Buffing the gunbot respawn antag

[Katzen]

Thoughts on gunbots that you can get as random antag respawn.

I like them as an idea but they feel quite weak. Players don't really antag with them half the time due to being so weak.

They come with a rubber slug shotgun and 38 revolver. From what I can tell of the code the shotgun is like being hit with a blunt melee weapon (for 24 damage which would be high for a melee weapon, reduces with range) with a chance of knock back and it should stagger on hit. These weapons are underwhelming with the huge reload but are certainly more effective than just being a critter. They might be in the right power range as a nuisance as after all you aren't a real antag but I don't think anyone is in much danger from you.

What stinks for them is their huge vulnerability to tasers. I can't give an exact behaviour, as debug respawning as one crashes my game, but it felt like two taser hits would take you out for 25 seconds. Yikes. Two or three bots at the same time are trivial for anyone but the sleepiest sec to deal with. Think the detective revolver can two tap them as well.

How should they be improved?

[DJ-Fireball_did_this]

I get the idea behind the cooldowns but in retrospect it might be too much.

[virvatuli]

Their weakness is fine when you contrast the fact that a whole horde of them can spawn at once. I've seen a group of 4 absolutely terrorize the station and eradicate a security team by just chaining their attacks together. If less were able to spawn at once, I'd definitely think they should be buffed, but certainly not with the current spawning conditions.

[Dickles]

I also agree with makki; I thought they were way too weak, one flash clicking them a few times is enough to permastun and you can beat them to death before they get up, BUT they do a lot of damage. I had a round where I was a traitor and worked together with a pair and they were really a menace if they have some support.

As antag critters you really have to work as a team. It can kind of suck if someone is newer or especially if someone wants to be friendly, but if you get a good group going they're very strong. I would still like to see a little bit of stun resistance as flashes are super common but I don't know.

[TheMaskedMan2]

All of the critter antags suck right now. Something about the way their stamina and stuns happen seem to give you a 30 second stun no matter what hits you. It really sucks to get say, fire elemental and then one taser bolt knocks you down for 30 secs, and you don't have the benefit of goons crit system to let you tank damage.

[KikiMofo]

Critter stuns suck. Thats all I gotta say about it.

[Leeanei]

They suck, but it's also a second free chance at a guilt-free, responsibility-free antag role. A random spawn of 4 drones would go from a nuisance, which I think is the intent, to a bigger threat than the existing antags.

[GORE]

4 fire elementals and the station is doomed.

---

But gunbots are easily countered; so easily in fact that you can cheeply corner-shoot them. They are slow...tanks,...
Tanks with the look of an advanced robot; still easily defeated by some clown with a taser in a space lubed hallway.

[Lady Birb]

I'd say make them like the NPC gunbots and replace their current shitty guns with infinite-ammo assault rifles

[Drago156]

I'd say make them like the NPC gunbots and replace their current shitty guns with infinite-ammo assault rifles

No no no no no AND FOR THE LOVE OF SOL NO!
Those critter gunbots run the equivalent to a single burst of AK-744 rounds when they fire, which one burst on its own is enough to fuck up just about anyone with almost any amount of armor. Saving grace is that they're easily cheesed, but in the hands of a player that absolutely should not happen. I would however support the shotgun being lethal though.

[KikiMofo]

Yeah make the shotgun buckshot instead of rubber and I think they would be tolerable to play as

[DJ-Fireball_did_this]

Why is the syndicate deploying robots with rubber shotguns?

[Chayot]

They are mostly funny. Though as Makki brought out, when they stick together and are decidedly terrorizing the station, they are deadly.
When they split up, easy pickings.

As for improving them, I would ask, Are they meant to be deadly or be a threat?
Currently, they are a threat. The revolvers allow them to be deadly too.

Personally, I'm all for more and deadlier antags. Please consider that most of the crew don't seem to agree with that Sentiment.
Crew enjoy planting, cleaning, building, not becoming swiss-cheese from 8 murder-borgs that just popped out of a broom closet.

I find them fun as they are now. They often whisk straight to the bar and screw around with the crew. Utilizing non-lethals in fun ways.
Giving them buckshot, they may be able to wipe the station. How deadly are they meany to be? Station-ending or cause for crew to rally and fight?

I'm not saying we do nothing. I love more content! Just consider balance for the sake of the crew who don't enjoy antags as we might!

[Wisecrack34]

Is this because of me? I remember gunning down a gunbot the other day with a gift from my Aunt.

[Katzen]

Bit concerned about giving it buckshot shotgun, our choices are two types of riot, spez 12 or spez 12 weak (what nukie engineers get). The spez 12 weak is less scary at 50 power. It would still have the "eh" fire rate so you couldn't mag dump it like a real shotgun but it's effectively twice as strong as what they have now. So... maybe? Seems pretty popular here.

In addition to fixing the bug that makes critters take very long stuns they could be buffed by

1: Replace their less lethal with a weak buckshot
2: Replace their less lethal with a mild grenade launcher for AOE that makes sec more cautious. Stinger? Sonic? Flashbang?
3: Give them an ability, shield (aurora mk2 belt) or grenade throw
4: Give them an omntiool to get around and do more (too powerful?)