Jorzi wrote:The collective seems to be the first entirely robotic faction in the game IMO.
I don't believe so. There is their "leader", who freely joins Nexus, and commands his units, reffered as "warriors".
So I think they are the ones that use most manpower.
Jorzi wrote:The collective seems to be the first entirely robotic faction in the game IMO.
That's not necessarily true. They could be like Cybrans from SupCom. The Collective has cyborgs, y'know
KukY wrote:I don't believe so. There is their "leader", who freely joins Nexus, and commands his units, reffered as "warriors".
So I think they are the ones that use most manpower.
That's not necessarily true. They broadcast speech, which is hardly something only humans can do. And "warrior" is not necessarily a human-specific term. Just because they're robots doesn't mean they have to use "robo-" before every word... "robo-warriors of the robo-Collective, robo-attack!"
If you carefully read all the Message/Strings Text and keep in mind the exact definitions for "synaptic link" and "cybernetics" I think it is clear and unambiguous what Pumpkin's intent was.
In addition to Message /Strings Text, the retail game disks came with an 8 page WZ comic by Pumpkin whose text and graphics reinforce that at least in some units there are human-borg pilots. If you look at page 4 you can clearly see portal slits in the front of the tank for human eyes and it's visually unmistakable that this is NOT a drone tank run remotely by a human operator or Dr Reed's brain embodied in the Nexus software network.
Exactly. The collective can't really be completely robotic, as their leader speaks of his faction as "We who have embraced the power of the machine..." what indicates they are humans but rely heavily on cybernetics. Vehicles in general would be piloted by human operators since the female narrator in the campaign briefings explains that "The synaptic link allows for the direct transfer of thought from a human operator to vehicle control and guidance systems." Even Nexus would not use completely robotic units, since it is committed to Dr. Reed's "dream of a cybernetic future" and approaches The Project to join him in creating "the perfect nexus of man and machine." Thinking about the New Paradigm, they seek to "create a military state in the western sector." A military state is a community where economy serves the only purpose of supporting military force, while each member is part of that force. Self-controlled droids would really make no sense here.
Qui desiderat pacem bellum praeparat Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De re militari
