Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Simply Spreadsheets Drone Management Concept 1:

Overview: Remove 'orbiting' of drones altogether (it's an illogical mechanic). Turn drone actions into hot keys - so that operating drones is like operating weapons system. Mouse on the targets, fingers on the firing buttons.

UI: Keep the drone overview box and all associated options.
Launch: You won't need to do this anymore.
Attack: Pressing [Hotkey 1] will instantly launch the group of drones you have pre selected and they will instantly go after the target you have selected (as if you had launched them, had them orbiting, and just selected "engage target")
Return: Pressing [Hotkey 2] will disengage all drones and make them return to hangar as fast as they possibly can.
Grouping: You will be encouraged to use grouping to predefine which types of drones you launch. You can manage this from the UI.

Summary: During PVP or PVE your focus should be on attacking, kiting, tank management etc. It turns out that the "orbiting" feature of Drones is simply the result of an over complicated launch mechanic. The only reason people deploy drones in advanced is to save them the extra step required in order to engage targets with drones. This solution solves that issue and makes drones a much more viable weapons system for PVP and PVE.

Requirements: Addition of "Launch to Attack" quick key to Custom Key Mapping. Addition of "Return to Ship" quick key to Custom Key Mapping. Highlighted Group from Drones Overview needs to be associated with either Hotkey at time of pressing.



Drones Weapon System 2.0:

Overview: Completely overhaul drone interface to become a real weapons system. Remove "Drone" overview. Add "Drone Bay" modules to Weapons Console UI. Remove 'orbiting' of drones altogether (it's an illogical mechanic).

UI: Remove the Drones overview. Replace it with "Drone Bay" modules that appear when you first undock in the Weapons Console. You rearrange and group your drones based on types you have available in your drone bay. If you had 5 Hobgoblins, they would appear as 5 Hobgoblin Modules. You can rearrange them as you please, you can group them. More discussions required around managing large capacities of drones..
Launch: You won't need to do this anymore.
Attack: If you have moved your "Group of Hobgoblins" into slot 1 - you will need only press F1 to launch your drones instantly from your bay and onto your selected target.
Return: Pressing the same key "F1" in this example, will disengage that slot's GROUP of drones and make them return to hangar as fast as they possibly can.
Grouping: You will be encouraged to use grouping to predefine which types of drones you launch. If you had 2 Hobgoblins in slot 1, and 2 ECM Hornets in slot 2 you would press F1 and F2 and both would launch (provided you have sufficient bandwidth) towards your target. If you hit F2 again (deactivating the module), the ECM Hornets would return. If you then selected another target and hit F2 the ECM would switch targets and go after your new target.

Summary: Inline with CCP's move towards consolidation of systems that are complicated, this is (in my humble opinion) the most logical approach to making drones a viable weapons platform that can be easily used in PVE and PVP. No need to buff, no need to nerf, just improve the way in which this weapons system is actually used by players. I for one would certainly like to use drones in PVP more often, but the fact of the matter is they're too time consuming.

Requirements: A lot of effort by CCP.


UPDATES: ######################

A mockup for Drones 2.0 can be found here!

Click here to go to my NEXT mockup in this thread of the Drone Module.

Dead in the water...?

I support this suggestion fully.

Make small icons that we can click to give commands to drones. Right-clicking and selecting options from menus, while your shields are going down is a royal pain.

Drones as a weapon are fine. The introduction of the Sleeper AI has just increased the amount of management a PVE pilot has to apply to organising the to-and-fro of his fleet of drones instead of focusing on the tactical situation at hand. That is indeed, very frustrating. Funnily enough it's the same reason that drones are not usually used in 1v1 PVP situations.. Too much work, when you need to be focusing on other things to stay alive/kill your target.

In order to make drones a viable weapons platform for PVP and PVE - the interface/management of said weapons system needs to be improved drastically so that creative tactical drone use can replace this 'set and forget' PVE only weapon system.

I'm absolutely certain that if you were able to control the deployment and retreat of drones simply by hitting F1 keys not only would PVE'ing with Drones be more fun, but PVP for Gallente and Amarr pilots would become a whole lot more interesting.

Maybe, at the very least, separate drone bays for each size and a 'launch' hotkey for each bay.

Or a much more customizable group(ing) system with much more flexibility in hotkey assignments. Say I create a group called 'hob'. I can then hit ESC, go to shortcuts and my 'hob' group is in there where I can assign a key for launching that group.

Personally, I have no problem hitting _ to launch, _to attack, and _ to recall. If they want to change it to buttons, that's fine too, I was just throwing this out as a 'minimal/quick change'.

What an incredible idea! I would definitely support this.

There the things to do to solve all the problem with drones .

Remove Aggressive mode = No more afk in mission and for miners in belt.

Micro jump drive of drones to target = instant damage on target

All drones doing the same amount of damage ( now everyone using gallente drone because they doing more damage ) so increase...

Damage amplifier : Increase the damage modification / penalty= decrease durability of drones.

And for GOD sake give drones Boat Real Bonuses for drones not only the poor 10% hit bonus

X% hit bonus +X% optimal range +X% tracking speed + X% opti range etc etc

For example for The Domi X=10 or 15 :))

And for fixing the SIN .... X =30..... as the sin ( even it's not really a drone Boat ) has less tank than the dominix

There is no effort to do , nothing to re-code just simple modification.

Fix the aggro of NPC on drones AND just remove the aggressive if you want to butt-hurt AFK missions runner.

I very much agree with the fact that drones need either a buff or a complete revamp to compenstate for the changes made in Retribtution.

That would be amazing, reminds me of the AI system of Final Fantasy XII. It could be made really simple and still be effective. You should develop your idea and submit it as a F&I topic.

And, I support the OP with the dire need of a drone UI and AI overhaul.

One problem that bugs me is the lack of communication from CCP on the subject. All we have is "we know it sucks", its surely usable but its a pain in the a**.

Drones are the primary weapon for nearly half of Gallente ships and more Amarr ships will soon fall into that category too.

Oh and this thread is well thought and constructive, don't make it fall into the abyss like the other 10,000 drone whine threads.

This could be the best idea I've seen in GD for a long time! Awesome.

Reminds me of dragon age origins with the complex behaviour programming mod.

It would also mean that the best drone pilots would be those who can think in programming and logic terms, which I would love.

The script you write for your drones could be loaded like ammo and the best ones could be sold on the market (with the code hidden from anyone but the original author).