PreRifts construction/ Demolition robot

[Elthbert]

I need a Prefirts vehicle , preferably a bipedal robot for an upcoming game. what king of tools would you attach to such a robot. How much damage do you think said tools shoudl do in combat? I am thinking about 250 MDC becuase while it is big and Golden Age, and MDC, it was a Civilian vehicle and unarmoured.


Ideas?

[ShadowLogan]

A similar topic came up recently in the Dimension Book forum:
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=110444

I went through the various Rifts Books I have and found a few that might be use full per the fluff text. The list might be longer if one also includes some related functions (repair and salvage, I just looked for construction).

SourceBook 1 (unrevised, not sure about revised) has some construction bots
WB#2: Creax Armored Rover (Kittani design for exploration, construction, and salvage)
WB#8: IR2020 Wrecker is involved in demolition and construction
WB#14 (or Bionic Source book): consider the Mining Borg OCC and their Bionic Tools (listed in separate sections)

One could use the Bionic Source book (or WB#14's Mining Borg) to create a PA. Sourcebook1's Robot creation supplemented by the expanded options of the Bionic Source book would be another (they use Bionic equivalent hardware for some sections)

[taalismn]

Use one of the NEMA robots like the Mastiff or Bulldog, only remove all weaponry and military-spec equipment, reduce MDC and top speed by 50%, and paint it up in bright orange or yellow colors for utility gear. Add lots of bullhorns and lights to the outside, and external equipment clips for cable spools and the like. Might even want to strip out the nuclear powerplant and give it a rechargeable electric powerplant(good for 72 hours of continous use) or an internal combustion engine(good for an equivalent period of time, but eats something on the order of a semi's worth of fuel).

[Elthbert]

I am working on several MDC mining bots and equipment (if a Long-wall or continuous miner isn't MDC, then nothing is)
I'd be happy to send you or post here what I've got so far, not exactly "construction" but it might be close to what you are looking for. I haven''t done any bipedal shapes (not really an ideal shape for mining)
Some of the Titan robots are supposed to be based on pre-rifts civilian designs and I think Japan had one or two "consruction bots"

that would be great, thank you. Even if not directly usable as the antagonist they will be helpful as the machines that are salvagable.

THe climatic encounter will takeplace in a Prerifts industrial machinery showroom.

[Elthbert]

Use one of the NEMA robots like the Mastiff or Bulldog, only remove all weaponry and military-spec equipment, reduce MDC and top speed by 50%, and paint it up in bright orange or yellow colors for utility gear. Add lots of bullhorns and lights to the outside, and external equipment clips for cable spools and the like. Might even want to strip out the nuclear powerplant and give it a rechargeable electric powerplant(good for 72 hours of continous use) or an internal combustion engine(good for an equivalent period of time, but eats something on the order of a semi's worth of fuel).

Ah unfortunatly I don't have Chaos Earth. On my list but well I have a limited Rifts budget.

I agree with the external equipment clips and was thinking about some sort of variable tool interchangability. I have concidered a electric engine, or maybe a flexfuel internal combustion haven't decided yet. It doesn;t matter that much, a huge tectonic entity will be powering it

Thinking a robot say 25 feet tall, PS of 50 --- it is Golden age and for construction/demolition after all..

Some tools for demolition.

Plasma torch--- Range 10 feet. Damage 5d6MD

Demolition Saw -- a large large toothed saw running blades at opposite directions ( maining just for the scare the crap out of my players effect). Damage. 7d6 +6 MD damage.


Jack hammer? 2d6 MD plus knockdown to targets which are moving or can be thrown back. 2d4 x10 to targets pinned under it or agianst a wall.

Comments?
Any other Ideas?

[Elthbert]

no ideas? really?


HOw do those damages seem?

[Joseph Kerr]

Some things to consider:

In Chaos Earth there is a robot vehicle called the "Big Dog" Super-Mastiff. It stands at about 30 ft tall and weighs 36 tons. Your robot, which stands at about 25 ft, could weigh as much as 30 tons. Having that fall on a player would result in an annoying situation. Just consider that.

The Super-Mastiff has a PS of 61. Giving yours a PS of 50 sounds reasonable, as I envision the robot's main purpose is to break stuff apart for easier transportation not lifting things all in one piece.

Plasma Torch sounds good.

Demolition Saw sounds good.

The Jack Hammer seems a little off to me. A 9 ft tall Cyborg does 2d6 with a proportionately sized Jack Hammer. I'd say 4-5d6 sounds good, with a kick back like the big bore Shotgun in New West. Getting smacked in the chest by that thing should daze them and send them back a bit. It might also do SDC damage to them in their armor. 1d4 S.D./HP. If you want to be fair, and that's only when they're pinned by it.

Stomp: 3d6 M.D.

Edit: It could also have a magnet in one of it's hands, which allows it to pick up half of it's PS in metal. It could also repulse this and send a shower of metal at the players. I'm not sure what damage a barrage type would do, I'll have to think about it. It could spend an action compacting the metal debris into an actual solid ball of sorts, which would do 3d6+half its PS Damage or some such.

I agree with the bright yellow/orange. Just seems like a cool image in my head

If I can think of any other equipment it may have, I'll post'em.

Anyways, those are my thoughts.

Enjoy.

[Elthbert]

Some things to consider:

In Chaos Earth there is a robot vehicle called the "Big Dog" Super-Mastiff. It stands at about 30 ft tall and weighs 36 tons. Your robot, which stands at about 25 ft, could weigh as much as 30 tons. Having that fall on a player would result in an annoying situation. Just consider that.

The Super-Mastiff has a PS of 61. Giving yours a PS of 50 sounds reasonable, as I envision the robot's main purpose is to break stuff apart for easier transportation not lifting things all in one piece.

Plasma Torch sounds good.

Demolition Saw sounds good.

The Jack Hammer seems a little off to me. A 9 ft tall Cyborg does 2d6 with a proportionately sized Jack Hammer. I'd say 4-5d6 sounds good, with a kick back like the big bore Shotgun in New West. Getting smacked in the chest by that thing should daze them and send them back a bit. It might also do SDC damage to them in their armor. 1d4 S.D./HP. If you want to be fair, and that's only when they're pinned by it.

Stomp: 3d6 M.D.

Edit: It could also have a magnet in one of it's hands, which allows it to pick up half of it's PS in metal. It could also repulse this and send a shower of metal at the players. I'm not sure what damage a barrage type would do, I'll have to think about it. It could spend an action compacting the metal debris into an actual solid ball of sorts, which would do 3d6+half its PS Damage or some such.

I agree with the bright yellow/orange. Just seems like a cool image in my head

If I can think of any other equipment it may have, I'll post'em.

Anyways, those are my thoughts.

Enjoy.

Well the Bigbore is exactly what I was thinking of for knockback.

4 or 5d6 for damage for the jackhammer. Okay. You think increased damage for having the target pinned is excessive. Seems to me it should do a significant of damage to immobile targets or there is no reason to have a jackhammer at all.

I planned on having them be bright yellow. I like the idea of a magnet in the hand. and the cruching of metal into a throwing weapon is a nice touch too. How many actions should that take? 2 actions of prep? 2 in total?


Any other ideas?

[Elthbert]

I'm getting them compiled into a word file now (can you post one of those for download or would it be more expedient to just cut and paste the text as a couple long posts?)

Most of the stuff I got is not Bipedal and the Damages are HUGE (its #%## Long-Waller!!! what do you expect they are desigened to EAT Mountains !!!!! they cut a longwall "panel" -the block of coal that is being mined- is typically 3-4 kilometers long and 250-400 meters wide. A Long-Waller weighs in exces of 1,000 TONS (there are 100 "Shields" at ten tons a shield so about 1000 TONS !!!! not to mention all the Pumps, Track-Cars(2 tons a piece-one per shield), cables, etc..) Like I said A BIG piece of equipment

A "Smaller" (25 Ton Continuous Miner) stat block is presented below

Example Picture : http://www.uow.edu.au/eng/pillar/images ... 12CM27.gif

Robotic Continuous Miner
Robotic PS: 60

Main Body: 1200 MDC
Track Carriage: 300 MDC
Reinfoirced Scoop Bucket: 500 MDC
Cutting Head: 650 MDC

"Armament" :
Cutting Head Deals 6d4x10 MDC per round of operation (It's not designed for "attacking", Mountains while having alot of SDC usually aren't known for their high dodge bonuses--but you don't want to stick around for their "parry")

Remmber MDC is low for its size because it not armor hardened it's designed to handle pressure (like say a cave-in, or roof colapse) NOT missles and the like. Also you must turn the entire vehilce to reposition the cutting head (it only faces forward) but you DONT want to be in front of it.

This is is a little rough but I hope it helps I'll try and get more posted ASAP (I'm still not sure how to handle the sats for the big 1000 ton rig)

I would just cut and paste.

[Joseph Kerr]

Well the Bigbore is exactly what I was thinking of for knockback.

4 or 5d6 for damage for the jackhammer. Okay. You think increased damage for having the target pinned is excessive. Seems to me it should do a significant of damage to immobile targets or there is no reason to have a jackhammer at all.

Nope, never said it was excessive. When a target is not pinned by the jack hammer, it does 4 or 5d6 worth of damage, with the knock back effect. When they are pinned they take the 2d4x10 M.D. and 1d4 to their S.D.C./H.P. Their armor is being pulverized with them in it and they are taking damage from the force of the thing.

]I planned on having them be bright yellow. I like the idea of a magnet in the hand. and the cruching of metal into a throwing weapon is a nice touch too. How many actions should that take? 2 actions of prep? 2 in total?

One action to collect the metal debris and another to squash it up, tossing it on the third. It seems like a long wait to just toss a metallic ball, but the thing does do a pretty decent amount of damage. Which reminds me. A player being smacked by the compacted debris should also suffer a knock back effect, being tossed back a greater distance than the Jack Hammer.

Any other ideas?

I'm going to try and write up a few construction bots. But I think that as far as this guy goes, he's good. One method of attack I might suggest is that he may try and take out any supports around the building. This would be done as a last ditch effort to crush and trap the players, with the bot being able to dig himself out later.

Edit: Actually, I have an interesting idea. One or both of the robots hands can act as a grappling hook of sorts. It shoot's out up to 50 ft and can collect things, including players. This allows it to shoot, grab, and reel in a player to crush in it's hand. This also means the other players would have to get up close and personal with it to rescue their friend. The thing is, I don't know why it would have this ability and if the players chop the strong cable connecting the hand, then the robot is down a hand. It could just automatically pop out a drill or some such in case that happens.

What are your players playing?

[Elthbert]

it is a very low powered party 3 21 century drop ins with no comt training yet , a conjurer an NPC psi stalker and a Smuggler.

No power armour, super powers or major psionics.

[Elthbert]

On that last one, I should point out that I use armor pentration rules in my game (in brief a large piece of armor or robot will ignore a certain ammount of damage-like D&D damage reduction- so that no ammount of pistol fire is going to hurt the big Abolisher robot- time to call in the anti-tank weapons, also I use a 20:1 Ratio for MDC:SDC-if you don't implement similar rules I would adjust the thing down maybe as much as 1/3-the Longwaller despite it's size has no "armor" so it does not ignore low grade weapons damage the way a military vehicle would- it's designed for cave-ins not rockets)

Ok now that thats out of the way

Timberjack-Lumber Mecha
A small manned "walker-type" mecha for harvesting lumber .
Robotic PS: 45 (it's got to be able to lift and cut large trees)

Legs: 60 each
Main body: 140
Timber Basket (on back): 40
Cab: 70
Front Search lights: 5 each
Saw Mounts: 20 Each (2)
Grasper "claws": 30 each (2)

top speed: 45 mph

"Armament": 3d6 MD Rotary Saw blades (makes short work of even the mightiest seqoia--it's designers had never considered Millineum trees)


Weight: 12 tons dry weight - can pack about three times that in timber basket
Height : 14 feet

Interesting.
Does this things have arms are the saws on seperate arms?

[taalismn]

On that last one, I should point out that I use armor pentration rules in my game (in brief a large piece of armor or robot will ignore a certain ammount of damage-like D&D damage reduction- so that no ammount of pistol fire is going to hurt the big Abolisher robot- time to call in the anti-tank weapons, also I use a 20:1 Ratio for MDC:SDC-if you don't implement similar rules I would adjust the thing down maybe as much as 1/3-the Longwaller despite it's size has no "armor" so it does not ignore low grade weapons damage the way a military vehicle would- it's designed for cave-ins not rockets)

Ok now that thats out of the way

Timberjack-Lumber Mecha

My Crazy immediately sews a dress for it...

[Elthbert]

So what would the market cost be on the timberjack? Obviusly it wouldn't be cheap but minus any major weapons, it shouldn't be that expensive. Aoso what powersource where you thinking of for it. I was thinking the PreRifts bots would probably have a battery, with a a certian number of hours charge. 72 hours of use befor needing a recharge, something like that.

thoughts?

[taalismn]

My Crazy immediately sews a dress for it...

the Abolisher or the Longwall?

)

Both...we need a proper chorus line for this one.

[Elthbert]

Well concideriong the price of even Chipwell stuff, or the Gladius exoskeleton I think we are talking at LEAST 600,000 to 750,000 for anykind of robot vehicle. Even if they are not for combat.

[Elthbert]

Anybody else have any ideas.

[Joseph Kerr]

Here's my take on the construction 'bot.

----------

"Introducing the Atlas Earth Mover!"

A large old view screen flickers to life with the cheery face of a salesman. The stale air and thick collection of dust betrays his claim of "...modern times...", but his description of the metallic behemoth that stands before the group is as accurate now as it was 300 years prior.

The Atlas Earth Mover
Model Type: XRCV-2
"Experimental Robotic Construction Vehicle"
MDC: 560
Speed: 40 MPH.
Flying: Not capable.
Underwater Capabilites: While not specifically designed for oceanic terrains, the Atlas was originally comissioned to be a versatile construction vehicle. It was constructed to be airtight as to not allow dust or water into vital interior systems. It can walk a long the bottom of a watery environment at 25% of it's normal speed.
Skills:
Specialized Labor (Mining) Excavation 85%, Mining 90%, Recycling 88%, Rope Works 88%, Climbing 90%, & Salvage 80%.
Speciliazied Labor (Demolitions) Basic Electronics 90%, Basic Mechanics 90%, Computer Operation 96%, Demolitions 90%, Demolitions: Underwater 90%, Demolitions Disposal 90%, & Trap/Mine Detection 80%.
Audio & Optic Systems:
Advanced Audio Systems
Wide Range Radio Reciever & Transmitter
Built-In Language Translator
Built-In Loudspeaker
Juke Box (Plays out through the loud speakers)
Advanced Optic Systems
Search Lights(x2) - Two on either shoulder.
Biometric Scanner
Depth Gauge & Alarm
Equipment/Weapons:
"Big Jack" Jack Hammer - A super-sized Jack Hammer adorns the top of the right forearm. The Jack Hammer slides forward and over the left hand. 5d6 M.D. Being hit with the Jack Hammer will knock a person back 2d6 ft back. When a character is pinned underneath the Jack Hammer, it does 1d6x10 M.D. and 1d4 S.D./HP. to those in armor.
Demolition Saw - The right hand of the Atlas can split apart, retracting back while a menacing heavy duty saw slides forward. The saw can cut apart large sections of rock and metal, doing 7d6+7 M.D. to anything unfortunate enough to be caught in the path of the blade.
Plasma Torch - An idustrial super sized plasma torch can be found in the upper right forearm. Sliding up and out it can cut through and weld large section of metals. 5d6 M.D.
Super Magnet: A powerful magnet is also located in it's left hand, which allows it to pull and carry up to half it's PS in metallic debris. It can also reverse this effect and send a showering of metal up to 15 ft away, doing only 2d4 S.D. If Atlas spends an action to compact this metal debris, it can toss this make shift weapon doing 3d6 M.D.
Statistical Data:
Size: 25 ft tall, 8 ft wide.
Weight: 35 tons fully loaded.
Physical Strength: 50 (Robotic)
Power Source: Capable of running off of a nuclear power source, the current show model is equipped with two Super-Solar Engines. Both can sustain the Atlas for 16 hours of continuous use, but without a recharge the two can run on emergency reserves for 8 hours. In this state the Atlas is using only minimum system capabilities. Half attacks, bonuses, and can move only at 40% of it's speed. To recharge the Atlas either needs to collect solar energy or access an electrical source to convert into power.
Cost: 25 million.

---------------

I may fine tune this, but at the moment that's what I threw together.

Tell me what you think.

Physically, I picture something similar in design to the Super-Mastiff. Large, boxy, and purely industrial looking.