Robot Ships?

[ComradeWinston]

They didn't add them in the DLC, so somebody tell me I don't have to rely on modders to get some proper ships.

[Apeironic_Entelechy]

You have to rely on modders to add unique ships for Machine Empires, I imagine the reason is that Paradox ran a cost/benefit analysis and decided against it. Personally I don't mind because that likely would've balooned the price above $10.

[Richon]

Originally posted by Fourthspartan56:

You have to rely on modders to add unique ships for Machine Empires, I imagine the reason is that Paradox ran a cost/benefit analysis and decided against it. Personally I don't mind because that likely would've balooned the price above $10.

You would imagine correctly. This is exactly what they said. The Lore explanation provided is that machine empires adopt the ship style of their creators.

[ComradeWinston]

Pity. I would've hoped with 2.0's deep changes would come some wider concern for willing gaps. Hope they add a robot pack in the future, lest they remain some pointless vestage of an attempt at diversity.

[Richon]

Originally posted by ComradeWinston:

Pity. I would've hoped with 2.0's deep changes would come some wider concern for willing gaps. Hope they add a robot pack in the future, lest they remain some pointless vestage of an attempt at diversity.

Well, they've said they might consider making a Robotic ship pack somewhere down the road. If so, I'll be okay with them selling it separately. Humanoids and Plantoids are purely cosmetic packs. Synthetic Dawn is a story pack, and I'm glad they didn't inflate the price by including cost-heavy cosmetics in a content pack. Always better to sell the major cosmetics separately, so that those who don't care about cosmetics can just pay for the content.

[Apeironic_Entelechy]

Originally posted by Richon:

Originally posted by Fourthspartan56:

You have to rely on modders to add unique ships for Machine Empires, I imagine the reason is that Paradox ran a cost/benefit analysis and decided against it. Personally I don't mind because that likely would've balooned the price above $10.

You would imagine correctly. This is exactly what they said. The Lore explanation provided is that machine empires adopt the ship style of their creators.

Oh I see, that makes sense. I like that lore explanation, it explains things neatly :)

[yonib960]

we had robot ships........
sadly when 2.2 launched they removed them

[TwoTonTuna]

Originally posted by yonib970:

we had robot ships........
sadly when 2.2 launched they removed them

Say what? I switch between 2.1 and 2.2, and I don't recall any robot ships in 2.1

[Shahadem]

Originally posted by Fourthspartan56:

You have to rely on modders to add unique ships for Machine Empires, I imagine the reason is that Paradox ran a cost/benefit analysis and decided against it. Personally I don't mind because that likely would've balooned the price above $10.

It's because Paradox will not provide value for money. The $10 was just a handful of species portraits. WTF are you doing Paradox?

The only explanation is that Paradox is cheap and paying someone to put in 30 hours of work was just too damn expensive.

[SievertChaser]

Why would a robot ship look any different than a non-robot ship? Are the Reptilian battle bricks and Mammalian flying assault rifles not enough?

[Shahadem]

Originally posted by dennis.danilov:

Why would a robot ship look any different than a non-robot ship? Are the Reptilian battle bricks and Mammalian flying assault rifles not enough?

Because a robot ship would be designed around efficiency rather than a balance between efficiency and aesthetics.

See for example the Borg ships which are incredibly simple shapes (cubes and spheres) or the diamond robot ships in Stellaris. Yes, there are actual robot ships in Stellaris but for some stupid reason they are preserved solely for the AI crisis event.

[SievertChaser]

Originally posted by Shahadem:

Originally posted by dennis.danilov:

Why would a robot ship look any different than a non-robot ship? Are the Reptilian battle bricks and Mammalian flying assault rifles not enough?

Because a robot ship would be designed around efficiency rather than a balance between efficiency and aesthetics.

See for example the Borg ships which are incredibly simple shapes (cubes and spheres) or the diamond robot ships in Stellaris. Yes, there are actual robot ships in Stellaris but for some stupid reason they are preserved solely for the AI crisis event.

Actually a ship that is built as a singular geometrical shape is less efficient, since it's highly unlikely that the assemblage of internal systems that the ship needed to have would form such a near convex shape.

Seriously, in-universe, the efficiency-oriented shipset are the Mammalian and to a lesser degree Reptilian shapes - but all of them can be interpreted to be efficiency driven, such as the Fungoid ships with their exposed piping. Believe me, I've given some thought to the issue, and it's the Borg cubes that are ridiculous.

[Rivazar]

Well contingency use flying cubes. I don’t want smth like that.
Only thing I think about, why there is no female human robots. Especially for synth evolution. People in real world making sex robots, while in the game robots fly on cubes.

[SievertChaser]

Originally posted by Rivazar:

Only thing I think about, why there is no female human robots. Especially for synth evolution. People in real world making sex robots, while in the game robots fly on cubes.

Yeah, the robot portraits are crap, but...
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1085257920

[Shahadem]

Originally posted by dennis.danilov:

Originally posted by Shahadem:

Because a robot ship would be designed around efficiency rather than a balance between efficiency and aesthetics.

See for example the Borg ships which are incredibly simple shapes (cubes and spheres) or the diamond robot ships in Stellaris. Yes, there are actual robot ships in Stellaris but for some stupid reason they are preserved solely for the AI crisis event.

Actually a ship that is built as a singular geometrical shape is less efficient, since it's highly unlikely that the assemblage of internal systems that the ship needed to have would form such a near convex shape.

Seriously, in-universe, the efficiency-oriented shipset are the Mammalian and to a lesser degree Reptilian shapes - but all of them can be interpreted to be efficiency driven, such as the Fungoid ships with their exposed piping. Believe me, I've given some thought to the issue, and it's the Borg cubes that are ridiculous.

Except it isn't just about efficiency in terms of space but efficiency in terms of minimizing surface, volume and maximizing firing arcs.

Cubes are the most efficient in terms of minizming surface area compared to volume. Ships like the Enterprise, or worse the Romulan ships, are horrible warships as they maximize surface area. A lot of Stellaris ships also maximize surface area such as the Avian ships. The Fungaloid ships are probably the best.

I also agree that there should have been sexaroid pics. Cause if people were going to go to the trouble of making synths whose primary value is that they are the most human like, then they would make them look like attractive members of their own species. So there should be a synth portrait which matches the synth research portrait of a half robot half girl which is reminiscient of Metropolis.

https://youtu.be/B7ni7mBRe9o

I wish I could find the clip where Tima ascends to her throne and announces that the annihilation of the human species will be completed in 17 hours 27 minutes as judgement for toying with robots.

[SievertChaser]

Originally posted by Shahadem:

Originally posted by dennis.danilov:

Actually a ship that is built as a singular geometrical shape is less efficient, since it's highly unlikely that the assemblage of internal systems that the ship needed to have would form such a near convex shape.

Seriously, in-universe, the efficiency-oriented shipset are the Mammalian and to a lesser degree Reptilian shapes - but all of them can be interpreted to be efficiency driven, such as the Fungoid ships with their exposed piping. Believe me, I've given some thought to the issue, and it's the Borg cubes that are ridiculous.

Except it isn't just about efficiency in terms of space but efficiency in terms of minimizing surface, volume and maximizing firing arcs.

Cubes are the most efficient in terms of minizming surface area compared to volume. Ships like the Enterprise, or worse the Romulan ships, are horrible warships as they maximize surface area. A lot of Stellaris ships also maximize surface area such as the Avian ships. The Fungaloid ships are probably the best.

Well, for starters you forget about the awesomeness of the sphere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXeW__wkTXs
Furthermore, it's highly likely that the main engineering considerations for the vehicle are the linear scale of a crucial element - for example, the back end of an X-sized weapon; fission power only further incentivizes elongated ships, since you can reduce the mass of the rad shielding by cramming your entire ship into a narrower sector relative to the nose or aft-mounted reactor. Finally, you're chasing the wrong characteristic - while you may have reduced surface area, the efficacy of your armour may be diminished - the effects of sloped armour on laser or hypervelocity kinetic weapons are such that an elongated ship will survive much longer than a ball that has its effectively weakest armour in the bullseye, and that a ship with a less space-efficient polygonal cross-section will last more than one with a circular cross-section. Which means more protection for less mass.

So much for your spherical horse in a vacuum.

And thanks to Stellaris being a soft sci-fi verse, all bets are off. I mean, they have protruding bridges. Evidently, for best situational awareness, your robot must be able to observe the battle visually.