Compete in the Grand Robotics Exposition
The Grand Robotics Exposition
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The Start
Tithed_Verse
Vainglorious
- Location
- Iowa
- Pronouns
- They/Them
In late 20XX a new type of celebrity emerged. Roboticists: Like the Artisans from Venice of old that once wowed people with their eccentricity and skill, or like the Rockefeller, or the Jobs or the Gates, or even the Zuckerbergs these innovators serve as artists, industrialists, public speakers and more. Their celebrity, wealth, fame, and occasional power make them the envy of many individuals, but there's only so much wealth and fame to go around, and the fierce competition for status among them starts and ends at the Bi-Annual Grand Robotics Exposition.
For most the exposition is an event of wonder and joy. Visitors wander between the tents, buying robotic toys from vendors, picking up freebies, watching competitions and contests between the established players. Some people shell out several thousand dollars for VIP tickets giving them preferential treatment and behind the scenes tours.
You're not one of the common visitors, though. Rather, you're in a grungy pit trying to coax life back into a particularly finicky robot. This is your first robotics exposition, and it's not going very well. Your supplies were inferior, your toolset incomplete... It's a miracle that your robot managed to get this far in the competition instead.
As you desperately dig through the growpramming for the error, and consider simply resetting the rudimentary AI to scratch, a shadow looms over you. A shadow with a powerful offer.
[]To join their Lab as their second in command. The one who handles their day-to-day operations
(Triggers a subvote where we determine which Dr. asks you to join. You start as the operations manager, you get a lot of power, and may eventually be their successor)
[]A loan, a large one, with very low interest rates... in exchange for promised work on a secretive project
(You start as an independent working on a secret project for unsavory sorts)
For most the exposition is an event of wonder and joy. Visitors wander between the tents, buying robotic toys from vendors, picking up freebies, watching competitions and contests between the established players. Some people shell out several thousand dollars for VIP tickets giving them preferential treatment and behind the scenes tours.
You're not one of the common visitors, though. Rather, you're in a grungy pit trying to coax life back into a particularly finicky robot. This is your first robotics exposition, and it's not going very well. Your supplies were inferior, your toolset incomplete... It's a miracle that your robot managed to get this far in the competition instead.
As you desperately dig through the growpramming for the error, and consider simply resetting the rudimentary AI to scratch, a shadow looms over you. A shadow with a powerful offer.
[]To join their Lab as their second in command. The one who handles their day-to-day operations
(Triggers a subvote where we determine which Dr. asks you to join. You start as the operations manager, you get a lot of power, and may eventually be their successor)
[]A loan, a large one, with very low interest rates... in exchange for promised work on a secretive project
(You start as an independent working on a secret project for unsavory sorts)
Dramatis Personae
Tithed_Verse
Vainglorious
- Location
- Iowa
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Dramatis personæ
The Eccentric Eight: The biggest names in Robotics, hands down.
Dr. Lambda:
She's a perfectionist who always wears a sharp power-suit and looks like she was weaned on a pickle. Each of her robots are carefully crafted by herself and her interns. She's been known to scrap entire production runs and start over, and she's a terror to work for, imagine Gordan Ramsey but without the friendliness. She's gotten in trouble with employee rights agencies for slapping around employees who upset her too much. Her robots usually win several competitions due to their superior quality, and she sells bespoke services at very high prices and limited production runs.
Dr. Rankle
If Dr. Rankle had a motto, it would be that quantity has a quality all of it's own. He's a very energetic and friendly man, donates money to charity, and his robots are typically solid contenders. The areas he shines are in networking and mass production. He tends to prototype his robots in full production factories, and he usually secures several governmental and industrial contracts. The dark side of his business is that most of his factories are located in third world dictatorships, and many of his robots are sold to the same horrible dictators. Still, he pays his workers well for the countries that they work in, and his bombastic and personal style mean they have surprisingly high moral.
Dr. Maloof
Where some would use words like 'Shoddy' Dr. Maloof uses words like 'budget' and 'affordable'. She dresses in cheap suits, and presents almost like a greasy used car salesman. She prefers to use off the shelf components where she can, re-purposes parts from old production runs, especially from the other doctors, and avoids custom made machine parts or ROMs where possible. This allows her to undercut her opponents on price, and while their robots may be a little prettier, a little faster to put together, or other small increments of quality higher than her constructions, her robots work, and they're cheap. She's dependent on outside parts and infrastructure, and her employees often suffer low moral due to their comparatively lower benefits and pay.
Dr. Oliveira
Dr. Oliveira's robots are tough. This roboticist prefers not to use more complex systems when simpler ones can do. He often sacrifices learning capabilities, and beauty to make sure that his robots won't bug out, develop unstable behavior, or break in the field. In a famous demonstration of his, he once took a sledgehammer to one of his tree-picker robots, culminating into driving a pickup into it, only for it to right itself after and go back to picking oranges. The taciturn man has difficulty directing others, and has problems with his shy and retiring nature. But if you want solid and dependable, Oliveira's your man. Most of his low level workers don't even know who he is, though his higher level ones are mildly protective of him.
Dr. Lebedev
Dr. Lebedev looks more like a greasy 28 year old college student than one of the world's leading robotics experts. Serious, driven, and possessed of a famous *stench*, she's the spearhead of the open source movement in robotics. She has released several open source BiOSes, RAMs, frameworks and operating systems for robots of many varieties, as well as designing several open source parts and components. She makes most of her money renting her team of developers out to companies for tech support and assistance in setting up assembly lines and customizing parts. Amusingly, Dr. Maloof is one of her largest customers.
Dr. Kyenge
Dr. Kyenge doesn't call himself a robotics expert he instead claims he's a cybernetics expert, though most of his products are less 'implants' and more 'human operated exoskeletons, remotes, and vehicles'. He doesn't believe in creating tools that are better than man, he believes in improving man and providing man with better tools. He also believes that AIs are inherently unpredictable, and that it's safer and saner to put a human in the ultimate decision making seat of anything you construct. He's a strangely devote man in a field of secular practitioners, and his factories have Zoroastrian priests to bless the lines and lead the men in prayer.
Dr. Wang
Dr. Wang is a man who doesn't stand out much. He's not notoriously shy like Oliveira, nor gregarious like Rankle. Instead he presents as a largely normal man, with limited desires. Much of his money is reinvested into the company, and he pays himself a very small salary compared to the other doctors. Perhaps to compensate for this, his robots do stand out. Dr. Wang's robots have the ineffable quality of just being fun. They have wacky designs, bright color schemes, unusual programming choices, and clever solutions to both complex and simple problems. He often uses his designs as a sort of testbed, and is the largest wildcard in the field. While his designs are not popular with most industrial nor governmental entities, they're often very successful in commercial applications, especially ones where presentation is key.
Dr. Loess
Dr. Loess is a biotech specialist. She's very mysterious, with a somewhat surreal and playful personality and claims to have 'fallen into this world from an alternative dimension'. She refers to her technology as a 'glimpse of the way things could have been'. While she uses plenty of metal, plastic and silicon in most of her designs, she also often grows and molds brain tissue, 3-d prints organs, weaves circulatory systems and stitches skin. Even in her purely mechanical/electronic work, the influence of the natural world is obvious in how her structures are composed, further everything she designs is, even if only in a very limited sense, self repairing.
The Eccentric Eight: The biggest names in Robotics, hands down.
Dr. Lambda:
She's a perfectionist who always wears a sharp power-suit and looks like she was weaned on a pickle. Each of her robots are carefully crafted by herself and her interns. She's been known to scrap entire production runs and start over, and she's a terror to work for, imagine Gordan Ramsey but without the friendliness. She's gotten in trouble with employee rights agencies for slapping around employees who upset her too much. Her robots usually win several competitions due to their superior quality, and she sells bespoke services at very high prices and limited production runs.
Dr. Rankle
If Dr. Rankle had a motto, it would be that quantity has a quality all of it's own. He's a very energetic and friendly man, donates money to charity, and his robots are typically solid contenders. The areas he shines are in networking and mass production. He tends to prototype his robots in full production factories, and he usually secures several governmental and industrial contracts. The dark side of his business is that most of his factories are located in third world dictatorships, and many of his robots are sold to the same horrible dictators. Still, he pays his workers well for the countries that they work in, and his bombastic and personal style mean they have surprisingly high moral.
Dr. Maloof
Where some would use words like 'Shoddy' Dr. Maloof uses words like 'budget' and 'affordable'. She dresses in cheap suits, and presents almost like a greasy used car salesman. She prefers to use off the shelf components where she can, re-purposes parts from old production runs, especially from the other doctors, and avoids custom made machine parts or ROMs where possible. This allows her to undercut her opponents on price, and while their robots may be a little prettier, a little faster to put together, or other small increments of quality higher than her constructions, her robots work, and they're cheap. She's dependent on outside parts and infrastructure, and her employees often suffer low moral due to their comparatively lower benefits and pay.
Dr. Oliveira
Dr. Oliveira's robots are tough. This roboticist prefers not to use more complex systems when simpler ones can do. He often sacrifices learning capabilities, and beauty to make sure that his robots won't bug out, develop unstable behavior, or break in the field. In a famous demonstration of his, he once took a sledgehammer to one of his tree-picker robots, culminating into driving a pickup into it, only for it to right itself after and go back to picking oranges. The taciturn man has difficulty directing others, and has problems with his shy and retiring nature. But if you want solid and dependable, Oliveira's your man. Most of his low level workers don't even know who he is, though his higher level ones are mildly protective of him.
Dr. Lebedev
Dr. Lebedev looks more like a greasy 28 year old college student than one of the world's leading robotics experts. Serious, driven, and possessed of a famous *stench*, she's the spearhead of the open source movement in robotics. She has released several open source BiOSes, RAMs, frameworks and operating systems for robots of many varieties, as well as designing several open source parts and components. She makes most of her money renting her team of developers out to companies for tech support and assistance in setting up assembly lines and customizing parts. Amusingly, Dr. Maloof is one of her largest customers.
Dr. Kyenge
Dr. Kyenge doesn't call himself a robotics expert he instead claims he's a cybernetics expert, though most of his products are less 'implants' and more 'human operated exoskeletons, remotes, and vehicles'. He doesn't believe in creating tools that are better than man, he believes in improving man and providing man with better tools. He also believes that AIs are inherently unpredictable, and that it's safer and saner to put a human in the ultimate decision making seat of anything you construct. He's a strangely devote man in a field of secular practitioners, and his factories have Zoroastrian priests to bless the lines and lead the men in prayer.
Dr. Wang
Dr. Wang is a man who doesn't stand out much. He's not notoriously shy like Oliveira, nor gregarious like Rankle. Instead he presents as a largely normal man, with limited desires. Much of his money is reinvested into the company, and he pays himself a very small salary compared to the other doctors. Perhaps to compensate for this, his robots do stand out. Dr. Wang's robots have the ineffable quality of just being fun. They have wacky designs, bright color schemes, unusual programming choices, and clever solutions to both complex and simple problems. He often uses his designs as a sort of testbed, and is the largest wildcard in the field. While his designs are not popular with most industrial nor governmental entities, they're often very successful in commercial applications, especially ones where presentation is key.
Dr. Loess
Dr. Loess is a biotech specialist. She's very mysterious, with a somewhat surreal and playful personality and claims to have 'fallen into this world from an alternative dimension'. She refers to her technology as a 'glimpse of the way things could have been'. While she uses plenty of metal, plastic and silicon in most of her designs, she also often grows and molds brain tissue, 3-d prints organs, weaves circulatory systems and stitches skin. Even in her purely mechanical/electronic work, the influence of the natural world is obvious in how her structures are composed, further everything she designs is, even if only in a very limited sense, self repairing.
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Loan size
Tithed_Verse
Vainglorious
- Location
- Iowa
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[]A loan, a large one, with very low interest rates... in exchange for promised work on a secretive project
[]Huge Loan
"I just want you to know, if you take this money, I own you" the man said "You can't just take my money and not... Look, you have the right to argue prices over the commissions I throw your way, I understand that you need to get paid, but you can't just take my money and say no, you understand? You take this, you're mine."
[]Large Loan
"We need cultivators" the man said "Cultivators of talent. I think you can do it. I think you can teach normal people, like yourself, to have these skills. These robotics skills. The artistry, the science, the skill. We need you to train people, and send them our way. Can you do that?"
[]Medium-large Loan
"There's this... untapped market" They said, fiddling with some sort of clicking device. "If you take this deal, we're partners. 70-30. The seventy is me, because I brought the money, and I brought the idea. You need to be on-board for it. No-one's really doing discrete robotics, you know? There's this whole market out there that, well, it's inaccessible. It's regulated. The state wants to keep their monopoly on it. But there's still demand. Grey market. Black market. All sorts of people want it. It's incredible, really. Get good enough and we could even sell to the state."
[]Medium-small Loan
"We don't want you to be too successful" The woman said "We're going to be using you as a cover. We don't want you drawing too much attention too fast. Discuss with us before you make any major moves. And don't question anyone too hard."
[]Small Loan
"Don't look a gift horse too hard in the mouth" They say. "Take this money and do something loud with it. Make a splash." "Loud like what?" "Loud loud. Scream your name from the top of the mountains. Make sure that everyone is watching you."
[]Tiny Loan
"It's just one project" the woman said "Really. One project and all of this is yours. Enough to get you started. No more." "Why me?" "Because you're not a big name yet. Because no one's watching you. Because you're cute. Take your pick"
[]No loan
Return to vote as to which doctor you're working for.
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Spending the last of your time at the competition
Tithed_Verse
Vainglorious
- Location
- Iowa
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Large loan
He hands you the check for the money, then leaves you to the half wrecked remains of your robot. You look at the number. It's pretty big. There's contact information on the back. They're listed as 'The Morrigan Group: A Specialty Labor, Union, and Contracting firm".
As he walks out the door, the man calls back over his shoulder "I'd get started now, if I you want my advice. Drop out of the competitions. you're not going to win. Look for apprentices instead. Or don't, it's entirely your choice"
That's actually a valid point. You ponder your choices.
[]Ask for recruits from the man's organization, go on to (try) to finish the competition with your robot
[]Ask for recruits from the man's organization, Scope out competitors
[]Ask for recruits from the man's organization, try to buy plans, contracts, and other such things from others at the competition
[]Look for recruits here at the competition.
[]Write in
Aesthetics
Tithed_Verse
Vainglorious
- Location
- Iowa
- Pronouns
- They/Them
It's not aesthetics so much as area of specialization. But if you want to hear about their aesthetics.
Dr. Lambda:
Dr Lambda's aethetics are smooth. She likes glistening shells and rounded shapes. She hides cables behind flexible sheaths, or internally. She uses gleaming white ceramics more often than plastics, sometimes even transparent and fragile porcelain. What few lights her robots have tend to be blue or purple in hue. Often she'll decorate a robot with matte vs glossy instead of with different colors. Likes geometric designs of thin lines. Or she'll laser cut the shell so that it scatters rainbows like a CD. Imagine her as being the Apple of robotics.
Dr. Rankle
Dr. Rankle's robots tend to be designed to be easy to assemble and repair. Lots of access hatches, things are usually screwed on not glued nor wielded. They tend to have designs that are easy to put together. Cables tend to be more external and designed to be easy to replace, held in with screws or clips. They're... utilitarian is the wrong term. 'easy to maintain' might be more correct. Darker colors than Lambda. They tend towards polished grey, simple single color paints, and reds, greens or yellows for their lights.
Dr. Maloof
Maloof's robots don't have an aesthetic. They're made with whichever components were cheaper at the time. They're often mismatched. This is probably the closest to the 'scrapheap' aesthetic you were mentioning, but there's never 'rust' or 'patina'. Dr. Maloof uses cheap red LEDs unless she can get other colors cheaper, or the color is important for the usage. Dr. Maloof's robots are usually made from cheap black plastic, or cheap metal dipped into a cheaper orange anti-corrosive enamel.
Dr. Oliveira
Dr. Oliveria's robots are diselpunk. Anodized black and grey, thick visible wields, large visible rivets. Chicken-wire inside bullet proof glass protecting sensors. They're not fun to maintain because they're built so solidly.
Dr. Lebedev
Dr. Lebedev's likes transparent materials. She likes to make it so that you can see the circuits and devices within the robot. Lots of internal lights that blink to show things are working, or bits that spotlight a processor or a motor when it's turned on. Like those old see through Gameboys, or such. She has more experience working with plastic than metal or ceramic.
Dr. Kyenge
Dr. Kyenge's stuff probably has the weirdest aesthetic. It's inspired by Persia and Zoroastrianism. Very blue and yellow. Poetry written and blessings written in thin lines across arms or cables or legs. Lots of birds and archers and sages. Fire is a common theme as well. But ultimately, they're meant to be human directed, so most of the visual clutter is where it won't distract the operator. They often feature very clean and open sight lines from the cameras or cabins. The decorations are just plaster, and designed to break away easily in case of emergency.
The visual clutter actually helps a lot in competition: Robots are still worse at processing visual clutter than humans, so when directly competing against robots his remote operated devices often cause unexpected behavior and glitches in their opposition. It's unclear if this is genuine chicanery or if Dr. Kyenge believes that the unexpected malfunctions are a blessing from his piousness. Most of the other roboticists aren't aware of the cause.
Dr. Wang
Dr. Wang's stuff is playful and fun. Bright colors, rounded shapes, stripes and stars circus like. Plastic and ceramic with very little metal is how Wang builds things. They often use mag-lev, or even super cooled superconductor levitation at joints to both reduce friction and create a fun, bobbing, 'look ma no strings' effect. Though obviously not with any joint that's intended to supply significant torque.
Dr. Loess
Dr. Loess' aesthetic is from nature. Lots of organic looking shapes inspired by coral, or trees, or insects. Eyes painted onto the robot like on a moth's wings or a peacock's feathers or like knots in wood. Vivid blues, greens, browns, purples, and reds. Loess uses self-healing plastics, ceramics, putties, meshes, hemp, bamboo, wood, genuine rat brain tissue, and some plaster as well as some metal.
Her robot's visual clutter often serves as a deliberate, nature inspired, camouflage, hiding them effectively from other robots by breaking up their visual line profile. She's been known to mix in radar-absorptive and reflective paints and use sound-absorptive and reflecting materials to confound attempts by other robots to use those sensors as well.
Dr. Lambda:
Dr Lambda's aethetics are smooth. She likes glistening shells and rounded shapes. She hides cables behind flexible sheaths, or internally. She uses gleaming white ceramics more often than plastics, sometimes even transparent and fragile porcelain. What few lights her robots have tend to be blue or purple in hue. Often she'll decorate a robot with matte vs glossy instead of with different colors. Likes geometric designs of thin lines. Or she'll laser cut the shell so that it scatters rainbows like a CD. Imagine her as being the Apple of robotics.
Dr. Rankle
Dr. Rankle's robots tend to be designed to be easy to assemble and repair. Lots of access hatches, things are usually screwed on not glued nor wielded. They tend to have designs that are easy to put together. Cables tend to be more external and designed to be easy to replace, held in with screws or clips. They're... utilitarian is the wrong term. 'easy to maintain' might be more correct. Darker colors than Lambda. They tend towards polished grey, simple single color paints, and reds, greens or yellows for their lights.
Dr. Maloof
Maloof's robots don't have an aesthetic. They're made with whichever components were cheaper at the time. They're often mismatched. This is probably the closest to the 'scrapheap' aesthetic you were mentioning, but there's never 'rust' or 'patina'. Dr. Maloof uses cheap red LEDs unless she can get other colors cheaper, or the color is important for the usage. Dr. Maloof's robots are usually made from cheap black plastic, or cheap metal dipped into a cheaper orange anti-corrosive enamel.
Dr. Oliveira
Dr. Oliveria's robots are diselpunk. Anodized black and grey, thick visible wields, large visible rivets. Chicken-wire inside bullet proof glass protecting sensors. They're not fun to maintain because they're built so solidly.
Dr. Lebedev
Dr. Lebedev's likes transparent materials. She likes to make it so that you can see the circuits and devices within the robot. Lots of internal lights that blink to show things are working, or bits that spotlight a processor or a motor when it's turned on. Like those old see through Gameboys, or such. She has more experience working with plastic than metal or ceramic.
Dr. Kyenge
Dr. Kyenge's stuff probably has the weirdest aesthetic. It's inspired by Persia and Zoroastrianism. Very blue and yellow. Poetry written and blessings written in thin lines across arms or cables or legs. Lots of birds and archers and sages. Fire is a common theme as well. But ultimately, they're meant to be human directed, so most of the visual clutter is where it won't distract the operator. They often feature very clean and open sight lines from the cameras or cabins. The decorations are just plaster, and designed to break away easily in case of emergency.
The visual clutter actually helps a lot in competition: Robots are still worse at processing visual clutter than humans, so when directly competing against robots his remote operated devices often cause unexpected behavior and glitches in their opposition. It's unclear if this is genuine chicanery or if Dr. Kyenge believes that the unexpected malfunctions are a blessing from his piousness. Most of the other roboticists aren't aware of the cause.
Dr. Wang
Dr. Wang's stuff is playful and fun. Bright colors, rounded shapes, stripes and stars circus like. Plastic and ceramic with very little metal is how Wang builds things. They often use mag-lev, or even super cooled superconductor levitation at joints to both reduce friction and create a fun, bobbing, 'look ma no strings' effect. Though obviously not with any joint that's intended to supply significant torque.
Dr. Loess
Dr. Loess' aesthetic is from nature. Lots of organic looking shapes inspired by coral, or trees, or insects. Eyes painted onto the robot like on a moth's wings or a peacock's feathers or like knots in wood. Vivid blues, greens, browns, purples, and reds. Loess uses self-healing plastics, ceramics, putties, meshes, hemp, bamboo, wood, genuine rat brain tissue, and some plaster as well as some metal.
Her robot's visual clutter often serves as a deliberate, nature inspired, camouflage, hiding them effectively from other robots by breaking up their visual line profile. She's been known to mix in radar-absorptive and reflective paints and use sound-absorptive and reflecting materials to confound attempts by other robots to use those sensors as well.
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Winding down: 8 quarters till next competition
Tithed_Verse
Vainglorious
- Location
- Iowa
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Two-to-four, actually, though Loess is the 'worst' of the lot. Wang's playfulness gives his robots non - standard visual profiles. Maloof's robots are easy to misidentify due to their simularities with other models, even those belonging to other doctors.
As for AI, three doctors are really into it : Lambda openly wants to build a supermind, Rankle is trying for a geth like networked intelligence, and Lebedev wants to build a program that's 'infinitely adaptable'. If Lamda and Lebedev could work together they chould maybe manage it, but they don't get along.
Wang prefers purpose built 'expert systems' to 'AI' that use trickery to sidestep processing. If anyone could accidentally invent a strong AI, it would be Wang, but he has no plans to deliberately do so.
Oliveria doesn't like AI, it tends to behave unpredictably, which is a problem when your whole stitch is 'it just works, no matter the conditions you put it in'
Maloof doesn't care about AI one way or another.
Loess and Kyenge... Well, I don't really need to tell you about their AI positions XS
Lamda is too hardware focused, and Lebedev too focused on programming and interoperability.
[X]Look for recruits here at the competition.
-[X] Don't expect to get everyone you need, only accept the best and be prepared to get others from the organization to fill out the numbers.
-[X] Don't expect to get everyone you need, only accept the best and be prepared to get others from the organization to fill out the numbers.
In the end you find yourself taking advantage of the differences between you and Dr. Lambda to poach the more skilled apprentices out of her service. You get three that way, a fact that she will not thank you for, and of the remaining two you pick up one was unaffiliated and the other was one of Maloof's.
You havn't yet told them about your mysterious employer.
[][Apprentices]Tell them about employer and try to talk them into agreeing to join employer's service after graduation, so you can determine how many extras to request
[][Apprentices]Request a few extras, just in case not all of them want to join, but don't tell them about the employer yet.
Other than that, you do genuinely enjoy the robotics exposition. The food, the fights, the sights. Wang's robots are playful, and range from juggling robots, to little pink nurse robots that look like candy striped spiders.
You were amazed to find Lebedev herself womaning a booth where she was trying to sell some of her designs and coding. As you munched on a churro, you pondered getting a little bit of startup help from her. Lebedev was always looking for other third or fourth tier roboticists to work with.
[][Lebedev]Buy some code and designs to help you get started
[][Lebedev]Try to make a deal so that she sends some of the people who approach her your way
[][Lebedev]Don't interact with Lebedev
Maloof was short manufacturing capacity, and willing to outsource it. It could let you view some of her designs, but unless you're a dedicated manufacturer this would cost you more money than it makes.
[][Maloof]Manufacture a few parts for Maloof: Profitable if you're mixed usage or primary factory, but you and your students will learn the least from it
[][Maloof]Assemble a line for Maloof: Only profitable if you're primary a factory, but you and your students will learn the most from it
[][Maloof]Don't interact with Maloof
After that, everything wound down. The next few weeks were a mess of anxiety and stress as you set up your facilities.... Talking with contractors, getting your vision in gear, deciding what to rent and what to buy.
[][Facilities]Teaching facility
Your facilities were designed almost entirely for teaching: Several large machine shop with many redundant machines, and a few classrooms with top of the line computer systems set up for modeling. Amusingly, this is how Lambda does just about everything, no assembly lines for her. Hire a few supplemental teachers to help out and teach subjects you're not good at.
[][Facilities]Mixed usage
Your facilities were designed for mixed usage: you rented a factory floor so you can produce robots on an industrial scale, but also developed a small machine shop with a several redundant machines for prototyping and teaching and a few powerful computers for students to run simulations and modeling upon. Hire a several senior machinists to help manufacture and teach.
[][Facilities]Primary Factory
Your facilities were intended to produce robots: You built a full-fledged, modular, multi-line factory using some of Rankle's public designs for 'rapid readjustment lines', though you put a machine shop with a few tools and a modeling computer in a side room to teach your apprentices on. Hire many factory workers to run the floor.