Fairly simple question really:

Does a servitor need food to continue to function over time?

Or do they run on some other energy source? In that case what?

(Or are they powered by the happy-land of pluffy bunnies that is the land of the chosen of Omnissah, and therefore their milage is unllimited?)

I go with them needing nutrition to maintain the biological parts. This takes the form of drips in the maintenance ward, or packages inserted into the servitors for field use.

An indicator as to how well maintained a facility is, is often how mummified and dysfunctional the servitors sre there. Mind you, I keep servitors active a lot longer than a human body possibly could. I explain this by saying that the machine only needs the barest spark of life and moisture in the nerves and brain to function, and that muscle power is usually provided by maschine parts.

It is funny to chase PCs through ancient infotombs with mummified servitors following the orders of long dead masters.

I think so: they need food. It comes to my mind the movie "Robocop", where you see the Ocp guys feeding him a bad-looking baby food.

I'm sure you will find useful many of the replies in this thread as well: www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp

There was quite recently a thread here regarding Tech-Priests and their need to eat, so that might be a good one to look at.

Basically, however, I would assume that a combination of a battery (which would need recharging) and a nutrient drip would be required. The nutrient drip would simply be there to keep the brain alive, and the cells moist enough to move. The battery would control all other functions (as I believe servitors don't need to breath either, but I might be making this up... In any case, if they need oxygen, that too would be supplied through the nutrient drip in a form of oxygen 'gel' or some other such hand wave).

@Berengario: I am soon going to be running my Acolytes through a really old and dilapitaded part of the Tricorn as a sort of dungeon like crawl, and that is an awesome idea for some enemies!

Diel Ulricsson said:

Wow! Robocop is always a good source of inspiration!
Good luck to your players, they'll be needing it!

"Dead or alive, you're coming with me"!

Berengario said:

Indeed! You know there are evil plans afoot to remake it? I wonder why? As the saying goes, "Why remake good movies? why not remake BAD movies, and make them better?" Robocop II wasn't bad, III was junk...

And the line from Robocop is:-

-"How does he eat?"

"His digestive system is simple. This processor dispenses a paste
that sustains his organic systems."

-"It tastes like baby food!"

-"Knock yourself out."

I imagine it's very much like Robocop for servitors, as Robocop is, after all, effectively a combat servitor. Robocop sat in a chair which recharged his mechanical/electrical components, and was fed babyfood/paste to sustain his biological components. This being 40k, the chair probably looks like a coffin or skull-covered throne, though.

Lightbringer said:

No, I didn't know...but this news is more than enough to sadden my day.

This new Robocop will be another piece in the "good intentions, poor results" wall made by most of the last decade's movies. And, just like the new Conan, it will reach only one goal: to spoil all the good things/feelings/memories/... one owes to the original movie.

Well I read about the new Robocop movie on Ain't it Cool News a while back, and I haven't seen anything for a while...it may be stalled in development hell. Let's hope it stays there forever!

Nothing about the original can be improved, let's leave it there and have some nice NEW movie ideas for a change. Like a $200 million live action 40k movie!

Berengario said:

Last new movie (in that vein) I have seen? LOTR trilogy. No new Conan, no Star Wars first trilogy, no nothing. Oh no, wait, I have seen the last Indiana Jones, it was okay.

Alex

Servitors probably need parenteral nutrition - basically fuel - at most, if not only electricity to power otherwise mummified flesh. First of all, most servitors won't have a digestive system anymore - it is a biological remnant nobody really needs and which produces a lot of overhead (food, excrements) requiring additional programs. And even then no digestive system can reach the efficiency of consuming AM produced nutrients in a direct way. Any organic matter can be processed into some sort of fuel - think of what humans have used to produce this fuel named alcohol and how easy it is to set up a local fuel distillery.

Now I'm picturing a bunch of Servitors who are drunk ALL the time!

Blood Pact said:

Led by Bender.

Alex

Aye, servitors have biological components, and unless those get tended to they will become necrotic, wither and either hinder the machine's functionality (both by mobile limbs turning into immobile lumps of hard leather as well as components simply stopping to work) or just fall off, leaving a bunch of pipes and cables on the ground.

As for a Robocop remake: Whenever someone mentions the word "reimagined" or "remake" I fear the worst, for today's cinema - whilst occasionally still producing awesome movies - just operates on a different level and thus will likely fail to capture the spirit of the original.

That said, I have to say I enjoyed RoboCop II and III - even though neither of them was quite able to equal the original first part, I never understood why they get flamed so much. :I

Pardon me while I throw a spanner into the works... One of the new Deathwatch beasties, the Samech Redemption Servitor (Mark of the Xenos, pp. 90 - 91) specifically does need to eat. Here is the relevant paragraph:

"Samech suffers an endemic shortage of traditional power sources, having long ago consumed all its traditional fuel resources. A transmuter core allows Redemption Servitors to operate in the planet's lava wastes without the need for valuable perpetual generators or constant recharging. The core can convert biological matter into electricity, allowing the scavengers to subsist on corpses and vermin found amidst their salvage. However, transmuter cores are more efficient at converting living matter than dead. This has lead to an un-intended preference in the servitors to "feed" on the living rather than the dead. Units low on power often abduct victims to use as bio-sources until they expire."

Of course, all this is heretekial as hell... I see no reason why a Dark Heresy heretek couldn't copy a page from Samech's playbook and provide his/her corrupted servitors with an off the grid power source. Om nom nom.

Mind you, using an actual Reclamation Servitor or two against DH acolytes is probably best reserved for an evil GM or a group of acolytes who is getting too big for their britches. They are a DW grade opponent, so they are rather tough...

Cheers,

- V.

Hmm, but it only talks about electricity - this makes it still somewhat unclear as to whether a Servitor would require only electrical energy to power its artificial components, or if it needs both an electrical supply as well as (semi-)traditional nutrients (as it consists of both mechanical as well as biological parts)...

Still, thanks a lot for pointing this out - I actually forgot that a Servitor would likely need power as well, only thinking of the "donated" body until now!

Berengario said:

Well, so far the new Conan is far closer to the written character than Arnold ever could be. For those who have read Conan, the Arnold movies are laughable. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the movies, but the written Conan is so much better than the Arnold Conan.

I like the

Yes servitors need to eat, in one of the relatively new novels (Hellsreach) a minor tech-priest aboard an Imperator Titan has to hand-feed the servitors aboard as the automated feeding systems have been disabled due to combat damage.

Darth Smeg said:

I like the

version best

Ah ah ah!

This is the second time you suggest a superfunny video (the other being the Vegan Black Metal Chef)!

Thank you for giving me such a good time!