Robots?

[mameister]

Hi everyone,

since its 2084 I wondered whether people employed more robots on the street. Maybe to sweep the floor, mow the lawn, bring out the rubbish.

So my question up for discussion is:
How about we not only have human civilians but also "robot civilians" that the aliens hunt? This basically comes down to more md2-files/textures that behave the same way as the humans.

cheers,
Martin

[Tamanfodder]

The aliens need human biomass to...    ...well...  ...im not going to spoil this one... ...but anyways aliens would quickly realize that the lawnomatic bot isn`t a threat and leave theese robots intact... They need to save ammo! Also it as any dev would say: "it would be unneccecary coding with little to no benefit to the gameplay"

[mameister]

Ah right. Okidoki.

[CheeseshireCat]

What about security bots? They won't be as harmless :)

(In fact, if at least some of civilians were armed, it'd add a lot to the game, IMO... Though honestly, even since the very first X-COM, I was always thinking... Let's say I'm one of those civilians who has some relatively decent weapons storage. There's a fight outside my window. I peek out and spot a sectoid and a flying armor X-COM folks shootout. Wonder whom would I aim at first -- with the look of those suits ;)

[vulkus]

When I played the Xcom games, I was always under the impression that while UGV's were acceptable. Robots in general were part of the 'background' that is to say that robots were of the assumed research tree but not an official part there of. You knew work in robotics had gone on, and you knew it went in to the development of the UGV's but you never actually researched it. Except maybe in the advanced workshop where you were told from memory that with the advancement of robotics etc bigger and better equip could be produced.

Apart from some impressive looking cinematic or screen shot of a bot standing guard outside the alien containment section. Can't really see a point to it.

[wheel83]

I seem to remember having android or cyborg soldiers to recruit when i played X-Com Apocalypse. It was really cool and fun. I havn't played through UFO AI yet, so maybe there already is this in the game? But if it's not I think it should be done. Robots are cool

[tomvondeek]

Yep, there were robots, they had increased better stats than normal soldiers, but were inable to learn more - stupid KI

so you could decide wether to start with soldiers who were a bit weaker but can train to super soldiers, or have some robots who wont improve.

but funny sidefact: it was always funny that even robots weren't immune to those stupid brainsuckers (good i hated them )

[wheel83]

i dont know about the other x-com games but in x-com apocalypse the robots were immune to the brainsuckers, at least the brainsuckers would just sit there and not attack unless there was humans or hybrids close by.

[Tamanfodder]

It starts to smell like terminators here! I remember hearing/being told to that UFO: AI is Hard scifi (= realistic scifi) So for example: Human shaped robot would not hawe any military promise! The military robot programs today are aiming at ant or spider like things, with a machinegun stucked to them  ! So no terminators! And aliens already hawe the blodspider. (this leaves us with the ant???)

Problem with robots would be: They are too much like small UGVs, and i recall some admin/mod saying that small UGVs are a no-go!

Sorry about the burial of the terminator consept.

[wheel83]

You can't terminate the terminator!

but seriously, I think robots would suit this game well in terms of reality. They already use robots in the military today as scouts and packmules and they have designed robots to go into the battlefield to retrieve fallen solidiers. The only thing stopping them from strapping a machine gun on them are moral issues. Which I don't think would be a problem when trying to save the planet from a hostile alien race. As far as the terminator thing, they have been making androids in Japan for years and it's only common sense that one day they will make one advanced enough to do something like go to war. ...I hope they never do, but i would never say never in the future.
Although I think a cooler idea would be cyborgs. Or at least the ability to hire soldiers with mechanical implants that make the soldier unique somehow. This is definitely not far fetched.
Ultra pacemakers!

[Tamanfodder]

Yes yes yes... What i ment was that humans are HORRIBLY designed in terms of war! Insects hawe much better design for that! I was crushing the idea of human-like robots on battlefield (terminators). But what is the difference between a robot and a small UGV???

[Prinegon]

Also it as any dev would say: "it would be unneccecary coding with little to no benefit to the gameplay"

Well, for starters it'd be just enough to implement immobile robots or androids, perhaps a robot reloading on a power jack or one android with open head so you could see into his mainframe, and some of his chips laying on a workbench beside it. It would add greatly for the admosphere, especially for japaneese terror missions, to have theese meshes usable as "furniture" and it would be no coding work at all (well, but a lot of designing work, though).

[Tamanfodder]

Well, for starters it'd be just enough to implement immobile robots or androids, perhaps a robot reloading on a power jack or one android with open head so you could see into his mainframe, and some of his chips laying on a workbench beside it. It would add greatly for the admosphere, especially for japaneese terror missions, to have theese meshes usable as "furniture" and it would be no coding work at all (well, but a lot of designing work, though).

Well to be honest, i myself hawe no idea what "coding" means! That`s just the usual reply for theese things!   Well i had the idea it has something to do with programming...    ...which has something to do with something...


And about my last post(s): I maght hawe written something unclear here! Sorry! I like the idea of robots, but i dislike the idea of human shaped combat robots! Best shape for combat robot would be something insect like! Like the meter long ant with a machinegun. But theese robots would resemble small UGVs! Which got chanceld at another thread.