Assembly Hall

Greetings. After playing with drones and loving it i would like to propose a list of improvements to the drone UI which is vitally needed! Some are simple improvements, others are suggestions or ideas.

- Pressing F without a target would send all drones do their respective function. Combat drones would pick a target and engage, salvage drones would salvage a wreck and mining drones would mine an asteroid. By default each drone would pick a separate target unless the "Focus Fire" option is selected.

- The "Focus Fire" option should be separate for each drone type: Combat, EWAR, Salvage and Mining. I want my salvage drones to pick their own separate targets instead of all going for the same closest and wasting time.

- The health bars should show on unrepackaged drones in drone bay.

- Undamaged drones should auto-stack/repack in drone bay to avoid long lists of drones, thus reducing the size of the window.

- The drone interface window should auto-resize to the list of drones displayed.

- The drone decription tooltip should feature the 2-4 most important stats for drones to avoid scrolling the Attributes tab and comparing (which takes so much effort).

- All tooltips (not just drones) of items should feature the skills affecting said item and how much time it takes to be able to use it (or get all to 5 once usable).

- All icons (not just drones) should feature the meta level of said item.

- Rightclicking a target should give two options: one to send a drone and another to send all drones to perform the relevant function. Enemy ship = attack/ewar, friendly ship = logi, asteroid = mine, wreck = salvage.

- Rightclicking an overview wreck should give an option to send a/all drone(s) to salvage it.

- A new hotkey to send the most damaged drone back to drone bay.

- Icons similar to fleet broacasts for drone deployment commands: Launch Drone (+shift launches all drones), Cycle Drone - replace this drone with another one from the bay, Return all Drones to Bay, {Interact} - name changes depending on the target (mining, salvage, attack) that performs the drone's function.

- A new High-Slot module that services orbiting friendly drones. Each cycle services a single drone with either a full refill of shields using cap energy or a moderate armor repair using Nanite Repair Paste.

- New drones:
Point Defence Drone - orbits the ship and shoots down [some of the] incoming fire. These drones can only orbit your ship and can't be ordered to go elsewhere. I tried to maintain faction flavour:

• Light Amarr - used against Light projectile and hybrid shots. It uses lasers so it's best for this.
• Medium Amarr - used against Medium projectile and hybrid shots.
• Heavy Amarr - used against Large projectile and hybrid shots.
• Gallente - used against Missiles. Uses a railgun to shoot them down.
• Minmatar - Lasers. Uses a shield around the drone to intercept and deflect shots.
• Caldari - Drones. Uses rockets to destroy attacking enemy drones.

Tractor Drone. Just like the salvager - it brings whatever wreck to the player's ship.

Scout Drone - A Heavy Tech 2 drone. Can warp to a celestial body and give a report on the local grid based on your overview settings at the time of launch. You must warp to it and reconnect lost drone to recover it. Takes 10 seconds to give the report (enterprising pirates can shoot it down before that happens).

Blockade Drone - Similar to the Scout Drone above - it jumps through the gate and gives a report on what's on the other side. It does not benefit from gate cloaking. Again - if it gets destroyed on the other side before it gives its report you won't know if it's a single troll or a fleet.

Decoy Drone - Activate to pretend to be another ship. It is equal in every way except physical appearance and healthbars. Used to fool the scanners of other players since scanning down a player's site may reveal a Tengu and a Catalyst when in reality it's just a catalyst with a decoy drone.

Tug Utility Craft - in the same category as a Fighter or Bomber so can only be used by carriers - it boosts the target ship's speed. Compensates for web.

ECM Burst Drone - an expendable drone that projects a very strong ECM burst to briefly break the enemy's targets and modules. Can be used to escape a single ganker. The drone is destroyed upon use.

I'm a newbro so some things might be wrong or silly, sorry in advance.