DRONE DESIGNS PART 1

Basic Design and random tidbits of how drones work

Most of Custodian's designs follow a very basic humanoid design which is mostly based on the Daedelus drones. The core parts are located in the chest area, but head also contains some extra support system. For example, the drones still rely on vision through the head, but certain designs allows them to see even without a head.

In addition, most drones are able to communicate with each other using the core (at the chest) which allows them to relay vision-related information so that most drones don't even need to see, as long as very specific actions aren't required. Specialist drones such as Thane drones still need eyes to see in order to fight precisely, so special armor needed to be made for them (such as making eye holes at the head armor).

From the picture, huskarls still need some level of vision, but they could make do with collective data.

Of course, not all drones have to be humanoid. The higher tier worker drones are half-spider half-headless-body. I had something like headless Nerubians in mind when I was writing about the workers. Some armorer drones are even just cubes with tiny flexible slinky arms.

Armor

Drones don't care about temperature so they're fine with becoming fluffy pillows (Gambesons were excellent armor made of cloth, but they were uncomfortable to wear). Custodian and its drones could also design armor which doesn't provide any comfort because... they're drones. Most drones would be equipped with basic chainmail or some form of plating depending on the available resources. The lowest tier would simply have armor made from bio-iron (in the form of scales, plates, and chainmail), while the highest level would have steel and silk armor.

Drones could also be directly designed to be made with the armor bolted to their body to maximize efficiency, but it makes it hard to maintain or upgrade those drones.

Others

Stuff like drone maintenance and why Custodian wouldn't just give everyone steel frames would be explained in-story, since I don't want to be lazy and just dump it all here.

The fun part about robots is that they don't feel pain or that they won't stop fighting until all their core functions are destroyed, so stabbing a drone's shoulder joint won't be the end of that drone. I'm trying to balance it out with the fact that they're dumber and slower than actual humans, and at the same time, drones are also rather expensive.