I was thinking of esay ways to have more ships in game and it came to me. one of the UIT companies...(TPG, most likely)...starts gutting and retro fitting Hive Bots as ships. it even makes sense story wise. the UIT is all about commerce with as little payout as possible. the hive is...(as far as space craft goes)...an untapped resource! all the basics are already in place, engines, weapons ports, armor...etc...etc...

it could even lend to some of the hive based missions.

aside from that there are hive ships that fit all roles, combat, mining and cargo hauling.

yes, in order to get these, you have to do a introduction mission where you capture hive parts in order to fix up the ships they've captured...

it could be really cool.

Furies!

But, the hive is scavenging OUR ships.

its been a while since ive done bot related missions but im certian there are missions where you observe/collect parts. processor cores, scrap metal...etc...etc...plus when you kill bots they drop all manner of parts from weapons to cores to power cells.

another upshot to this is that in addition to up to 32 new ships, there is nearly infinite possibilities for "varient" ships.

mmmm...Helman K-27 MKVI

"But, the hive is scavenging OUR ships."

doesnt mean we cant scavenge thiers. think of the American auto maker, Mr. Tucker. he made the greatest American car of his time by scavenging parts of other cars from junk yards.

it could also lead to new aspects of the economy.

Some Hive bot ships would be too powerful if given to players as is and with custom weapon configurations meaning they are not stuck with their Hive weapon configuration.

We'd need hive bots to scavenge their ships, and the only way we could get hive bots is if we scavenged their ships, ergo...

Surbius...some hive bots are quite powerful, but if every one had access to them theres no danger to the balance. besides, you could have the fastest meanest ship in the game, makes no difference if you arent a good pilot.

Mynt...scavenging bots is done in several missions already...ie, bring back scrap metal, processor cores etc...etc...

or they could be brought about through reverse engineering or as the bots were made mostly by UIT corps, the UIT corps could simply re-start production for piloting rather than AI bots.

[edit] i was told actually that some where you can actually make your own "pet" bots.

either way its up to 32 new player ships, and there is nothing wrong with that.

the only issue I see with this is that Hive ships are remarkably small, and trying to take realism into account, pilots wouldn't fit into some of the smaller bots (assaults, collectors, observers)..........

you guys better be friggin careful when i start flying a triflare Devus gardian

This is a good idea. I like it. Like sfriedenberg said, yes, they are small for some pilots. I agree, the tools are already in place, and it would be a simple thing to do, in my point of view. I wouldn't mind having a K-3...

i took into account the size isssue. thats why the company making them would be "retro-fitting them for pilots", thereby creating room for pilots.

Yeah, imagine Helmans if someone was actually flying it, instead of it just sitting there like a big fat target like normal :)

this mission should not be a capture mission, or a crafting mission. Instead, it's more like we have captured and neutralized a couple of hive bots, and in order to utilize them we need to interface with them (They are rouge A.I after all) and hax them. So you're actually looking for specific control parts. So you'd go and kill overseers and collect motherboards and junk.

it'd be cool. Kill an observer and take it apart to find the right frequencies they're using.

One thing: Since a robot has no need for humans or any other life form inside it, the whole inside is essentially electronics. The only way to make it a habitable spacecraft is to strip the whole ship, and use the shell only. From those electronics, you would scavenge parts to build the inside again. However, as mentioned, the ships are relatively small, so, to make the bot a ship might take enlarging the hull. This would mean using other materials from other ships or otherwise. My main point is that it would probably be a lot less cost effective to produce bot ships. Which throws your "in universe" reasoning out. Unless there was some sort of use for spying or something...

I like the idea;

My only problem - the hive are weaker than equivalent ships I *think*.

If that could be sorted... fantastic!

Spine

Phish...the "in universe" reasoning is still valid. the bots did not just spring into creation...they were built by various UIT factions. which of course could simply alter the plans a bit to allow for a pilot.

How does that make sense? The inside of a bot is completely electonics. There's no way you can simply "alter the plans a bit". You'd need to add life support systems, human usable navigation, piloting controls, everything you need to have a pilot. On top of that, you'd have to think about all the normal forces and such that they have to work around with normal ships. Saying that you can alter the plans a bit is completely ridiculous. No offense.

ok...well I thought it was obvious that by a bit I meant...maybe change the size, add life support, human usable navigation, piloting controls...etc...etc...and everything you need to accomadate a pilot.

that aside, there are areas in a bot for weapons, ammo and cargo etc...etc...

so The inside of a bot is obviously NOT completely electonics. a Milanar transport bot has a mass of 100000kg, thats alot of mass. its a transport bot...seems a good amount of its job might be, transporting ore or scrap. now it seems that the cargo area could be refurbished so that it were smaller and a pilots area could be fitted some where inside...(doesnt have to be in the cargo area, it could be any where as the electronics and flight systems could be redistributed.

rather than play a round of who is smarter, the phish fan or the journalist why dont you contribute something to the thread rather than pointing out something that has already been pointed out and addressed.

no offense.