Player Features and Ideas Discussion

When you first start the game, you can use 8 guns on day one. You can also use 8 missile launchers on day one. However you need drones V to be able to use 5 drones. In my opinion this necessary 4-or-so day training is a bit tedious for new drone pilots if we look at the first week of playing. After all, you dont need the gunnery skill to be able to use more guns, and the difference between drones 3 -> 5 is much more drastic than gunnery 3 -> 5 for example. Therefore i suggest that every pilot should be able to use 5 drones from the start, and the drones skill would give like 2% bonus damage/level for all drones or something like that and overall drone dps could be reduced to compensate for this. There would be no changes to prerequisites on any other skills, and a player who has trained drones v already wouldnt notice any difference in gameplay whatsoever.

Youre wrong, mate. Drones are clearly meant to be a weapon system like any other so yes, drones are comparable to guns. Also one of the surest ways to prevent new players from subscribing is giving them a 4-day mandatory skill train they gotta spend twiddling their thumbs if they choose to use drones as a primary weapon system. This change would not have an effect on gameplay in any way after the pilots are older than a few months, but it would make a huge difference to new players.

Hay be happy, up untill recently you had to buy and train most of your starting skills yourself,
CCP Rise had a thread in here about a year ago asking how we all felt about starting ye off with more sp.

Up untill then you couldnt use any drones at all to start, you had to figure out they were important and go buy them with your own isk.

I never said they werent meant to be weapons. Yes they are weapons. No they arent guns. No they arent the same, nor should work exactly same way IMO.


its not mandatory, how is it mandatory? Not maxed out in something = mandatory??


I cant use a specific fit because I havent trained all pg skills to V? Are those mandatory? No.
Cant use T2 guns. T2 skills mandatory? Hell, no!
Cant fly supercarrier from the start on. Mandatory? Uhm.. not really.



if you want max damage on drones, you need to train them. You know, like for gunnery or missiles too.
Just that the skills have different names doesnt mean there is a need for a change?

As a dedicated drones pilot I am going to side with the rest and say no to your idea.

Considering the flexibility of drones giving you 5 from day 1 would give drones pilots an unfair advantage, and in the end the 3 drone restriction is about balance.

I gotta admire this communitys holy war against everything new. Its charming, really. But even if this tiiiny little change was implemented there would be no change in your (or my) gameplay whatsoever.


This is exactly my point! This change would not change much on other ships than the dedicated drone boats, however it makes the drone boats more accessible for brand new players. There are loads of shorter core skills they gotta train.


Nothing is being maxed here, and no additional SP is given from the start. If you want drone interfacing or any t2 drones you still need to train drones V, so i dont really understand why you oppose this so fiercely. Like i said nothing changes if you are a few months old.


I see people running career agent missions or SoE arc every day who have their destroyers fitted like this. 5 drones with poor skills arent much different from this but only 3 drones is basically good for nothing if its a primary weapon system such as in many gallente ships. Also you giving a list of things that have been changed does not mean other changes should not be implemented.


As a hybrid, projectile, missile and drone pilot im here suggesting this change because drones are not in balance with guns or missiles. To do more useful stuff with drones you would still need to train drones V.

I actually think there is merit to this idea and have thought about it ever since the Tristan got 5 drones and the algos. And drones are definitely a primary weapon system.

You can sort of get round it by using medium drones, but they are worse at killing mission frigs than heavies and at cruiser level gallente ships have to use large drones if they dont have drones V. But wait, large drones require drones V... So you're not going to be using the bandwidth on the vexor or thorax without a 4 day wait.

Don't see how that is good.

No its more
"kindly stop whinging about the siver spoon you were born with for not being gold before someone beats you with it like they were with a wooden one , that they had to make , without shoes, in the snow godamnitimtooyoungforthisrant!

I would like to point out that i made my first character seven years ago and nothing is being made easier and no additional sp is given out. If you want to be good at drones, you still need drones V. Right now drone boats just arent as viable as other ships during the first days of gameplay. This is not making the game easier or giving away anything. This is a balance issue.

4 days is nowt, nor are they mandatory; drone skills don't offer enough advantage to a new player to make them so.

If you want a "mandatory" skill you need to go back a few years when learning skills were a thing, they weren't mandatory as such but you were at a serious disadvantage if you didn't train at least the basic ones; moreover the training time for them was measured in weeks and sometimes months.

TL;DR Newbies have never had it better when it comes to skills, they start off with a good selection of basics and they get the most benefit from skill injectors.