Fanlore and Art for Older Bots and Fictional Parts (spoilers)

[CaptainWinky]

Aoemica added support for fake bots too, so let's have some fun with it!

Record: "Light Variants"
I was forced to reconsider my earlier evaluation of the Spawner after capturing one intact and bringing it to Testing.  While I could easily come up with a better portable fab unit, the Spawner Unit is capable of producing more advanced bots if given additional build time.  There is still no sign of where these originated, but I can now rule out Warlord and the Developers who would have come up with better schematics.  I have already come up with some new robot designs that have been successfully produced by the Spawner as well as my standard swarmers and cutters.  Instead of simply destroying the remaining Spawners I now intend to send Programmers with heavy escorts to capture them, hide them in isolated cave sectors, and have them build small armies of my own designs.  This would help me establish total control over the 0b1 outskirts while keeping most of my regular forces concentrated in and near 0b10.  Perhaps this would be a good opportunity to activate "PP" and let it take point on the mission.

[CaptainWinky]

I decided to combine some of the stuff in this thread with an idea from jimmyl's thread showing map prefabs, and some tweaking and bashing of Scraptown prefabs.

[Kyzrati]

Certainly a moment of initial confusion, seeing purple mixed with cave at the beginning and occupied by derelicts!

"Microbehemoth" haha xD

[N.W.L]

Warning!: potentially deadly 1x1 heavy caves unit detected: ..collecting_data.. :Active Sensory Suite not detected: .. New Unaware Behemoth Class Detected ..:

[CaptainWinky]

Record: "Tri-Deuterium Array"
An experiment in power generation efficiency created by combining three slightly downsized deuterium engines in one housing.  The finished product took up as much volume as two normal engines while producing and storing slightly more power.  The total mass was also more than two engines, so I never found a use for it except on a couple of Beast test variants running shield generators.

[CaptainWinky]

Record: "5E-3KR's Expedition Report 001"
We ran into expected resistance from small bands of opportunistic looters beyond the edges of Warlord's territory.  No losses, all significant damage was repaired in the field.  Western Cave 39 was where things started to get weird.  We ran into a bunch of...mutant grunts?  Not really but it looks like that's what they were going for.  Immediate hostility, garbled transmissions when they transmitted at all.  If any of them had an effective loadout it was by accident.  Some of the components we found aren't in my database but they're definitely not new.  The hostiles were three deep at first but our Snipers punched right through their ranks and the rest of us mopped up.  On the far side of the cave we found two weird wheeled guys hiding behind a huge collection of broken bots.  The Masters knocked them out and we're lugging them back to the outpost with a couple of the grunts.  I request Demolisher support if we're to finish clearing this cave.

Analysis: "Necro"
This unusual mechanic seems to be an offshoot of my oldest repair bot designs.  Internal inventory contains backup wheels and primitive power sources that I originally used for exploratory robots and early maintenance workers.  One thing that I don't recognize is the device installed alongside the recalibrator, which has the ability to extract subcomponents from broken robot cores and install them in other cores to bring them back to some sort of functionality.  The captured specimens are somewhat intelligent but have no memory of when or where they were created or modified.  They have no apparent goal for their creations and seem content to amass robots in their cave.  Further analysis of their repair technology is required.

Analysis: "Shambler"
A general classification for the reanimated combat bots created by the Necros.  These bots' cores seem to come from a variety of grunts or robots of similar size and have been fitted with battered and mismatched components.  The Necros should have the capability to repair these parts properly but seem to prioritize creating more Shamblers over giving them proper equipment.  Shamblers are unintelligent even compared to my combat bots and can do little more than fight without direction from a Necro.  Not a serious threat to operations, yet.

[CaptainWinky]

Record: "5E-3KR's Expedition Report 002"
While exploring Cave 39, we had some other bots run into us from behind.  Thugs and Scarabs, escorting workers who were lugging more broken bots to the Necros for conversion.  They didn't attack immediately, which was refreshing.  The leader told us that there's been a power struggle between some wannabe Warlords in the area.  They're working for the current "winner," a Fireman with a rocket booster named 5P-1CY, and this guy sends them here to get Shamblers for his army because he's too unpopular to get assistance elsewhere and too weak to demand it.  They're getting tired of him too so I gave them some ideas.  They're going to bring back a couple squads of Shamblers as expected, but this time the Shamblers will be carrying some of our sapper charges which will go off when 5P-1CY goes to inspect his new zombie troops.  These Derelicts agreed to allow safe passage through their territory once they take charge, so I'm calling this a win.  By the way, we found this gun among the scrap piles.  Our Analyst says it came from 0b1...so should we send this back or recycle it here?  I doubt you want anyone else to find it.

[CaptainWinky]

Big Swarmer is an intrusive thought, what more can I say?  This bot is barely Medium Swarmer but I wouldn't want to have four of them blasting me from max range.

Record: "Omnithruster"
A captured Tinkerer was tasked with designing new types of flight units for a hypothetical heavy swarmer design.  Aside from mass restrictions, the biggest drawback to having a swarmer use multiple guns is the cumulative recoil.  One of the more promising flight units so far is the Omnithruster, a flight unit designed to reduce recoil by firing omnidirectional minijets in conjunction with a weapon fire control system.  The first prototype lacks the mass support for a full array of guns, but it is being improved upon and adapted into a flight array which may see use in protovariant swarmers.

[CaptainWinky]

[CaptainWinky]

Analysis: "C-45 Inventor"
After the C-40 incident, the next model of researcher was created as another general-purpose design capable of detailed analysis and data collection under my direction.  The Inventor was fitted with Aerolev Units instead of wheels for movement efficiency and to enable a quick escape when necessary.  This model was also the first to use a Component Analysis Suite for quick identification and cataloguing of newly discovered Derelict equipment.  After the landing, the Inventors' main role was to develop new heavy equipment for analysis of alien artifacts and then to create a newer model of researcher better equipped to utilize that equipment.  Once this was finished, the C-45 line was relegated to low-priority projects.  The few Inventors in service today have been assigned to work with captured Tinkerers, serving them as lab assistants but with the added responsibility of keeping the Tinkerers on task and reporting any signs of discontent or attempts to escape.  This plan is working well although V3-CT5 was able to distract their assigned Inventor with a program called "COGLATRO.EXE," enabling the head of the GAL Project to flee 0b10 with a semi-functional prototype.

Dipping into Beta 15 territory here.  Not plot related but I'll put it in spoilers because it's slightly related to the new map.

Spoiler

Record: "Concept Field Recycling Unit"
Breakthroughs in matter manipulation technology from other projects have led to improvements in portable recycling systems.  One prototype Field Recycling Unit was intended to be capable of recovering all of the matter from recycled material.  Two of my Experts assigned to this project have reported occasional yields above 100% efficiency.  Diagnostics run on both the testing equipment and the Experts have come back clean, but the project has been put on indefinite hold.

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