Build rovers at crafting station.

[The Plum Gate]

Deliver charged rovers to rocket module.

And be able to use rovers anywhere while respecting their current limitations.

Rover recharge station, sort of like the sweepy dock.

This whole system - rover, rover module, rover recharge station should require a Mechatronics engineer to be built.

[AndreyKl]

1 hour ago, The Plum Gate said:

And be able to use rovers anywhere while respecting their current limitations.

Rover recharge station, sort of like the sweepy dock.

I do agree that it makes sense to be able to use rover anywhere, but it probably should have an expensive and single use chemical battery for use in rockets and very low capacity chargeable one for use 'locally' (and weight carry penalty?), otherwise rovers are going to be too OP - scalable, unlimited energy to workforce conversion (conveyors are also free workforce in some aspects, but they are more fixed automation than direct replacement). Or they might need regular maintenance to turn rovers into workforce multiplier instead of free workforce.

P.S. I'm surprised devs did not implement some kind of rover-only mechanical lift to limit usage of rovers.

[The Plum Gate]

They will probably tweak all of this, but the existence of sweepy as an example of limiting the functionality of robotics is a touch in the right direction.

The rover is already incapable of quite a few things. The best it can mange is to build common tiles, ladders and dig the level 1 firmness materials. It also can't be told where to go. So the autonomous nature, and not having an identity for door permissions is a good start already.

I think this is enough of a limit, it's easy enough to just drop it from orbit if you want one running around the base, why not make it power hungry to recharge, etc. All the usual knock-ons with equipment breakdowns, power consumption, etc.

Honestly, this is one piece of equipment where the build material will be an important determinant in what kind of environment it can work in ( emphatically being an important aspect of its dynamics ). It would be the only dupe-like thing that can go in those environments that dupes would otherwise be scalded in, outright die or become gravely ill - like a uranium deposit, or the oil biome, or a reactor room for instance. Materials being important here ( admittedly this is an overstatement, thus edited here ).

And it can build there.

My first inclination would be using it under water or in the cold biomes. Later in the oil biomes. Etc.

I think this is actually the one missing piece of base equipment that could simplify the pathfinding problem - let players build simple rover dupes, and allow them to do the meanial or dangerous things. I think this would cut down on the tendency for players to take on extraneous duplicants simply to move the building or exploration along faster.

It's one of the things that needs no attention what so ever when it comes to skills or habitation as well. 

I think this was considered already, they're just holding out on the buildings to deal with it and waiting for a moment to balance the idea of having one.

Othwrwise, they should consider remotely launched probes that can reveal planet surfaces without the need to drop a rover or send a rocket ( I mean - if the rover is overpowered or something, and they need to remove it ).

Either way, severely limiting its capabilities is already a thing - it can't build doors for one. It's carey capacity is only 200kg and it is slow compared to even a bumbling anemic duplicant.

Needing the use of an electrical or mechatronics engineer just makes sense to repair or build them.

1 hour ago, AndreyKl said:

P.S. I'm surprised devs did not implement some kind of rover-only mechanical lift to limit usage of rovers.

Sounds like a hoist.

I'm surprised it can jump. And that it barks like a dog is a nice rover pun reference @jambell!

[AndreyKl]

On 2/14/2021 at 10:21 AM, The Plum Gate said:

So the autonomous nature, and not having an identity for door permissions is a good start already.

However they do need some way to be flexibly-confined to areas to be useful on fully inhabited asteroids (ex: confined to oil biome or to space, but with access to charging room). Otherwise they will turn into a bottleneck for tasks by trying to build something half an asteroid away or won't have enough reach.

 

[The Plum Gate]

1 hour ago, AndreyKl said:

However they do need some way to be flexibly-confined to areas to be useful on fully inhabited asteroids (ex: confined to oil biome or to space, but with access to charging room). Otherwise they will turn into a bottleneck for tasks by trying to build something half an asteroid away or won't have enough reach.

 

If one of the technical limitation is proximity based priority - ( as defined in the optional priorities ), then really, the standard chore interruption mechanism would come into play, moving it around and confining it would be a chore without door permissions - just having a generic rover tag would suffice. The nice thing about the rover is that it can only do so much - so it's pathfinding is somewhat simplified in that it cannot take on as many chores as a duplicant.

I think it's already fairly well balanced. I'm thinking ground based plug slug recharging, it's already kind of a thing - pathfinding to the wire routine.

If they were to make it where you could tell it to sit and stay, you could plug it in and have a portable battery, lol.

-

Adding to this, the sweepy dock requires a given wattage - this limits it's drain on the system and allows it to gain charge while also preventing the sweepy unit from acting like a battery on the system, so in a way, the sweepy dock is a bespoke transformer with a task set for a portably entity.