Zaku
04/29/21 06:51 PM
82.40.9.192
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Hello, an odd thing to post about but this was a item that I made during our campaign. My Character 'Trucks' is kind of a mechanical whizz, being very knowledgeable and with a broken intelligence stat. One of the various items he has invented is the Myomer Rumbar, which I made as a joke after the GM joked about how long it would take for me to strip off the Triple Strength Myomer off a mech. I joked 'I make a robot to do it for me' and here was the result. I made it look like a Roomba, which I kept misspelling as 'Rumbar' hence the odd name.
Item: Myomer 'Rumbar'
Legality: C
Technology Rating: E
Availability: E/C Pre Jihad/Post Jihad
Mass: 300Kg
Cost: 1000 C-Bills/750 C-Bills
Effect: Mobile, Reduces repair time by 4% per unit, up to a maximum of 20%
Description:
Sold under the slogan of 'Your own personal repair buddy', the Myomer 'Rumbar' (a misspelt name for Roomba), is a advanced automated repair robot. Capable of performing a wide variety of menial repair tasks on mechs, aerospace fighter and combat vehicles, the Roomba comes with a sophisticated onboard computer, diagnostic scanner, and a suite of switchable tools, mounted on small manipulators hidden under small hatches on the devices upper side. Roughly disc shape in appearance, the Rumbar achieves locomotion of three self adjustable magnetic wheels which allow it to both climb metallic surfaces and navigate under a mechs armour chassis, without fully needing to remove the mechs plating.
Through various pre-installed and downloadable packages, the Rumbar can perform a variety of tasks from light welding, screwing, hammering, armour repair and recycling, and as its name sake implies, performing the time consuming task of picking and reweaving myomer onto a mech: performed by a pair of small 'mandibles' on the mechs underside. Popular amoungst mech techs for the amount of time a small staff of Rumbar's can save by performing the smaller, more time consuming jobs and checks a mech has to go through. The design has gained great popularity, despite its cost for what is a rather small piece of equipment. Often crews have taken to naming and painting the Rumbar as pets, and given their ability to adapt to unexpected problems to a limited degree, in a rudimentary self learning AI, many develop 'quirky personalities' (in reality glitches), causing some mech techs to treat them as pets.
Despite this reputation the Rumbar does have its limitations. As stated the Rumbar while comes installed with a series of preinstalled programs and tools, cannot possibly store the entirety of diagnostic and repair functions of all combat capable craft in the Inner Sphere. As such if the vehicle/mech/craft if not registered in the system the user will have to download the needed software before the Rumbar can perform a repair. This can lead to run ups on costs, especially in larger or less uniformed units, and if a repair program does not exist the Rumbar is near useless if not dangerous if set to repair a machine with the wrong program. Some techs have taken to writing their own program's for heavily modified or rare machines, with mixed success: showing that despite being able to learn they are still reliant on preinstalled programs.
Also while the Rumbar while good at lowering maintenance time cannot perform larger or extremely delicate jobs such as repairing a damaged fusion engine, mounting armour, replacing gyros, or maintaining the Direct Interface Computer Nodes. Rumbar's are designed for the smaller jobs, as despite their ability to adapt to unexpected issues, and scan for problems, they are still a machine and lack the complex reasoning and perception of a human. This leaves them woefully inadequate for many high damage repairs. In addition when not turned off, or left without instructions the Rumbar's self learning AI tends to lead the robot to trying to find something to repair. This can cause a Rumbar to wonder off, even leaving a dropship, ram endlessly into a wall, or even attempt maintenance on nearby machinery if not deprived on their tools. There is also the inherent trip hazards which can result in a mech tech turning around and tripping over a Rumbar which may have just rolled silently past at the wrong time
Also never turn on any ECM equipment on while around a Rumbar, as the scanners that a Roomba uses to navigate will be jammed and they will often lead to them getting lost, making mistakes during repair and even attempting to use their tools on each other. This has lead to the occasional 'Robot War' on dropships where old Rumbars are equipped with sharp implements and cutting tools and thrown in a ring with each other. The ever popular 'Mr Stabby' tournament on Solaris is a popular televised contest where Rumbar's fight to the death in gladiatorial teams.
First invented in 3055, by a dropship mechanic, they remained a oddity for quite some time till they were standardised and produced for general distribution by 3063. Still the company did not start seeing widespread success till the late Jihad where Devlin Stone's coalition bought Rumbar's for quickening maintenance turn arounds. In gratitude a small factory was set up on Terra to produce the design for the Republic's armed forces, and through trade the design soon spread to all Inner Sphere house militaries.
Edited by Zaku (04/29/21 06:53 PM)
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ghostrider
04/30/21 01:25 AM
66.74.60.165
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A few points you might want to address in the fluff.
First off, you say it rolls on by, but how does it gain access to the myomer bundles that are not laying on the ground? Even dealing with lower leg myomer would be the knee part out of reach on a small unit. Trying anything like an arm myomer would be impossible without something to allow it to 'clamp' on to support struts. One thought might be it attaches to the repair platform in order to do the work.
And will it work on actuators as well as the myomer bundles? There is a difference between the two.
A large unit would have to have all armor removed on the unit it is working on, so the size of it comes into question.
The wide variety of tasks is another aspect that would need some further information on. Will it scrub heat sinks or work on coolant lines? Power lines? Alignment adjustments for things like weapon sighting or allowing a joint to work properly?
Granted this would have to be home rules only, as the canon rules seem to hate any sort of robot that can do things on it's own.
The idea of having something like a cartridge that allows it to be programmed does have an appeal to it. Limited on board memory does have a nerf that would make it a little more in line with the game.
Might suggest having different variants, so you couldn't use one for all aspects, such as one that can deal with the heat sink/coolant lines, but not the myomer bundles, unless you can have specific tools attachments. I know you mention something like it, but an accessory list might help.
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Maurer
04/30/21 04:29 AM
107.185.100.70
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Interesting concept and nice fluff.
Quote:
A few points you might want to address in the fluff.
First off, you say it rolls on by, but how does it gain access to the myomer bundles that are not laying on the ground? Even dealing with lower leg myomer would be the knee part out of reach on a small unit. Trying anything like an arm myomer would be impossible without something to allow it to 'clamp' on to support struts. One thought might be it attaches to the repair platform in order to do the work.
And will it work on actuators as well as the myomer bundles? There is a difference between the two.
I would imagine the Rumbar couldn't do something as complex as work on myomer while the arm or leg section is still attached to the mech. Instead, the Tech would remove the arm or leg section needing repair and lay it flat out on the ground for the Rumbar to work on. The Rumbar would then work on the smaller, tedious repairs like attaching small sections of myomer while the tech works on something more complex...or takes a coffee break, which ever is easier.
"Captain! We're completely surrounded on all sides." - Kiff, Futurama
..."Excellent, then we may attack in any direction." - Zapp Brannigan, Futurama
"A fool fights a war on two fronts; only an idiot defends on one." - Fusilier
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Wick
04/30/21 06:23 PM
173.247.25.195
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I like that you pointed out the interference problem with ECM suites and the short bit about Mr Stabby tournaments: any time non-military hardware in Battletech can be applied to arenas is a plus for fluff.
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