While after 7.1 it hardly seems like RIF needs more buffs I was wondering why you can't really do any meaningful hacks on allies.
I'm not sure it makes sense from a law point of view given that your assimilated buddies are no longer a part of the 0b10 system. But WHATEVER, who hasn't had the fantasy of hijacking an assimilated watcher's visual and sensor feed to make a super drone? Or ordering a friendly serf army to grab a whole squad of grunts and dispose of them? Or getting a researcher to heroically sacrifice itself stasis beaming a choke point while you make a run for it. Assimilating NCs would certainly be way more fun!
OK sure, balancing all this stuff could be a nightmare, but there is something to be said for the fact you have to 'pay' for these extra benefits with lots of couplers. A watcher drone for instance would cost 24 (what are they called? Units?) from an NC coupler (13 + 6 + 5) plus an extra 5 per 100 turns to replenish the visual feed. Add that they need to stay in a range of 20 and it isn't necessarily TOO OP.
I mostly like the idea of keeping a bunch of NC and support bots for various reasons. As long as you can keep you're ragtag army of support bots alive they can save you a bunch of utility slots for filling all your infowar needs or possibly doing other cool stuff.
I know this a long shot but pretty please?