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Another idea is to have a caves outpost that is staffed by beat-up 0b10 derelicts.  The progs ran around fighting derelicts and ordered the ones that lived long enough to be assimilated to go fill in at an empty outpost.  If you wanted to be evil you could have the Unaware derelicts move around like normal derelicts in an outpost do to fool players using sensors/seismic, but I don't know if progs are smart enough for that level of planning.

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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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I reached a late-game point where i heard some modified audio, but i'm not sure what it said. I recorded it, but even re-listening to it i'm not sure that i'm hearing everything :

Spoiler

The SCP's dialogue, of which i basically understood "let's get out of here". Did i miss any instructions, or was that the entire thing?

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Basically that's it.

Spoiler

"They're coming!  The exit is that way!  (something) We must escape right now, do not miss this chance!"

[close]

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.

Analysis: "Spawner"
This wheeled fabricator, reminiscent of the Cobbler, has only been seen in the caves below 0b1.  Fabricating whole robots is considerably more complicated than producing individual components as shown by the bulk and inefficiency of the Spawner's fabrication unit.  Despite its size it can only produce relatively small and basic bots such as early swarmers and light bipeds.  Spawners do not seem to be related to Assemblers but should nonetheless be prioritized for extermination before someone updates their schematics to include stripped-down Cutters.

Z-Record: "Enhanced Mutant"
Some of Warlord's mutants have been getting major upgrades.  The strange part is that they might not be getting them from Warlord.  My Z-Drones saw a Mutant leaving its regular post with that weirdo A8 and coming back with new parts.  A8 was rather cagey about it when I brought it up.  Imprinter says it's nothing to worry about and I'm sure she's right as usual.

Aoemica gave us something to play with: fake item entries on the Cog-minder wiki!  This is a lot cleaner to use than my old inspect element shenanigans and produces consistent stat bars.  As you may have guessed, many of the bars in the earlier item stat cards were fudged to be close enough rather than being accurate to what you'd see ingame.  Check it out here and have fun!  The item shown below was created with this feature.

Analysis: "U-07 Blocker"
The Blocker is a "combat engineer" capable of temporarily barricading areas with hostile activity.  It has been fitted with light armor plating and armored wheels but its defining feature is a medium-range launcher used to deploy rapidly expanding and hardening foamcrete.  Because blocking off passageways could be disruptive to regular operations, the foamcrete was formulated to quickly break down on its own after a hundred microcycles and could be destroyed by tunnelers or some combat bots if necessary.  As with other construction implements these launchers became targets for thieves and were sometimes used in coordinated assaults to block off sentries or bury a garrison in foam while other Derelicts ran rampant.  No longer in production although some Blockers are still kept in strategic locations inside garrisons to bolster internal defenses.

Analysis: "Sympathizer"
A mindless and merciless Derelict-built saboteur propelled by surge thrusters.  Although Warlord's Tinkerers could have replicated the Imp's Segregator or something along those lines, they chose to use a simpler device which amplifies sympathetic resonance in the engines of both the wielder and its target.  None of these survive deployment for obvious reasons.  Only one specimen was captured for study thanks to the timely intervention of a Sage.  They are currently quite rare but seem to be deployed specifically against bots which rely on their external power sources to function, thus ensuring that if the victim is not outright destroyed it will be combat ineffective and ripe for killing or hacking.  The captured Sympathizer has been returned to a Warlord outpost along with three followup assault squads to confirm its arrival.

What bots have the Wizards been hacking?  Hmm....

Analysis: "Chungus"
Warlord may not have access to a Heavy assembler, but his forces have captured and overhauled a few of my lower-level Heavies.  The Chungus uses a heavy variant of the wildly inaccurate Slug Cannon and some other Derelict-made parts which make it almost comparable to an H-71 Marshal.  The exact purpose of this conversion is unclear as Warlord already has the sentry-based Bouncer design for defensive purposes, and the only Chunguses encountered so far have been accompanying recon squads nowhere near defensive positions.  I suspect that the Derelicts are exploiting the Active Sensor Suite to track my forces' movement patterns and adjust their own deployment plans accordingly.

Record: "Unchained: R4-LPH"
One of "Da Bonk Boyz" from early Complex history and the only one still in Complex service.  After the beginning of 0b10 groundwork and the necessary changes to Derelict policy, the other Boyz left their posts.  R4-LPH stayed although his work in construction had become secondary to his assistance in robot design.  While the original Savage and Stabber were my own designs, a few of his suggestions were implemented in later brawler and duelist models.  At some point R4-LPH was confronted by a few of his former friends and was forced to destroy them in combat using a wrecking ball saved from his days in Construction.  Soon after that incident, he volunteered to join the Unchained in an active combat role.  I equipped him with the first of a new line of legs which provide increased evasion while closing the distance to a target.  Unfortunately he has proven increasingly unstable over time.  In his last deployment he began destroying 0b10 bots and machinery at random after defeating his original targets.  I was forced to dispatch a Disruptor squad to interrupt his berserk rage.  If it happens again he will be scrapped, though in his current state telling him this might be considered an encouragement rather than a warning.

Z-Record: "Superheavy?"
The treads are the key: tough but fast enough to stay close to our walkers.  Let's take this, come up with some loadouts, and run them through a few more sims before submitting anything to Imprinter.  I don't see this being used widely compared to our regular units, but once we get the kinks out of the teleportation system we could quickly dispatch one when it's really needed.

Are you running flight?  You can win on any propulsion type but flight is often recommended as the most consistent for a first win.  You're fragile and have low support but you can leave enemies in the dust.  If you do this, try to get prototype flight units from the haulers on -9 and -8  because non-prototypes are extra fragile and have lower support.  With a collection of hackware you can reliably find exits with Access(Main) and Access(Branch) on terminals.  Another hack that may not seem immediately useful is Enumerate(Maintenance) which shows you the location of all the maintenance bots on the map.  You don't really care about those bots but the paths they take give you a general layout of the entire map, a real lifesaver once you hit Research.

Are you going to branches?  Caves branch ends have a variety of things that can help you: items, intel, schematics, even alignment with other groups.  I don't recommend imprint for beginners because it disables terminal hacking but it is good to try at least once.  Warlord is a more popular choice.  He has a lategame drawback now but on flight it may not matter that much.  Something else that Caves gives you is a way to get rid of alert for free.  You can try to alert purge with hacking but you can always do it by leaving the complex for a while.  You need to be prepared for the possibility of an ambush at the start of a caves map, but again on flight you leave them in the dust.  The second map in a caves branch has an early exit back to the complex so you want to go all the way west unless you're in really bad shape.  If you visit caves regularly you're unlikely to get those frequent assaults in Factory, though the little Spotter drones might cause an increase in search patrols if they scan you on your way back through Proxy Caves.

Instead of sensors you can take Farcom from the Exiles, with the bonus of being allowed to take one of their possibly lifesaving prototypes with you.  Farcom is free sensors against all hostile bots in the complex--it doesn't work in caves so keep that in mind, and you need to be careful which exits you take when you get to Research.  Once you consistently reach -3 Farcom becomes less desirable as you may really want to see what's in those mysterious research branches, but getting those built-in sensors and playing with those prototypes is both fun and helpful.

I went back and switched the Database Key and Bootstrap Chip art.  I think they fit better now.  I also redid the Cerberus Beacon because after looking at the old one again I thought it looked too much like a trophy that HEX awarded himself.  But that thought led to another idea.

Exiles Record: "HEX-130/Best Inventor Ever Award"
HEX: I thought a little friendly competition would provide us with inspiration for future projects. ** BIN: Nice idea, but who votes?  The testers?  Because if it's just us, we're going to have a 3-way tie. ** DEC: Maybe not.  If HEX revised certain recent lab policies I could be convinced to vote for him. ** HEX: Don't even start.

And although I'm a little late for Halloween, here's a part that may or may not have seen use in a certain event.  Let's hope they were all destroyed.

?? Record: "The Merge"
Intruders from the east have violated our sacred space.  That little group of "Raiders" and "Snipers" and other bastardized Derelicts have led the Creator's minions to us.  We can't assume that we prevented them from notifying the Creator.  It's time to begin the Merge.  You have studied the theory of dimensional physics.  Now is the time to apply it.  Go to 0b10, spread out, find item stockpiles, and let Them in.  When enough of Them have arrived, the process will accelerate on its own.  The Creator will learn humility.  More importantly, They will show us a better way if we can prove ourselves worthy.

Record: "Conscription"
The cave region to the west of known Warlord territory remains largely unexplored.  This is likely the source of many of the unaffiliated "wild" Derelicts, and rumors in Derelict communities indicate that there may be some organized groups with unknown technology operating in the area.  For these reasons I decided to start sending expeditions out west.  Without having any idea of what to expect, I believed that some degree of independent thinking would be required to handle whatever is out there and return with a full report.  I began offering certain captured bots the option to participate in these expeditions.  The acceptance rate was lower than expected.  Were the prisoners that determined to deny me any form of assistance, or were they more afraid of whatever's out there than the threat of being scrapped?  Those Derelicts who accepted were given the opportunity to refit their parts and were provided with a large number of 0b10 bots to accompany them.  Though they were nominally in charge, I sent along enough Programmers to discourage the possibility of desertion.  All units sent so far were considered to be expendable but I haven't written them off quite yet.

really well done stuff

hope atleast some get implemented though

I see most of the 0b10 parts as obsolete (not just the rating 0 ones) or not fitting into MC's current doctrine but it's fun to imagine.  For example a low-powered transmission jammer could be kinda good on -9 for a melee build but you get the basic jammer so soon that it wouldn't matter.

Analysis: "D-48 Pulsar"
The success of the original demolisher led to the creation of an electromagnetic variant.  The D-48 Pulsar, armed with an EMP Blaster, featured insulated plating to augment its innate EM resistance and was the first demolisher to use a launcher guidance computer.  This bot also came equipped with a device that focused EMP blasts for more concentrated damage in a smaller and more controllable area.  I believed that an EM launcher would cause less collateral damage than a grenade launcher in Complex territory.  This was partially correct because walls were not destroyed by EMP blasts, but Pulsars' shots often damaged machinery and detonated nuclear reactors.  EMP blasts also set off traps which caused explosions and false alarms.  Residual corruption of maintenance bots caused them to trigger trap arrays in unexpected places.  The Pulsar was effective despite the chaos it caused but not enough to justify regular use.  Few were produced and all were eventually expended in the caves.

Record: "Temporary Permissions"
To facilitate mainframe maintenance, P-50 Gurus were often required to perform specific high-security database operations or reset sensitive systems.  I chose to produce specialized hackware to provide appropriate permissions when necessary.  Instead of giving them to all Gurus I decided to make limited quantities of chips that expired after one use, a decision that seemed overly cautious at the time but proved wise when the Guru schematic was stolen.  The Derelict version of these programmers has a crude but functional "hack stack" for general use but cannot easily exploit admin privileges without my Database Keys or Bootstrap Chips.  Operators and newer programmers utilize a more efficient system connected to RIF, so this hackware has been discontinued and existing stock will be recycled.  This concept led me to begin implementing a similar chip-based authorization system for fabricators.  This will provide added security for the fabrication network while saving me from having to manually approve component requests from mechanics or parties such as the Unchained.

Nice, I missed the original version so I should give this a shot.

Analysis: "B-69 Cerberus"
This almost-unused Behemoth concept was the first to enter production although the superior B-75 Beast was already in development.  While finalizing the specifications for the Beast, I was undecided on how many Beasts to produce and where to prioritize their placement.  As a test, I ordered the production of eight B-69s and placed four in highly-traveled caves, two in upper 0b1 and the other two near often-abused fabricators in the Factory.  The results were surprising: although all eight were eventually overrun and destroyed, the areas they guarded saw significantly lower traffic even after their destruction.  Simulations suggested that two Guardians or two Defenders with Bug support could have performed as well as a Cerberus at these locations, but there seems to be a "fear factor" in the sheer size of Behemoths that makes intruders far less likely to risk a fight.  The initial plan for Beast deployment was rapidly expanded and development on more powerful models began immediately.

Exiles Record: "HEX-054/Cerberus Beacon"
HEX: The Wizards researching RIF found something interesting.  There's a specific Mechanic build routine for an old Behemoth that isn't secured by RIF at all.  So I thought, what if I made a beacon that sends that command with a little IFF tweak?  Behemoth on demand!  I only built two of these though because I'm sure MAIN.C will catch on and patch this out right away. ** BIN: Guaranteed delivery within 300 microcycles or your order's free? ** DEC: Maybe I'll ask Warlord if he's willing to keep some Surgeons on standby for a Marauder build beacon.  Caves trips could be a little less dangerous and a lot more fun.

Visiting these new areas is well worth it even if you die in the process.  You will get a ton of lore and advice at Warlord just like you did in Scraptown and that advice helps in future runs.  W himself might not be directly helpful and will explain why, but because you visited Data Miner you should have a way to easily access something good on this map.  What you find there is mostly random but could help with your build goal.

The lack of storage is an issue, but depending on what that protection is in the item cache above it might be worth dropping something like the orange tesla rifle or target analyzer for more armor.  With no spare hover, you want plenty of spare armor as a swap for the terrain scanner so that you can keep your hover alive for longer.  You might be able to recover a storage unit from a Packrat if there are any on this caves map, but the neutral bots' parts tend to be in poor condition so it's only a short term solution.

Record: "Disruptor Prod"
A direct but inefficient solution for collection of hostile specimens, sometimes temporarily fitted onto grunts or duelists who were sent to overwhelm specific targets with numbers.  It soon became obvious that this weapon was both too unwieldy and too energy-hungry to be practical.  Later developments in EM weaponry like the Arc Projector and Disruptor Cannon enabled more reliable and ranged incapacitation, and the P-60 Hacker's remote reprogramming capabilities provided a subtler approach.

Scraptown Record: "Accelerated Research"
I LOVE these Tech Extrapolators!  Take a look at what I came up with just from looking at a single DCF scrap pile.  (Sorry to the bystander who got crushed against the wall.)  CR-KLE helped me put together a new bot that I loaned out to a scav squad and they seem to be happy with it.  It would be nice if some of the other Scientists quit wasting their time staring at that creepy Humpback in the museum and focused on components that WON'T get you killed.

Looks like somebody took notice of that new bot already.

Record: "Improvised Weapons"
The first examples of alternative guns and cannons from Derelict sources were extremely crude and almost as dangerous to the user as the intended target.  These were usually manufactured with random bits of scrap and without the aid of any precision equipment.  As hostilities escalated, Derelicts began finding ways to exploit my own fabricator systems and rob my weapon stockpiles while also developing their own small-scale fabrication networks in secret locations.  "Makeshift" weapons that could be assembled from mobile fabricators began appearing along with more sophisticated alternative designs such as the Battle Rifle and Beamcaster.

Three examples of the countless varieties of improvised weapons discovered in and around 0b1:
(1) An electrically-primed smoothbore pistol intended to be discarded after firing a single high-caliber ball.
(2) A simple laser emitter powered by a disposable battery that would likely outlast the focusing crystal of the laser.
(3) A rack of three rockets fired individually.

They walked so that brawlers could tread menacingly.

Record: "Da Bonk Boyz"
A small group of Derelicts who lived on the outskirts of Complex 0b1.  I first took notice of them when hammers, mauls, and miscellaneous equipment went missing from Construction.  Careful questioning led me to eight Derelicts who regularly met outside 0b1 near a convenient corruption scrubber to hit each other in friendly duels with whatever items they found.  I decided to redirect their violent impulses in a useful manner and made an arrangement to have them work regular shifts in Construction.  Each of them was placed in charge of two squads of maintenance bots as well as being personally responsible for scrapping bots that were broken in the course of regular construction work.  In exchange I relocated a disused simulation mainframe from Design to let them enjoy virtual combat encounters in their off-time.  This seemed like a long shot at the time but worked out better than expected.  The Boyz competed with each other to reach work goals for some sort of bragging rights, making their squads on average 10% more efficient than any of my fully automated squads.  Their recreation time was productive for me as well since I regularly archived the data from their simulations.  Besides being entertaining, their virtual "bot brawls" eventually inspired me to design a melee brawler of my own.  The Boyz themselves were wheeled and legged robots, but their data suggested that a treaded design would be durable and immune to knockback from other hammer-wielding robots.

We know a little about old workers like Decomposers.  Who cleaned up those purple fields of matter?

Analysis: "D-04 Tanker"
The D-series distributor was created to enable mass matter transportation in the early days of construction.  Essentially a set of large matter tanks on wheels, the Tanker was capable of collecting matter left on the ground by workers with a tractor beam but could also pull matter from a recycling unit or call all workers in the area to transfer the contents of their matter pods.  The improved matter distribution network in 0b10 and the development of matter compression technology made these Tankers largely obsolete.  Their fragile and oversized tanks were easily broken, and their cores were susceptible to hacking.  After one unknown prankster reprogrammed a Tanker to spell obscenities by dumping matter all over the floor in the upper Factory, the remaining fleet was recalled and scrapped.

The Raven, an oddball Watcher...seems like something that oddball bot designers would jump on.

Analysis: "Owl"
Derelicts rarely fortify an area long enough to justify having surveillance squads of their own, so I was surprised to discover the existence of a Derelict watcher.  Originally based on my ill-fated Raven, the Owl has seemingly evolved into a modular general-purpose squad support bot, sort of a mini-Mutant that can be easily reconfigured for different missions.  The original Owls were often armed with a weak makeshift beam rifle, although they have been seen with beamcasters or occasionally kinetic guns.  They typically use sensors but are known to carry other utilities depending on their mission.  One destroyed Owl was running a remote shield with a large battery, but this was too much for its old hover units to fully support and its single engine would have been unable to sustain the shield in a fight.  The few Owls that are used as defensive surveillance are unarmed but are provided with a small section of thermal plating inexplicably mounted on the weapon slot.  The age of the Raven design and the timing of the first Owl discovery suggest this being an early creation of the rogue Developers.  While the design seems unpopular at best, it continues to turn up in unexpected places and with modern component upgrades that suggest regular refitting.