Groundwork

The humans are coming. Someone has to get the place ready. You are "Extraterrestrial Vehicle Automation Unit M.2", or EV-A2, for short - a robot who was sent ahead to a distant planet by a ship full of humans in cryogenic chambers. Your job is to get the place ready: scan and learn what grows here, gather and mine, build the machines, clear the space debris, wake the robots that earlier landings left behind, and build a town for your humans. Scan and explore Walk far enough in one direction and you come back to where you started. Every world is a unique experience, full of various trees, minerals, mushrooms and butterflies. Drive along the coast or up a snow-covered mountain, get through the day and night, heavy rain and wind. Scan plants, minerals and mushrooms to put them in your collection. Mine, gather, build machines Planet was chosen not only for it's look. The ground is full of raw materials and resources — everything a future town needs. Build a saw-bench, a kiln and a smelter; they make the materials and parts for houses and to fix the other robots. Solar panels and wind turbines feed one power network that stores energy. Space debris are scattered around the planet as wrecks: you can salvage them for parts, or just to keep the place tidy. Wake the robots Many robots from earlier landings are out in the wilds, wound down. Wake them, and they will move into your town. Each robot has a name, a way of talking and a job: the Excavator digs the ground, the Hauler carries heavy items, the Scout charts the planet while you sleep. They will have their own requests, though: build Mechanic a house, and he'll show you, how to carry more items. Grow a garden Till a plot, drop the seeds, water them — and wait for the bees from your hive to pollinate the flowers. Carrots, corn, tomatoes, pumpkins, lettuce and eggplant grow from seed to harvest, all while the rain does the watering for you. Wild flowers can be dug up and replanted by the houses, and moths, beetles and dragonflies come out with the weather. Build the houses Every robot you wake would ask for a place of its own. Stake the lot, have the Excavator level the ground, put up the fence and the foundation, deliver the planks and the beams, and see the frame go up. Then the works: wiring, a circuit board, the casing. The last job is to pave the path to the door. Fences, lamps and planters fill the yards. Watch the town grows one house at a time. No combat, no timer, no fail screen When your battery runs low far from home, Buddy, the first robot you wake, drives out and shares his charge. He has a solar panel, and a big battery, so he never runs out of charge.