Player Features and Ideas Discussion

That seems to be the main problem with drones currently, there just aren't enough choices to be made when fitting and flying a drone boat. I don't think anyone in this thread thinks drones are currently underpowered, just boring and incomplete compared to other weapon systems. The other issue is that drones do not scale with your ships fitting.

The first step to solving these problems is to give the option for drone boats to function as drone boats and not force them into split weapon platforms. The modules I proposed in the OP would allow drone damage to scale linearly with the amount of high slots and grid a pilot dedicates to them, just like other weapon systems. This would allow drone modules and rigs to be introduced and balanced and give pilots some real choices to make when fitting their ships.

Reducing the number of drones seemed like an issue with lag (in addition to balance). Now that objects in space and the overview have been optimized, I think it is safe to let drone boats loose.

Which is why I made the counter-suggestion I did.

Right now there is no choice to be made in drone fits. You get sucky drone DPS (though the reach can make it worth it). No decision to be made.

If you want something to fit that will increase the drones' DPS it needs to be balanced appropriately. If you are getting 80+DPS out of a fitting (which the large DCU I posted would give on a full-skilled Domi, possibly over 100DPS each) it needs to have appropriate fitting requirements or it's overpowered.


I think that even with the new efficiency upgrades I don't want to increase the number of drones missioners are using by too much. All the major mission hubs would end up on TIDI.

I completely agree that there needs to be a serious fitting requirements for these modules. That is why I chose the grid requirements off neutralizers which have one of the largest fitting requirements in game. For PVE, you would likely need to fit smaller weapons (dual 250's instead of 425mm railguns for example) and for PVP, it would compete with neutralizers for utility slots and grid.

As for your modules, the large one sounds great, it gives the exact same performance per slot and grid as my versions without introducing the lag created by extra drones. However, the smaller modules do not stack up as well. A frigate like the Ishkur would have to fit 4 of them (using all its high slots and 40 of 50MW total grid) to get the effect of a single extra light scout drone. If all the modules granted +20% with a ship size restriction that would work, but would be a bit messy and prevent larger drone ships from adding a couple smaller drones to their arsenal.



Since these would only increase bandwidth and number but not drone bay space, the only high end battle ships that would benefit at all from these would be the Kronos (which could field a maximum of 5 heavy drones by fitting 2 Large modules) and the Rattlesnake which could field 11 total drones. The Rattlesnake seems like it could get out of hand. However, it would do the exact same dps as the Dominix fit I posted (about 1050 total dps), so It would be like an expensive tankier shield Dominix which honestly isn't that scary next to vindicators, bhaalgorns or machariels, especially when you consider that it could be easily neutralized by killing its drones first.

As for the Myrmidon, keep in mind that the cruiser sized modules only give +10Mbit/s bandwidth. The +25Mbit versions take 2000MW grid and the Myrmidon has a starting grid of around 1500MW total. Therefore, if you fit 6 cruiser sized modules you would have a total bandwidth of 135 (75+6*10), so 5 sentries and a medium scout drone total.

Keep the suggestions coming though, I'm really interested in seeing if there is a ship in game that breaks this module.

I chose the 5% bonus for the light based on the Ishkur currently getting *no* damage bonus for it's drones.

It also follows the well established doubling scale for weapons systems with the large version finally giving the full +20% bonus.

This is just a guess at what the dev team would likely alight on as the final form given current scaling of both ships and modules.

One of the other things I like with your idea or my modified form is it lets a player run a Typhoon as a full drone boat, thus completing its versatility.

The downside (as a player) to my version is it lacks the versatility of using the extra drones to throw ECM types into the mix while maintaining decent damage.

The drone bonus system is already exponential, but it appears to be easier to bonus all drones than a subset and if there are to be multiple levels of the module they need to be differentiated somehow.

+5% per module on an Ishkur would still be a better bonus than any it has now...

Why not splitting it a bit ?

High slot module : +1 drone in space.
Medslot : drone bonus (already in game).
Lowslot : bandwith bonus.
Rigs : drone dps (already in game).