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Player Features and Ideas Discussion

 
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Smarter Drone controls
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Baroness Vulna
Armada vi Vulnezia
#1 - 2012-10-21 08:32:19 UTC
So CCP is going to be making rats smarter which is about to really make drone boats very challenging in missions, ratting, plexing etc. That's all fine, make the game more challenging but I believe drones need some loving too, at least the control of drones do.

Here is the issue. If i am in a mission and lets say i have to switch my drones out, so i dont have any out for a few seconds, i get jammed. Now, when i launch my drones they just sit in orbit and i have zero control (as far as i know) over what they do until i can actually target something. That to me is not logical. If drones can act on their own targeting why do i need to target something in order to tell them to attack it? Why cant i just click on a enemy rat (not target it) then have a way to command my drones to go attack that clicked rat?

The reason this can be an issue is it seriously makes drone ships more vulnerable and frustrating to deal with. Plus it just doesnt seem to make sense.

If we are going to make rats smarter, I think its about time we upgrade drone controls so we dont have to rely on targeting something in order to command our drones to do something.

HOpe i spelled this out good so everyone can understand my point.


thanks

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Nevyn Auscent
Broke Sauce
#2 - 2012-10-21 08:49:13 UTC
Why do I need to lock a target to fire my guns, why can't I just point at a piece of space and tell my guns to shoot there. it's not fair I can't shoot my guns when I'm jammed, I should be able to target them where I want. I should also be able to fire ahead of a frigate orbiting me and hit it with deflection on manual fire, because only a silly person would keep their guns going in circles as they orbit you trying to chase them like that. And why can't I roll my ship to speed up tracking.

Answer to your OP and all of the above.

Because it's how the game is designed. Drones aren't meant to be pure FoF weapons at this point, your not asking for smarter drones, you are asking for a total change in the system.
Feer Truelight
#3 - 2012-10-21 09:37:39 UTC
Nevyn Auscent wrote:

Because it's how the game is designed. Drones aren't meant to be pure FoF weapons at this point, your not asking for smarter drones, you are asking for a total change in the system.


Nope, nope nope.

If I have my drones in space when I get jammed/attacked, they will attack.
If I have my drones in bay when I get jammed/attacked and send them into space AFTERWARDS, they just circle the ship.

There is no logical reason why drones behave this way.
Also it's not asking for a total change in the system. We're asking for an additional aggro-check after the drones get in space.

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Baroness Vulna
Armada vi Vulnezia
#4 - 2012-10-21 10:01:46 UTC  |  Edited by: Baroness Vulna
Nevyn Auscent wrote:
Why do I need to lock a target to fire my guns, why can't I just point at a piece of space and tell my guns to shoot there. it's not fair I can't shoot my guns when I'm jammed, I should be able to target them where I want. I should also be able to fire ahead of a frigate orbiting me and hit it with deflection on manual fire, because only a silly person would keep their guns going in circles as they orbit you trying to chase them like that. And why can't I roll my ship to speed up tracking.

Answer to your OP and all of the above.

Because it's how the game is designed. Drones aren't meant to be pure FoF weapons at this point, your not asking for smarter drones, you are asking for a total change in the system.


Are you trolling me Nevyn of "broke" sauce? i mean your response is so clueless.

Do you have any knowledge of how weapons targeting works in real life? If you have a large gun you need to track a target for a firing solution, same thing with missiles (im not talking fof) and targeting in the game does a good job of portraying that. The difference in the game with drones is that they have their own ability to target and track something,especially since they aggro on their own often when you are attacked and you dont need to target anything for them to pounce. However, there are times drones dont do what you want them too and unless you can 'target' something you have zero control...which is a flawed system.

I am trying to point out a situation when drones just sit orbiting your ship while you are jammed or you want to change drones then get jammed and cant send the drones after your target. or your drones go after the wrong target and you want them to go after something else...you cannot command them unless you have a enemy targeted. Or how about when your targeting range is less than your drone range , well that gimps your drones.

I think we need better control of drones is all i am saying.

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Jacoba Chakaid
Ministry of War
Amarr Empire
#5 - 2012-10-21 13:39:47 UTC
I must agree out of all areas of the game, the drones do need improvement and hasn't been touched in a while from what I can tell. And its not to dummy it up or make them over complicated, they're treated like ammunition almost, which is sad.

Make a copy of the fleet GUI, allow the drones to be put into squads, put a row of command buttons along the bottom. Nice, clean and simple, as well as effective. (one step closer to touch screen ;) )

Its clumsy now. If you have multiple groups of drones, have to create little folders like you might for ammunition, right click on the folder go through the dropdown menu and launch the drones. Then the entire drone screen completely disappears, then reappears all minimized, do have to fumble around to get the drones array expanded, use a right click menu to command them to what you want them to do if you don't have the commands keybound.

Back to the OPs topic, I do also agree that just because a ship is targeting jammed, it still has unimpeded communications to the drones. Ship is already communicating to the drones an aggression map regardless of if the hostile ship is targeted or not.

Once you launch drones on a target, you can unlock everything and they'll continue following the aggression as supplied by the ship (hmm, believe they still do). Simple commands already existing (but not mapped to user control) "engage highest aggression" "engage next target", can't be too game changing to add user control.
Lavitakus Bromier
WTF Bunnies
#6 - 2012-10-21 18:25:33 UTC  |  Edited by: Lavitakus Bromier
I agree with boobs...er I mean baroness. I had this happen a couple of times. Drives me crazy to see my lazy drones just chilling
Baroness Vulna
Armada vi Vulnezia
#7 - 2012-10-22 09:40:21 UTC
Jacoba Chakaid wrote:
I must agree out of all areas of the game, the drones do need improvement and hasn't been touched in a while from what I can tell. And its not to dummy it up or make them over complicated, they're treated like ammunition almost, which is sad.

Make a copy of the fleet GUI, allow the drones to be put into squads, put a row of command buttons along the bottom. Nice, clean and simple, as well as effective. (one step closer to touch screen ;) )

Its clumsy now. If you have multiple groups of drones, have to create little folders like you might for ammunition, right click on the folder go through the dropdown menu and launch the drones. Then the entire drone screen completely disappears, then reappears all minimized, do have to fumble around to get the drones array expanded, use a right click menu to command them to what you want them to do if you don't have the commands keybound.

Back to the OPs topic, I do also agree that just because a ship is targeting jammed, it still has unimpeded communications to the drones. Ship is already communicating to the drones an aggression map regardless of if the hostile ship is targeted or not.

Once you launch drones on a target, you can unlock everything and they'll continue following the aggression as supplied by the ship (hmm, believe they still do). Simple commands already existing (but not mapped to user control) "engage highest aggression" "engage next target", can't be too game changing to add user control.




Exactly you explained it very well, that is all i am trying to suggest here. Also i love your idea of an updated drone user interface, very overdue. Drone ships are becoming very obsolete and when this new patch hits that makes rats smarter, i bet more people who love drone boats will agree with us.

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Michael Loney
Skullspace Industries
#8 - 2012-10-22 21:06:33 UTC
A slight addition

Looking at the drone info sheets, most of them have a max of 8 target locks. Why is this? They are single target 'weapon' so why so many locks?

Go one step further:

We should be able to make a 'kill list' for the drone targets, select a locked target, right click, Drone target 1, 2, 3 ... up to 8. This way when a target dies the drones move to the next target together instead of splitting up and going after different targets while you fumble with menus and right clicks. Also you can lock up 5 frigates, assign them to a drone list, then unlock and work on the bigger guys in battle. ( My play style anyway ) No extra DPS, no realistic advantage in PVP but after the changes to the NPC AI there will be ships that target drones first and keeping them active would be a huge bonus.

Oh and also a way to tell when your drone is being targeted OTHER than waiting to see if they are taking damage.

Yes this means you can effectively target more than your ships max locked targets but the drones do this already when defending a ship.
Romvex
TURN LEFT
#9 - 2012-10-22 22:15:04 UTC
did you shove a pair of watermelons down there or something?
Shalua Rui
Rui Freelance Mining
#10 - 2012-10-22 22:17:35 UTC  |  Edited by: Shalua Rui
Drone controls definatly need some work, I agree.

First, there is the issue of passive drones when beeing jammed before drone deployment...

They can target on their own, without their "mothership" designating targets for them, but NPC's don't jam them, they jam us... that's obviously not working as intendet. I say, make them react to jamming attempts on my ship, but also make NPC's able to jam them... problem sloved.

Another thing: Make logi drones smart enough to tend to their own mothership... they can boost/repair one another, the only reason they cannot do the same for my ship is: I cannot target myself.

"ginger forum goddess, space gypsy and stone nibbler extraordinaire!" Shalua Rui - CEO and founder of Rui Freelance Mining (RFLM)
Baroness Vulna
Armada vi Vulnezia
#11 - 2012-10-22 22:48:50 UTC
Romvex wrote:
did you shove a pair of watermelons down there or something?


glad you noticed that, im up here...what do you think of my idea hun?

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