Robot/android soldier instead of HWP

[sirg]

How about having some kind of mech / robot fighting machine of human stature instead of a heavy weapons platform HWP? If I remember right, the father of X-Com - Laser Squad - featured androids...

I'm not proposing some 2 stories high monster, but an armoured android-like fighter which could handle heavy guns, like a minigun or heavy machine gun, have tough armour and .. of course, be expandable.

I think that by 2084 robotics will evolve that much that the best scientists in the world hired by PHALANX could create a humanoid fighting machine instead of a bulky tank, with good AI to handle battle situations.

Some features/restrictions that I'm thinking the "robot" should have:

* superhuman strength (obvious)
* fast (good TUs)
* good accuracy
* good amount of hitpoints
* limited to several specific weapons (heavy machine gun, minigun, etc), except maybe kerrblade
* no backpack (this robot wasn't intended as a mule)
* can to fit through doors
* able to kneel
* extended vision (e.g. IR)
* nanoarmor plates
* imune to panic, except blue screens (joking) :lol:
* can't be healed (repaired) on the battlefield
* shouldn't look like the Terminator
* can be built in the workshop, but costs a lot and takes long to build (20-30 days with 10 workers)
* of course, it can't be promoted, and the stats won't improve, except _maybe_ for the "mind" skill (it should be able to learn from combat experience)
* can have a name, rather than some alphanumerical ID
* maybe it could be upgradable (better weapon skills or stats)

I would like a robot that has legs and hands, instead of having some arm modified into a minigun, but it doesn't have to look exaclty like a human, either.

The drawbacks of using a robot are that your squad will gain less xp if the robot does all the dirty work, and you will have one soldier less in your squad. Otherwise it wouldl be fun and usefull to have around

[HaJo]

How about having some kind of mech / robot fighting machine

The main issues with this idea are:
* the effort  needed for development:
** coding
** building models
* game-balance (financial, abilities in relation to normal soldiers ...)

Maybe this could be done after aircombat and the final battle in the alien base gets finished  

[Winter]

I honestly don't think this would be a good idea, as we're already planning bionic/cybernetic improvements to soldiers performed by the Hospital facility. Being able to build whole androids would make that entire mechanic seem a bit pointless.

Regards,
Winter

[sirg]

I was thinking about having only one robot per squad, thus preventing the player to have a whole squad made of robots. I haven't decided how to call it - robot, android, cyborg, it's up to you. If you have only one robot per squad, the player will use it carefully, besides the fact that it's costly and hard to replace. Anyway, it would be fun. I can relate this idea with the X-Com situation in which you have 7 soldiers with no armor, armed with standard weapons, and one super-soldier in full armor using a plasma rifle

"enhancing" soldiers with cybernetic implants reminds me of the game Syndicate, by Bullfrog. I don't know why, but I've never liked the idea of implants very much... maybe because I like a battle "humans versus aliens", not "cyborgs versus aliens".

The robot I'm proposing should be very strong, capable of handling weapons that are to heavy for any human to use or fire. It's not necessary to modify to much the game in order to include this unit, except for the 3D model. It should be exactly like any soldier, but with a different model, the same type of stats (only that its skill values are predefined and fixed), and it uses other weapons. X-Com also featured HWPs which used different weapons than soldiers.

P.S. If the team can do it, even after some more urgent things get finished, then it's OK. Maybe you can test the idea with an "maxed up" soldier with nanoarmor and some high-damage weapon, and see if it's fun, and how it changes the gameplay. Then, if you like it, consider making a good 3D model, etc.

[CeoBohga]

Something to note, X-com: Apocalypse featured andriod soldiers.  They did it in a way it worked rather well without imbalance.  The androids would get higher random starting stats, than a human or mutant soldier, but their stats would never grow.  They were what you see is what you get so in the long run, the human soldiers were more valuable since after some time of training and missions, they would surpass the andriod in usefullness.

Now I'm not advocating androids being in the storyline... coherent universe comes first so if combat droids are not in the vision... don't go around adding them.  If you do add them though, it would probably be best to add them as something to be researched and exspensivly built.  As an added downside to androids, maybe allow the aliens to have some type of AI hijacking item to turn the androids on their owner (like mind control but permanent) and lessen the effectivness of manufacturing an android army.