Player Features and Ideas Discussion

so the idea came to my mind quite a while ago already. When I read a hefty discussion in a EVE channel among some pilots yesterday it surfaced again and I fleshed it out a little. so here it is:

basic idea:

- a drone launched from the regular drone bay that if launched attacks other drones and fighters on its own. with each killed drone it grows its potential (i.e. gaining dps, speed and HPs). it does so non-targeted means it also eats friendly drones or even others of its sort. Its starts with the closest target.

- the cannibal drone can be killed just as any other drone and should be rather squishy in its early phase.

- If left unattended it starts killing off all drones on grid one after the other and gains strenght rapidly with each one killed thus speeding up the process.


I think this could be a cool way to have a weapon against the swarms of drones and fighters out there. In small and solo pvp but also in large and capital fights. I can be balanced well to not become too oppressive and is still counterable by killing the cannibal drones. Small gangs and Subcaps in general would have a way to deal with fighters and in capital brawls another level opens up to warfare.

Lorewise it could be a hybrid of technologies. A cannibal AI that feeds on the lesser drone AIs. Drones,BloodRaiders,Drifter, pretty sure its easy to create a cool background for this.

If the Drone has eaten all other drones on field or is left on a grid with no other drones it could either return automatically or even selfdestruct after a given time if it aint recalled by its pilot. after getting back into drone bay the cannibal drone would loose its buff and if relaunched start from being thin again.

Should help to naturally clear load on the server too in big fights :P

Different sizes could be a thing too with different stats or maybe a target selection according to its size:
small cannibal drones target light and medium sized drones.
medium cannibal drones target medium and large drones
large cannibal drones target large drones and fighters
fighter cannibals target fighters and heavy fighterbombers

dunno how hard its from a dev viewpoint to make this stuff, guessing the "growth" of the drone in damage speed and HP maybe a problem.

but growth could also be made visual wich would be pretty cool, watching your cannibal drones feed on the other drones and get meaner looking.


how do you guys feel about this idea? Is it BS, could it work, does EVE need this?

You can already remove enemy drones/fighter from the field. Especially if you have a drone bay where this cannibal drone would be.

So...how does one counter a full fleet of battleships/ishtars/whatever dropping these things in a mass fight? Or does every other droneboat on the grid have to just go home?

Effective counters to drones and Fighters already exist, and anti-Fighter fighters already specifically exist. What, exactly, does this add in terms of fun and engaging gameplay?

problem with counters to drones is that not all ships have that available. theres no counter to fighters except if you bring ewar really. It may be feasible to shoot them in some situations but often thats not an option.

ralph the automating part of the cannibal drone is not essential. you could handle it just like a normal drone and make it target other drones/fighters. then nothing would be automated more than before but the proposed anti-drone specialization would still work as wanted.

so lets take away the automation part.

- cannibal drone is set on a target as usual
- cannibal drones do only damage other drones and fighters
- they get stronger with each drone killed
- cannibal drones can be used to attack opposing ships after a threshold of killed drones is reached.

as a basic functionality, is this an option to consider?

you didnt get the basic idea.

the drones are meant to kill off other drones with increasing efficency. giving the cannibal drone the option to punch throu drones and fighters that you otherwise wouldnt be able to kill.

when was the last time you tried to shoot a fighter to mitigate incoming dps?

have you ever flown a BS against a swarm of light ships only to lose the fight to X number of ec-300s?

have you ever sent your flight of light drones against the drones of a ship that has a huge drone bay, knowing there are 3 other flights waiting in bay?


the idea is to have a new tool to handle drones

You have guns/missiles, drones and smartbombs. I think that's more than enough to be going on with

"So what happens when someone drops 200 flights of these drones on a massive brawl? How does one counter these things, or are all other droneboats considered worthless as soon as these things show up?"

--->

"You have guns/missiles, drones and smartbombs. I think that's more than enough to be going on with"


these are not meant to be invincible, you can kill em with methods mentioned above or send other cannibals after them.

why should they not add to the gameplay of droneboats? you got the choice then to either drop normal drones and shoot away as usual or drop cannibals, let them eat a couple of drones and then have stronger drones after that to use.

the general consensus seems rather pessimistic here.

how about throwing in some ideas instead of using the standardized deconstruction mode that has become the mainstream mood in eve forums?

"You can get 700 dps out of a drone cruiser, and a couple of thousand out of a rorq or a carrier with no real problem. Just...how much damage are you thinking these things should be able to put out?"

thats exactly what im trying to go at.
this is not meant to buff dps in the larger picture but rather to give ships a chance to handle drones and fighters they otherwise wouldnt have.

drones as a weapon system are a bit special but if you would design a "weapon disruptor" like effect for drones how would it look like? one that adds to the gameplay not takes away from it ofc?!

What ships are you meaning that "can't counter drones" you do know that you can target them directly right?

small weapons can hit fairly well against even small drones, medium and up will melt fairly fast under frigate or destroyer fire.

and most everything cruiser and up (yes there are some exceptions looking at you amarr) have at least some sort of drone bay, generally enough for a flight of light drones.

now I'll admit I don't know much about damage application to fighters, but given their sig radius (and the recent increase to that radius) it shouldn't be hard for most drones to apply damage to them. now if thats enough to take them out i'm not sure... but if your going solo against a carrier in a subcap, you've probably done something wrong anyways.

and if your in a fleet going against a carrier or super, well then you should have enough drones between your fleet to take out their fighters if you target them.