Player Features and Ideas Discussion

First, I tried to do my homework, I have looked through all of the threads I can find that pertain to Drones, and this idea has only had a minor hint elsewhere.

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=814979#post814979



The idea I have expands on this and I really think it could become a nice tool to add to a capsuleers arsenal.

Idea:
I would like to see a Reconnaissance Drone implemented into the game. This drone would of course require a special set of skills to operate and you would also have to purchase special drones. The main function of this drone would be the equivalent of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) like is used currently in real world situations. The drone would not only be able to travel to a celestial, planets, stations, POS's, etc. which is mentioned in the quote above, but you should be able to direct it through a stargate or wormhole, enabling you to get an accurate assessment of what potential dangers lie in wait on the other side.

I do understand that this would be a hard hit for gate campers, but this would be extremely beneficial if you are flying a logistics run through low-sec or if you are flying as a forward scout for a large fleet. One thing to consider is that the drone will be just like and other drone in the fact that the pilot's identification and bracket color will show up on the grid for any pilots in the vicinity, also the drone can be targeted and shot leaving the scout without eyes, and out of the ISK they used to purchase it.

Another point to consider is that these drones should be subject to a Distance penalty, if you send it through a stagate, then you have to be sure it is within 10 Lightyears (rough estimate), or else you will lose contact with the drone and have to hope it is alive on the other side.

Also, this is not a combat effective drone, it is simply a camera, that would open a pop-up window on your overview allowing you to see, also leaving your ship vulnerable on the other side of the gate, which leaves the pilot needing to be cautious about the use of these drones. I would also like to see these drones be equippable by Covert-Ops/ Stealth Bombers and the ship should be able to launch this drone and remain cloaked.

If this has already been mentioned that I apologize for the length, if not I would truly love to see an implementation like this in the game. I think it would add a new aspect for players to be able to prepare themselves wherever they may travel. Please discuss.

Another consideration, the drone could be launched similar to a Moon Probe or a Bomb, where you align to the object, launch drone, and when it arrives at the target it will come online. The only movement the drone can make is turning (Up, Down, Left, Right) then pilot would then have to go to the drone and scoop it back into their drone bay (if it is still alive).

That is a great idea! It will certainly add to the dynamics of the game and shift things around a bit which always keeps things interesting, challenging, and fun!

Kudos!

This is the current method, and it does work to an extent, but, this would add to the game. This would give pilots that want to employ tactics (such as the pilots I fly with) a greater ability to actually utilize a scout.

A scout is only good while (s)he is alive, and jumping into a hostile zone and dying instantly is not an effective way to scout. Regardless, thank you for the input.

I like the idea of recon drones and fully support the expansion of them as a possible idea. I disagree that they can have the ability to jump a gate and give a visual cue as to whats on the other side. Maybe this can be dropped to a simple readout (like the d-scan) but only whats on the local gate grid and it doesn't give distances or anything else besides type of ships, drones, etc...

I would like this to be balanced in a way that they are completely non combat and large (25m). Other possibilities of limitations are time limit spent away from the ship, or one warp only capability (so you have to pick them up).

I absolutely agree, a simple scan would be fine if it were to travel through a gate, the main thing that spawned the idea was if a pilot jumps into a system they are not familiar with they could send one to tell them if there are Warp Disruption fields, and/or ships within 50 KM (estimate) of the gate.

I would like to see an image be able to be produced if it were in the same Solar System. And the one way warp was what I was meaning, that way it cannot just fly to every location to scout for the pilot.

Great idea, but this sounds a whole lot like wanting a alt scout without having to pay for one. There should NOT be a substitute in EVE for Teamwork. All these capabilities seem way too overpowered.

I remember a post some time ago where, instead of drones, someone wanted scan probes that a pilot could control when he wasn't even in system.

I suggested 'Remote Surveillance Probes', launchable from an expanded probe launcher. They would be stationary and would act just like a directional scanner with a 14a.u. range, don't necessarily need to be recoverable and would last for as long as a conventional probe. They could also be scanned down and destroyed by an opposing force.

So the covops pilot would drop however he needed to in a system and then move on, subject to however many Remote Probes he skills allow him to control. There would then be a tab for each probe in his d-scan window that he can operate.

Same system recon is one aspect, I think that's a great expansion for black ops considering they could use some tweaking.

For gate travel scouting, I would modify it as follows:
You send the drone through.
By programming, it emerges on the other side, and immediately burns back towards the gate.
It takes a snapshot of the overview, using whatever settings you had active at the time you launched it.
It jumps back, and delivers the snapshot to the host.

For those trying to be cautious: If it returns, you get to see what was on the local grid at the time it arrived.
If it doesn't return, you may not want to see why, something is being hostile.

For the gate campers: Oh come on, this is a gift basket for you. Consider this:
You have a cloaked vessel on gate, watching.
A probe comes through, obviously sees nothing.
Alert your buddies, the host ship of the probe might just be next....
Everyone warps to gate and kill mail.

There is a counter for every strategy.

While the in-system recon is a little different, the gate probe idea has been posted before:

Gate Probe
New Module Ideas Thread

The first thread has a lot of discussion on the idea.... and rather than repost most of that here, I'll give a quick summary of my view on the idea:

I am very much AGAINST the "send a probe through a gate to get recon" idea. I'm against your "scout through gates with a probe" idea on two general principles:

1.) It moves an important fleet role from a player ship to a drone. Currently, there is an entire class of ships designated for scouting (covops) which do so extremely well. Additionally, there are many other easily-accessible ships that also work well for scouting! To gain intel on the system next door, a pilot and their ship is put at risk. This role becomes somewhat diminished with the addition of your drone, because big ships can scout themselves...

2.) This idea essentially removes to much risk for valuable intel. Currently, to get intel, a pilot must traverse the gate, and then "potentially" traverse a gate camp. They put themselves and their ship at risk. To get that same intel, your idea essentially moves the risk from a Pilot and their ship to a drone... which I'm not ok with.

I think scouting, intel gathering, and the like need to be made "more important" by making intel harder to gain, (like replacing local with an intel system). I feel, in the current intel system, this idea makes intel gathering even more trivial than it already is!

*edit* for a final note:

Why is this "idea" needed? We already have scouting ships/roles which are extremely efficient at gather intel on other systems, and we have probes, dscan, and bookmarks that allow us to gather intel on almost everything currently in your system.

I like the idea!

After cramming in a warp core to get mobile with the drone should be huge ( 50m^3 ), and the bandwidth should be at least 5x normal drones, that way it is self limiting on how many you can have active at any time.

The other approach is to require a rig slot that only allows the use of black ops drones.


And the complete other side of things.

Allow us to launch combat probes thru gates, we can use them just like normal to scan ahead but it takes a significant amount of time compared to a scout alt.

1) You think it's fair to assess the situation on the other side of a gate before you go through a gate?
--- I don't... I think you should have to risk a ship and pod to get that information. Furthermore, there is an entire class of ships specialized in ascertaining this information with little (but some) risk... I see no decent reason to enable you to do it with probes...

--- You are in the military.... How is reconnaissance performed? While scouts are given training and tools to mitigate much of their personal risk, deep reconnaissance missions always involve putting the scout in "harm's way". I know UAV's exist, and are utilized to recon too, but there are many situations where UAV reconnaissance doesn't effectively work. Furthermore, I think EvE's interests are far better served by utilizing pilots in sips to perform recon, rather than UAVs.

2.) Why should you have to have a player to scout your vulnerable ship through hostile space?
--- Because this is an MMO... You are supposed to work with other people.. Your suggestion, to send a drone to recon the system next door, enables your vulnerable ship to play two roles at once... I think it's healthy that a single pilot can't do both roles safely on your own!!!! (Just like moving capitals requires teamwork too!)

3.) Thanks to the wonderful bubble mechanics, warping to 100 is not a safe tactic to observe a celestial in Nullsec. And there are many nullsec gates that don't have "other" celestials nearby that you can bounce off of to dscan the gate... Furthermore, there are probes, which allow you to check out any ship / structure in space, making the ability of a in-system scout drone redundant...

4.) I think an actual intel system would be awesome, but probably wont' be implemented anytime soon. It's more complicated than just altering local to echo WH-space's delayed local, as the current dscanner is an insufficient stand-alone intel tool. I think we need to keep this discussion to how it would fit within the current version of EvE.