feature request Roomba-like Robots (Vac-bots)

[iCaughtFireOnce]

So, I'm proposing a vac-bot like that you could build which would tidy up your base. You would build a charging station for the robot where vac-bot would dock to charge its batteries. You could set an activation charge percentage, at which point the robot would activate, and start moving around the base. The robot would just do sweep jobs around the colony, ignoring the priority of those tasks (cause it's a dumb robot). The robot would also have a recharge power threshold; once it falls below this threshold, it would drop what it's doing and return to it's charging station to recharge. If the bot runs out of power, it would get stuck, and cause negative decor. A dupe would have to be assigned to sweep the bot, causing them to take it back to the dock where it can be charged. It can't activate airlocks, but can use pneumatic doors. The vac-bot could also potentially have other effects, such as cleaning polluted oxygen near it (cause it's a vacuum, I guess?), or disinfecting floors underneath it automatically.

Alternatively, you could have a maid-bot (I'm imagining the maid from the jetsons) that would do sweep and disinfect jobs, but would require a supply of chlorine to disinfect stuff? (otherwise it's labor that costs no oxygen, no food, and makes no CO2).

I'd probably make the bot need plastic and metal to be built, since it would be pretty good. It should probably also use a fair amount of power. The bot would have to be able to climb ladders.

Another possibility is having beacons that the bot can't move past (like a real roomba!), so it wouldn't wonder off and start cleaning your slime biom.

[LeadfootSlim]

It's funny how the storage lockers already look like robots as it is... however, additional units (robots) would be additional pathfinding, and that could lead to some trouble. However, if they're limited to flat surfaces that'd simplify things a lot and reduce their computational load.

I really hope we get some additonal forms of inventory management as well, like air-tube item transport systems, trap doors, or top-loading mega bins that auto-load items dropped into them.

[iCaughtFireOnce]

I can see how more pathfinding might be a performance drag. The game perfoms fine for me right now, though, so I don't see that as an issue personally. If I can have 20 dupes, I can have 20 dupes and 2 roombas. I do like the idea of pneumatic tube delivery systems, that's awesome, but I'm having trouble envisioning how the mechanic would work. I don't really see how a hopper would help much though. You'd need to build a new one in every place your were digging. At that point you might as well just sweep stuff up.

[Oozinator]

Roomba for the win!
 

[Singularity42]

+1, I was going to suggest this, but found it had already been suggested.

Also it would be great to have other kinds of bots, e.g. for mining, or transporting ore. You would need to be careful to design it so that it doesn't defeat the whole purpose of the game though (micromanagement), maybe the bots needs a certain element to keep functioning or something?

[Mjello]

On 12/10/2017 at 12:53 AM, iCaughtFireOnce said:

I can see how more pathfinding might be a performance drag. The game perfoms fine for me right now, though, so I don't see that as an issue personally. If I can have 20 dupes, I can have 20 dupes and 2 roombas. I do like the idea of pneumatic tube delivery systems, that's awesome, but I'm having trouble envisioning how the mechanic would work. I don't really see how a hopper would help much though. You'd need to build a new one in every place your were digging. At that point you might as well just sweep stuff up.

I noticed a considerable performance drop in the automation preview. I hope they get it back up to speed. Because my game went from perfectly fine to laggy. They still have a week to optimize though

+1 for this idea. I like little deliver bots.

[TheScaryOne]

On 10/11/2017 at 12:20 PM, LeadfootSlim said:

It's funny how the storage lockers already look like robots as it is... however, additional units (robots) would be additional pathfinding, and that could lead to some trouble. However, if they're limited to flat surfaces that'd simplify things a lot and reduce their computational load.

I really hope we get some additonal forms of inventory management as well, like air-tube item transport systems, trap doors, or top-loading mega bins that auto-load items dropped into them.

I'd be perfectly happy if they were little cockroach bots that only scurried back and forth and could not climb or drop. Set up a storage container on the same floor and they will deposit in it.

[sixsevensix]

I thought about this as well, automaton dupes and cleaning/sweeping bots could be made with the former being only found as a possible new poi. The bots would be simple little roomba like bots that sweep and mop automatically  and recharge at stations.

The automaton would look and function like a dupe but would dock at a station similar to the exosuit dock and charge with electricity and petroleum or oil instead of sleep or food. The primary difference would be that it could only preform manual labor such as repairs, matinence, digging, delivery, etc. art and research would be impossible.

The benefit to these would be that they function at all times until they need recharging, even when dupes sleep the automatons and cleanup bots could be holding the fort as well as making it a bit easier to tidy up.