Bots use power cells to function and use recharge stations

[Capsandi]

So medbay's new exploit is medibots sitting next to patients and fixing them without player interaction. We could remove medibots but that would be stupid. Instead, lets have all bots run on power cells, and let them use the recharge stations in the bathrooms! So a cleanbot would clean like, 20 tiles, then it would hurry to the nearest restroom or robotics to charge. Of course, if you have medibots parked next to a stasis bed all shift, it would run outta batteries and you would have to set it to patrol the station like it's supposed to! Robotics could upgrade the batteries up to bluespace ones, which would only double the time before they need to hit the robotic loo. So with a basic cell a medibot would be able to administer 10 syringes, beepsky could beat 5 criminals, and clean bots could clean around 20 tiles. I think it would be interesting to see beepsky running down the engineering hallway with a yellow light on them, knowing they're going to robotics to recharge, rather than aimlessly wandering the station eternally to beat the criminals within.

[Ayy Lemoh]

beepsky could beat 5 criminals

sir, security is already being nerfed into the ground hard enough. is it really necessary to make them even more useless?

at this rate, sec will spawn with 200 brain damage at the start of each shift, causing them to die on the spot immediately just so that sec can finally be balanced.

[ATHATH]

People park medibots next to stasis beds so that doctors won't have to waste their time spamming tends wounds on people and can instead get to performing more interesting treatments. This is an improvement, IMO.

If you REALLY want to nerf the parking medibots next to stasis beds strategy, you could make it so that medibots can't heal people who're strapped to stasis beds, but I'm not exactly sure how that would improve the game.

[cacogen]

there are other probably easier better ways to nerf medibots but it's funny the medical system has become so weak that they've actually become strong in comparison. they were always useful to have around but not better than an actual doctor

[Helios]

Perhaps instead of nerfing Medbots, you should think about why people are using them instead of doctors, and try to buff regular medbay?'
The ability of the rest of the station to have fun shouldn't be purely beholden on the competence of medbay. If robotics is competent enough to make enough medbots, the crew aught to be able to enjoy those benefits. The more the station relies on them, the more devastating the effect is when they're Emag'd

[Capsandi]

Im not saying that I agree that medbay should have been nerfed to the point where the bots that were supposed to be the shitty replacement for the bombed/murderboned department somehow is now leagues better than the actual department, im saying that if cobby and the almighty design doc doesnt like medibot meta, we shouldnt nerf the medibot functionality and should instead break the meta by requiring the bots be on patrol to carry out duties, and justify it by adding more flair to the bot routines.
Perhaps cleanbots could say "Cleanup on aisle[area]!" When they need a bathroom break "Cleanup on aisle Auxiliary Bathrooms!"
And beepsky could have more beating power in between toilet times, i just dont think he beats that many people per shift.