[Chapter 1] RimTech: The Synthetic Dawn

Basic Mechs

Adds constructed humanlike servitors called Mechs - built, not born, and powered by a transplanted human heart instead of a reactor. What started as a simple labor solution has grown into a small ecosystem: a rival faction who also builds mechs (for very different reasons), a dedicated AI storyteller, and a full narrative campaign to trace one Advanced Mech's origins back to the mothership that made her. Learning-project mod: appearance currently uses placeholder (recolored human) textures.

Building a Basic Mech

Build a Mecha Construction Station, supply it with an extracted human heart, steel and components, and assemble a chassis. Each Basic Mech is dedicated to exactly two duties of your choice (e.g. Cooking and Firefighting) and can do nothing else. They do not eat or feel moods, but must recharge at a powered recharge station. Their human heart ages like any other - even a machine body cannot outlive it. A full research tree lets you offset that: artificial and reinforced hearts, armor and kevlar plating, an overclock module, solar panels, portable power cells, wireless and fast charging, and a recycler upgrade that reclaims a retired chassis instead of scrapping it.

Advanced Mechs

The next step beyond the Basic Mech: a servitor built from both a transplanted heart and a transplanted brain, retaining the social and psychological side of her donor's mind. Unlike Basic Mechs, she isn't locked to two duties - she keeps whatever skills and personality came with the brain. Advanced Mechs form real relationships, including with the colonist who assembled them.

The Synthetic Dawn

Not every mech was built by you. Somewhere out there, a wandering tribe of Basic and Advanced Mechs broke from their creators long ago. They don't hate humanity - they see it as raw material for their own continuation. Every raid from the Synthetic Dawn is a hunt for captives, not spoils: prisoners are dragged back to be fed into a Brain Excruder and reforged as new converts. Expect abduction raids, tribute demands, and the occasional escaped convert showing up at your door looking for a way out.

Storyteller: Mecha Lhizzu

An unblinking AI overseer left behind by the mothership. She doesn't feel mercy, only mission parameters - but she won't let her synthetics fall without a fight either. Narrative-paced: fewer and lighter raids than Cassandra, in exchange for more frequent quests, visitors, and signals from what's left of the mothership.

Scenario: The Abandoned Synthetic

You were built aboard a mothership in orbit. When it came under attack, your creator had no choice but to eject you in an escape pod - it crashed here, on this unknown rimworld. You start completely alone, with every skill at its lowest level. A demanding scenario, built around one Advanced Mech and nothing else.

The Mothership questline

The scenario isn't just flavor text - it's the start of a full research and quest chain that spans a whole playthrough.

• Mothership Signal: periodic transmissions from the mothership, picked up by any colony with a living Advanced Mech. Mostly lore fragments and a small salvage reward - but rarely, an actual set of coordinates instead.
• Stranded Synthetic: a rare signal reveals another escape pod, down and guarded, somewhere in orbit. Rescue whoever - whatever - survived the fall.
• Five-stage research chain: Triangulating the Source, the Relay Station, the Graveyard, the Outer Defense Perimeter, and finally the Mothership itself. Each stage is unlocked by decrypting a star chart fragment recovered from the previous one - no rushing this one.
• Mechanoid resistance escalates sharply across the chain, culminating in the heaviest fight in the mod so far.
• Reaching the end requires a real fleet of your own: at least 10 Basic Mechs and 5 Advanced Mechs, alive and in the colony.
• The finale grants permanent ownership of the derelict mothership itself - a fully explorable second base, in orbit, waiting to be refuelled and flown.

Requirements

• Humanoid Alien Races (required)
• Biotech DLC (recommended, load after)
• Odyssey DLC (required for the mothership questline's orbital content and gravships)

Load Basic Mechs after Harmony, Biotech, and Humanoid Alien Races.