Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I've a basic idea for Rogue drones, especially now that they're making their début as ordinary pirates, is that there should be Rogue Drone faction ships.

I'm not going to post any slot layouts, or anything, but the basic concept is:

Rogue drone ships get bonuses to all turret types

Shield and armour tank viable

Missile capability

So, think of Minmatar, how you can shield or armour tank generally easily. Mixed guns between turrets and arties, but allow them to fit any race of weapon whilst still bonused. This would allow for great versatility and will enrich the sandbox that is EVE.

You could also give them drone bonuses, but limit them to the 'Augmented' and 'integrated' drone types, to give them some actual purpose.

What do you mean by this?

So instead of taking a T1 hull + ISK + LP and turning it into a lavy issue hull, you take a T1 hull+ Rogue drone parts, and turn it into an "infested" hull?

Alternately, we could have a new class of drones - not hobgoblins, not warriors, but "sentient" drones.

Alternately, they could make the supply of integrated and augmented drones go way up, so that they may actually get used....

This feels dangerous and a ship that suddenly takes control and does its own thing is not something i would want to fly :)

Hmmm, rogue drone style piloting has potential, but it plays by different rules, I think.

Anything above drone size represents a controlling hive ship. Frigate, cruiser, possibly a battleship size.

The ship hulls are infested appearance, and have only defenses active directly.

Here is how I think it could work:

Example: Thorax cruiser infested.
Ship has no turret or launcher hardpoints.
Ship capacitor is based off of number of active drones, the ship itself is simply a focal point for the drone's organization, and any attacks on it directly are wasted efforts.
Punch all the holes in it you like, it is literally a floating wreck that cannot take damage as it is sustained on this level by the drones linked to it.

The drones are the weakness and the strength.
The ship has 10 drones initially, 5 medium and 5 large.
(Cruiser size allowance, frigates would be all small, a BS could have all large, but could choose to use smaller)
Only 5 can be devoted to attacking, the others are reserves sustaining the hive mind network the cruiser is the focal point of.

If the 5 attacking drones are lost, the second set can be used to fight as a last resort. This is comparable to fighting with your armor and shields gone, and your ship going into structure.

If these reserve 5 are killed, the infested ship itself has no power, and is a drifting wreck. Pilot pod is ejected as the magnetic clamps holding it lose power.

Modules survive or not same as any other wreck, the drones being killed sometimes send feedback that damages or destroys items, and cargo in the hold has the same chances there too.

The only rogue drone element you are keeping is the paint job and the shape.

Yes, they stop being rogue if they are player controlled, but at least give them a meaningfully different fighting style.

If all you want is a new paint job, make a new thread.

Maybe it's just me, but I think they should focus on the drones too.

Do something special that makes them special, specifically with drones.

The paint job and model is gonna be there, I want the gameplay aspect.

How about a rogue ships focusing primarily on drone damage and less on turrets?
Make it so that you can't fit turrets nor launchers and add ship specific modules instead that increase the amount drones you can control at one time. Also add new type of drones with reduced attack, defence & bandwidth by ~50% (obviously has to be tweaked to be balanced, just an example).

What you'd end up with is a "drone carrier" (Battleship class) with ~15 drones and a large drone bay so you can send out wave after wave of drones.

Not to be too hard on you but.... No... Just... no. That's just far too massive of a change to even fit into the EVE lore. I'm talking about just drone faction ships.

for example, in missions, they have their frigates, crusers, and battleships. Just make them so that some genius figured out how to replace the drone parasite with a pod, and voilà.

It is one of those concepts I would not expect, it was more an exorcize on my part to think up how it might be done.

Your idea works well enough for me, but I think they should not be like reskinned ships from other races.

I would like to see bonuses that are interesting, and I want them to be good with drones too.