i gotta know if im delulu or if im onto something (sorry for all the yapping i just thought that the process leading me to the conclusion was important but didnt know how to simplify it too well) ive had a theory of sorts ever since i played heist 1 that really developed when playing heist 2, first im assuming that non-unique dieselbots in factions like the royalists (ill say aristobots for simplicity) are mass-produced in factories to look and work similiarly to eachother, and im taking quincy talking about recruits being trained early on in their life at face value (then again maybe he just meant 'early' as in. not an adult yet, opposed to Early early), and using those points to assume aristobots are assembled en masse at an older age early (probably young-mid teenage) with some knowledge and maturity built-in, but still have their own personalities and names despite that mass-produced cookiecutter origin but the real theory i have is, are aristobots a bit more stifled when it comes to individuality by nature?? since the navy recruits seem to have skipped a good chunk of their life and have predisposition to following orders and abusing their authority, but they appear to have free will and their own unique personality traits (wesley and crowbar seem like dieselbots to me, due to no visible furnace + crowbar resembles the recruits imo (also do you know whats up with that) and malcolm transfuge is a spy) i like to headcanon that aristobots probably have a lot less individuality than steambots just by their upbringing and happenstance, they certainly still seem to have Some though; wesley and crowbar (i think) have defected and become their own people especially with influence from quincy and the crew, and theres a lot of aristobots with unique names and hats, and i would assume recruits can just leave of their own accord since theres no aristobots judging crowbar for it in the game afaik and quincy decided to mentally scar some recruits to make them think again about joining the navy, so it seems they get to decide a good amount of things for themselves, they just seem naturally inclined to be part of the navy and their ideals since. they kinda Were made for it. basically what im saying is, summarized, since theyre produced by faction-owned factories for a purpose, do aristobots have very minimal drive to develop themself as an individual, opposed to steambots or independent dieselbots (assuming theyre not ALL built in factories at an older age, like dandy and the hat shopkeep in heist 1) who develop their own traits tastes and aesthetic desire their entire life from their experiences and their accessibility to new parts? ive just found the sort of cosmic horror of having your life set out for you and the underlying theme of discovering yourself that ive seen with aristobots in this way really interesting, and just want to know your thoughts on it or if its even intentional or not
First of all, love the term aristobots!
A thing we always talked about when working on steamworld stories is that even if these are generally light and funny stories about goofy-ass robots having adventures, there also has to be an underlying darkness. After all in Dig 2, the world litteraly explodes. We don't bring it up, but one can understand that many many bots perished. We bots we meet in Heisttimes are the decendants of the few survivors of the entire world.
I think your thoughts in this ask are spot on along that type of mood.
I don't really remember what we discussed on official lore for how navybots are made, but most of them being produced for specific tasks and with parts to hamper individual thought sounds extremely accurate. Fits with everything we wrote, it's now my headcanon too lol. If I was still at Thunderful, I would've loved to explore a game following a Navybot hero rebelling
Wesley and Crowbar were always meant to be Steambots, but I like the idea of them being navybots too. This is purely headcanon that I just made up and in no way official steamworld lore, but it just became incredibly clear that "Steambot" and "Navybot" at its core only refers to what your engine runs on. If a bot could safely exchange their engine to an engine that runs of a different power source, litteraly nothing would change about them other than what fuel they needed. The spark of their soul would be the same, but bot-society would now deem them an x-bot, based on engine type.
Deep down they're all just bots, badabing-badaboom humanity allegory.