Faction : Droidatts - leftover and abandoned AI service communities.
Droidatts are a remnant of an alien civilization, the majority of them are autonomous domestic assistants, cooks, cleaners and handybots. A few are more advanced and were designed for commercial maintenance duties. They have a little ability to manufacture, mostly cleaning products, decal stickers, and recharge stations. Occasionally they will scavenge from wrecks sustain their number.
Droidatts are only aggressive when threatened, but do not possess conventional weaponry. Being a mostly reclusive faction with only a little ability to independently fend for themselves, the droidatts will reluctantly venture out to meet with passing travellers.
They will try to barter work for energy, but will resort to theft if negotiations fail and they are able and desperate enough to do so.
Bartering normally relates to providing an unrequested service of a means that they were designed for. A couple of battery cells would be usual as payment although other energy sources would be acceptable. Rarely, they will attempt to trade an alien item for energy and will ask a little more in return.
On the average encounter they are annoying at worst and quite useful at best. When in great numbers they may pose a real threat if a payment for service rendered has not been made. They remember 'customers' quite well, and bad 'customers' more so.
Droidatts are usually found in small clusters of asteroids near to abandoned alien installations or wreckage. They seldom adventure further than a few Km from their base.
I like this feedback
One of the biggest advantages to having a Robotic faction (enemy or ally) is usually the fact that ships and other things can be made REALLY cheaply. For factions where that matters a lot, such as your proposal here, it definitely makes sense to have really small drones that are cheap with small weapons. In better terms, "Swarm tactics".
One example of a ship that I could think of off the top of my head is a small pod shaped drone with one thruster at the back, one gun, and some explosive material inside. It has very little armor, and shoots from the front with a sleek profile. When it runs out of ammo, it rams itself and explodes. This fits the design of "desperate" and "cheap".
While this isn't what you had outlined here, I think it makes sense for the scenario. You could also get away with having them do salvaging as a form of trash cleanup (or even just paying them to deconstruct a ship and getting the materials faster than doing it yourself, using a block/beacon then paying energy -> materials, less laggy and better/faster for all involved). Some of the remnants try to keep expanding (the main faction), and some are "lost" (missing their AI, or not having enough in the first place) and would be great for abandoned wrecks and such, filled with these little droids.
If you wanted to expand on the salvage thing I said above, you could even have it be a broadcast that lasts for X amount of time (5-10m) while they're salvaging, then any players nearby who want the salvage can fight over the materials they left in a supply drop or some such. This increases player interactions and makes them want to fight each other for valuable goods, while having a lore reason to do so (someone paid the droids to salvage, which they do and then leave for the player to fend off because the droids are too poor / under-teched to do it themselves).
One of the biggest advantages to having a Robotic faction (enemy or ally) is usually the fact that ships and other things can be made REALLY cheaply. For factions where that matters a lot, such as your proposal here, it definitely makes sense to have really small drones that are cheap with small weapons. In better terms, "Swarm tactics".
One example of a ship that I could think of off the top of my head is a small pod shaped drone with one thruster at the back, one gun, and some explosive material inside. It has very little armor, and shoots from the front with a sleek profile. When it runs out of ammo, it rams itself and explodes. This fits the design of "desperate" and "cheap".
While this isn't what you had outlined here, I think it makes sense for the scenario. You could also get away with having them do salvaging as a form of trash cleanup (or even just paying them to deconstruct a ship and getting the materials faster than doing it yourself, using a block/beacon then paying energy -> materials, less laggy and better/faster for all involved). Some of the remnants try to keep expanding (the main faction), and some are "lost" (missing their AI, or not having enough in the first place) and would be great for abandoned wrecks and such, filled with these little droids.
If you wanted to expand on the salvage thing I said above, you could even have it be a broadcast that lasts for X amount of time (5-10m) while they're salvaging, then any players nearby who want the salvage can fight over the materials they left in a supply drop or some such. This increases player interactions and makes them want to fight each other for valuable goods, while having a lore reason to do so (someone paid the droids to salvage, which they do and then leave for the player to fend off because the droids are too poor / under-teched to do it themselves).
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