the revamped auton system thread (and wingmen too)

[Arisaya]

This thread is to discuss some of the ideas i had as well as any ideas that someone else might come up with.
appologies before hand for lack of formatting. i am posting from my phone atm.

a way to recall autons to your cargo bay (preferably w/o docking with them.)

an extension of the dockservices dockscreen to allow someone to repair the armor on a selected auton or wingman.

wingmen should be upgradeable, and maybe autons too, though autons much more strcly, perhapse using something like atarlosts max device mass or something.

more autons; the current autons are simply too weak to be of any real use in the late or even midgame. the nerf to shields hits auton performance especially hard.

autons for creative purposes; mostly aimed at modders in this one. weve got a mining and looting roles in autons already made by modders, so what could be next?

[Aeonic]

Making the mining auton(s) work properly would be a good start IMO. At the moment, as of 0.99c, when you send out more than one, they tend to stop doing anything. Other than that, they were really nice to have. You blow everything up, then send out the mining autons to take care of things.

[Prophet]

1. Trader's Mule
I'd like a mule auton variant that I could send off and sell its inventory to a station by itself.

2. Kamikaze auton
A normal auton , with no weapons or shield. when ordered to attack it will move directly on top of the target and detonate with a big boom.

3. Shield auton
This could have so much potential...
No weapons but heavy armor and a good shield. If ordered to escort (including the playership) it will 'share' it's shield with the ship.

4. Recon auton
When you enter a new system you could send this guy off to explore.
minimal weapons and shields, stealth armor and a fast drive. maybe use shpOrderWander and it could recon stations remotely and update the players map.

5. Command auton
autons can be powerful in large groups but controlling them is a pain. this auton could have different modes (defense, offense) and if you order other autons to escort this one, it takes command of them, giving them orders according to the mode it is in.
This way, you could have 2 command autons, one with all your decent combat autons set to offense mode, and some mules, miners and traders controlled by the command auton in defense mode.

[Arisaya]

the trade auton is an interesting notion... you would need to be able to select the station it goes to trade with.

im not sure how efficient the recon auton would be when using the wander command.

i like the idea of command autons. i tried something like this in .99c, but the same bug with my scripted st.ks attack battle messed it up; the nested auton crash bug. however, now that is fixed, it is worth another shot.

ive tried kamakazi autons before in the form of an invokable launcher which would cause the missile to gate in, but it would never fire its weapon.

[digdug]

2. Kamikaze auton
A normal auton , with no weapons or shield. when ordered to attack it will move directly on top of the target and detonate with a big boom.

Bobby and me did them, they can be remotely detonated, or self detonating when reaching the target. they are on xelerus.
Apemant did a more sofisticated version of auton-mines, on xelerus too.

5. Command auton

"Nested" autons would be awesome to simplify the management of a large number of autons.

[Arisaya]

For kamikazi autons, I guess I could just use the script events like on the suicide freighter...

[Fossaman]

Seems like it would be easier just to give the kamikaze auton a weapon with 'canhitsource="true"' and set it inside the bitmask. Give the weapon a really short range. Order auton to attack, it flies close to bring its weapon to bear, and BOOM.

[Arisaya]

Seems like it would be easier just to give the kamikaze auton a weapon with 'canhitsource="true"' and set it inside the bitmask. Give the weapon a really short range. Order auton to attack, it flies close to bring its weapon to bear, and BOOM.

That's what I tried. It doesn't work.

[dosbox-gamer]

Don't forget about AutonsExtended v5p8 on Xelerus. It brings the auton count to over 50, with lots of specialty autons (advanced, illegal, military, rogue, tinker and more).
http://www.xelerus.de/index.php?s=mod&id=534
The Predator auton is particularly deadly, but it is only a Level 9 item. There is an ultimate Level 10 auton... but only the Teratons know about it!

[Arisaya]

TX2 adds new autons as well, with custom models too! (this is because there's autons for all sorts of purposes built by all sorts of factions and companies.)

[Song]

A howitzer auton, with either Flenser, MK.1, or possibly an NM900....

And definitely things better than the 1M......the current autons are awful.

[Arisaya]

And definitely things better than the 1M......the current autons are awful.

That's been well estabished; the current autons are simply too weak to stand up for themselves for any respectable amount of time after obtaining and using them.

The problem is that by the time you get the auton it's already obsolete.