The androids mod is almost 7 years old now, and has been updated through 6 major versions. It's functionality was done from the ground up (recharging mechanic, modular upgrades, controllable robots). With Biotech, much of the custom functionality in androids are now part of vanilla, so I believe it's time for a proper V2 rewrite, using the new features that vanilla provides. (aka I've not been very careful with the updates and there's a lot of code spaghetti now that i don't want to deal with anymore >w< )

So, here's the plan I have for androids "2": It will be made as an addon / overhaul to the VRE Androids mod, and will require biotech.
Things that I want to do:

# 3 types of robots:
- Droids: About same as they are now, relatively cheap, attritable early game "colonists". Balance-wise they'll be more expensive and less efficient than mechanoids, but have the upside of being more flexible as they can do most things a proper colonist can, and not needing a mechanitor

- Androids: VRE androids, but cheaper and available earlier with the ability to choose a different base race other than default human.

- Synths: A true proper custom colonist. Selectable base race, backgrounds and traits. More impactful "genes" that increases the cost of the synth. With the option of a more robotic base / behavior tree or the organic-like behavior of the androids in the mod currently.

# Synthetic ascension
- A new warcrime(?): Turn your organic colonists into robots
- Make that raider you hate into a dumb droid
- Turn your favorite colonist into an immortal synth
- Change their base race
- Conversion adds a skill floor to all skills based on type of robot

# Overhauled tech tree and progression to work better with biotech as part of it's tech tree instead of completely separate

# Stretch goals (aka IDK if it's possible)
- Turn non humanoids into robots, make your pets experience the certainty of plasteel
- Extendable graphics variants for robotic presenting vs organic presenting pawns (e.g if i make a robot with modded race as a base, i should be able to make an addon mod with a robotized version of the race, which will be automatically swapped over if i choose to make it robotic presenting)

#Other random stuff
- Hostile high tech marauder faction
- Other factions uses androids to raid
- Hacking / E-war "psycasts"
- Something something ideology
- Maybe anomaly stuff? bioferrite robots



#Art stuff
I want to make a new set of textures / icons / sprites, but i don't know art. If anyone's interested in contributing...
let me know :)

#A Note on VRE androids dependency
(I'm still in the early theory crafting / prototype phase, so it's still not 100% certain if it's going to be a hard dependency. It'll come down to how much of their code I end up using)
Why I want to use it as a dependency:
- They have written a lot of code and patches to implement basic robotic colonist behaviors that I would have to make anyways if I make a standalone mod

What does it mean for you as a player:
- There will be configs to disable the complexity, reactor replacement, and probably research tree and build costs
- New research / upgrades to ignore or increase the limits in a more balanced / integrated way as an alternative to disabling in the config


What do YOU want to see in a V2 of the mod?

Additional things so far:
- appearance customization (hair, skin color, gender)