Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Geckos need a different AI. The Gecko was supposed to make up for the loss of bonuses on light and medium drones on the Rattlesnake in PVE, but the heavy drone AI makes it a annoying micromanagement burden. Instead of destroying all the aggroed ships of a type, frigates or cruisers, as light and medium drones would do, the Gecko always wants to return to whatever battleship you are shooting at after it destroys its target, or wants to go pop the BS trigger, whatever it may be, forcing you to lock each individual ship. Its important to note that the Rattlesnake is capable of locking a maximum of 7 only targets. Destroying frigates and cruisers shouldn't be so much of a PITA , having to reassign them constantly and losing DPS.

Because of this, I find the former iteration of the Rattlesnake far more preferable to play. The elimination of creative play via reduction of drone bay from 400m3 to 175m3 was also unappreciated.

Giving Geckos light or medium drone AI should be an easy band-aid fix while we wait for better drone AI improvements.

No it wasn't, they were a present.

Fix the Gecko's so they at least have the same bandwidth as Large Drones so that four of them can be used.

Geckos are not meant to fill any particular niche. They are one off gifts, and when they are gone they are gone. Unless you start seeing blueprints for them somewhere, your request is pointless

Do you know how broken that would be?

wtf.

I had more, but "wtf" is as constructive as I can be,

Removed some off topic posts. Keep it on topic, thanks.

It looks like none can offer any reason why we shouldn't have this change.

As someone who has trained exclusively for a Torp fit, passive-shield tanked Rattlesnake that primarily uses light and medium drones, this change would go a long way to restoring the playstyle that was ruined for me and no doubht other players by the Rattlesnake changes. It would mean a lot to me if we could have this band-aid fix come Hyperion. It can't be terribly difficult to do and it would go a long way towards making the Rattlesnake less of the heavy micro-management burden that it has become.

We already established that you don't know what you are talking about, as per usual.

All heavy drones/sentries prioritize battleships over smaller targets (unless the smaller target attacks first) because they are most likely to actually hit these. This is not a unique quirk of the Gecko. This is more of a problem you have with the AI of Heavy Drones in general and you would garner more support if you were to champion for a more robust drone UI.


Nowhere has it ever been stated that the Gecko was meant to make up for the lack of the smaller drones. Just because it is what you think does not make it true and I am going to need a link of proof to wherever this statement was made.

Finally, the change in drone bay has not hindered the ship as much as you would like to claim. Previously 400m3 was 3 flights of heavy drones and 25m3 to spare. The new 175m3 is... 3 flights of heavy drones with 25m3 to spare.

CCP doesn't always spell everything out for you, even if some of you desperately need it.

The Gecko seems to fullfill the role of medium drones. It even requires the same bandwidth of 5 medium drones. It also has the highest tracking to be found on a heavy drone, comparable to medium drones.

Equally. How can you prove that the Gecko is not intended for this role? Given the loss of bonuses on light and medium drones, it seems more likely than not. The fact it is a Guristas drone and the Rattlesnake is the only Guristas ship that can use it should be telling you something as well.

The loss of 400m3 drone bay eliminated the ability to use the perfect light or medium drone type for whatever may be encounterd, it also eliminated any possibilities of creative play with heavy utility drones.

You couldn't be more wrong.