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ABF: Mechcloud Chemwalkers

Inspired by classic fictional media of suits of armor that "come to life," Mechcloud Chemwalkers is a race mod that allows for the creation and domination of suits of armor that have been seized and animated by mechanites. These so called Mechclouds inhabit the hollow suits and give them the ability to be autonomous. In order to maintain control and have sufficient energy to act, these clouds consume chemfuel.

Chemwalkers can be created by players by assembling a simple suit of armor, or "shell", at various smithing workbenches, ritually inscribing that shell with symbols to imbue it with a latent power, and setting it outside to accumulate mechanites and psychic power from the environment. Once sufficient power is gained, a psycaster of any kind can commune with the stirring mechcloud to dominate it psychically, forcing it to obey the commands of its new master. Once communed in this way, the chemwalker will obediently follow every order without question or a thought of its own until destroyed.

• Six races: Mechcloud (default), Lumbering, Flak, Marine, Eltex, and Cataphract Chemwalkers.
  
• A new research locked behind techprints possessed by tribals or the Empire that will allow players to create chemwalkers (these factions do not currently use the races due to compatibility concerns and not wanting to force their inclusion).
  
• Recipes/workflow necessary to build the chemwalkers:
  
  • At a smithy, machining table, or fabrication bench, create an uninscribed shell of the desired variant with the chemfuel necessary to lure mechanites to the armor.
    
  • At an art work bench, inscribe the shell with meaning and power.
    
  • Take the inscribed shell outside and set it down in a natural environment to accumulate mechanites and absorb psychic power. The process is greatly hastened by proximity to an Anima Tree, and slowed by artificial entities (including other shells, which siphon away mechanites and power).
    
  • When the shell has accumulated its power, use a psycaster pawn to attune the armor to their will, and raise an eternally loyal servant. Should no psycaster attune in time, the armor will raise as a wild, uncontrolled pawn which can be captured and attuned to later - they will attempt to consume chemfuel they can reach in the mean time.
    
• Killed Chemwalkers drop wrecked shells, which can be fixed and turned back into uninscribed shells at a discount, allowing destroyed chemwalkers to take up their charge once again much quicker.
  
• Chemwalkers cannot be tended to or operated upon with any kind of medicine, as they are mere suits of armor. The mechcloud will slowly repair injuries but not lost pieces of armor
  
• Eltex chemwalkers can be given psylinks via a free operation, and can use it to cast Stun and two unique abilities. Mercy allows them to repair parts or restore missing parts of themselves or other chemwalkers if they have enough spare psyfocus and heat. Majesty requires a vast amount of psyfocus, but gives an incredible bonus to combat capability for half a day, at the cost of work speed.
  
• Eltex chemwalkers may meditate at Anima Trees and engage in Anima Linking rituals to increase the level of their Psylink. They can also link to Gauranlen trees, if you have Ideology.
  
• As suits of armor themselves, chemwalkers cannot wear armor of any kind - although some kinds are capable of using specific utility belts. They also lack any sort of autonomy, and are purely drone intelligence servants to their masters.

• Discord[discord.gg]

• Ninjafrog77 for the Mechcloud/Lumbering Chemwalker art assets!

Making good screenshots is hard - especially when you can't include content from other mods! The previews you see on my workshop are donated by users. If anyone has screenshots (that do not include third-party mod content, just to avoid awkward rights issues), share them on the discord and I might ask if I can add them as previews.