Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Not too long ago I read an article in which people complained about drones the lack of usefulness and the the different races. Many people complained that there was no purpose for the "between" drones the only stats that mattered were speed and damage if the drone wasn't the best at one of those two then it was obsolete.

It got me thinking on how to fix it and add some flavor to the drones. I think I came up with an interesting idea... tell me what you think.

First off all drones will be identical base line speed, damage, and durability. Said baseline will be on par with the Caldari drone of today.

Second: Each race will have a secondary EW effect added to the drones keeping in flavor with what a race would find beneficial. Each drone would have a scaled down EW module that is 20% as effective as a normal module of appropriate size.

Gallente: They like to get in close and do some serious smash mouth with their blasters. R&D has fitted the new drones with Webs, this allows the heavily armored Gallente ships to close with in range and inflict dome serious damage. Also it allows a heavily pressed ship to escape.

Caldari: Missiles, Missiles and more Missiles. R&D decided to outfit the Caldari drones with target painters, this allows the Mother ship's missiles to land more effective hits, and their allies benefit too.

Minmatar: Speed exemplified no other ship in space can control the range of a fight as effectively as a Minmatar ship. R&D decided to play to that strength, Drones come equipped with a Sensor disruptor, now the enemy can't shoot as far and when the Minmatar does come into range the enemies guns can't keep up with them.

Amarr: Masters of energy, Not able to come up with a way for the drones to transmit stolen energy far enough the Amarr instead chose to simply eliminate it. Armed with Energy Neutralizers Amarr drones enable their pilots to pound away both at the enemy ship and at its ability to fight back.

Last of all is the hardest part to implement, customization...

Pilots will be able to adjust the effectiveness of their drones by reducing the strength of one ability to amplify another. The interface will consist of a triangle with Speed, damage, and EW on each corner Improve one ability at the cost of 2, or improve 2 at the cost of 1. A drone with no speed and No EW will be the same as a Sentinel drone now, a drone with no damage and only EW will be 40% as effective as a EW Module of equivalent size. No speed and no damage? 60% as effective as a similar sized EW module. Speed and range will be inversely proportional the slower the drone the longer the range.

The sentinel drone skill will be removed, in its place a Drone programing will be implemented. Each level of the skill will allow a 20% shift in the ability of a drone.

Obviously it is not the intention to make drones over powered, instead it is an attempt to add some flavor to drones and allow the pilots to create the mix of abilities they want. That is my idea, bring on the critique.

Naysmyth

I think the problem with your EWAR effects, is drones aren't strictly limited to faction usage. Anyone can use any drone, on any ship.

Also, making all drones identical is kind of silly. The only result from that, would be people using the drones that gave them the most effective dps type, and combined EWAR effect. Sure, you'd have all drones in use, but they'd be chosen to match fitting of ships and expected target resistances and capabilities.

Might sound good in theory, but I think you'd find that it wouldn't work so well in practice. Ishkurs and other drone ships would just drop whatever was needed for the situation, and have it spot on. They would end up becoming the ultimate answer to any situation.

Target is a Taranis Interceptor:

Drop Gallente small drones, close as your drones dps, and oh..wait, he's already popped. Maybe not, but if he hadn't you'd just swap to Minmatar drones once you had your own web and point on him. He wouldn't be able to shoot back effectively, explosive damage would chew him up, and you'd pop him with a few balsts from your Neutrons. Done deal, and he didn't have drones to fight back with. Maybe 1 or 2, but what good is that going to do against an Ishkur's tank? Drone boats would become overpowered and highly versatile, and everything else would be overshadowed in comparison. People would start calling for Nerfs.

I don't think even current EWAR drones are that effective; they're actually much more like a micro-module as a group. I remember checking them out at one point, and maybe it was skill requirements or something, but the calculation of effect for all of them was pretty under-whelming.

Considering the only ships that can effectively field drones in enough numbers to have an effect are drone boats anyway; and for that you give up your primary DPS, and end up with something less than a single Modules effect? Waste of time.

Maybe if they repurposed a hip to field and bonus EWAR drones, it might be justifiable.

My point was that your drones output at 10% each, the near equivalent of a module of the same variety, and at 20% just less than 2 modules, and still do DPS at the same time. That's a bit much, particularly when you make all there base stats equal.

I'm not saying that there isn't a good idea in all of this; drones are boring as heck and under-whelming as it is. The most effective DPS of a drone is the Heavy Combat Caldari or Gallente, yet those drones are nearly useless in all but PvE scenarios. Even then, without massive ship bonuses, their collective DPS is rather poor.

Drones do need something different; I just can't think of what. I've also yet to see an idea that would really work well and be balanced and provable; while not leading to more abuse of new capabilities resulting from recent buffs and nerfs, ending in more FotM set-ups.

Personally, I think FotM is more playerbase driven, than the result of game mechanics and balance; but that just goes with the territory. People manipulate the market to such effect that having FotM is actually a means of insuring predictable market trends, and speculation becomes something gleaned from time spent on the test server.

And you obviously lack reading comprehension. Sentry Drones would be there in every way shape and form they are now. You take your drone reduce the Speed and EW effect to zero which increases it's damage and range making it identical to the sentry drones now.

As far as actual numbers for the EW effect sure tweek them till it fits right. I was not sure of the actual numbers on the current drones off the top of my head but 20% seemed reasonable, if not make it less.

The way I see it is you send out a flight of Gal drones each one does some damage ( slightly less than current) and slows the enemy down some. An entire flight will slow an enemy ship down 50% which is if i recall the same as a Base Web module. If you desire more damage than slow you recalibrate your drones so they do more damage but the entire flight combined only slows the enemy by 30%.

It is important to note as I visualize it recalibrating your drones can only be done while they are in your drone bay, so if a pilot gets caught with the wrong set up on his drones it will take a moment to redeploy the appropriate set up.


Actually as i sit here thinking about it one thing I would change about my idea is instead of making range inversely proportional to speed instead make it inverse to EW. Damage would be Inverse to speed. The faster your drone the less damage, the stronger the EW the less range, the slower your drone the more damage, the weaker your EW the longer the range.