Robots and Droids in Battletech

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Karagin
12/26/06 06:04 PM
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Okay we hear mention of robotic facotries and such, but what about other robots and droids in the BT universe? Did nothing leading up to Battletechs take the path of home servent or mining helper?

What about "trash compactor" style robots that were the rage back in the mid 70s that would be found, if you believed the hype then, in offices as mail delievers and inter office gophers.

What thoughts do you folks have on the use of robots or droids in BT? Both in the tactical setting and the RPG.
Karagin

Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
CrayModerator
12/26/06 08:26 PM
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Quote:

Okay we hear mention of robotic facotries and such, but what about other robots and droids in the BT universe? Did nothing leading up to Battletechs take the path of home servent or mining helper?




Robots fill quite a background role in BT. MW1 RPG gives stats for assorted security and agricultural robots. The old Steiner SB also discusses robots at several points, for their mining, construction, and sex toy applications. They tend to be stuck in the background, but they're there. You can figure the more advanced planets make good use of them in house holds. There's the notable cover of Tales of the Black Widow Company, where Natasha Kerensky has shot up a bunch of human-sized droids.

And mining robots have a very, very famous role in BT: they killed Simon Cameron, setting up the fall of the Star League.

Tactical applications? The MW1 security bots weren't all that impressive, but they were only the size of light mechs, sometimes as small as 5 tons. However, 6-ton VTOL drones (MaxTech rules) used to do very useful TAGging duty for my artillery. The MaxTech robot drone rules don't stop at the small scale - you can run 100-ton assault tanks as drones if you like.

The ill-defined Caspars certainly had useful tactical applications, but those seem to be beyond the scale you're talking about.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer

Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
Karagin
12/26/06 09:48 PM
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Okay I can buy that, now what are the rules for building robots for BT? Do we follow the vehicle or mech construction rules or what?
Karagin

Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
CrayModerator
12/26/06 11:06 PM
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Quote:

Okay I can buy that, now what are the rules for building robots for BT? Do we follow the vehicle or mech construction rules or what?




The only rules presented for robots are arguably:
1) MaxTech drone rules
2) Battlemechs, which feature a high degree of automation and robotic operation. When you're controlling a humanoid robot with a couple of joysticks and footpedals, there's a lot of robotic automation present.
3) The MW1 RPG robots seem to be relatively conventional vehicles, no extra robot rules given.

Beyond that, GMs: improvise and overcome. There are no robot rules.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer

Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
Karagin
12/27/06 12:15 AM
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Now I wonder if we could maybe hope see something like this for the future point or two in the game...it would be interesting.

I had thought of using the proto or BA rules, but neither really allowed me much room to add in things needed for certain types of robots.
Karagin

Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
Fang
12/29/06 04:49 PM
65.82.104.120

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This could make for an interesting MW campaign. House power has discovered how to create drone mechs. Something goes wrong, and the unmanned drones are out of control. The computer thinks it can do a better job than a human pilot. rival house gains control of drone secretly, pick a piss poor plot idea,send in the drones, robot parade, what have you. House could be parading the new tech for the public to view when the control is lost, right in the middle of "downtown". sounds like fun! unmanned robot mechs pitted agains the wily cunning of a human pilot. Unmanned mechs could have better gunnery skills, but human pilots would be better at piloting.
One by one, the rabbits are stealing my sanity.....
JackGarrity
01/23/07 03:38 AM
71.207.203.207

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mm.. mechas er robots.. hmm seems like you could build one, sorta, using the Mechwarrior carachter paths, take stigma cybernetcs, a hand ful of hardwired skills at set values and perhaps put the stats somewhere between human and Elemental.. give it armor rating perhaps equiv to PA(L) armor and say a built in pulse or needleer gun? And when it comes to the AI in such a small package, perhaps its a sort of mini c3 unit, short range but each drone is like the finger to the 'hand' and its a central processing unit inside a tank or something.
Greetings Mechwarrior.
Karagin
01/23/07 06:24 AM
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I think you just remade the SW Battledroids from Ep1-3.

LOL!

I like it!
Karagin

Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
JackGarrity
01/24/07 09:25 AM
71.207.203.207

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LOL.. thats a good thing then? I looked at the MW rpg core book and its doable if you have a willing GM of course, lot of the skills wouldnt make sense but some of them would be good for a droid of some kind, as to the armor thinking that with the myomers, metallic bones and construction of the skin it would be a bit tougher then the normal person just not power armor powerful. a interesting concept, especially if you consider what might happen if that 'finger' could plug into a battlemech and pilot it, or each of the fingers could do it, perhaps they would even have specalized mechas like Proto's to use thier faster reflexes and processing team as one. Amusing idea if nothing else.
Greetings Mechwarrior.
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