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Two for One: Rogue Drones and Abandoned Towers
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Leyete Wulf
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#1 - 2013-12-31 14:15:51 UTC
EVE lore tells us that rogue drones seek out and absorb abandoned crippled and weak ships and stations (as is evidenced strongly in mission stories).

Whenever I see a long abandoned tower in low or null (especially in the Dronelands) the first thing that always comes to mind is "Gee, where are the Rogue Drones?"

Therefore I propose a combination and refinement of some of the ideas I've seen posted elsewhere.

Towers which have not been onlined at least once in 90 days should become infested with Rogue Drones. Once a tower is infested it slowly bleeds HP as its materials are converted for use making new Rogue Drones. This HP bleed would begin in structure dropping a percent each day. Then after 30 days the tower's armor and shields would begin to drop at 2 percent a day. After 90 days (180 days from the last time the tower was onlined) the tower (now at 10% structure no shield or armor) is fully converted into a drone hive (like the ones seen in L4 missions). As the HP of the tower drops a roughly equivalent (tweaking for balance as needed) ehp or isk worth of rogue drones spawn around the tower. In this fashion towers that are totally ignored eventually become giant hives of Rogue Drones and even sites that are farmed out regularly slowly bleed to death.

Additionally, modules locked to the tower during the conversion should be consumed entirely in the first 30 days bleeding shields armor and structure and be converted into 'drone bunkers'.

And, should the owners of the tower return after the conversion has begun they could upon destroying all the spawned drones reactivate the tower and rep it back to full HP. (I would make it so that the tower can't be reinforced until it has been completely restored from dronification.)
Corraidhin Farsaidh
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#2 - 2013-12-31 14:44:32 UTC
Nice idea, fits with the lore and creates new sigs/combat sites for people to hunt and kill. If you don't want your tower eaten you need to un-anchor it or keep it running now and then.
Obsidiana
Atrament Inc.
#3 - 2013-12-31 16:36:36 UTC
Awesome idea.
Do it in highsec too. >:}
Lucas Kell
Solitude Trading
S.N.O.T.
#4 - 2013-12-31 17:19:52 UTC
Obsidiana wrote:
Awesome idea.
Do it in highsec too. >:}
lol, I can just imagine it now.
Newbie high sec player flying aroudn to find a place for a POS.

...

ZOMG DRONE BLOB *boom*

But yeah, the idea is a bit weird, would kinda work, but probably wouldn't really have that much effect, since instead of getting rid of an empty tower, you'd now need to get rid of a mass of drones that shoot at you. Seems to me it would just be easier to shoot the empty tower. If it's abandoned it has no reinforce timer and nobody will come and defend it.

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Xe'Cara'eos
A Big Enough Lever
#5 - 2013-12-31 17:38:18 UTC
I like this - especially in HS - all those abandoned towers...... converted to drone minerals.... :D isk!

For posting an idea into F&I: come up with idea, try and think how people could abuse this, try to fix your idea - loop the process until you can't see how it could be abused, then post to the forums to let us figure out how to abuse it..... If your idea can be abused, it [u]WILL[/u] be.
Leyete Wulf
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#6 - 2013-12-31 17:44:31 UTC
Lucas Kell wrote:
Seems to me it would just be easier to shoot the empty tower. If it's abandoned it has no reinforce timer and nobody will come and defend it.


Actually an abandoned tower still has millions of hit points (over 60 million EHP for some towers). And while the owners may not come to defend it people do tend to stand and take notice when you bring in your dreads or a fleet or attack BCs and park them somewhere for a couple hours.

Whereas in this case the drones can be farmed off of the tower slowly over time or bombed off in droves (or crushed by a fleet in low/high) far more easily. Besides the biggest reason towers are not brought down regularly is that there is no incentive to do so. My idea has the merit of giving people a reason to clean up space and make room for new people and stuff to destroy.

In the special case of high sec there is also the notable advantage that once a tower is fully converted a war dec is no longer required to bring it down since it has become an NPC faction object rather than a player owned one.
Noxisia Arkana
Deadspace Knights
#7 - 2013-12-31 19:19:15 UTC


It would be nice to have something that can get rid of unoccupied towers... or at least be more fun to shoot at.
Cheng Musana
Native Freshfood
Minmatar Republic
#8 - 2013-12-31 22:10:32 UTC
Would work but i would like to bring up a different idea. Abandoned towers should be hackable with data analyzers. Allowing to override the ownership so that it becomes yours. After all the fuel ran out and the defences are aswell down so why not?
Komodo Askold
Strategic Exploration and Development Corp
Silent Company
#9 - 2013-12-31 23:34:07 UTC
I'd love to see that happen. Moreover, one of DUST 514's upcoming features is PVE, initially against Rogue Drones that start taking over planets' districts. Why shouldn't it happen in space too? +1
Leyete Wulf
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#10 - 2014-01-03 20:53:57 UTC
Cheng Musana wrote:
Would work but i would like to bring up a different idea. Abandoned towers should be hackable with data analyzers. Allowing to override the ownership so that it becomes yours. After all the fuel ran out and the defences are aswell down so why not?


I've seen that idea posted many times, and it never seems to gain enough traction. I like it but I think it is an even better alternative especially in low and null where it can drive conflict.
XvXTeacherVxV
Be Nice Inc.
Prismatic Legion
#11 - 2014-01-04 00:14:43 UTC
A similar idea was once suggested in a Massively article. Can't find the original link, but the author suggested adding PVE events where Sansha rats would attack POSes in wormholes.

All these ideas are good, but I wouldn't expect CCP to make any changes like this before they completely revamp POSes altogether.
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Meyr
Di-Tron Heavy Industries
OnlyFleets.
#12 - 2014-01-04 00:39:17 UTC
Great idea!

+1
Maichin Civire
#13 - 2014-01-04 01:07:07 UTC
I like it, and I'd like to see it in high sec. There would be thousands of drone hives along all high sec systems after this update...
Amarisen Gream
The.Kin.of.Jupiter
#14 - 2014-01-04 11:17:11 UTC
+ 1
I like this, but I think instead of converting the tower into smaller drones, they should take it over. And drone-e-fy the POS + whatever other buildings are there.

Basically. Drone tower with drone fabrication, drone ships, research buildings (drop BPCs for drones), drone sentry turrets. Just more drones. + las they take over towers, and such, they should send drones to belts to kill players as well as to mine minerials. This will give mining players a reason to help clear out drone hubs. And help prevent afking

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Corraidhin Farsaidh
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#15 - 2014-01-04 11:56:37 UTC
Nice idea, this could also generate missions automatically in empire space with agents offering people the option to go kill the hive. Could provide some nice random but auto-generated content and something different to standard missions.

Or better still it becomes an anomaly that shows up after the tower is fully dronified. The more ewar towers and such the drones create the harder the sig becomes to find.