Should I stay or should I go

First of all, I want to clear the mystery of my title "Should I stay or should I go" with the story I came up for RigB while looking for texture materials.
RigB is sent on Titan, one of Saturn's largest moon in search of resources and compounds that can sustain life. While exploring the icy moon, RigB falls into a crevice, loosing all communication with Earth. Here he finds a totally different world than what he's seen on the surface. Strange structures lit by tall glowing crystals spread all across the area. Dust like crystals rises from everywhere and encircles the robot, analyzing him from all the angles. In a few moments, a crystal copy stands in front of the robot like a mirror. The crystal copy sets a form of communication and gives RigB three choices. 1. He informs Earth that nothing of value was discovered on the moon and returns to his planet. 2. RigB can stay on the moon, and in exchange of knowledge, he can find more about the inhabitants of Titan. RigB could further explore the space with Titan's technology but he can never communicate with Earth again. 3. At any point in time, if RigB informs Earth of the encounter, the crystal dust will explode inside of him. RigB is torn between his mission, his goals and his duty towards his human creators.

The plan was to make RigB as an industrial like model, with frozen like metal, scratched from the icy weather and red fuel pipes. The second texture set would have been the wow factor - the  crystal copy. Also, taught of the crystal dust surrounding RigB as a cool pose.

I was looking forwards molding RigB after my story and exploring new texture styles but , unfortunately I have to drop out of the contest. With a full time job, I had only few hours to work on, and since my last update, I got a new opportunity I couldn't miss, which pretty much spent all the remaining time I had. As in the story, I had conflicting choices and a little bit of hope, that's why I didn't post sooner, but in the end only one choice can be made.

Even if it was for a short while, it was really nice to see all the creative ideas made by other participants! I wish you all the best and good luck further in the contest! :)

Update No.2

I have updated the color ID map as I found RigB looking a bit too bland with my previous choice of colors. Even so, I'm trying a simple look which can give me room for details.

For now I have only set base colors for most materials. I've added few details for liquid and carbon fiber.

I can't say I am very satisfied with the bakes, I'm still working on this part. I'm reconsidering making high poly mesh as well.

It's about time for my first update!
Don't expect anything fancy as I didn't properly start the texturing part. I've made some preparations instead and I've got to know RigB better in this process. I will be using Substance Painter for texturing.

These are the first steps in my process:

1. Organizing the files

I divided all I need in four main folders. "Files" , containing the source files for max and painter, each with their own folder (I save increment files for any major change). "Textures", as I will make a folder containing texture maps for each UDIM tile. "WiP", which will have screenshots of my progress for every update I will post  and "Random" , where I will add referenced or alpha maps that might help with detailing.

2. Fixing geometry and UVs

Probably everyone came across some gaps in the geometry. I have decided to fix anything I saw, even if they were not in visible angles. Necessary for this competition? I don't know but for me, it was a nice opportunity for some practice. I've came across a troublesome object as well. I'm referring to the first screenshot in which the UV of a pipe was placed in the negative tiles of UDIMs. This seem to have upset Substance, as it would give some errors and not display the mesh at all. 

3.Creating a color scheme based on materials (used for color ID map as well)

4. Baking

I believe this would be the final step in my prep work. I've used the same mesh for baking and I've done it in Substance Painter. I've decided to avoid creating a high poly mesh, as fine details will most probably be covered by textures or not be too visible from a medium distance.

I appreciate the time and effort put into RigB, it looks fantastic! I wish to compete in the texturing category and I feel like I need a story for RigB. Now I have a lot of ideas and it's hard for me to decide which one to pick but the general idea is that my RigB is an explorer. I've gathered some reference images to get a general feeling of how RigB will look like. I will update the reference board when I will work on something specific. For now this is it.