Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Some edits have been added

Sentry drones are fine and all, however, I would like them to have mobility.

Now, not in the manner you would think, but more like a rorqual.

That is, they somewhat have a deployed mode.

When they're deployed, they can fire freely.

Whenever you tell them to engage a target or assist a friendly, the automatically go into deployed mode.


Now, when you recall them, they have a somewhat packing up effect.

While they're doing this they cannot fire on targets.


However, they have the mobility of a medium or heavy drone, or perhaps somewhere in the middle.



Now, there would be more to this slightly than having mobility

When packaging or unpackaging, they have a 5 second cycle to do so.

So, launch sentries, engage target (with 5 second unpackage delay), orbit your sentries while they blast the target, kill target, recal sentries (5 second packaging delay), then they fly back to your ship.


I only suggest this because I understand that sentry drones are meant to be immobile, however, I feel that if they can only be mobile OR engage a target, then it's still completely balanced.

This would basically be used for nothing more than recalling sentry drones at distance.

Edit...
If you remain within range of your drones they remain to be instant recovery and don't require the repackage delay.

If you engage a target, your drones would unpack, however, if your drones had already unpacked and engaged a target, they the do not have to pack and unpack again in order to engage another target unless you attempt to recover them.

Edit 2..

It has been suggested that they would need to be slower than heavies.
First, I think mediums and heavies need a mwd buff.
After that I think the sentries would be fine with a 400-500m/s velocity.

Wonderful Idea best idea I have heard for drones in a while. ++++++++1 here

Well, if you look at sentry drone designes

http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Item_Database:Drones:Combat_Drones:Sentry_Drones

They all have the 4 wings/spikes sticking out.


My thought was, when you tell them to engage a target or return to you, those would actually collapse before the drones started moving, and would fold out when they were ordered to engage a target.


Now, they would remain in firing mode until they were ordered back, but ultimitely, the only reason for the 5 second duration to pack/unpack is simply a cosmetic timer to allow the animation to take act.



Like I said though... the fact that they couldn't fire while moving, and still couldn't move while firing would mean that they would be just as balanced as they are now, but it would be much easier/faster to retrieve them, expecially at a distance.

Good idea, makes them far more viable for PVP when not gate camping/being in a carrier blob. +1

+1 this idea completely. I hate leaving drones behind



but what if its both?

I've never heard that Idea before.

It has its flaws though cause you'd have to dedicate a high slot to a tractor, and I can't say that a tractor has ever been used in a pvp fit, lol.

The idea is nice but why are you against the idea of mobility?

How about them orbiting the host ship and firing at enemies from there? No one has to be stationary and you can change the optimal range dinamically by commanding your drones to assist allies.

Seems more legit for PVP scenarios.

They're not mobile sentries.

They would not be able to engage targets while moving and would not be able to move while engaging targets.

They would package up with a 5 second packaging duration before they would be able to go into flight mode.

Now, when you told them to engage a target they would stop, have a 5 second upacking duration into firing mode, and then they would engage the target from a stationary position.

From what I've understood, sentries are good against smaller ships as long as they're at the right range.

However, when it come to hose smaller ships, you can launch light or medium drones

Yeah, but that would make heavy drones obsolete.

Want to move your ship ? Use heavies. Accept their short range and low speed.

Want to engage from a distance ? Use sentries. Accept their immobility.

Both have their ups and downs.