Are mechanoids worth the pollution?

[What Zitt Tooya]

Hello,

I have a colony of five relatively healthy baseline human pawns with no pollution nearby. Our tech is almost getting into Star-Tech.

Is it worth investing mechanoids and making a pawn a dedicated mechanist even though mechs produce pollution? (I believe when recharging)

Thanks

[Dah Big Bird!]

Yes. The mechanoids are very good free manual labor and some (like the diabolus) are very strong defenders.

[HunterSilver]

So the tl;dr is 'Yes'

The longer answer is that mechanoid getation, mechanoid charging, and toxifier generators produce a relatively small amount of toxic waste that is very manageable and can be kept frozen safely

So assuming 100% up time on your mechanoids, which isn't realistic, here's how much toxic waste each would produce a day:
Millitor 0.5 / Day
Lifter 0.5 / Day
Constructoid 0.5 / Day
Agrihand 0.5 / Day
Cleansweeper 0.5 / Day
Fabricor 0.5 / Day
Paramedic 0.5 / Day
Pikeman 1 / Day
Scorcher 1 / Day
Scyther 1 / Day
Tunneler 1.5 / Day
Lancer 1 / Day
Tesseron 1.5 / Day
Legionary 1 / Day
Centipede 2 / Day
Diabolus 2.5 / Day
Centurion 2.5 / Day
War Queen 2.5 / Day

Each mechanoid consumes 10% charge per full in-game day of work, but only 3% when on idle, and passively recharges when set to 'recharge' mode. Each mechanoid also uses charge for repairs. A lifter uses 66% of its charge to go from 0% hp to 100% hp, while a centipede uses 20% charge to go from 0% hp to 100% hp. You only receive toxic waste when they charge at a station.

So lifters and sweepers are likely at near 100% uptime, so expect an average of 0.5 toxic waste per day from them. Combat mechs will produce nothing until they get into a fight, and then you'll get toxic waste based on how badly damaged they were. It's Way more efficient to send combat mechs into battles than non-combat mechs, as it costs less charge to repair them and they'll take less damage on average.

The toxifier generator is also a great help to alleviate power constraints. It produces 6 tiles of pollution every 3 days. 6 tiles of pollution translate to 1 toxic waste, so 0.33 toxic waste per day on average. That's 1400w produced for 0.33 toxic waste with no fuel input. It's an amazing value proposition. 1 Pollution Pump will also clean up 0.66 toxic waste per day, so 1 pump can safely clean up 2 toxifier generators for you, so your colonists aren't exposed to the pollution.

Once you have the tech, an atomizer destroyed 2 toxic waste per day for 800w, or roughly 400w per 1 toxic waste. This means that for every 4 lifters/sweepers/constructoids/etc that you have, you'll want 1 atomizier to automatically handle the toxic waste for you. This also means that for every 3 toxifiers you have, you need 1 atomizer.

The value proposition is insane.

[Hagakure]

Store it in a freezer and when you have enough you can just drop pod it to a hostile area on the map far away, making it no longer a you problem.

that's what I do..

[Helios]

Originally posted by Paul Allen's Card:

Hello,

I have a colony of five relatively healthy baseline human pawns with no pollution nearby. Our tech is almost getting into Star-Tech.

Is it worth investing mechanoids and making a pawn a dedicated mechanist even though mechs produce pollution? (I believe when recharging)

Thanks

if you can afford the power there is a building (wastepack atomizizer 8k research)that destroys wastepacks every few days but need 800w each i have 5 of them for 12 normal and 10 large mechs.

[Rithirin]

Originally posted by Hagakure:

Store it in a freezer and when you have enough you can just drop pod it to a hostile area on the map far away, making it no longer a you problem.

that's what I do..

This is the way.

[Chibi Life]

Originally posted by Hagakure:

Store it in a freezer and when you have enough you can just drop pod it to a hostile area on the map far away, making it no longer a you problem.

that's what I do..

Sounds familiar. Throwing biological weapons at your enemies. Wonder where I've heard this strategy before.

[MagnusGrey]

Originally posted by Neko Time:

Originally posted by Hagakure:

Store it in a freezer and when you have enough you can just drop pod it to a hostile area on the map far away, making it no longer a you problem.

that's what I do..

Sounds familiar. Throwing biological weapons at your enemies. Wonder where I've heard this strategy before.

Toxic waste is not a biological weapon :P

[Steelfleece]

Originally posted by MagnusGrey:

Originally posted by Neko Time:

Sounds familiar. Throwing biological weapons at your enemies. Wonder where I've heard this strategy before.

Toxic waste is not a biological weapon :P

Absolutely! It's a chemical weapon.

[Chibi Life]

Originally posted by Steelfleece:

Originally posted by MagnusGrey:

Toxic waste is not a biological weapon :P

Absolutely! It's a chemical weapon.

Oh true, it is technically a chemical weapon that can also lead to illness with the population exposed.

[POWER WITHIN USER]

You could keep some military mechanoids on self-charge mode then wake them up when there's a raid instead of keeping them active (idling) and using the charging stations.

[What Zitt Tooya]

Thank you all for the help, especially HunterSilver. Breaking it down into numbers really makes it a clear choice if I have the resources.