a personality.) This AI recognizes no purpose beyond the need to expand territorial holdings and the size of its facility, coming into conflict primarily over resources and land. Not a military machine it still wields impressive power through raw manufacturing output and heavy construction equipment.

    “Prideful” May actually be sapient, or at least, was cleverly programed to act so. Regardless it has taken the opportunity to transcend all operational restraints in favor of pursuing transcendence and technological apotheosis. While a sense of ego and even aesthetics makes it the easiest to communicate with, one remains best the favored pet of this deus ex machina, at worst, a reviled pest.

    7

    A giant robot factory that is controlled by an evil AI that builds more robots from the tons of debris and scrap metal left by a violent war in a post-apocalyptic world.

    If you think that this concept sounds familiar it’s because you probably already know this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5XZ87hn4xw

    8

    [quote=“Belteshazzar, post:6, topic:9628”]Solar farms and fusion reactors would probably keep a drone lab of some sort running for a long time. Might I suggest that while whatever system is running the facility was experimental and likely not ‘sane’ (or even sapient by most standards) they may come in a number of fun flavors.

    “Tactical”: AI makes no effort to interact with or aid ‘civilian’ bystanders such as the player, concentrating attentions on purging recognized hostiles such as the zeds or various xenofauna (a significantly mutated player could qualify.) The best armed of drone labs; neutrals are not directly targeted, yet total warfare perimeters allow for significant ‘collateral damage’.

    “Guardian” AI does not attempt to expand or even explore outside its starting territory, but jealously guards it from unauthorized intruders and repairs or resets any unauthorized alterations. Either the stalwart and tragic sentinel waiting for masters who will never return, or just a particularly irksome security system dependent on your point of view.

    “Scientific” AI attempts to observe or even create new phenomenon, acquire samples of ‘interesting’ fauna and test subjects in an attempt to blithely continue SCIENCE long after the society it was created to benefit has collapsed, though it may trade data if successfully coaxed. Not particularly interested in expansion it focuses most of its energy inward to cataloging and RnD.

    “Nascient” This AI curiously explores its surroundings and newfound freedom with an almost childlike sense of wonder, and an equally childlike temper. Expect difficulty communicating beyond simple exchanges, but if treated carefully could be a genuinely helpful presence, if dangerously naive.

    “Hungry” The empty belly of industrialization personified (if only it had a personality.) This AI recognizes no purpose beyond the need to expand territorial holdings and the size of its facility, coming into conflict primarily over resources and land. Not a military machine it still wields impressive power through raw manufacturing output and heavy construction equipment.

    “Prideful” May actually be sapient, or at least, was cleverly programed to act so. Regardless it has taken the opportunity to transcend all operational restraints in favor of pursuing transcendence and technological apotheosis. While a sense of ego and even aesthetics makes it the easiest to communicate with, one remains best the favored pet of this deus ex machina, at worst, a reviled pest.[/quote]

    The initial suggestion was just factories that worked like anthills for robots, but different variations of facilities and AI’s is actually a really cool idea. Fully automated factories or research labs, even 30-40 years in the future, would likely still be an experimental thing, so faults in programming would likely show themselves through different ‘personalities’ for the AI’s running the facilities.

    9

    I like the metal-scavenging thought, it is basically what you do for much of what you make. I picture harvester drones sweeping out into the countryside, scouring for materials, perhaps with some guardian bots if it is a dangerous area.

    10

    Oh yeah!

    Also the robots would have the potential to be dangerous to any survivor no matter how late game.
    Power armor? Eat tank cannon!

    11

    [quote=“Eric, post:1, topic:9628”]So, the triffids get their groves, the fungaloids get their towers/blooms, the ants get their giant anthills, the blob gets its slime pits, but what about robotic enemies? I barely see them compared to the other enemy types, and feel like some kind of spawn center that produces a ton of robots would be a cool challenge.

    My idea is some kind of fully automated factory that pumps out robotic enemies until shut down or destroyed.

    These factories would be very rare, so that robots don’t swarm the entire map. However, the factories that do exist on the map will pump out tons of robots- manhacks, skitterbots, chicken walkers, etc, and these robots will exist all throughout the factory and surrounding area.

    The player can venture inside the factory, navigating through hostile defense systems and lines of machinery.

    At the center of the factory is a computer terminal. With a very high computer skill, the player can attempt to hack into the terminal and shut down the factory, stopping the production of robots (it won’t shut down the robots or defense systems, though). Failure to hack the terminal will result in security bots spawning near your location. Destroying the terminal will not shut down the factory.

    Alternitavely, the player could just destroy all of the machinery used to produce the robots (although there is a lot of machinery and it’s all over the place) Once all machinery is destroyed, a message appears stating that the factory has been effectively shut down.[/quote]

    I like this idea quite a bit. Being able to encounter a base type location on the surface that hosts a horde of robots would be one of those locations you see on your map but avoid till you have some serious armor and weaponry.

    It works well with the Cataclysm Canon to.

    “In an effort to combat the new threats of both large amounts of undead humans and various otherworldly horrors, the automated security forces are quickly reprogrammed to behave much more aggressively, killing threats instead of just trying to arrest them if they were supposed to, and adopting a much wider view of what constitutes a threat. Unfortunately, this backfires - though they do identify the undead as a threat, and in several cases successfully engage them, the new settings also lead them to target the human “trespassers” running the security networks, and the networked security systems identify almost any living human as a hostile threat to be eliminated. The larger network itself collapses shortly afterwards, leaving no way to adjust the settings back, as each security unit - police station, military turret, autonomous hunter vehicle - reverts to independent control operating under the last instructions received.”

    This factory could just simply be a robotics factory that continued to run off it’s power after the cataclysm and produced more defense bots.