Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Hello.

Can we please remove drone aggro or at least Nerf it.

Drone aggro is a annoying and tedious features plus it makes some builds pretty bad.

Just running normal anomalies it's not to bad you have to recall a drone rarely, however in DED sites its insane the amount aggro drones are getting making the drone ship (for example drone Proteus) pretty bad in some DED sites.

Also in my opinion it doesn't at extra depth to the game play it simply wants me to not use drone.

Ofcourse you could say 'go fly something without drones' i suppose i could or they could make it so all fits including drone ships are viable and we can all use what we consider to be more fun fits.

Thanks.

Err no you cannot afk rat. Yes it does add to gameplay.

Drones come with pros and cons like everything else. You can switch to a different weapon system or you can fly closer to your target.

If you want to kill afk ratting, just prevent drones from working afk by disabling the auto-aggro. No need to have aggro trigger that work but only half the time because :CCP: meaning you can still afk rat as long as you know how to prevent the trigger from happening.

Now the only point of contention is: "Does CCP actually want to stop afk ratting?".

I don't have an issue with Drone Aggro at the moment. But I do wish there were some indicator that would let me know if one of my drones were being targeted instead of waiting to see that damage is being applied.

Maybe something like the yellow box/red box we have with rats/players targeting/aggressing us but rather put the yellow/red box around the drone in the drone window that shows that my drone is being targeted by someone other than me or is being aggressed.

First of all thank for all the reply's on suggestions.

I get that some ppl are against removing drone aggro because AFK ratting,even though afk ratting is still more risky considering you have a change to get jumped on when afking. (risk vs reward )

However i am mainly concerned about the DED sites. If you ever tried running those with a drone boat you soon realise that aggro compared to regular anomlies is completly over the top. Losing a few drones now and then isn't to bad... But all 5 drone pulling insta aggro from the entire freaking room is kinda insane.. even with die hard mico management it's impossible to keep all of them alive.

So either nerf the amount of aggro they are getting or remove it all together. I don't consider it a fun part of the game anyways
I rather spend my time when running DED site looking awesome explosions then staring at the drone HP window nonstop.

Been saying this for years. Even in DeD sites I have very little issue with drone agro and it has been six months or more since I lost a drone to NPC rats.

How do you work this magic? well it truly is extremely simple.
First you keep your drones on a very short leash, nothing more than 20k to 25k and even then only the fast moving lights should be that far out. Beyond that sentries are your best option.
Keeping them this close means you can recall them to safety BEFORE they die even if they have full room agro, well you can provided you are attentive to the damage indicators.
Keeping them this close means that for most of their time outside the safety of the drones bay they are within range of a remote shield booster or armor rep which really can make the difference between a drone that needs repair or having to replace it.
If you are not using sentry drones then the drone link augmentor should never be fit to a ship used for PvE activities you simply do not need that much control range and fitting one or more restricts your options for remote reps.
Does all of this require effort on your part as the pilot, well yes as a matter of fact it does. It raises your efforts to about the same level as a missile or turret pilot would have running the same DeD site and that alone is more than enough reason to leave drone agro as it is.

So in the end OP I see this more as a pilot problem than I do as an agro problem.
Adapt how you fly drones to meet the needs, or continue to lose them the choice is yours to make.
It is lazy and foolish to ask for a change to the game because you are incapable or unwilling to adapt to the situation you face.


People been asking for this since I started in 2010 so don't expect it to change anytime soon.

On the other hand this is simply not needed all you have to do is ask yourself one simple question.
Do I have drones outside my ship?
Yes - they WILL HAVE agro so take all appropriate actions to help minimize damage or loss.
No - then you do not need an indicator to tell you they are being targeted.
There you go targeting question answered quickly, simply and no changes to the game are needed and this has the added benefit that you are taking preventative measure from the moment you launch your drones.

CCP made a broken agro system, the drone agro doesn't need fixed but the agro system itself. I have quit using drone ships in any pve because of as soon as I launch lights, every frigate targets its, ive even had larger ships like cruisers and up drop locks which shouldn't have to go after a light drone.

No it doesn't need 'reliable' tool. What you're asking for is a switch that when fit, says 'my drones are immune to npc's'

Not going to happen. You already have ai that prioritises ewar and remote reps, so a simple target painter is likely to get them to switch target. You can already remote repair drones and only certain types of rats go for drones frequently.

Using drones has huge advantages. The price of this power? They get shot at.

If drone aggro was so bad why is everyone using them? Ishtars, VNI's, Rattlers, gilas, domi's and even the op with a drone proteus...

OP just needs to learn how to use drones.

Done 10/10's in a triple repped domi.

If you're having that much trouble, switch the weapon system. And when no one does 10/10's with drones ccp may think 'hmmm something may be up here'. But honestly, its likely more ded sites are run with drones than any other weapon system because they are that good.

No what I am saying is that like ALL other weapon systems you need to adapt to what is happening.
Drones still give you one to the longest range options, you still have the flexibility to choose not only the proper damage type but also the proper size to deal with a specific target, in short drones have not lost any of the power, range or flexibility that make drones drones. The only thing that was lost is this crazy idea that we should be able to drop a single set of drones and then sit back, drink a cold one and watch while they chew up the entire site. Yes I know I am a terrible person, I think you should actually have to invest some time and effort into managing your drones.


There is one EXTREMELY reliable tool at your disposal the problem with the OP and others like you is that you do not want to use that tool. High sec, low sec, nul sec, worm holes I fly drones ships in all of them and I only lose one or two drones in any six month period, but then I expect to have to work to protect them and unlike you I am willing to hold ranges to something that is reasonable for the situations I face

That is not to say that things could not get better, again unlike you I do not want them to reduce agro related issues, in fact I am OK with them increasing agro issues as a way of better controlling the AFK nature of drones as long as those of us that do not AFK drone get better tools to help deal with it.


No it is ludicrous to think that you can send a standard drone 30k to 50k out and expect it will not be shot into little pieces.
It is ludicrous to even think about a tether to limit drones range from a ship because no one deserves to have a game mechanic that prevents loss due to their own ignorance.
It is ludicrous to use a standard drone in a situation where you should be using sentry drones and yes once an NPC ship is out past 20k to 25k sentries are usually a much better option and by time they are 30k to 40k out you should NEVER have standard drones out since sentries can quite effectively deal with frigates at that range. Exception to this would be ships like the Gila that cannot use sentry drones.


Funny, I find it much easier to deal with a drones ship than I do any other weapons system. No reloads to come up at a critical moment, no missile travel time, no lost time waiting while I burn into range to shoot something and best of all I still have the ability to select a weapons system that is damage type and size specific based on the target I am shooting.

Now specifically to those damage indicators, perhaps this is due to my commercial pilot training / experience (no I did not fly for an airline) or maybe my car racing experiences but in everything I do I set up a visual scan sequence to check gauges and other indicators and then run that visual scan every few seconds. In EvE I simply include the drones damage indicators to the list of things to scan so they get scanned every few seconds and to be honest it takes no real effort and very little (usually one second or so) time to scan those indicators. If you find watching you drones damage indicators to be a source of problems then I suggest you set up a UI scan procedure and then use it. In a very short period of time this scan and therefore the drone damage indicators will become habit and you will not even notice that you are doing it.