Companion Drones 2.0: Full Autonomy
A standalone fork of Companion Drones (based on the mjlfix 3.1.2 build) rebuilt around one goal: the companion should finish what you give it, on its own, without babysitting.
This is a standalone replacement. Do not run it alongside the original or any other "Companion Drones" mod.
This mod is STILL BEING DEVELOPED and I'm actively working on it in my own free time! Expect borked stuff or unoptimized performance in some cases!
What it is
The companion is a persistent, upgradeable flying drone that follows you, builds/deconstructs/repairs/upgrades anything a construction robot could, manages its own inventory and fuel, and can defend itself in combat. It isn't a portable roboport you babysit - it's meant to be handed work and left alone.
Autonomy, the headline feature
Give the companion a large deconstruction order or a blueprint and it will work through the entire thing by itself:
- Explicit tasks like this are exempt from the normal "stay near the player" leash - the companion won't abandon a big job just because you walked off to do something else.
- When cargo fills up, it automatically flies back to unload, then resumes the same task afterward instead of getting stuck standing in the middle of a forest.
- Whichever companion is free next picks up the closest remaining piece of the task, so it works outward from where it already is rather than jumping around at random.
Everything not covered by an explicit task is still handled the old way: the companion opportunistically picks up nearby construction/deconstruction/repair work as it follows you around, within a leash range that keeps it from wandering off on its own.
Equipment and progression
The companion starts fully equipped and ready to work immediately - no crippled start, no separate difficulty modes to configure. From there, every piece of its gear (roboport, shield, laser, reactor) has its own four-tier upgrade path, from cheap starter gear all the way up to serious late-game equipment unlocked through research - so the companion keeps getting meaningfully better as you progress, not just faster.
Researching vanilla's infinite "Follower Robot Count" technology also raises how many companions you're allowed to have at once (starting from 3).
Customization
- Toggle construction/deconstruction or combat independently, via shortcut buttons or (unbound by default) keybinds.
- Turn the companion's idle chatter on/off, or adjust how often it speaks.
- Raise the update interval to trade responsiveness for performance if you're running several companions at once.
- Choose whether it burns its best or worst fuel first.
Known issues
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Feedback is appreciated: Have you encountered a bug? Would you like a feature to be added? Write it down on this modpage in discussions and I'll get to it as soon as possible.
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Task ordering isn't perfect: on a task spread across multiple separate areas, a companion can still occasionally head to a far-apart part of it while closer, unfinished work sits nearby, instead of always finishing its local area first.
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Combat isn't fully solid yet: the companion's behavior while fighting can still be rough around the edges, and there's some jittery movement or no movement at all while it's in or near combat.
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Multiple companions don't fully coordinate on shared tasks yet: when several companions work the same big job, one can occasionally retrace or duplicate a route another is already working on, instead of always splitting the work cleanly.
Notes for other modders
- The dialogue system reads locale sections dynamically; line
0of a section must be the integer count of lines in that section. Repeat a line to make it more likely to be picked.
Credits
- Original mod and much of the core logic by Klonan
- kubiixx, MrJakobLaich and Maoman - for coming in with "Companion Drones for 2.0" and their updated codebase
- Forked, adjusted, fixed and maintained by Wearo