History Main / MobileFactory

Factory
-> A place of building, the act of creation forging whatever. A Place where raw materials enter one door and exit as a finished product (or in a more modern sense a component for another "finished" product).

Mobile
-> Ambulatory, the ability to move, requiring coordination, actors (such as muscles), power, and sometimes a direction.

[[XmeetsY Combining the two]] creates a object that could do neither function very well but perhaps well enough to justify the cost. In fiction at least, real-life seems a little slow on the uptake. Most often seen as military machines they are also quite handy in colonization efforts or anything really that needs stuff and is willing to put-up with a wandering [[MatterReplicator stuff maker]].

Watch out though if Von Neumann is to believed this would be a handy way to travel the stars without FTL and in fiction this probably means very large particles of GreyGoo.

!!Examples:

[[folder: General]]
* AsteroidMiners are known to use this type of ship to process their asteroids into stuff.

[[folder: {{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* ''{{Ghost in the Shell}} 2: Innocence'' features this type of vessel for making {{Gynoid}}s but is actually producing {{Sex Slave}}s although one implies the other.

[[folder:ComicBooks]]

[[folder:{{Literature}}]]

* Steward Cowley's ''Spacecraft 2000 to 2100 A.D.''. The [=PC1=] 191 Gourmet was a giant insect-like spaceship that melted asteroid ore and separated out the metal residue for storage. The [=AC3=] Stag Beetle used a "disassembler" field to do the same thing.

[[folder: LiveActionTelevision]]

* The [[{{Andromeda}} Andromeda Ascendant]] is capable of harvesting raw resources from asteroids and rebuilding her supply of [[AttackDrone drones]] and missiles.

[[folder: RealLife]]
* Russia is developing Nuclear Power Station Barges for heat, power, and/or desalination. Assuming that electricity and fresh water count for factory production.

[[folder: TabletopRPG]]
* In Palladium Games' ''{{Robotech}} II: The Sentinels'' RPG, the SDF-3 is noted to have a complete mecha factory located deep in it's bowels.

[[folder: VideoGames]]
* ''{{Star Ruler}}'' allows for mobile shipyards to be built. Give them a mining laser, some storage, some refineries, and a construction bay, and they will be able to mine asteroids to produce the material for its ships. It's easy to create Von Neumann ships using this - order a ship to mine an asteroid, with 10 ships in its build queue. Keep repeating the order with every ship it builds, and after an hour there will be several hundred ships.

* The Mobile Construction Vehicle from ''{{Dune II}}'' was imported to the ''CommandAndConquer'' series. The ExpansionPack for the second game also added a Mobile War Factory to both factions. This was finally taken to a conclusion in Command & Conquer IV, where the entire base became a mobile factory.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}} II'', the mothership, shipyard, and carrier classes are able to manufacture smaller vessels, and battlecruisers can repair fighters. There are also mobile refineries, which convert matter into energy.
* ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles'': the Flying Battery Zone

* ''UniverseAtWar'' has the Hierarchy faction. Almost all their units are produced by [[{{HumongousMecha}} giant]], [[{{MoreDakka}} heavily armed]] [[{{TripodTerror}} walkers]].

[[folder: LiveactionTelevision]]

* ''RedDwarf'' is a mining ship, although it's not usually seen doing any actual mining.

[[/folder]]

[[AC: General]]

[[AC: {{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

[[AC: LiveactionTelevision]]

[[AC: RealLife]]

[[AC: TabletopRPG]]

[[AC: VideoGames]]

* ''UniverseAtWar'' has the Hierarchy faction. Almost all their units are produced by [[{{HumongousMecha}} giant]], [[{{MoreDakka}} heavily armed]] [[{{TripodTerror}} walkers]].

* The United Earth Federation in the ''SupremeCommander'' series is big on this trope. While most experimental units are gigantic assault machines or gun platforms the UEF invests in flying, crawling or seaborne factories instead. There are non-UEF mobile factories as well but the UEF alone has more than other factions combined.

* The Recycler in both of the ''{{Battlezone}}'' RTS + FPS games is a floating (or tracked, in the sequel) mobile factory. In the first game, it will land on a geyser, and unfold its construction bay, allowing it to build units - the more advanced Factory and Armory mobile factories are built from the Recycler. If the base is attacked, the factories can pack up, lift off, and drive away. ''Battlezone 2'''s Recycler is less mobile, as once it deploys, it cannot be undeployed (in the vanilla game - some mods allow it to undeploy).

* ''{{Starcraft}}'': most of the Terran buildings and a few of the Protoss ones.
* In ''{{Homeworld}} II'', the mothership, shipyard, and carrier classes are able to manufacture smaller vessels, and battlecruisers can repair fighters. There are also mobile refineries, which convert matter into energy.

* The ''Xtended Terran Conflict'' mod for ''[[{{X}} X3 Terran Conflict]]'' has the T0 Mobile Production Ship(s). There are 5 variants of it, each of which produces a different type of ware; energy cells, food, technology (microchips, drones, etc), ore / silicon refinement, and military tech production (weapons, shields, missiles). All the of the ships are highly modular and can be configured to make different types of wares in seconds.

* ''UniverseAtWar'' has the Hierarchy faction. Almost all their units are produced by [[{{HumongousMecha}} giant, heavily armed walkers]].

* The ''Xtended Terran Conflict'' mod for ''[[{{X}} X3 Terran Conflict]]'' has the T0 Mobile Production Ship(s). There are 5 variants of it, each of which produces a different type of ware; energy cells, food, technology (microchips, drones, etc), ore / silicon refinement, and military tech production (weapons, shields, missiles). All the of the ships are highly modular and can be configured to make different types of wares in seconds.

* ''Sonic3AndKnuckles'': the Flying Battery Zone

* DawnOfWar has the Necron Monolith. It's slow, but well armed, very tough, and capable of building every other necron unit in the game.

* The Fat Boy of ''SupremeCommander''.

* The Sand Miner from the ''DoctorWho'' serial "The Robots of Death".

* The classic PC RPG ''Albion'' contains a partial example; the starship you start out on is a mining-ship, designed for strip-mining an entirely planet - but it's not as mobile as it seems. By design, it's supposed to simply fly to its destination, land, and then convert itself into a self-perpetuating factory-complex capable of turning an entire, resource-rich world into a dry ball of slags, while shipping the finished and refined resources home to Earth.

[[XmeetsY Combining the two]] creates a object that could do neither function very well but perhaps well enough to justify the cost. In fiction at least, real-life seems a little slow on the uptake. Most often seen as military machines they are also quite handy in colonization efforts or anything really that needs stuff and is willing to put-up with a wondering [[MatterReplicator stuff maker]].

* Russia is developing Nuclear Power Station Barges for heat, power, and/or desalination. Assuming that electricty and fresh water count for factory production.

* Russia is developing Nuclear Power Station Barges for heat, power, and/or desalination. Assuming that electricy and fresh water count for factory production.

* ''{{Starcraft}}'': most of the Terrian buildings and a few of the Protoss

* In ''Homeworld II'' the mothership, shipyard, and carrier classes are able to manufacture smaller vessels, and battlecruisers can repair fighters. There are also mobile refineries, which convert matter into energy.

* The ''{{Macross}}[=/=]{{Robotech}}'' franchise group featured a number of these. Some big enough to mass produce warships more than a mile long. The Macross itself recycled Humongous Mecha, Or So I Heard.

!!Subversions:

[[AC: RealLife]]
* there are fast combat support ship, dry cargo Ships, and ammunition ships but they might as well be Hospital ships or Lightvessels since they are mostly for storage.
* Factory ships process and package fish or whales.

* ''{{Ghost in the Shell}} 2: Innocence'' features this type of vessel for making [[strike: Sexbots]] {{Sex Slave}}s although one implies the other.

You're in the middle of nowhere (InSpace, in the desert, etc.) There is nothing, nobody, perhaps some [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman plants or animals or aliens but who cares about them]]. You're on a mission perhaps to make [[WeWillSpendCreditsInTheFuture creds]] or to kill stuff or to make stuff so someone else can kill stuff. The problem is you have nothing and nobody to work with.

It's sad.

{{beat}}

Oh well -- time to call in the MobileFactory.