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Player Features and Ideas Discussion

 
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Double the number of drones?
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Sammy Fischer
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#1 - 2016-08-23 23:28:39 UTC
In the day, you could control 10 drones at a time, and each drone did half the damage. It was reduced to 5 in order to improve server performance. With the back end and server improvements, is it time to bring that number back up? The drone bays were not made smaller when the number was reduced, effectively giving drone boats more cushion when their drones died, and gave a major buff to ships with small drone bays when DPS doubled. All you would need to do is cut the drone DPS and bandwidth in half and allow 10 drones again.

Going back to the specs of old would change a lot about how drones are deployed in both PVP and PVE. They would be much more important for PVE pilots to manage their drone health because they would not have spares anymore. PVP pilots would have longer before a flight is destroyed, but would also not have spares anymore. Ships with small drone bays would see a nerf. The Caracal for example would have its already small drone DPS halved, the Procurer would no longer have a spare flight of drones, etc. It would also double the cost of a drone boats load if they only carry what they fl.t

Would such a change require the adjustment of drone bay sizes to compensate pilots to what has been the meta for a long time, or would they adapt to the new/old drone bay capacities? What else would this change break?
Rawketsled
Generic Corp Name
#2 - 2016-08-24 00:02:22 UTC
You'd also need to halve drone health. Then fit a smartbomb to clear off drones used against you.

My screen is cluttered enough as it is. I don't want more drones.

No thanks.
Celthric Kanerian
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#3 - 2016-08-24 00:52:11 UTC
Or maybe get yourself a Guardian-Vexor which can use 10 light drones?
Daichi Yamato
Jabbersnarks and Wonderglass
#4 - 2016-08-24 02:59:33 UTC
Sammy Fischer wrote:
It was reduced to 5 in order to improve server performance. With the back end and server improvements, is it time to bring that number back up?


No.

And then you elude to why yourself here

Sammy Fischer wrote:

Would such a change require the adjustment of drone bay sizes to compensate pilots to what has been the meta for a long time, or would they adapt to the new/old drone bay capacities? What else would this change break?



Why do all that work rebalancing every ship in the game (for the second time this half decade) when we can just not...is there a reason you really want ten drones on every ship?

'cause it would be cool'

Ok...NEXT!

EVE FAQ "7.2 CAN I AVOID PVP COMPLETELY? No; there are no systems or locations in New Eden where PvP may be completely avoided"

Daichi Yamato's version of structure based decs
Sammy Fischer
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#5 - 2016-08-24 03:07:53 UTC
Daichi Yamato wrote:
Sammy Fischer wrote:
It was reduced to 5 in order to improve server performance. With the back end and server improvements, is it time to bring that number back up?


No.

And then you elude to why yourself here

Sammy Fischer wrote:

Would such a change require the adjustment of drone bay sizes to compensate pilots to what has been the meta for a long time, or would they adapt to the new/old drone bay capacities? What else would this change break?



Why do all that work rebalancing every ship in the game (for the second time this half decade) when we can just not...is there a reason you really want ten drones on every ship?

'cause it would be cool'

Ok...NEXT!

Except they didn't really rebalance anything last time because they left the drone bays the same, effectively doubling them for drone boats. I'm not proposing doubling drone bay capacities to compensate.
Zan Shiro
Doomheim
#6 - 2016-08-24 04:12:25 UTC  |  Edited by: Zan Shiro
Sammy Fischer wrote:

Except they didn't really rebalance anything last time because they left the drone bays the same, effectively doubling them for drone boats. I'm not proposing doubling drone bay capacities to compensate.



It would have to be done as the drone fans would be complain about their drones being shot up twice as quickly. And it be a fair gripe as their dps easily killed off.

Like Rawketsled said you'd see half ehp. And probably half damage. The doubling of this was part of the drop to 5.

You are also looking at drone boats. Non "drone boat" would get this as well. we need our lights and mediums to be like the 5 current post stat change. Rokh drone bay is 50 now. Your 10 medium flight of doom...means I need 100m3 to have the same levels.


Daichi-san is correct in that at least rebalance of the less fortunate boats bay wise will need to happen for sure. My rokh gets sentries it could never run before since i always killed the space for lights from this 100m3 bay upgrade. Some nice dps there potentially. Too nice potentially...its why CCP has made me choose between lights or sentry for years (been a 50m3 bay for as long I can recall). I chose lights for frigate kills close range over added sentry damage at range.

That and I share the sentiment of why? really. Granted I am biased....I like the gurista super drone idea, less drone management better for me.
Shae Tadaruwa
Science and Trade Institute
Caldari State
#7 - 2016-08-24 07:42:09 UTC
TiDi is bad enough with the current number of drones.

No thanks.

Dracvlad - "...Your intel is free intel, all you do is pay for it..." && "...If you warp on the same path as a cloaked ship, you'll make a bookmark at exactly the same spot as the cloaky camper..."
Solecist Project
#8 - 2016-08-24 13:30:02 UTC
They'll do that once, if ever, they figured out how to do virtual drones ...
... like i suggested several years ago. ^_^

So ... never ... which is sad. lol

That ringing in your ears you're experiencing right now is the last gasping breathe of a dying inner ear as it got thoroughly PULVERISED by the point roaring over your head at supersonic speeds. - Tippia
Tragot Gomndor
Three Sword Inc
#9 - 2016-08-24 13:31:14 UTC
less drones is better, not more...

NONONONONONO TO CAPS IN HIGHSEC NO
Donnachadh
United Allegiance of Undesirables
#10 - 2016-08-24 13:52:52 UTC
As a drones pilot I side with the no way crowd.
Damage mitigation for your drones is a PIA now and 10 in space would double that work load, no thanks I am OK with what we have.

Drones in space and server performance was and still is a huge factor in this and it will always be a factor. Limiting the Pirate ships to two drones was stated to be a change to give them a unique character. I say BS ( not battleship ) it was done to test a theory on further reduction of the server load by having fewer drones in space that it could be presented as a way of making the pirate ships unique was a simple marketing ploy to cover the real reason.
Merchant Rova
Hedion University
Amarr Empire
#11 - 2016-08-25 15:37:17 UTC
>Making drones worse
>Making server performance worse

How about no

RIP Merchant Rova's cheekbones, YC118-YC119. Forever in our hearts.
baltec1
Bat Country
Pandemic Horde
#12 - 2016-08-25 15:51:02 UTC
It was reduced for a reason.
Tiddle Jr
Brutor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#13 - 2016-08-26 04:08:58 UTC
Maybe we just all have Guardian-Vexor bpc's seeded in one of the LP shops?

"The message is that there are known knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know" - CCP
CowRocket Void
Of Tears and ISK
ISK.Net
#14 - 2016-08-27 01:40:22 UTC
There was just a massive change in carriers to reduce the number of drones on grid. Please don't kill the server.

bleeding shadow darkness > did i just saw a red procurer? :P
Captain Campion
Campion Corp.
#15 - 2016-08-29 17:58:33 UTC
I recall something about reducing the server load of missiles via some kind of grouping. Something like that should work for drones - shouldn't really increase traffic by having more drones.
Gerhard Stringfellow
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#16 - 2016-08-29 21:40:05 UTC
I found the guy that doesn't have to deal with TiDi

Another pubbie elite PvE pay to win mining carebear
Zan Shiro
Doomheim
#17 - 2016-08-30 00:28:45 UTC
Captain Campion wrote:
I recall something about reducing the server load of missiles via some kind of grouping. Something like that should work for drones - shouldn't really increase traffic by having more drones.



Missiles are not persistent. They live for mere seconds. Also missile chucker tend to group weapons. Means we fire that one big salvo, maybe 2 split. Its less to track vice 5 to 10.


Also as I said before, this scales very quickly. My example rokh, the 100 other apocs, mega's, pests in fleet....we are all spitting out 10 drones besides the drone boats. Even empire pve systems will start to crap out as light/mediums are a pve BS's best friend for small stuff. Missiles got bad with just drake train. Thing is...you needed to bring missiles boats. The number of boats with a 5 light drone use ability minimum....much greater.
Fedo Otsolen
Doomheim
#18 - 2016-08-30 00:35:11 UTC
Captain Campion wrote:
I recall something about reducing the server load of missiles via some kind of grouping. Something like that should work for drones - shouldn't really increase traffic by having more drones.



i recalle times when you could heal fighters in space Bear
Rage Guy
Heimatar Hull Mining Group
#19 - 2016-08-30 15:58:45 UTC
How about no.

Because of all the reasons not to.
Tiddle Jr
Brutor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#20 - 2016-08-30 19:51:18 UTC
It's fine when small classes like frig an dessy could launch 5 drones at all. But why not to have same ability and use a squadron for drone orinted BC and BS. OP? Yes, then cut damage role bonuses.

"The message is that there are known knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know" - CCP