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I dunno, but it would be cool if they could, or at least dampen the damage.

I can't put defenders on my Mach so thats moot, smartbomb maybe, but I'd just end up not risking the mach in 10/10s anymore. This change is basically good, but it should be considered deeply before ccp goes through with it.

If you guys can pull this off, I will be impressed. This is exactly what I want. Missions and arcs will definitely need some redesigning, though.

I think its great the AI will be updated, but if you are going to require us to manage our drones more, it would only be appropriate that the drones interface/control get an upgrade, especially for pilots of gallente ships who depend on drones as a primary damage source.

As it stands, the drones interface is not in any way intuitive, and anyone who doesnt do the gallente intro missions won't even know drones exist, much less how to control them properly.

And even experienced pilots all agree the drones interface needs an upgrade. Either make the new AI not target drones, or update the interface.

Just my 2 cents.

I do welcome the AI change, and hope it turns out well. But if it needs to be postponed until the appropriate systems are in place for it to be optimized, then so be it.

Edit:
The other caveat I do have is that... depending on the AI's predilection for changing targets, this could make it significantly harder for a new player in a salvage boat to participate in higher level missions.

Not that salvaging is necessarily the most compelling gameplay, or that missions are either.... but it would most likely relegate them to coming in after the mission is over and not even getting to see the action.

There is already an ammo cost with drones. An Ogre II currently runs 530k-590k. I already have a drone attrition rate of probably two drones for every nine missions between disconnects, glitches, drones getting targeted and destroyed as Chaunnay posted, etc. Presuming I already lose two in nine missions, that's an ammo cost of roughly 1.1m ISK (not to mention the ammo I already use to supplement my drone damage). Add two more drone losses due to the target switching, and the cost doubles.

Furthermore, if there is a constant play of pulling aggroed drones back, there is a drop in DPS for drone boats--a drop which could potentially allow for enemy shield recharge or armor rep--greatly increasing the time it takes to complete a mission and dropping the net reward of running missions in a drone boat. Currently my mission running is done about 50/50 between drones and missiles, and I'd say between time and expenses I can earn about the same net profit between the two. If the new AI makes life in a drone boat too toilsome (less fun) or less-profitable (even less fun), I'll naturally be shifted away from using drones to flying my missile boats almost exclusively. It would seem that this change is likely to further-reduce ship/weapon diversity in mission running.

Finally, I understand that the difficulty is not technically increased, but risk to lower-tanked and lower-SP team mates is increased without a corresponding increase in reward. This would seem to make mission running overall less-desirable of an occupation, especially for the newer and more casual players.

On the positive side for me, I can see this reducing ninja salvaging--which isn't a big positive, since that rarely happens to me and it makes a legitimate newbie profession more difficult.

+1 for a better interface.

The other tough thing is with drones, that usually the only way to tell that they have taken aggro is when they start taking damage. Often by then, Plus the time to hotkey return + the time for them to respond means they are seriously damaged. It seems there should be some sort of drone warning you can get so the drones can notify you when they are being targetted so you have an appropriate amount time to react.

Well played sir.


The Blood Raider 10/10 is a MONSTER (i tank it with a faciton/deadsapce fit loki, love those em resists) backed up by logi with other ships for DPS, how do I make that loki be able to to rep the logi with no cap, how do I tank a logi to withstand the torp AND rep with no tank after it gets neuted ect ect.

The High End DED plexes were created and balanced under the current "dumb AI" regime.

CCP you HAVE to redesign them 1st before you introduce target switching rf you make them either undoable or utterly unprofitable (which is the same as making them undaoble lol).

You must not do high end DED plexes that throw torps that do 160,000 points of damage to you every 30 seconds.....

Under the current scheme, you can send in an uber tank to soak up these ship killers, then bring in dps and/or logi support. If the torp chuker ships or structures start switching targets, the problem that plex poses rise exponentially.

I totally fine with the change everywhere else (missions, anoms, lower end deds ect), Don't mind seeing afk drone NPCing go away either, but it could break the 9/10s and 10/10s is ccp isn't careful.

1 pve will NEVER be fun

2 you will kill jewing High sec and low and 0.0

3 you will never see me running a Maze ever

4 "CCP"

-No need for offensive language. It has been removed. _ISD Dorrim Barstorlode


hope you like it.

Concerning 10/10 complexes (and fleet staging 9/10)

Naval Shipyards can not have capitals in it, for this site you need to bring a heavily tanked ship such as a Tech 3 or Broadsword to tank the Citadel torpedo. It is gated and can not have capitals in it.

The Maze also has this by the way.


Please please please make sure you guys test this to make sure that it does not switch targets (or some other fix, lower damage?). Those sites will NOT be able to be completed if the Citadel torp switches targets to a Logi or other ship that has moderate tank but is setup for dps. They will one or two shot everything that is not the "tank" (the torps do 150k dmg every 10 seconds!) with that torpedo! So anything sub mid 90s resists to the damage type and a moderate buffer will be popped.

Aside from this concern these changes sound great!! Thank you.

Now, i don't agree with this part, a carrier can mount smart bombs and neuts, hell I've ECM-bursted my way out of level 5s in a carrier before just to see if I could do it.

The problem I have with switching aggro to drones is just the shear tediousness of having to do it over and over again. That's not fun, pve should at least be somewhat enjoyable.

We'll see how it pans out.