Robot Masters as companions

[Rossum]

I was thinking that it would be nice to get some robot followers who in addition to providing extra firepower could provide some specialized services for you. (I've also just discovered the Protomen band and their rock opera about the dystopian society in the Mega Man games, so I've got a bit of crazy coming from that direction as well).

 

 

 

Ideas:

 

Junk Man: This pre-war protectron was designed to aid in reclaiming usable metal and materials to help in the war effort or production. He has a built in recycling unit which can convert tin cans, tin plates, and various other bits of metal junk into scrap metal. He also gives out pre-war money if he's given several empty glass bottles (unless he somehow converts them into bottles of dirty water or something). Other useless garbage gets incinerated inside him to power energy cells.

 

In game terms he has dialog options that let him bend bent cans into regular tin cans and then turn 3 tin cans into scrap metal (alot like one of the recycling mods), similarly he exchanges money for a large number of glass bottles, other worthless items just get destroyed.

 

One possibly harder thing to implement would be to have him just grab everything he sees (unless its a mine or belongs to somebody) and keep it in his storage unit until the player looks through it, put it in their inventory, and then have him recycle/destroy stuff through dialog options. If its possible to have NPCs use a Rock-it Launcher then it would be the perfect weapon for him.

 

 

 

Fire Man: A fortified Mr. Handy who originally was supposed to fill up automobile gas tanks (for the ones that aren't nuclear). He has a gas converter built in that converts alcholol or other organic compounds into flamer fuel. He can also dispense purified water like the robo-butlers, possibly even purifying dirty water. His flamer has much more strength and range than a normal Mr. Handy and he uses it exclusively.

 

 

 

Bomb Man: a Mr. Gutsy built to deploy minefields in the event of a communist invasion. He doesn't set off mines himself but can drop them or disarm enemy mines if ordered to. If the player gives him a bunch of frag mines then he can be ordered to drop them (he probably just drops them at regular intervals as he walks because a sophisticated mine-laying pattern sounds hard to implement). He can also detect the presence of enemy frag mines and will warn the player (something like "I'm detecting enemy explosives, Sir!") he can then be ordered to locate, disarm, and retrieve the mine for the player or just let the player disarm the mine themselves for XP.

 

 

 

Flash Man: A Brain Bot who's mind blast works just like the Mesmatron (possibly complete with possibilities for frenzy and head explosions... or maybe toned down so he's less likely to kill enemies all by himself). Was designed to be an automated non-lethal security robot but problems with the mesmatrons head explosion effect kept him from being released. He usually tries to target the enemies weapon or arms with his laser attacks and possibly hit the antennas on ants or combat inhibitor on enemy robots to make them frenzy (maybe a diolog option would make him focus on mezzing, frenzying, disarming, or killing opponents).

 

 

 

Elec Man: A Mr. Handy or a Protectron who's designed to operate and maintain one of the numerous power plants in the D.C. area. Since most of the power plants are nuclear then robots were used in the areas where radiation leaks are likely to occur. This robot has a built-in high powered generator that lets him provide emergency backup power in case the reactor has to be worked on, and a laser used to weld and repair cracks in the casing around a reactor. His electric attack is a melee attack that can stun his enemies (unless there is an electric attack that can be used).

 

 

 

Cut Man: A Mr. Handy who's equipped with an extra-powerful diamond-tipped cutting saw and extra durable armor. His flamer either doesn't work or is close range (more of a welding torch for his factory work than a fame thrower). His favored tactic is to get up close and personal with his sawblade and dig right into his enemies (if his saw attack includes the sound of the Auto Axe working it would add to the effect).

 

 

 

Ice Man: A slightly more advanced Nuka-Cola protectron who was used to provide tours of the building. Has a miniture Nuka-Cola maker built in and every week he can dispense five Nuka-Colas much like how the butler bots dispense purified water. (you can choose to have him chill these to make them ice-cold)

 

 

 

Crash Man: A sentry bot who uses his missile launcher much more often than he uses his minigun (which fires a stream of missiles)... which makes him a huge liability to any team mate who prefers to go melee (or even get between him and his target). He can convert frag mines into grenades and grenades into missiles. A diolog option should exist that makes him shut-down (and then let him start back up again when you speak to him in shut-down mode).

 

 

 

Needle Man: A medic protectron who can slowly synthesize medical chems (like a My first Laboratory) and heal up allies like a doctor can (though he takes his 'payment' in pre-war money or in the medicine used for the procedure). He refuses to attack humans but has a hatred for mutated animals, hostile super mutants, or feral ghouls. His weaponry consists of the crippling darts of the dart gun he shoots into enemies, and occasionally medical healing darts that he fires into human allies.

 

 

 

Possible places to find these guys:

 

Junk Man: in the scrapyard

 

Flame Man: shut down and stuffed in the corner of a gas station, possibly with a note warning employees to not turn him back on after that little 'incident' with the exploding parking lot.

 

Bomb Man: near a military tent, maybe one near minefield and with plenty of frag mines surrounding him.

 

Flash Man: in one of the military bases

 

Elec Man: in one of the power plants

 

Cut Man: in the scrapyard or in a factory

 

Cola Man: the Nuka-Cola factory

 

Crash Man: Shut down and locked in a military compound with a note warning that he's a defective robot... and another note that claims he should be mass-produced to help fight the commies.

 

Needle Man: A hospital somewhere, possibly the medical area of one of the vaults. The Our Lady of Hope hospital might be a poor choice unless he's hiding in a corner deactivated so that the Super Mutants don't rip him apart.

 

 

(now that I think about it, these robots might work better as special experimental types who were all deactivated due to defects and the Lone Wanderer has to switch them back on)

[ZeonicGlory]

What about Air Man? The Enclave can't defeat Air Man.

[Foxxieboy]

Air Man just won't die!

 

But seriously, I can see this happening, and they're all pretty balanced. What about Bubble Man though? Or Gemini Man, Sword Man, or even Astro Man?

 

Sword Man might be an Android rather than a Robot, with unique armor and a unique flaming sword, from which you'd have to restore his original memory and then either pass a speech check or bribe him to be a follower.

 

But man, these ideas are golden...

[isgod101]

Or elemental heros from Yu-Gi-Oh! :biggrin:

 

Shouldnt this be in the request section?

 

Edit: LOL look what i wrote ^^^ well... if you cant laugh at yourself who can you laugh at?

[Katuko]

For a bit of shameless self-advertising, here's a topic I made a while ago about Metroid and Mega Man weapons/enemies being made as a mod: http://thenexusforums.com/index.php?showtopic=143923

 

I see that you want the Robot Masters as companions, but since I've already written so much about this it would be a shame to let it go to waste, right? :P

 

You had an idea about having to reactivate the shutdown robots. How about this:

The robots were shut down because they went on a rampage (a nod to the actual Mega Man games), and when you awake them they attack you. If you kill one, you get its data chip, which can be given to the Brotherhood or something so that they repair or rebuild the robot for you. Liberty Prime might take years to build, but they certainly have enough Protectrons and Sentries, so I don't think it's too far fetched.

 

EDIT: Leave out Air Man or nerf his power. It's boring being invincible. :D

[Rossum]

How about a list:

 

Mega Man I

The first Robot Master series was built by Dr. Thomas Light and Dr. Albert Wily. They had worked to improve the AI used by common robots to give the robots better personalities and initiative, along with an attempt to program a moral code into the robots so that they could resist possible communist reprogramming (they sort of added this last part to make them sound more patriotic).

 

Cut Man - a Mr. Handy

Built to cut up scrap metal to be recycled for the war effort. His flamer has poor power but his extra durable sawblade can cut through the strongest metals (it bypasses armor). He was shut down after six months of use when he cut up all the scrap metal in the place and started attacking nearby cars "for the war effort". They locked him in a shed and the scrapyard was filled with cars again.

His attack is a powerful saw that bypasses armor.

He is found in the scrapyard.

 

Guts Man - A protectron factory robot

Built to oversee construction sites, he was made to coordinate both robot and human workers for maximum efficiency. He was equipped with an infrared communications beam to quickly communicate with robot workers and a 'neural whip' to increase moral in human workers. He did pretty well for four months during which time he got several construction jobs done in half the time they would have normally with just a few changes in schedules and such. However, his efficiency circuits, news from the war, and demands from people higher up wanted him to increase efficiency even further... which he did so by overworking his underlings. The robotic workers didn't complain even as they started breaking down but the human workers rebeled at his increasingly draconian and insulting attitude towards them. They eventually beat him to pieces with sledgehammers and ran off.

His attack is a laser beam that has a chance of shutting down a hostile robot and a chance of stunning living things as if they were hit with stunning fist.

He is found in the downtown DC area near a construction site.

 

Ice Man - a Nuka Cola protectron

Built to give tours at the Nuka Cola plant, Ice Man has a compartment that lets him fill empty nuka cola bottles with refreshing Nuka Cola. He can dispense five bottles a week or he can turn existing Nuka Cola bottles ice cold. He gave tours for a month or two during which he was a huge sucess. One day the manager of that plant brought his daughter to work and she liked the cheerful Protectron so much that the manager wanted to make him the official Nuka Cola mascot. Ice Man used his cool personality to win over the hearts of everyone who saw him and the already great popularity of Nuka Cola skyrocketed. However, when he started giving round-the-clock concerts and magic shows for the company his AI couldn't handle it and he went out of control, getting into ever increasingly crazy situations ans scandals to stay in the limelight... he dated movie stars, got caught shoplifting, started giving away free nuka cola to children at school, and finally tried taking over the company through a multi-million dollar hostile takeover. He was eventually captured by the company and shut down. He looks like a nuka-cola protectron with sunglasses.

His attack fires empty nuka cola bottles at the enemy much like a Rock-it-launcher (unless there is an ice beam somewhere)

He is found in the Nuka Cola bottling facility.

 

Bomb Man - A Mr. Handy

Built to aid in demolishing old buildings to make way for new ones, Bomb Man is an expert at throwing frag grenades and has an internal grenade-making device that lets him make them himself. He lasted all of ten minutes after being first activated when he started to bomb the lab he was in 'because it was a dilapidated mess'.

He attacks by throwing grenades.

He is found in the RobCo factory.

 

Fire Man - A Mr. Handy

Built to incinerate old garbage, Fire Man uses a powerful flamer to attack. He lasted eight months before he accidentally caused a forest fire by burning things in the middle of summer. It wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't started recognizing burning buildings as 'garbage' that need to be 'incinerated'. He was not so much shut down as he was shot down by actual firefighters who tried to put out the raging inferno he had caused.

He attacks with a powerful flamethrower.

He is found in a crumpled heap somewhere near Oasis

 

Elec Man - A Protectron

A Protectron who's designed to operate and maintain one of the numerous power plants in the D.C. area. Since most of the power plants are nuclear then robots were used in the areas where radiation leaks are likely to occur. This robot has a built-in high powered generator that lets him provide emergency backup power in case the reactor has to be worked on, and a laser used to weld and repair cracks in the casing around a reactor. He was entirely confident in his abilities and deemed his human coworkers to be lazy, incompetent and weak (and bigots since they wouldn't promote him despite his excellent work) He started tampering with the generator to improve its output but that generated high levels of radiation (which didn't bother him at all) his coworkers attacked him but succumbed to radiation poisoning soon afterwords and became ghouls.

He attacks with a powerful laser

He is found in the power plant that's leaking radiation and filled with ghouls.

 

 

 

Mega Man II

After their apparent success with the first series of Robot Masters, Dr. Light and Dr. Wily were sought out by the Military to help design military robots to act as secret weapons for the war. Things worked out great for a while and both scientists got most of the second generation military robot prototypes done when the first robots started showing signs of malfunctioning and rebelling. When the news got out, Dr. Light blamed everything on Dr. Wily and Wily was blamed for all the faults of the first series. His reputation as a scientist was ruined and Wily vowed to get back at Light for this. He made one last trip to the Lab and activated all eight second series Robot Masters and made off with them.

 

 

Metal Man - Mr. Gutsy (or a tweaked out Mr. Handy since gutsys don't have sawblades)

Metal Man was designed with an improved version of Cut Mans sawblade, this one designed to cut open enemy tanks and metal doors. He was also given a short-range flamer used to cut or weld metal (its real short range and pierces armor)

He was ordered to attack the RobCo facility and the managers there who had thrown Dr. Wily to the wolves. Metal Man did a good job of scraping the machenery before he was brought down.

He is found in the RobCo factory floor.

 

 

Air Man - Mr. Gutsy

A Mr. Gutsy with an incredibly advanced hover engine that lets him ascend to several dozen feet above the ground. This makes him virtually impossible to defeat with melee attacks (make that impossible flat out). He also sports a precision laser which he fires at distant targets, only resorting to his flamer when enemies are really close to him. His elevated position does however make him an easy target for people to shoot at him.

He was ordered to attack the Galaxy News radio station after the newsman at the time called Wily 'an idiot scientist with bad hair'. Air Man made short work of the newsman and took over the station, telling them that their lack of faith in Dr. Wily has sealed their fate and that robots would rule the world. Air Man was taken out by soldiers after he took to the skies and started shooting the reactors out of cars in the streets.

He is found near the Galaxy News radio station where he crashed after being shot down.

 

Wood Man - Mr. Gutsy

Designed for prolonged gorilla warfare such as those used in the vietnam war, Wood Man can sense and disarm frag mines and then lay our minefields of his own. His hover jet ensures that he doesn't set off mines himself.

He was ordered to lay mines outside Dr. Lights house and 'get footage of that fat male without a father getting blown sky high'. As a result, he set numerous mines all over Ridgefield where Dr. Light stayed. He was eventually taken out by a squad of soldiers and their own Mr. Gutsys. It took several days due to Wood Mans extensive battle tactic program and the sheer number of mines he had deployed. He probably wouldn't have been caught if he hadn't stuck around to watch Dr. Light.

He is found near Minefield.

 

 

Heat Man - Mr. Gutsy

Based on Fire Mans design and ramped up to eleven, Heat Mans flames are actually superheated by his own built in atomic core. He uses his Flamer Exclusively and his attack not only does devastating damage but it spreads radiation whenever he uses it. He was originally programmed to be deployed behind enemy lines and to systematically devastate the Chinese farmlands using gorilla tactics like those used by Wood Man.

He was ordered to torch the countryside much as Fire Man had done unintentionally. Heat Man was actually never taken down by military and managed to keep going until the bombs fell... at that point he wandered the post-apocolyptic wasteland and torched whatever greenery was left. He repeatedly returned to the Capital Wasteland in a futile attempt to get new orders after he had repeatedly burned down every tree he could find. He was eventually killed by a Deathclaw.

He is found in Old Olney.

 

Crash Man - Sentry Bot

Featuring devastatingly improved missile guidance system and payload, Crash Man is locked, loaded, ready, and armed. He also sports an advanced radar system and 'a reflexive missile avoidance system' which lets him dodge missiles and grenade weapons the moment he knows where they are.

He was sent after the military bases to show then 'just how incompetent Dr. Albert Wily really is' They were able to take him down eventually, using up about ten regular sentry bots, vertibird and numerous soldiers. This was so impressive that some of the military higher-ups wanted to get Wily back on their team as soon as possible.

He is found near one of the military bases.

 

Flash Man - Robo Brain

Designed for nonlethal combat, flashmans mesmatron lets him disable enemies and occasionally make them frenzy against their allies or to be hypnotized for hypnotic suggestion.

He was sent to the Paradise Falls shopping mall to hypnotize people into obeying Wily and rebelling against the government. This caused a ruckus but Flash Man was eventually disabled... by a mob of rampaging shoppers.

He is found in Paradise Falls... he actually had a few mesmatrons stolen from the military base with him and was ordered to give the guns to hypnotized people so that they could spread the hypnosis and show the world what the government did. This is probably where the slaver got his mesmatron from.

 

Quick Man - Robo Brain

A prototype designed to test a new ammo-conservative throwing algorithm. Quick Man is programmed to be able to throw almost anything with deadly accuracy (like a Rock-it Launcher).

He was sent to the Super Duper Mart to kill everyone in the store with the stores own supplies. He made a good job of it too. However with all the mayhem cause by the other Robot Masters, the government decided to just board up the place and let him rot in there. He survived the bombing and stayed in the Super Duper Mart for decades if not centuries before somebody managed to take him down and finally loot the place.

He is found in the Super Duper Mart

 

Bubble Man - Mr. Gutsy

Another Gutsy with a modified engine, Bubble Man is able to submerge in water and use his laser to conduct underwater attacks on enemy ships and to clear any mines used to destroy ships.

He was ordered to attack the ships in the harbor and amazingly managed to disable the battleship that would later become Rivet City... he didn't actually cut it in half (that would be silly, right?) But he did severely mess up it engines before somebody took him out with a depth charge (which may have been what busted the battleship).

He is found washed up on the rocky beach near Rivet City.

 

 

Mega Man III

While his robotic minions staged attacks all across the DC area, Albert Wily made his escape. He shaved his mustache and hair and skipped town to find an out of the way spot where the military dogs wouldn't bother him and would not be a likely target when the bombs fell. He managed to find a university with a working Vault underneath it and stuck nearby in a robot repair center using an assumed name. There he started working on a new series of robots... ones that were truly worthy of his genius and not hampered by the limitations of that fool Dr. Light and the cheap RobCo company. He made some of the first androids that could pass for human beings. Once the attack came, he used these to break into the University bomb shelter and take command of it. This Vault was equipped with all sorts of lab equipment and was supposedly meant to help preserve scientific innovation after the war... Vault Tech however had an elaborate generation-spanning social experiment in mind for the vaults inhabitabts. However, that last point was moot becasue Dr. Wily had his own plans for the place. In short order, Wily and his eight android robot masters took control of the vault and killed anyone who resisted. Thus, the vault that would later become The Commonwealth was started.

 

Dr. Light managed to escape the attack that Wood Man had made against his town and the government picked him up and demanded that he begin making robots to combat Wily in case the mad scientist returned... or worse joined up with the Red Chinese. Dr. Light however was horribly unsuccessful in duplicating the 'success' of those second generation Robot Masters, especially after Wily deleted and destroyed all the notes they had made. The best he could do was make a blue armored protectron unit whos special ability was ripping off the weapons of other robots, giving them fancy names, and using them itself. He called it Mega-Super-Awesome-Rockin Man. His fellow roboticists said he would be better off calling it Light Man. Light tried to shorten it to Mega Man... but then the bombs fell and destroyed civilization.

 

The third series Robot Masters had very humanoid appearances, allowing them to wield tools and weapons much like a human would. They still had built in weaponry but Wily tried moving away from the clunky appearances of the previous Robot Masters and into more versatile human forms. His students quickly followed in his footsteps and later generations of Robot Masters became increasingly humanlike in mind and body... though not so human as to loose their advantages, namely their immunity to radiation and their logical computing capacity. Eventually they gave way to the androids that the commonwealth would produce later.

[Katuko]

Cut Man sounds perfect. Maybe, when the player arrives at the scene, he or she finds a half-active Cut Man trying to claw his way through a broken car?

 

Guts Man is also fine, but I think it would be more interesting to have him attack with his bare hands and have a lot of HP. Makes him more unique.

 

You had a really creative take on Ice Man, I like it. :P There was a scrapped freeze weapon known as the Cryolator, and Mothership Zeta added both a Cryo Mine and a Cryo Grenade. A freezing weapon is definitely possible.

 

Bomb Man's pretty standard fare, I guess, but he's the only robot I know of that would use grenades instead of missiles. Thumbs up.

 

Fire Man: Not much to say, but I like. Make him have a torch on his head and dual-wield the flamers and he'll be really awesome.

 

Elec Man: Trade the laser for a Tesla Cannon to fit with his powerful electrical theme. ;)

 

 

Metal Man: I prefer to see Metal Man as flinging the sawblades as his long range attack. Like deadly Frisbees or something.

 

I think Air Man could use some sort of grenades or mines as his primary weapon, as it would be easy for him to drop them on people from up in the sky. Shooting lasers would require him to a have great precision and stay still in the air while aiming.

 

Wood Man: "Gorilla warfare"? :P I know that he beats his chest in MM2, but it's spelled "guerilla". Anyways, Wood Man would be interesting. Maybe give him a big wooden shield and high DR but make him weak against fire?

 

Heat Man: Nuclear fire? Dude, you are a genius! Now all we need is for him to explode like a mini-nuke when he is killed or destroyed, and we're good to go.

 

Crash Man: "locked, loaded, ready, and armed" - reference to "Programmed to Fight" by The Megas? Crash Man sounds incredibly dangerous given that he can dodge explosives and fire them off at will himself. I'd think that a Tesla Cannon would be quite effective against him, however. Maybe his deactivated body could be surrounded by enemy soldiers who are trying to rebuild him into a war machine?

 

Flash Man: I think slow-mo would be a better power, but a Mesmetron-like blast is also good. Mind power is what is most important.

 

Quick Man: It's good throwing things, but don't forget to up his speed as well. That is his main gimmick, after all.

 

Bubble Man: Just for kicks, make this guy only shoot useless bubbles on land, but in watery areas he can lay mines or shoot missiles/torpedoes.

 

 

Mega Man being a weapon-stealing unit is of course fine. I think he should be more android-like than the previous robots, though, since Light is said to be a genius. He made those designs in the first place, surely he can do it again even when he's lost the original. At least give Mega Man a unique AI with a great sense of justice -- if he understands someone to be evil, he can and will terminate them with everything he's got.

 

By the way, we need Top Man. Roller blades, man!

[Foxxieboy]

Dude, while we're at it, how about adding in Bass and Treble, Mega and Rush (Mega and Bass being androids, Treble and Rush being robotic dogs), Zero (Possibly, we'd have to do a good job on the laser-sword :P ), and possibly even enhanced armors for Mega designated the "X Series Enhancement Sets", including Ultimate Armor, Falcon Armor, Gaia Armor, Blade Armor, Shadow Armor, etc.

 

Having Mega be a follower for a new quest-line then finally being able to don the Blue Bomber's armors would be epic, especially with Mega/X Buster weapons and other weapons from the robot masters.

 

Color me anxious for this mod to be made :P