Player Features and Ideas Discussion

tech 3 rigs...

Good idea, but a bit overly complicated. Simpler version:

External Drone Bay (small) - Low power slot, -10% CPU, adds +10m3 dronebay and 5 bandwidth.
External Drone Bay (medium) - Medium power slot, -10% CPU, adds +20m3 dronebay and 10 bandwidth.
External Drone Bay (large) - High power slot, -10% CPU, adds +50m3 dronebay and 25 bandwidth.

Multiple bays can be fitted, but none of this expands drones past the five-at-once limit. CPU loss for multiple bays would cumulative. External drone bay exists independent of the ship's standard drone capacity, meaning that even if a ship had no drones at all it could squeeze in a few using these modules - but at an obvious cost to other potential items.

Skills would not need to be that high (Drones 5, Scout Drone Operation 3+), no need to add a bunch of T2 or T3 crap to it. No reason to have a powergrid drain, either - it's just a radio signal. Realistically, it would only need CPU to use - which is covered in the fitting cost. Mostly they would just take up a lot of room - which is shown in the fitting cost.

Simplicity & ease of use also creates versatility. I think the most heavy use would be in already existing drone carriers, as they have the least need for actual gun turrets (drones being their primary weapon, after all) and thus would benefit the most from trading guns for drones via high slots. But even a tiny frigate could slap one into a underused low slot and add a dash of surprise to it's attack, too. Be creative. Grab a Rifter and stick two large drone bays into it and launch a full squad of medium attack drones at someone - probably the last thing someone would expect from a frigate, after all.

And yes, the Gallente would go nuts with it. As it should be.

There are a few problems with this:

1) You won't be able to use the extra drone space as you can't turn on the module in a station so can't (short of using an orca or being in a POS) add the extra drones. Makes this a purely gallente module, really.
2) There are many threads documenting the additional DB load if people started doubling up on the number of drones. I won't bother repeating here but you can find them by searching.
3) There are already drone modules that make them faster, have better tracking and can be controlled further.

Perhaps a better suggestion would be to create a module that gave 100% drone damage bonus and 100% dps bonus and 50% speed bonus. This would solve the issue of increased DB utilisation but fulfil your request in terms of effectiveness.

The only problem is when you put it like that its fairly obvious that it makes drone boats very much overpowered.

Its purpose is to be more versatile towards someones skills and to give more variety to the battlefields in Low/ High Secs.
As stated, the only ships in game currently using something similar is the carriers but there are still 1000's of pilots who wish to experience something like them but dont want to train them.

Also, it may be a little complicated but i see the reductions and timer a fair trade for fielding 2x the amount of drones.
I measured the extension in '%' simply so (for example) a Rifter cannot field more than double the drones they have. With the simpler version noted above, a Rifter being able to field 5 heavies is quite OP considering it can function turrets and all the sorts also.

As for the Activation timer, it encourages people to train the skill for one, yes it does also ward off botters, but its also to stop it being an OP module. As for the length of time, it could always be increased by having an 15min activation timer instead. But how long do big fights go on for before you lose a ship or people retreat or you run out of ammo anyways? Its surely not more than 5 hours for a battleship (which is the time they could have it activated for) or 2.5 hours for a frigate.

This is also another reason why there should be a timer and why it should have fair and reasonable drawbacks, due to DB issues and lags. Though in CCPs defence they have done alot of ground breaking moves to increase the DB stability and also the Time Dialation effect helps with any lag that could be caused.

NOTE: The drone by size is increased when the module is FITTED and ONLINE. These stages are different to being ACTIVE.
EG: I FIT the module onto my ship and it automatically is turned online, if i have enough fitting space for it = Drone bay increased. I then undock and ACTIVATE the module and the drone bandwidth is then increased.

And yes, Gallentes would fap to this so much there would be nothing left but this is a module which can be used by anyone, any race, anywhere. Just because you're Gallente doesnt mean you dont like missiles ;)

wildly overpowered (if it adds to the drone control limit), or useless except on the vexor and mermdon, nether of which need a ~40% DPS hike (if it doesn't)