Is it a good choice to have multiple mechanators ?

[Dark_crystal]

whilst i think having multiple mechanators is good , is it really worth having to set up who has which mechanoid and going through the trouble of actually finding another mechlink ?

[MadArtillery]

Always. Base bandwith and another bandwith pack that doesn't degreade or cost power and space is always good. Means more mechs and one mechanitor getting sick, wounded, or pregnant won't screw your whole mechanized colony over when you lose control. Those control towers go down in a solar flare or EMI Dynamo too so if you need your mechs during one the more safe and reliable bandwith the better.

[Raymond]

there is no penalty for having multiple mechanitor

[Ivarukฅ(^•ᴥ•^)ฅﾉ彡]

I bet you could benefit from having a non combatant mechanator who has all your service ones assigned to them, then a combat one. or two combat mechanators to swarm raiders sounds great too

[MadArtillery]

Originally posted by Ivarukฅ(^•ᴥ•^)ฅﾉ彡:

I bet you could benefit from having a non combatant mechanator who has all your service ones assigned to them, then a combat one. or two combat mechanators to swarm raiders sounds great too

Usually try to keep it 50-50 combat/worker so I don't lose control of the whole force. Preferably with some type of centerpiece like a pede or a diablos on each to act as a tank to buy time if needed as sometimes some emergency drugs can get someone back up and in control temporarily.

[Ivarukฅ(^•ᴥ•^)ฅﾉ彡]

Originally posted by MadArtillery:

Originally posted by Ivarukฅ(^•ᴥ•^)ฅﾉ彡:

I bet you could benefit from having a non combatant mechanator who has all your service ones assigned to them, then a combat one. or two combat mechanators to swarm raiders sounds great too

Usually try to keep it 50-50 combat/worker so I don't lose control of the whole force. Preferably with some type of centerpiece like a pede or a diablos on each to act as a tank to buy time if needed as sometimes some emergency drugs can get someone back up and in control temporarily.

ive yet to really lean into mechanators. maybe ill do that on a new file

[Astasia]

You don't really have to do anything significant in regards to controlling who is linked. Whoever makes a mech will link to it and you just change the mechanitor on the bill so the one you want makes more. Reviving dead mechs doesn't respect previous owner, that's the only minor hiccup, but they tend to handle it well enough on their own and there's is a right click option to swap the owner of a mech if you want to.

That said, there is no "trouble of finding another one." The only way to get another mechlink is from a single very rare quest, and it's pretty trivial to get when the quest happens. So you just hope the quest pops while you are playing, and then send a handful of colonists out to grab the thing and double your colony bandwidth. There's no reason (other than RP) not to do the quest, it's hugely rewarding for you to have 2 mechanitors, but it's not something you can put any effort into getting, it either happens or it doesn't.

[nazerick]

I haven't explored Mechs very much yet.. by lose control do you mean they deactivate.. or that they go berserk?

[Astasia]

Originally posted by nazerick:

I haven't explored Mechs very much yet.. by lose control do you mean they deactivate.. or that they go berserk? :stress:

Within the context of the thread, neither. If a mechanitor is downed then you simply can't draft or give direct commands to their mechs. They will keep doing their usual jobs within their assigned areas, and you can assign them to a new area if you want so you can manipulate them to some extent.

Mechs will become hostile if left without enough bandwidth for too long, either because your mechanitor died and you didn't make a new one, or if you deconstruct or lose access to things you were using to expand their bandwidth for too long (several days IIRC, solar flares are not a concern).

[MadArtillery]

Originally posted by nazerick:

I haven't explored Mechs very much yet.. by lose control do you mean they deactivate.. or that they go berserk? :stress:

Antasia was pretty thorough there. I will say it can be annoying to clear out an EMI dynamo at times if half your mechs are all wandering with a lack of bandwidth due to that dynamo, or if a raid hits during a solar flare. Overall them going berserk is unlikely to happen unless you are speeding through time and don't notice the EMI going up and screwing your base, which would be hard to miss. Supposedly ones that go berserk can infect more mechanoids by the description ingame but never actually had a mech ever go berserk even when I had an annoyingly long trip to an EMI Dynamo.

Greater threat is usually something annoying like food poisoning, injury or a late stage pregancy and just about anything else leaving a mechanitor immobile and unable to easily command the combat mechs. A downed mechanitor for any reason will instantly undraft all mechs assigned and orders can't be changed till they are back up. Really annoying. Tends to be worth getting em on luci so they have extra stats to prevent this and heal up any scars that could put them closer to any immobalization threshholds.

[Similar]

I use the work modes mod
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2888380373
It makes it so much nicer to play mechanitor in general, but it also has modes where, for example, the mechs work until an enemy enters the zone they're set to and then they retreat to a shutdown zone you can place somewhere safe. Or they work until an enemy enters the zone and then they attack. Or they just wait for enemies,
Or, for Paramedics I use a mode where they keep working if there are enemies (and go dormant when they don't have anything to do). That has saved me sometimes when I got downed (plus, the Paramedics are pretty good at putting out fires).
And with most of the modes they also recharge when needed and go to dormant recharge when they don't have anything to do, so you don't have them wandering aimlessly all over the place.

[Ivarukฅ(^•ᴥ•^)ฅﾉ彡]

such good notes to take on mechanator stuff in general in this thread

[di eshor ribly]

So, I'm a modaholic, my current mechanitor is a terrifying beast of man and metal. There are options available if you want to go crazy with bandwidth allowances, bandwidth enhancer implants, improved bandwidth towers, psychic bandwidth amplification, the mechlord warcasket (vfe: pirates submod)... one even just gives you 999 bandwidth. A bit overkill, really, as more than 50-60 feels excessive.

However, your mechanitor can't be in two places at once. Mechs can be great use for caravans (logistics mech mod doubles as a horse for speed bonuses while being a lifter). Having some metal backup for ancient complexes or raids is helpful, but the work mechs you left at home go stupid.

There are options though, as I said. You can get a second (or third, or fourth) mechanitor, or you could look into the Gestalt Engine mod: a mechanitor super computer that can hold up to 50 bandwidth of mechs... perfect for holding all your boring cleansweepers and lifters while your meat mechanitor visits the neighbors.

You could also.. build your own mechanitor? VFE: Androids has ... 'android genes' that let them be mechanitors straight out of the factory. No mechlink or implants needed. There are also mods that let you craft mech chips and mech links after obtaining and researching them. Yes, they're as OP as you want them to be, as they take out all the RNG of the mechlink quest.

So, tl;dr - Yes, get more mechanitors if you can. Unless you're playing modded, in which case the answer is a solid maybe.

[Similar]

Originally posted by di eshor ribly:

So, I'm a modaholic, my current mechanitor is a terrifying beast of man and metal. There are options available if you want to go crazy with bandwidth allowances, bandwidth enhancer implants, improved bandwidth towers, psychic bandwidth amplification, the mechlord warcasket (vfe: pirates submod)...

I installed the mechlord casket mod and have done all the research, which is a lot, but ... the idea of permanently sticking my mechanitor in a suit feels a bit wrong (I'm kind of hoping she'll get a girlfriend one day, for one thing).
I know you can remove the suit, but that seems to give you a serious debuff (permanent too, unless you put her in a suit again?) from a trait, and of course she'll lose arms and legs, which ... is a bit much.

I also can't tell what she can do in the suit. Unlike other war caskets, it apparently allows crafting, smithing and such, but I'm not sure what else.

Well, and when I right-click on the foundry, it says she'll be useless because she can't do violence. That's probably a message from VFE Pirates, though.

I was mostly just looking for a better mechlord suit, since the Biotech one can only handle down to -35C and I like to put global temperature two notches below the default (but the casket is supposed to improve mech work speed too, which wouldn't hurt).

Originally posted by di eshor ribly:

However, your mechanitor can't be in two places at once. Mechs can be great use for caravans (logistics mech mod doubles as a horse for speed bonuses while being a lifter).

I use Logistics too. It's very nice and I feel it fits right in.

I also use the Mini-miner mech, which is a small Tunneler you can make right away, before you get any mechanitor upgrades, and it's much slower than the Tunneler so upgrading to that when you can feels worthwhile and balanced.

And E-Series mod, which adds the E-54, which you have to find on maps (I think it has a 25% chance of appearing) and repair.
It can do constructing (but not deconstructing), mining, hauling and it has a turret mode and a rifle mode for fighting, but more importantly, it can slaughter animals (and handle them in other ways, but limited; it appears to try to milk them, but it can't), which my Highmate can't do. It can also hunt, but she isn't fond of that.
Apparently it can also handle prisoners in some way, but I haven't tried that.

It might not be quite balanced, but both movement and work speeds are pretty slow (43% base speed or something), so it's not too overpowered and can't really replace any of the Biotech mechs. And you need an advanced component to repair it too, aside from finding it in the first place. It also needs a large recharger.

[Similar]

ow, the mechlord war casket mod also has a serious bug; I put my mechanitor into the foundry to see how it worked and what the options were and once I'd looked, I canceled out of it. I just noticed that she suddenly can't do social or intellectual anymore because she got the Shellcasket trait, and she wants to be put into a casket 'again'. Kept her legs and arms, though.
So that was about three hours of play time lost (I'm glad I didn't overwrite that old manual save).

hm. But if the casket stops her from doing social and intellectual then it's not really an option.
Or maybe that's just the Shellcasket trait?

[Veylox]

It's more of a chance, really.
If you can, definitely do it. But getting the second one is random, since it's tied to the quest