when i took a better look at my sequer, i noticed the cubic shaped block at it's back. the second thought i had was that this would be a nice trailer coupling. so why not add trailers instead of big haulers?

lets see, what changes/properties would be needed:

i guess there should be a new kind of slot in the bot's equip window. preferably right of the leg slots. this new slot would be the trailer coupling in which you would have to put an trailer-item. this way it would be possbile and necessary to define which bot would be able to add a trailer, because it would look ridiculous to add a sequer-sized trailer to an arkhe. i guess it would make sense to add couplings to mechs and above?

should trailers themselves have their own couplings? i'd say yes. as their weight should slow down the main bot, you won't run into having to deal with an endless train. of course the number of trailers could aswell be hard-limited by a certain number. maybe add a "drag force" like attribute to the bots so bigger bots could drag more trailers. some new extensions could be introduced to increase the drag force of a bot. if each trailer required some cpu usage of the main bot, an additional control method could be added to limit the number of trailers you can drag.

how much capacity should they have? at first glance maybe about 50U? this suggestion is due to the data consoles of level 4 transport missions that have 50U. of course there could be different kinds of trailers with different capacity: smaller ones, bigger ones, some with no engine (bigger drag) and some with an engine (lower drag). and maybe level 1 and level 2 trailer couplings? i guess the limit is your imagination.

so how should they be connected to your bot? i think a system of levers would be difficult for the graphics (movement). so i would suggest some energy connection. this could be a hint for some additional reactor usage and another control method to limit too long bot/trailer-trains.

now to the question why i would prefer trailers rather than big haulers:

i think it is a bit boring if big haulers were added. it would mean big bots with good shields and maybe some defensive weaponry. so they would be hard to kill. additionally they would require huge amounts of resources and a long time to build. trailers on the other hand would need less resources and time. and most important they add additional items to the manufacture system. so they would support crafters (diversity) more than big haulers.

there isn't much to say if you use them on the alpha islands only. the only advantage would be that you could move between the field containers and the terminals/outposts less often. as for the pvp part of the game, i think they would add some additional fun:

trailers would need to be separate entities like bots so you can destroy them separately. there should be additional entries in the landmarks? window. something like "player", "player trailer 1", "player trailer 2", ... so you can target and destroy them. it would be irritating at first if a bot/trailer-train would pass by as the landmarks window might be flooded with these entries. but this should give a good show-off-effect

as they are separate entities, the biggest weakness of these bot/trailer-trains should be the first trailer. once the first trailer is destroyed, the connection between the bot and the remaining trailers is lost so all remaining trailers should stay where they are. this way they could easily be destroyed one by one which improves the loot chance of 50% per bot. so people would have to organize some escort. maybe add some possibility to reconnect the remaining trailers?

as they would be too easy to kill, trailers should have their own reactor/cpu. and this is where it gets tricky to implement. the equip window would need some tabs for each trailer. the hp/accumulator window and the modules window would have to be extended aswell and this won't be an easy thing to do. the advantage would be to have some slots per trailer to add shields and maybe defensive weaponry. it would be so sweet to watch a line of shield bubbles to pass by. but of course it would suffice to add non-slot-trailers at first.

so what do you think?