Suggested adjustment to option #1: Make scrappable the Protectron parts (at least just the basic ones that would be created if you removed (or exchanged for something else) the basic Protectron parts (head, torso, arms, legs)
So option #1 would be: only cost in material is what the individual parts need and you can scrap them to immediately recoup the material cost.
I don't think it would be possible to make the protectron parts scrapable since they're crafting mods. I tried making a similar mod to use them as the components for the base protectron, but that crashed my game. It might be possible to make a "protectron scrap" junk item which could be crafted at a chemistry station out of the components left behind from a base robot, but that might also crash the game. I've never tried it before. The crash could have been unique to the robot workbench or it could have been general based on trying to craft an item using crafting mods as components.
EDIT: Just went through the trouble to try what I described and the game just thinks the recipe has no cost because the engine considers the components specified to be invalid. Something like this would require a script to convert the items back into their base components.
I would suggest a third option of having a caps cost equal to that of the combined total value of the protectron parts you recieve.
(Or, if you want to go a really complicated route, make a new type of "bare bones" protectron that's got 0 protection and pretty much 0 carry weight and 0 weapons, that consists of just the "skeleton" of a protectron unit, and make that the standard build instead of the one we get)
7 comments
So option #1 would be: only cost in material is what the individual parts need and you can scrap them to immediately recoup the material cost.
EDIT: Just went through the trouble to try what I described and the game just thinks the recipe has no cost because the engine considers the components specified to be invalid. Something like this would require a script to convert the items back into their base components.
(Or, if you want to go a really complicated route, make a new type of "bare bones" protectron that's got 0 protection and pretty much 0 carry weight and 0 weapons, that consists of just the "skeleton" of a protectron unit, and make that the standard build instead of the one we get)