Player Features and Ideas Discussion

this is yet another of my usual silly posts about possible additions to the game. ignited by seeing some discussion in reddit about adding more to the Drone Regions outside of Sentient mods.

an analisis was done checking the current state of Drone based gameplay. since these last years CCP has added more possible roles for droneboats, while at the same time adding more diversity to drone combat.

since Rogue Drones cover all possible damage types and resistances. my best suggestion around this without shoehorning them to a single duet of racial skills is to focus their ships on their own faction (much like ORE).

The Concept:

Rogue Drones were initially born in Gallente space, however, they have evolved since then and survive in all corners of space. this is reflected in their versatility on damage aplication and sometimes tanking potential (rogue drone battleships seem to be focused heavily on hull with armor being second and shield being third, with a heavy resistance across all damage types, but not at the degree of Sleeper Drones).

since there are not Rogue Drone agents, the only feasible way to obtain Rogue Drone based hulls is by exploration. Data sites would provide the BPCs (hacked from the Rogue Drone's own manufacturing and database matrixes).

apart from that there would be a new type of "Relic" site which would allow to obtain Rogue Drone components required for manufacturing the ships and the skillbooks required for use. for the sake of market avaliability, these relic sites would be found in all corners of space.

the skills required:

since Rogue Drones are a unique faction they require their own skills, just 3 for now, but more may be required in the case of adding capital rogue drones and the like. along with rogue drone industrials (why tho?).

-Rogue Drone Frigate: skill at operating Rogue Drone derived Frigates
-Rogue Drone Cruiser: skill at operating Rogue Drone derived Cruisers (requires Rogue drone Frigate 3 and Spaceship Command 3)
-rogue Drone Battleship: skill at operating Rogue Drone derived Battleships (requires Rogue Drone Cruiser 3 and Spaceship Command 5)

these skills will be needed for the ships and will effect both tank and damage.


the tanking doctrine:

back when i was checking on rogue drone stats. i noticed a dichotomy, the smaller ships tended to be more focused on shields or armor while the battleships tend to be lumbering in hull. perhaps, due to being adapted to a large array of weapon doctrines.

since SoCT already covers the "multidamage" "multiresistance" thing. i would like to think on Rogue Drones as based on Minmatar Doctrines.

they are fast, they are hard to track up close, and they can cover both shield or armor depending on situation. here would be an example of how would it look like:

shield: 650 10/20/30/40 (EM/Thermal/Kinetic/Explosive)
armor: 600 50/40/30/20
hull: 550 (resistances as usuall in all ships).

as you can see, they have a more distributed resistance pattern, and their HP are distributed evenly as well. this also helps by having a more flexible slot layout, allowing for a versatile covering on terms of the damage doctrine:

Frigate: 2 highs (1 turrets, 1 launchers), 4 mids, 4 lows
Cruiser: 3 highs (2 turrets, 2 launchers), 5 mids, 5 lows
Battleship: 4 (3 turrets, 3 launchers), 6 mids, 6 lows

(subject to changes).


the combat doctrine:

SoE has a 100% drone bonus, which means 5 drones with the power of 10, Guristas have 2 drones per size with the combined power of 7.5. one of the challenges when making a new droneboat is about its possible role. while checking the commentaries on Reddit. i remembered about the Gecko, that unique faction drone which bridges between a fighter and a drone, while capable of dishing multidamage for a versatility of function.

this is when the idea of making Rogue Drones a versatility based faction came to mind. they would be a Drone based doctrine focused on diverse situations. in order to do this i have thought of the following roles

Rogue Drone Role Bonus A -> Drones used by this ship have their damage distributed across all damage types.

this means for example, that a hobgoblin I which is 32 Thermal would pass to be 8/8/8/8. should still make certain drones viable due to the current balance between racial drones (Speed vs Damage, Shield vs Armor and so on).

The Ships

note that these are a bit experimental so the stats could be better or worse depending on balance. the name convention is inspired on arthropods mostly.

Isopod:

powergrid: 50 MW
CPU: 200 tf
Capacitor: 400 GJ

2 highs (1 turrets, 1 launchers)
4 mids
4 lows
3 rigs (400 Calibration)

max velocity: 300 m/s
inertia modifier: 3.44
warp speed: 5 AU/s
base time for warp: 5 s

dronebay: 50 m3
bandwidth: 25 m3

max targeting range: 40 km
max locked targets: 5
ladar sensor: 9 points
signature radius: 50 m
scan resolution: 500 mm

structure HP: 550
mass: 900,000 kg
volume: 25,000 m3
cargo: 150 m3

shield HP: 650
shield resistance: 10/20/30/40

armor HP: 600
armor resistance: 50/40/30/20

Rogue Drone Frigate Bonus (per skill lvl):
+10% to drone hitpoints and damage
+1% per second to drone's shield, armor and hull repairs while in the dronebay (NEW)

Role Bonus:
Drones used by this ship have their damage distributed across all four damage types.
Drones stored in the dronebay repair at a rate corresponding with player skills. (NEW)
Hull Repair modules have their cycle time reduced to one third and their repair amount tripled. (NEW)

NOTES: i'll add the Cruiser and Battleship later, i want some feedback first.

thanks for watching. i'll wait for the discussion.

No no & no.
We should never ever remotely get rogue drone styled ships, because we are not AI's and we do not use AI's.
Therefore there is no practical way we could ever use such a ship without ripping it apart and entirely rebuilding it so that it can even have crew.

Don't care how balanced the stats are, no.

That's a whole LOT of utility! 17 slots for the cruiser, 23 for the BS...on top of both a shield and armor HP buff? Damn, dude.

It would be nice to have one of those rogue drone domis with the borg implants and tentacles. ♥

EDIT 1:

a fellow player mailed me with some suggestions about adding passive drone repair capabilities and hull tanking skills. he also suggested something about managing a single drone with buffed damage, but it sounded too close to Guristas.

now, the lack of an Active Hull Tanker is a nice food for thought. i decided to give the bonus while keeping the current shield/armor/hull values as the original, no more extra buffer from skills.

however, as someone pointed out, they had too much utility slots in lows and mids so i cut some of them while also reducing some highs, players will still be free to go shield/armor or hull for the bonus.

I would just say reskin the soe ships and have them be rogue. Theyre currently caldari and do t really fit the amarr or gallente. Make a new faction to be amarr and gallente and rebrand the soe.
Rogue drones could also be race neutral like the soct as rare ships and receive inate bonuses with no scaling and no skill requirements.

Referencing Tony G's terrible lore is not a good argument. Yes they were fun novels, but no they were not a 'group' of people, and the 'drones' didn't help. A few magic drones did. But if we use the books then we should also be able to operate 10 clones of a single character at once, all impersonate each other, find terran weapons that kill an entire fleet in a single shot etc. So.... Yeah nah.

And yes, you could make them mechanically balanced, but Lore is important to EVE, otherwise it becomes a game of pure numbers, so something that goes directly against all the established lore to do with AI is a serious issue.

Oh that's nice.