Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Drones have received the blame for at least one node crash in recent history. Even if they're not directly responsible, they create a huge amount of unnecessary clutter on the grid.

If we give pilots the opportunity to self-destruct our drones instead of simply abandoning them, we can do our part to keep the nodes healthy during drone-heavy fights.

The reality is that when we abandon our drones in these gigantic fleet fights, we never expect to see them again. The result: thousands of drones clogging up the grid for no reason other than that we bounced or slowboated a few KM away from sentries, and need to switch range or damage types.

If we wanted to iterate further on this idea, we could also benefit from a drone control toggle option that would automatically self destruct our drones when they would have otherwise become abandoned, like when the ship warps off grid or the ship is destroyed. This would be optional and the existing abandonment functionality would be preserved for people who want to keep their drones.

The ability to order our drones to self-destruct change will preserve the existing mechanics and meta-game of combat using drones, but allow pilots to clean up after themselves in scenarios where they would otherwise leave a huge amount of trash on grid.

Agreed. Interesting idea.

+1 for this. Even in small engagements, having excessive amounts of drones on the field create a huge amount of lag and can be extremely aggravating, both to the pilots that are responsible for them, and the pilots being shot by them. On occasions, it would be incredibly favorable to have an option to get rid of the drones that are left behind from warp-offs that can't necessarily be retrieved immediately. Self-destructing drones would be a great way to clear strain off the system or constellation if several systems are occupied by large fights, and its just one less thing that you can get lagged out from.

+1 good idea!