Robotic Infantry - Working as Intended?

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Robotic Infantry - Working as Intended?

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Shadow Empire >> Suggestions and Feedback >> Robotic Infantry - Working as Intended?

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Robotic Infantry - Working as Intended? - 5/16/2021 8:23:02 PM

Grimnar

Posts: 5
Joined: 8/19/2020
Status: offline

Hi All,

The obligatory foreword: I LOVE this game and am 150 hours in, with 90 hours played on my current map. Vic - thank you for making this incredible game!

After long battling for supremacy on this world, I've finally achieved the pinnacle of technology (a goal I set myself on this playthrough), and just last turn began cranking out Robotic Infantry by the thousand (swiftly renamed 'Men of Iron' for those 40k fans out there).

My hopes for these steel-thewed infantry were three-fold:

1) Replace the 70 or so Independent Machine Gun battalions that I'd hastily produced a few years earlier to stop the AI from encroaching. This would free up several thousand badly needed population for other uses.

2) Save money! These soldiers, being robotic automatons, would not need to be paid! I could begin to rebalance the financial books of my sprawling empire by firing (scrapping) the aforementioned border guards en masse.

3) Easing of logistics. As these units would be robotic, they would not need to be fed to operate. This would ease logistics in the many harsh and mountainous areas on my borders where currently several human units were nearly starving to death.

To my utter bemusement, the many thousands of robotic troops raised only resolved 1/3 of the hopes above!

1) Yes - they save on Recruits/Population

2) They get PAID?! Why? How?

3) They need food to survive?! What? Surely Energy is enough for them to run on? Admittedly, perhaps 'Food' also represents other needed materials to effect self-repair & maintenance in the field...? But still, they should be more-resilient without supply then human soldiers, no?

I was also surprised to see that they have Morale, gain XP over time (are they true AI then?), and have Readiness.
In contrast, Sentinels (Robotic Militia) do not consume Food or Energy - and in fact require zero logistics to support.

Vic, are Robotic Infantry they working as intended?

Post #: 1

RE: Robotic Infantry - Working as Intended? - 5/16/2021 8:58:39 PM

Soar_Slitherine

Posts: 426
Joined: 6/7/2020
Status: offline

Are you sure there aren't human troops mixed in inside the formations with the robotic infantry? I see no food use for robotic infantry on my end (the symbol for upkeep in the model details uses wheat stalks, but it states the upkeep is in energy, not food), and I'm pretty sure there was a patch note about their morale being permanently set to 100 with one of the recent versions.

Readiness damage can represent equipment breaking down from use and combat, not just fatigue.

< Message edited by Soar_Slitherine -- 5/16/2021 9:00:39 PM >

(in reply to Grimnar)

Post #: 2

RE: Robotic Infantry - Working as Intended? - 5/16/2021 10:21:16 PM

zgrssd

Posts: 3385
Joined: 6/9/2020
Status: offline

As soar Said, you might have some humans left mixing in with those units. Which would account for the money and food.
They should still use energs as upkeep either way.

Also note that Robots do suffer some penalties on attack:
"Robot Brains are not that clever
Any autonomous Models will see their Attack values diminished with one third. Defence is easier to plan for them and here they suffer no penalties."

Meanwhile Sentinels just count as "Walkers", not robots.
They also have advantage of being "Galactic Republic" era technology, which geneerally does not need fuel supplies (they are asumed to have atomic engines).

(in reply to Soar_Slitherine)

Post #: 3

RE: Robotic Infantry - Working as Intended? - 5/16/2021 11:33:17 PM

Grimnar

Posts: 5
Joined: 8/19/2020
Status: offline

Thanks for Replying Soar & Zgrssd

Attached are some pics to illustrate what I'm seeing.

- Not mixed formations: just pure Robotic Infantry (Independent Infantry Battalions of 1000 troops)

- 'Food' use appears to begin the turn after raising. On the unit's card its tracked separately from Energy, so it still looks like Food to me? I see what you mean about the symbol begin the Food one (a sheaf of corn/grains), yet saying 'Energy' next to it, but why is it then tracked separately as 'Food' in the attached pics? Perhaps it's just unclear UI design at work here? (See pic attached)

- Morale start at 50 when raised, then increases to 100 the next turn. They haven't had a scrap yet, so will see if that dents their Morale at all. By the sounds of it, it shouldn't.

- Good point on Readiness, Soar.

- The Robotic infantry are *definitely* costing Credits to have though. Raising multiple units of them has put my soldiers' salary section of the treasury through the roof. That doesn't seem right to me? As if they need maintenance/repairs, etc. that should be covered in materials - not hard to obtain (in my game at least) Credits.

[EDIT: The forum won't let me attach pics unfortunately - apparently I haven't made enough posts yet? It also prevented me double posting in "such a short period of time..." -_- ]

< Message edited by Grimnar -- 5/16/2021 11:35:12 PM >

(in reply to zgrssd)

Post #: 4

RE: Robotic Infantry - Working as Intended? - 5/17/2021 2:02:33 AM

zgrssd

Posts: 3385
Joined: 6/9/2020
Status: offline

Just to make sure we are talking about the same gameversion:
Reports -> Overview -> Empire Dashboard -> Is there a version other then 1.09.01 listed for Game, Scenario or Last Game Build used?
Models are unfortunately saved in the savegame, together with Stratagems, Events and OOBs. As such a old savegame can carry quite the amount of old bugs.

For the images, you need a 3rd party page. But you have to slightly obfuscate the links as well (no images means no link rights yet).

(in reply to Grimnar)

Post #: 5