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These critters(Mechanoids) have been designed from start to finish as living neural interfaces with inherent psionics, while in most other cases, one is taking a creature that evolved without cybernetics/bionics as part of its nature, and violating the meat with metal implants...
In theory, then, it should be possible for a sufficiently advanced culture to create its own psionic cyborgs, but that would take a world of doing to convince the inherent essence of evolution that being both bionicly enhanced and naturally psionic are part of the creature's true nature...There would also be the horrible possibility of duplicating ALL aspects of the Mechanoid experiment and creating a race of super-powered psychopaths....
Though one wonders how many other Mechanoid-like species or near-Mechanoids are out there in the Megaverse, pursuing their various agendas from the altruistic to the genocidal...

I explain this as follows:
-Mechanoids have no skull or box between them and the robot..thus it really is there body - they die without it.
-They have ultra-high technology and have had eons to perfect the process
-They are all clones. Once the process works for one, it works for everyone. Unlike people who are all different, making it more difficult.

Josh Hilden wrote:THREAD NECROMANCY!!!!


SHOOT FOR THE HEAD!!!!







ah good clean fun.

It hungers for brains!

Are the Mechanoids even cyborgs anymore? Or are they more like the Invid, biological beings inside robotic bodies that help them survive. The first Mechanoids were cyborgs, but as they evolved/advanced they grew beyond the need for cybernetics. Their more like robot pilots. The Rifts book on Mechanoids talks of how a aberrant Mech could acquire a new-style body.

Angryjack wrote:On the books?

there's the Manhunters... heheh
there's also the Bionoids
There's also Archie.
Except Archie wants to Save humans.. and turn them into residents of Riverdale... with his friend .. jughead!

There is also the Horde. Sound alittle bit like the Manhunters. Robots out to kill all life. I have my own theory on the Horde, which kinda connects the Kittani and the Machine People together.

AzathothXy wrote:Are the Mechanoids even cyborgs anymore? Or are they more like the Invid, biological beings inside robotic bodies that help them survive. The first Mechanoids were cyborgs, but as they evolved/advanced they grew beyond the need for cybernetics. Their more like robot pilots. The Rifts book on Mechanoids talks of how a aberrant Mech could acquire a new-style body.

Going by that same Rifts book, I'd say they're cyborgs. You'll note that each kind of Mechanoid is described as having a particular kind of personality and behavior, which means that a Mechanoid isn't a weird blob who'll pilot a Brute one day and a Wasp the next. They're genetically engineered sub-races within the Mechanoid species that are bred specifically to be plugged into a certain type of machine and perform a certain kind of task for the good of the collective.

For convenience though, I wouldn't be surprised if the bulk of their body is purely robotic, and all the fancy biological/mechanical interfacing is inside the self-contained life support unit. That way if Brute 45001-000-505-001-Z has his robotic body trashed in a firefight but his housing chamber isn't breached, they can just remove it from the wreckage, do any repair work that his housing chamber might need, and plug him into a new Brute chassis.

Unless of course breeding Brute organisms is quicker and cheaper than building Brute robots. In that case he's probably right outta luck unless he's an experienced veteran with demonstrably better than average performance, because if he comes back from work with a severely damaged robot and a breached housing chamber, they'll probably just throw him out, fix his robot, and plug in a new Brute organism. After all, the Mechanoids probably aren't gonna let compassion get in the way of sound economics

AzathothXy wrote:

Angryjack wrote:On the books?

there's the Manhunters... heheh
there's also the Bionoids
There's also Archie.
Except Archie wants to Save humans.. and turn them into residents of Riverdale... with his friend .. jughead!

There is also the Horde. Sound alittle bit like the Manhunters. Robots out to kill all life. I have my own theory on the Horde, which kinda connects the Kittani and the Machine People together.

I have my own theory two. They're a throwaway piece of backstory for an NPC D-Bee and are completely unrelated to anything else in the canon setting

Rallan wrote:I have my own theory two. They're a throwaway piece of backstory for an NPC D-Bee and are completely unrelated to anything else in the canon setting

Pssshhh, please. You say that about everything.

Is it possible they engineered themsevles to have psychic abilities powerful enough to overcome the cybernetic limitations, or work with the cybernetic bodies in some way?

The Beast wrote:Is it possible they engineered themsevles to have psychic abilities powerful enough to overcome the cybernetic limitations, or work with the cybernetic bodies in some way?

You've pretty much hit the nail on the head right there. The Mechanoids are no longer a natural race, they're a designed one. Each Mechanoid subtype is the end result of centuries of meticulous genetic engineering and selective breeding, and the bionic body it eventually gets plugged into is the end result of centuries of continuous improvements to design. Where human psionics get screwed over because bionic implants disrupt the balance of psychic power in their bodies, mechanoids are designed so that their bionics are a natural part of that balance.

The way I interpret it is that the Mechanoids don't have anything hack or replaced on their bodies. Their 100% pure, so there is no restriction on Psionic powers/abilities. Their technology is very advanced too, so I'd say also that due to the fact they are so centered around use of their psionics they designed their robotic bodies to allow the passage of the energy.