Player Features and Ideas Discussion

This isn't a balance proposal, but a usability proposal, although it likely affects balance.

Currently, drones have to be micromanaged far more than any other weapon system. This seems counter intuitive; they are drones, and should not be micromanaged unless you want to. A system that allows autonomy would be ideal, but how do you ensure that your drones will do what you want them to do? To ensure that your drones do what you want you must micromanage them. I intend to present an idea that would hopefully solve both parts of this dilemma.

I realize that many people may prefer to micromanage their drones, or find themselves in a situation in which their drone's programmed behavior is not that which they need the drones to perform. There would be an easily accessible switch on the drone window to enable manual control and disable the preprogrammed AI.

Priority AI

Drones would be programmed with a list of tasks and conditions in which to perform those tasks, in order of priority. For example:

Condition_________________Action
1. Structure Damage........................Return to Drone Bay
2. Host Ship Fires Weapons...........Engage targetted ship
3. EWAR applied to host.................Engage EWAR vessel
4. Aggressed.....................................Engage Aggressor
5. No targets......................................Return and orbit

A drone script such as this one would be programmed by the player based on his preferences - if for example the player wanted his drones to engage enemy EWAR first regardless of who or what he was shooting, he would simply swap the order of commands 2 and 3, putting command 3 at a higher priority than command 2. This would allow a high level of control over the drones AI and actions, negating the need for micromanagement, since your drones will already be doing what you want them to do. You will still be able to micromanage if you want, and will retain extra flexibility that way, but you won't need to.

Each drone would have its own script. You can apply the same script to all of your drones, or have different scripts for different drones (for example, you may want your ewar drones to behave differently when launched than your combat drones). Drone scripts would not be an item like tracking computer or sensor booster scripts, they would simply be a mechanic to control and customize the actions of your drones.

Drones would not launch autonomously, it would be up to the player to launch the drones he wants to use.

Drone UI

The drone UI is bad, but hopefully with these changes the need to use it will be reduced. Still, there are some needed improvements in this area.

Each drone and drone group in the drone bay should have a "Launch" button on them. Each drone and drone group in space should have "Engage" and "Return to Drone Bay" buttons. Furthermore, there should be a row of buttons on the top of the drone window - a manual override switch, to disable drone AI and allow manual commands, an Engage button, to make all active drones engage the selected target, and a Return to Drone Bay button, to return all drones in space to your drone bay.


I realize that these are non-trivial changes, but I think they would be a massive improvement over the current system.

Comments and criticisms welcome.

UI with drone range to target diplay along with shortcuts, stop the right click **** fest, etc...