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I hate to spam out the forum, but this has been bugging me forever and with multiple drone systems up on the balancing pass for Sisi, I figure I may as well ask. Whats the worst that can happen? (in before bans)

With EDAs and new webbing drones, I'd like one of the developers to take 10 seconds and fix the Amarr non-sentry combat drones. They are honestly, truly, brokenly bad, and have been for years. I have my own personal pet solution to balance non-sentry combat drones, but at this point I'd settle for just copying the damage modifier of Caldari drones onto Amarr drones and calling it good.

If you aren't familiar with the problem, I'll lay out the facts for you. Stats are with level V skills, including drone Spec V.

Acolyte II: 14 DPS
Hobgoblin II: 20 DPS
Hobgoblin I: 15 DPS

Infiltrator II: 23 DPS
Hammerhead II: 32 DPS
Hammerhead I: 24 DPS

Praetor II: 46 DPS
Ogre II: 63 DPS
Ogre I: 48 DPS

Ammarian non-sentry drones just do laughable damage. Truly, honestly, horrendously, poor damage. There is no RP reason for this - Amarr is the second highest drone using race. There is no balancing reason for this - EM damage is no more valuable than explosive, yet minmatar drones are not only much faster, but *also* much harder hitting.

In fact, as the bolded numbers indicate, Tech 1 Gallente drones do more damage than the Tech 2, Amarr Spec V drones do! This is the equivalent of game balancing crimes against humanity (or at least pod pilots).

As it stands, there is no reason to use Amarrian drones. They aren't tougher, or faster, or harder hitting, or any other desirable attribute. They just plod along and such. I think the last time I've even seen them was on some bad Raven bot out in 0.0 years ago. If you need further proof, just look at the volume traded of Amarr drones compared to any other race. Its practically non-existent.

Jita Trade Numbers, Medium Drones:
<1,000 Infiltrators II daily in Jita
1,000->2,000 Vespa IIs
2,000->4,000 Valkayrie IIs
5,000->10,000 Hammerhead IIs



So please, just copy the Caldari drone's damage modifiers and buff these drones enough to be equipped. It won't make for perfect balance, and Caldari drones themselves are a bit underpowered, but its a 10 second fix that would be appreciated by all those drone pilots out there.



I mentioned it, so I'll post my more in-depth balancing thoughts for these. I realize you have enough of your plate that such a balancing pass is probably not possible for Inferno, but maybe it will spark an Idea somewhere.


Drones are broken up into two sections - High Damage, and Utility Drones.

High Damage Races: Caldari and Gallente.

Caldari is the "original" drone race by RP, and Gallente is the undisputed master of Drone technology in modern times. While Caldari design doctrine did eventaully shift to missiles as an evolution of drones, they stayed up in the arms race for combat drones. Kinetic and Thermal are the two most common damage types, and the easiest to prepare for, making these damage types a good choice for more power.

Utility Drone Races: Amarr and Minmatar.

Amarr is the second drone Race by Game Design, but their hulls have gone largely unexplored short of their recon lineup. Minmatar has no drone ships, but their ships are *fast*, making it natural for Minmatar to design drones that can keep up with the fleet in lightning fast attacks. Amarr ships are slow and tough, and vulnerable in knife-fighting ranges (which their Minmatar enemies can exploit with their high speed). Amarr naturally would design drones with strong tanks and high tracking to counter this threat. From a game design POV, EM and Explosive damage is more "exotic" and desirable, making it harder to tank and therefore more dangerous to make high damage.


Specific Drone Changes:

Caldari: Drones become faster than Gallente Drones, but with minimal shield and armor HP (1/2 Gallente drone HP). They have greatly reduced tracking values, and a highly damaging, high-alpha attack. In exchange, they have a very long reload duration for drones. Their overall DPS is the highest, but it can only be achieved attacking targets larger than the drone class (ex. Caldari light drones would need to attack a Cruiser-sized target before they can likely hit).

Gallente: Drones basically stay the same. While they technically are no longer the "highest DPS" drones, they have the best overall combination of stats with decent HP, decent speed, decent tracking, and high damage with normal ROF.

Minmatar: Drones basically stay the same. Minmatar drones are the fastest drones and the second-highest in tracking speed. Their great handling and acceptable damage makes them a favorite choice to use on faster ships that want to dictate range control.

Amarr: Drones gain double the HP on all stats, making them by far the toughest drones out there. Their speed is reduced to become the slowest drones (slightly slower than Gallente), but their tracking is buffed to become the highest tracking drones, eclipsing even that of Minmatar drones. They gain a 2s ROF and a low damaging attack, with overall DPS the same as Minmatar drones. Their though tank, high tracking speed, and fast ROF makes them the perfect drone to fight other drones with (which feeds right into the Arbitrator school of combat philosophy), and they can take many more smartbomb or even bomb hits than normal drones could. Of course, they are balanced out by only OK DPS and very slow speed.


Such is my personal balancing take on drones. I'm sure other people have differing ideas on how to handle it. Frankly, I don't care anymore how non-sentry combat drones are changed around, but its really, really high time that something is done. At the very least, just copy those Caldari damage modifier