Bots

Called 'Drone Ships' in other environments, Bots are remotely-directed ships in Star Sonata. A player can outfit their bot with gear, equip a controlbot, and if it's a trading bot, then give it orders. It is also possible to capture and convert AI ships into your own bots.

Bot ships can be identified by the 'B' and a number prefix on the ship name. For example, a bot might be named TB165 (SomeName), CB3 (SomeName) or WB938 (SomeName). The T, C and W indicates that the ship is a Trade Bot, Combat Bot or a Wild Bot respectively. Trade bots will buy and sell commodities as well as move them around, while combat or wild bots will assist players in fighting enemies.

Setting Bots Up

Note: Bots do not need stasis generators anymore.

In order to use a bot, you must first have the Remote Control skill equal or higher than the tech of the ship you want to turn into a bot. For example, if you want to make a hotrod a bot, you need Remote Control 5. Tech 0 ships require Remote Control 1.

Bots are just like a normal ship. Bots need a Shield, an Energy, an Engine and Radar to be useful, in addition to the Controlbot. Once outfitted with a Controlbot, they become remotely controllable, and thus bots. The minimum requirement to make a bot is an Engine and a Controlbot

Once the Controlbot is activated, and if the other major components are activated, the bot ship will undock with the player from the station.

Combat Bots will follow you around and fight any enemies they find.

Trade Bots

Unlike combat bots, trade bots must be issued commands in order to function.

To issue orders to trade bots:

• Select the bot and hit [X] to bring up a menu
• Choose to Edit Orders, and use the interface to lay in some orders
• Hit [X] again to bring the menu back
• Choose Follow Orders

The bot will execute the orders from the top down, and repeat them forever. They can move commodities between player and AI stations, allowing you to create things like a production station with bots moving commodities from other stations to it.

You can level Programming to get additional bot orders.