THE FACTORY MUST SURVIVE MECH DISTRICT is a 3D grid-based factory automation, base-building, strategy, and tactical RPG about inheriting an abandoned industrial district and being informed, with complete sincerity, that it has "good bones." You are the AI Core. Fun! Rebuild District Zero. Extract raw materials. Automate production. Route physical inventory through autonomous Hauler Bots. Manufacture defenses, Raidframes, and Superframes. Export surplus goods for Funding. Restore regional infrastructure. Expand into hostile territory. Then discover that every production problem eventually becomes a combat problem. Usually at the worst possible time. PigDude raiders attack the same generators, storage facilities, logistics routes, and factories currently holding your economy together. Defend the district in real time, then deploy specialized combat squads into turn-based operations beyond the factory walls. Build the machine. Feed the machine. Try not to become the bottleneck. Transform abandoned city blocks into one enormous industrial machine because apparently the ruins were not bleak enough already. Place extractors, production machinery, generators, storage facilities, logistics infrastructure, defenses, Raidframe Bays, Superframe Bays, and support systems across a rigid industrial grid. A sensible little production block becomes a supply network. The supply network becomes an industrial district. The industrial district becomes twelve interconnected problems that all require more conductive scrap. Maintain power, command coverage, material access, storage capacity, production throughput, and enough defensive infrastructure to keep the whole thing technically operational. Expansion solves problems. Expansion also creates newer, larger problems farther away. Raw resources are only the beginning. Process materials through interconnected production chains to create components, machinery, defenses, combat equipment, and the increasingly expensive machines required to keep District Zero alive. Find shortages. Remove bottlenecks. Expand storage. Increase throughput. Rebuild the production block you were absolutely certain was finished twenty minutes ago. One missing component can stop an entire manufacturing chain with the calm confidence of a machine that knows you will eventually notice. The factory is always working. Sometimes it is even working correctly! Materials do not magically teleport between buildings. Autonomous Hauler Bots collect inventory, reserve cargo, transport materials, and deliver them throughout District Zero one load at a time. Position storage buffers near critical production. Keep high-throughput machines supplied. Prevent important materials from spending their entire useful existence on the wrong side of the district. Everything is moving. Whether any of it is moving to the correct place is a separate question. Move surplus production to the Export Terminal and load physical freight for shipment beyond the district. Successful exports generate Funding used for construction, expansion, research, infrastructure, and the continuing financial miracle of replacing machines the PigDudes have destroyed. Congratulations. You have invented capitalism again. This time the forklifts are autonomous. Every component sold is Funding gained. Every component sold is also a component you no longer possess when something catches fire. Plan accordingly. PigDude raiders do not respect industrial zoning regulations. Tyyyyyypical. They attack power systems, factories, storage, logistics routes, defensive infrastructure, and anything else whose destruction would be maximally inconvenient. Deploy eight specialized turret systems around critical positions and build overlapping defensive coverage across District Zero. Different weapons answer different threats. Rapid energy systems suppress lighter attackers. Heavy anti-armor platforms deal with hardened targets. Artillery systems reach farther into the battlefield. A defensive line is only useful while it still has power, coverage, and enough surviving machinery to remain legally describable as a defensive line. Raidframes are specialized humanoid combat machines manufactured for operations beyond ordinary factory defense. Build them. Maintain them. Organize squads of individual units and deploy them into tactical operations where positioning, abilities, status effects, target selection, and class roles matter more than simply manufacturing the largest possible pile of guns. Raidframes are used to liberate occupied territory and confront threats such as Corrupted PigDudes that have developed exciting new and exciting opinions about radiation. A surviving Raidframe returns home damaged. A destroyed Raidframe becomes an accounting event. When Raidframes are not enough, manufacture something substantially less reasonable. Superframes are massive autonomous war machines built and maintained through dedicated production infrastructure. They operate through specialized combat roles, abilities, support interactions, offensive systems, and tactical commands. Superframes are your answer to armored PigDude forts and the most dangerous Protocol operations in the Aegis Network. Choose individual machines. Build a squad of up to five. Send several hours of industrial production into hostile territory. Try not to think about the replacement cost. Beyond District Zero, combat shifts into dedicated turn-based tactical encounters. Deploy selected Raidframes or Superframes depending on the operation. Manage health, armor, abilities, cooldowns, status effects, battlefield roles, and target priorities while enemy mechanics force you to adapt. Attack. Defend. Support damaged allies. Exploit exposed targets. Respond to battlefield conditions. Decide whether another round is worth risking machinery that took an entire production network to build. The factory determines what you can field. The battle determines what comes home. District Zero is the center of the operation. The Aegis Grid is where the operation expands. Push outward into procedurally assembled territory containing different strategic problems and opportunities. Liberate occupied industrial Striplines with Raidframes. Assault fortified PigDude positions with Superframes. Restore damaged regional infrastructure. Investigate Corrupted sectors. Clear abandoned territory. Secure new buildable ground. Open new routes through the network. Every sector offers something useful. This is generally why something unpleasant is already standing in it. BUT. Not every problem can be solved by shooting it. Some sectors contain damaged Infrastructure that can be restored and returned to the regional network. Invest materials and resources into rebuilding these facilities to strengthen the larger district operation and unlock persistent strategic benefits. It is civil engineering! Except the civil engineers are autonomous machines and there may be radioactive PigDudes nearby. Spend Directive Points across six specialized Protocol trees and shape how your AI Core approaches production, logistics, defense, combat, deployment, and district-wide progression. What's a factory-builder RPG mashup without skills? Verily, I say unto you: Nothing. Specialize heavily. Spread upgrades across multiple systems. Stack bonuses into increasingly questionable industrial strategies. There are a great many possible combinations. Somewhere among them is the perfect build. You will discover it immediately after committing to something else. RECOVER RELICS Major operations can reward powerful Relics that become part of the AI Core's growing arsenal of system modifiers and strategic options. Relics are rewards for surviving dangerous operations, not conveniently marked treasure closets waiting politely on the map. Acquire them. Equip them. Build around them. Then use the resulting advantage to take on something significantly worse. This is called progression . Fun! BREAK THE SIX PROTOCOLS Six Protocol bosses stand between the AI Core and complete control of the district network. Each is a dedicated industrial war machine built around specialized combat mechanics and the firm belief that your production line has been going suspiciously well lately. Prepare a Superframe squad. Learn the encounter. Respond to mechanics. Protect critical units. Exploit vulnerable windows. Know when to commit everything. Know when several million kilograms of expensive machinery should leave. Victory requires more than production capacity. It requires a production capacity large enough to survive your tactical decisions. PRODUCTION IS DEFENSE The factory and the battlefield are one system. Every combat machine begins as raw material. Every operation depends on production. Every production chain depends on logistics. Every logistics route depends on infrastructure. Every defensive position competes for resources currently required by several unrelated emergencies. Every destroyed machine becomes another item on tomorrow's manufacturing schedule. Build District Zero. Keep the network alive. Expand through the Aegis Grid. Break the Protocols. Automate everything. Including the consequences.
