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I know 40k isn't really science fiction but I find it odd that none of the races operate robots a short distance away using virtual reality. Sort of like mechs in the Pacific Rim films but instead of the pilots inside the robot they are actually controlling them somewhere rise.

The Tau have a.i. drones and battle suits but that's not what I'm really talking about. I understand a.i. can go wrong and be corrupted, so what if we ditch a.i. and just remotely control robots? Actually the Tau have drone controllers but I guess they are not directly piloting them?

The Eldar are quite similar to the Tau using souls instead of computer programs. I wonder if they are capable of controlling a wraith construct using only their psychic connection to it?

I wondered if there are any fluff instances of remotely controlled robot armies? Would it even be possible to tie this idea into an existing faction?

Because it's not Grimdark enough and the T'au are literally idiots.

Mind of Cubozoan wrote:
I know 40k isn't really science fiction but I find it odd that none of the races operate robots a short distance away using virtual reality. Sort of like mechs in the Pacific Rim films but instead of the pilots inside the robot they are actually controlling them somewhere rise.

The Tau have a.i. drones and battle suits but that's not what I'm really talking about. I understand a.i. can go wrong and be corrupted, so what if we ditch a.i. and just remotely control robots? Actually the Tau have drone controllers but I guess they are not directly piloting them?

The Eldar are quite similar to the Tau using souls instead of computer programs. I wonder if they are capable of controlling a wraith construct using only their psychic connection to it?

I wondered if there are any fluff instances of remotely controlled robot armies? Would it even be possible to tie this idea into an existing faction?

Loads and loads, thats how the adpetus mechanicus fights on a pretty regular basis, park in orbit then control the robuts from orbit, they do have more sentient ground troops too of course

 BaconCatBug wrote:
Because it's not Grimdark enough

I guess you are right but my logical brain doesn't get 'grimdark'. Maybe the people that are controlling them eventually go mad, can no longer exist in the real world or maybe eventually their bodies reject them?


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I've read about the Kastellen(?) ad mech robots but don't they run on an a.i. program they don't understand and just occasionally switch protocols? They don't remotely inhabit the robots.

Tau sniper drones have a manned control console nearby to help them out. Also for the imperium, why bother with remote control when you can just mass produce brains for implantation. We currently use drones for areas that are too dangerous to send people and to reduce tge size of combat platforms. These things are not reallg a driver for the imperial war machine.


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Also if AI can be corrupted then so can the communication links that let the drones work. Having said that, in 40k brains can ve corrupted rapidly and in real time, so i guess you pays your money and takes your chance

For the IOM, that is pretty much how the higher level tech priests fight. Wolfsbane had a good example of a high level domina who essentially controlled hundreds of skittari remotely. The IOM in general doesn't bother because their greatest resource is people, not tech. They don't care about saving lives cause there are always more bodies to throw at a problem.

The possibility of remote units being hacked and taken over might be an issue.

Okay, I can see now how this idea doesn't fit 40k really. Maybe I could find an analogy with the Eldar? If dead spirits can operate wraith constructs, could psychically trained Eldar possibly control the constructs?

Not really thought about it before, its pretty much how most of the robots in Infinity work, they are very fancy drones. However they can be hacked and turned against their own (not fun lol)

I could see Eldar trying this as they are dying after all

Interestingly enough right now only one necron character can "hack" a vehicle and control it, and he can control it even if it's manned. But all he can do is fire one weapon.

Not playing tau or eldar I don't know if they can hack enemy vehicles or drones. I could see the tau doing it to imperial stuff. Eldar would consider learning how imperial tech works beneath them.

Tau already have it, it's the only way to explain how crisis suits work (the model as-is can't hold a pilot). And regarding drones, the whole point of autonomous gun platforms is that you don't have to have a pilot micromanaging them. You have a single operator give a "go here and kill this" command to the whole swarm and all of them go do their job.

The model can when you realise the tabletop scale is wrong, much like how Imperial Vehicles are out of scale with Infantry.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/e/ec/Maintaining_a_battlesuit.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20180217011630

Also remember the cockpits for the XV8 class are a tight fit, they aren't like Gundams where the pilot manipulates things manually, it's mostly neural control.

A tau pilot fits in a crisis suit just like 10 marines fit in a rhino.

Maybe the Tau allocate battlesuit crews like the Soviets used to do tank crews? Everyone under a certain height - this is your Crisis suit. Over the line? Here's a rifle, welcome to the Fire Warriors.

We've seen models for Fire Warriors and Pathfinders and Air caste fighter pilots; I don't think we've ever seen models of battlesuit pilots (Earth or Water caste).

Everyone is remote controlled by Tzeentch.

On the crisis front, I remember seeing some art where a fire warrior was inside the cockpit, in a very uncomfortable-looking position. I can't find it though. There's another picture from the regimental standard: https://regimental-standard.com/2016/03/04/tau-technology-inferior-2/ , but obviously it's not supposed to be accurate.
And the pilot-suit interface is indeed mostly neural (for the small suits), and some warriors even experience disorientation when they get out, as if they had just lost some limbs.

10 marines CAN fit into a rhino.
Just use a melta and they fit into the ashtray.

 Formosa wrote:



Loads and loads, thats how the adpetus mechanicus fights on a pretty regular basis, park in orbit then control the robuts from orbit, they do have more sentient ground troops too of course

This.
All the skitarii troop give loads of data to the magos in orbit that in any moment can overlap their mind to the single skitarius or entire manipiples of them.
They also control direclty servitors and robot via cortex controllers. I thought that this was pretty obvius in 40k background.
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Cybernetica_Cortex
The mechanicus dogma is : no intelligent robots but you can control direclty as many as you wants.

Remote control robots would also be susceptible to jamming.

Actually, Necrons do that all the time. Lesser canoptek constructs are just slave units to bigger, full AI ones, Spiders and Stalkers are definitely 'pilots' of smaller units.

 Techpriestsupport wrote:
A tau pilot fits in a crisis suit just like 10 marines fit in a rhino.

I really hate that dumb meme. Comparing soldier to the crew compartment size, Rhino is the same as its RL equivalent, M113, that somehow seats 11 people easily:

The scale is just off, that's all. It's always been that way for 40k with Infantry vs Vehicles.

Mind of Cubozoan wrote:


I guess you are right but my logical brain doesn't get 'grimdark'. Maybe the people that are controlling them eventually go mad, can no longer exist in the real world or maybe eventually their bodies reject them?

That exposure to 40k’s VR remote control drives the operator incurably insane after prolonged use would be an appropriately grimdark explanation in-universe.

Looking in from the outside, I’d venture the explanation that drones and VR were not part of the SF milleu (or the real world) from which 40k’s creators drew inspiration back in the 80s, and that it would rather undermine the game’s already-ridiculous premise (travelling thousands of light years through hell to jump out of your spaceship and fight at close quarters with chainsaws) to incorporate them now. For a superficially-plausible (to a present-day audience) take on SF warfare, there’s Infinity; that’s not what 40k even pretends to be.

Mind of Cubozoan wrote:
I know 40k isn't really science fiction but I find it odd that none of the races operate robots a short distance away using virtual reality. Sort of like mechs in the Pacific Rim films but instead of the pilots inside the robot they are actually controlling them somewhere rise.

The Tau have a.i. drones and battle suits but that's not what I'm really talking about. I understand a.i. can go wrong and be corrupted, so what if we ditch a.i. and just remotely control robots? Actually the Tau have drone controllers but I guess they are not directly piloting them?

The Eldar are quite similar to the Tau using souls instead of computer programs. I wonder if they are capable of controlling a wraith construct using only their psychic connection to it?

I wondered if there are any fluff instances of remotely controlled robot armies? Would it even be possible to tie this idea into an existing faction?

Partly because when much of the fluff was written, drones and UAV's weren't really a widely known about thing. And partly that it's probably not as interesting as having actual people hacking each other up face to face in a cinematic sense.

I suppose you could handwave it away as not working anyway, due to EM interference or somesuch; or at least for the Imperials, they just don't have an STC for that so its heresy.

 Peregrine wrote:
Tau already have it, it's the only way to explain how crisis suits work (the model as-is can't hold a pilot). And regarding drones, the whole point of autonomous gun platforms is that you don't have to have a pilot micromanaging them. You have a single operator give a "go here and kill this" command to the whole swarm and all of them go do their job.

This is outright false, the various Tau codexes make it clear the pilot is in the suit.

 Kcalehc wrote:

Partly because when much of the fluff was written, drones and UAV's weren't really a widely known about thing. And partly that it's probably not as interesting as having actual people hacking each other up face to face in a cinematic sense.

That's certainly the best reason for having space fighters in your setting; Science fiction fans relate more to human beings than to silicon chips.

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/fighter.php#justification

Mostly because it doesn't do much for the tabletop experience, and 40k is much more a Fantasy universe with a SciFi skin than a proper SciFi setting.

Same reason we don't have Beyond Visual Range AA weapons, AWACS units, radar-guided counterbattery artillery, pocket-portable smart devices, etc.

Just found these: Mechanicum Thallax Cohort. I don't know how to insert an image right now! I know that they are Horus Heresy but it says in the wiki that some were given to Rogue Traders so I'm saying my Rogue Trader family have kept them. I'm just going to go with the idea that they are now controlled remotely. I would imagine they would be useful for spaceship repairs since the vacuum of space is pretty dangerous.

However I've lost a bit of inspiration already, someone was right to post that we don't relate to robots so well. I wouldn't want an army of them. Maybe it is cooler to have people / aliens without helmets smash into each other. I think I've been taking the whole thing too seriously!

I didn’t read through the thread but I do have the answer.

Short answer: there is.

Long answer: VR is tech that’s used in the Imperium but is somewhat rare. In let the galaxy burn (a short story collection) a space marine trains in VR (one of my favorite short stories actually). The thing about the remote control is that usually it’s done by a servitor hooked up to a robot, so no living person is actually controlling it. Concerning robots the Imperium is generally scared of them because of the robot rebellion (men of iron) that brought the human empire to its knees.

 Irbis wrote:

 Techpriestsupport wrote:
A tau pilot fits in a crisis suit just like 10 marines fit in a rhino.

I really hate that dumb meme. Comparing soldier to the crew compartment size, Rhino is the same as its RL equivalent, M113, that somehow seats 11 people easily:

Spoiler:

You somehow forgot that Rhino is roughly as big as the M113 APC, but does not carry regular humans. Instead, it is supposed to carry 7 feet tall super-muscular men clad in bulky power armor. That's the exact point of this meme. The model is ridiculously small and people make fun of it. Using the same logic, you can somehow fit 6 lascannons into a Chimera. Welcome to 40k, where Hermione's bottomless handbag is a common thing...


Speaking of remote control, when reading the Zero Day Exploit (part of the Forges of Mars book), one tech-priest literally hijacks a body of somebody else, taking full control of the victim's body. So, there definitely is a form of remote control.

Mind of Cubozoan wrote:
Just found these: Mechanicum Thallax Cohort. I don't know how to insert an image right now! I know that they are Horus Heresy but it says in the wiki that some were given to Rogue Traders so I'm saying my Rogue Trader family have kept them. I'm just going to go with the idea that they are now controlled remotely. I would imagine they would be useful for spaceship repairs since the vacuum of space is pretty dangerous.

Thallax have, and are controlled by, a human brain:

Thallaxii are just cyborgs taken to an extreme. Only their head and spine are biological, everything else was replaced by a machine.