Why can't Auton providers customize Autons?

Post ideas & suggestions you have pertaining to the game here.
Post Reply
Kourtious
Militia Lieutenant
Militia Lieutenant
Posts: 187
Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2014 10:00 pm
Location: Off in the distance

As stated in the question, why can't they customize? They should have all the services of a commonwealth dock but for autons. If it gives them money, especially if they charge extra, then I don't see the issue.
PM
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

Probably to provide incentive to buy Corporate Command (for those who stumble on Transcendence and play only the free core content), where player can get an auton bay to customize autons.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
Kourtious
Militia Lieutenant
Militia Lieutenant
Posts: 187
Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2014 10:00 pm
Location: Off in the distance

@PM

Lore Perspective? I have Corporate Command and Eternity Port. I can get an Auton Bay. I am asking why the Auton Dealer itself does not provide that functionality.
PM
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

Auton Dealer is part of base Transcendence that is free. Auton bay is not (it is in a paid DLC). For those who do not have Corporate Command, but want to have auton customization, they need to buy Corporate Command to access the auton bay and customization. Otherwise, they do without. "Lore Perspective" might take a back seat to profit, assuming auton customization was meant to be a paid feature.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
Kourtious
Militia Lieutenant
Militia Lieutenant
Posts: 187
Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2014 10:00 pm
Location: Off in the distance

I understand that the NAMI Auton Bay is a paid feature because I have Corporate Command. I'm actually confused as to why the first thing you thought of are commercial reasons, especially since Auton Dealer and Auton Bays are separately accessible features. Just because Auton Bays is a Corporate Command feature, doesn't mean Auton customization is limited to Auton Bays. The whole point is why Auton Customization is not available at Auton Dealers, not why Auton Bays is not available to base Transcendence. But I am curious, did George say that Auton Customization in general is always going to be a paid feature?
Kourtious wrote:
Sun Mar 01, 2020 4:34 am
If it gives them money, especially if they charge extra, then I don't see the issue.
The statement I made refers to Auton Dealers in game, not to players here. My bad if it was confusing.

So back to my intended question. From a gameplay perspective, Autons are very limited and quite useless except for those that have key features - exploration and storage. Combat Autons phase out really easily due to their fragility and poor ai. Adding more Auton types could help but it would be much better if they were able to be customized. Let's say the cost of installing of something on an auton is like 50% more than installing something on a ship. But that's the balance. The cool part would be the immense amount of customization and the ability to make ALL autons viable in the game right now.
PM
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

As far as I know, George has not said that, so no. However, unless George actually add more ways to customize autons, it is a possible answer to the question (not necessarily correct). Maybe ask George at the next stream.

Auton bays are either "veryRare" or "notRandom", so they are hard to come by short of trading post order.

I agree autons are mostly useless. I even think mules are useless because they are slow and fragile enough that I do not trust them to haul valuables. That drove me to make the mod Auton Assembly Hangar years ago. I think I made it before Corporate Command came out. In any case, my mod is overpowered compared to auton bay (or at least involves more magic than acceptable for campaign integration). What my mod did was create new autons out of spare equipment (no reactor was needed, only weapon and armor was the minimum needed). It was my way of adding autons instead of bloating item pool with too many variants. Due to auton bay (and other reasons), I do not have much incentive to maintain that mod.

In recent versions, autons have maximum reactor power and low device slot limits (most have only two). Customization does not matter if player cannot upgrade the autons despite having auton bay or equivalent. For example, autosentinel is hopeless because of low power and only one device slot. Even the 1M autons may have a 45 MW limit. Furthermore, autons cannot use launchers or carry ammo for ammo weapons (like SmartCannon), although charges for primary weapons are fine.

I think before we get auton customization, we need high-level autons with higher power limit so that auton bay or equivalent can put military grade items on autons. Corporate Command has the Lumiere battle auton (100 MW limit), but that may not be enough. By the time player can find lots of autons, he wants military grade items that autons cannot use due to low power limits they have.

The best weapon an auton can use right now is the Qianlong archcannon (which uses only 10 MW), which player can get only one. Player can stuff as many charges as he can into the weapon and give it to an auton.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
Kourtious
Militia Lieutenant
Militia Lieutenant
Posts: 187
Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2014 10:00 pm
Location: Off in the distance

That's an awesome picture you painted there with the Qianlong and ammo based weapons. Imagine multiple autons shooting them all with icroym light armor and Mammoth Shields. What a sight to behold. But I digress, customization can be expanded upon by making the reactors interchangeable. Quiet a daring idea, but let's say the max reactor amount is 100mw but the current amount is 25mw. I can upgrade to that level, making it kind of viable later on. What I really want are larger Autons, perhaps an Automated Centurion (let's say it was developed in secret by Pacific Defense and Taikon Corp), that the player could use. That'll just be awesome.
User avatar
Amteloletom
Miner
Miner
Posts: 44
Joined: Wed Jul 11, 2018 10:35 pm
Location: 6°10.5′S 106°49.7′E / 6.1750°S 106.8283°E

My opinion is Each Auton produced stand for its own company who made it. Auton Dealer simply just Selling / Buying it. If it possible to customize Auton in Auton Dealer that might be a problem since each company has the license for its own stuff and creations.

Just think about copyright law, maybe that's fit.

I did not have CC nor EP expansion so I don't know how Nami Drone Bay work.
relanat
Militia Captain
Militia Captain
Posts: 941
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 9:56 am

I had a quick look at doing this as a mod. I ran into the same problem as with the EI Freighter Autons mod.

Just about every dock service screen needs modifying. And a lot of the lambda functions used in there as well. Currently these screens are only used for the playership and it shows in the code.

A sample of what is required.
Allow non-playership objects to use the screens.
Modify the screens so that the object receiving the services is defined.
- that refueling isn't required.
- the paying object can be defined.
- the player rank can be defined.
- the source of the item to be used can be defined.
Change the lambdas so playership cargo space can be checked.
- playership cargo contents can be checked.
And so on.
There is also a danger of crashes because the game isn't set up to have objects other than the playership destroyed while they are in dockscreens.

It will happen eventually. It is just a lot of work. A quick look at 'rpgInstallDevicePrep' will give you some idea of how much work is involved.
If you would like to have a go at this, feel free. I and many others would be very grateful. A standalone series of dock service screens that uses non-playership objects is sorely needed.
This and a dedicated screen allowing the interior or hull compartments of a ship to be repaired would make an excellent addition to the game.
Stupid code. Do what I want, not what I typed in!
Post Reply