Player Features and Ideas Discussion

hey guys, i just thought of an idea.

lets just use an ogre as a base. we have a normal, augmented/intergrated (which are faction so we wont look at em), and t2. not much difference between the t1 and t2 ogre.


what if we did t2 drone versions like missiles? t1 ogres are t1 ogres. when you get to t2, you have a choice of an ogre with better tracking, slightly less dps, or heavier guns for more dps, but less tracking?
precision and fury drones (would need a new name, but its the idea).

the drones we have now would be considered fury or heavy hitters. they wouldnt change. now, we go in and add ogre II precision. they would hit cruisers better. and with target painters, they might hit frigs if they can catch em.
same control range, better speed, better tracking and less dps.
like maybe 25% better tracking, 25% less dps.

it would only add 12 drones to the game but give ships a variety.
question-mega pulse? or dual heavies?
reply-what are we shooting?

ships get bonuses to weapons for their size. medium ships get medium weapon bonuses. putting smaller ones on there (using small drones) are non bonused the most time. now, we would have specialized drones for the battle.

as an example, so with this change, we can gate camp with an eos and shoot smaller ships with bonused drones. tackle a bs? pull precision and drop furies. turn em loose and hit the blasters.

nice! didnt think of that. rapid light medium drone launchers. puts em out of the ship fast..like as fast as we have now.

sorry if i didnt specify. these drones do not fire missiles. there is no tracking stat on a missile.
i mentioned precision and fury as an example of the difference between tech 2 missiles.

thats what i am intending with this change.

and after i thought about it. the ogre 1 would be the standard. the furies would hit a little harder, but track less and be a tad slower, the precision would be less dps, but track better and a tad faster.

When CCP introduced the new squadron mechanic for fighters they hinted that this gameplay might be extended to drones. It makes sense - squadrons lighten the load on servers since they are treated as a single entity and it aligns with their apparent desire to eliminate passive gameplay - no more assigning drones and you'll actually need to fly them!

Adding more drone variants is unlikely in this scenario - light, medium and heavy for each race. Not sure how they'll handle Sentries.

If true, it will blast a lot of people out of their nice comfortable ruts.

and there's the faction and augmented to choose from.

Also why the drone mods came to be. Pick range, tracking, power to taste. CCP went drone crazy once, and domi saw a nice adjustment in weeks flat for its tracking bonus. When damn near every AT was running these en masse on short notice, CCP got the less than subtle hint maybe they were too generous tracking wise lol.

OP seems to eyeing the greatness of fury. OP needs to hit ships and mods where spreadsheets galore exist to work paint/missile guidance and ye old flare vs. rigor. Hell I have been using missiles for years and I get confused if its 2 flare 1 rigor, or 2 rigor 1 flare that is more optimal. Long story short, when people eye missiles with envy I don't think they know how deep that rabbit hole goes.

Got deeper with the missile guidance. That brought in the dilemma of fit for yourself (guidance) or fit for the team (paint). And paint stacks...can you coordinate 10 missile users with paint to not waste their paint when at 3, I think, that target is as painted as its gonna be with stacking penalty.

Also can missile users confirm fury and precision used. I had faction ammo use only drilled into my head years ago, did that change? Mix of the bene's of both to some extent...no ammo changes. 10 seconds to go from fury to precision is 10 seconds of you not firing.

We already have this, OP. Light drones have the best tracking with the least DPS, med drones have less tracking, more DPS, etc.

we have light guns and heavy guns in small, medium, large and xl.
plus, we also have long range, short range in small, medium, large and xlarge.

if im in a revalation, i can use beams (in multiple tracking/ranger), gigapulse (in multiple tracking/ranger), or quad megapulse (in multiple tracking/ranger). all large and under the revalations + to damage bonus. if i switched to large or even mediums for "better tracking", they would be non-bonused.

it would only add 12 drones that you dont have to use. normal drones would remain the same. ogres might remain the same, but hit harder (or not), and the new tracking drones would be for smaller ships even though they are still large.

eos. make it have a "drone damage bonus" and things will be ok. however, it has a "large" drone damage (not even sentries).

and to the comment about the praetor, thats the wrong damage type. whatever i am shooting is allergic to thermal, not em (in this example)