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Super Dan
EVE University Ivy League
0
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Posted - 2013.08.23 15:59:00 -
[1] - Quote
As I am to understand, Drones are getting a massive overhaul that is currently in the works. I would like to share an idea for the re-vamp.
I would propose the following changes:
1. Completely remove functional drones from the game inventory system. I would propose instead that drone ships assemble drones in flight and that they do this with "drone parts" or some such variant that you determine to make sense. This would allow drones to be destroyed in the field as is currently the case but instead of gimping drone boats it would simply reduce their dps temporarily while they produce replacements.
2. Add a "Drone Assembly Device" to the game, this could either get slot in low/med/high and simply add a (non-hardpoint if high) slot to all ships that currently have drone bays, or you could add a "drone slot" row to all ships that currently field drones. This device would assemble a drone when activated and deploy it. It would not work if either your bandwidth was currently full or you drone amount in the field was at the max your skills allow. This could either be done many ways. The assembler could be what is used to determine the drone types you will make or that could be hard coded to ships to add a more specific flavor to the various ship types. The key here is that this module would have to be clicked by the player to get an additional drone in the field but would not require the player to dock up to replace lost drones. This should completely solve the issue of drone boats afk'ing missions which i believe was the reason you made npcs attack drones so much now. I believe this solution works well to keep afkers from beating missions assuming you keep the drone kill AI as well as allows NON-afk'rs to be able to use all their drones without constant needs for re-docking mid mission or mid PVP fleet. It also address's the issue of drones not using ammo as the pilot will need to buy drone parts which are themselves essentially a form of ammo.
3. Remove or re-tool the Drone Cargo bay. I would suggest either removing the drone bay completely or using just to store the parts to assemble drones in.
4. Use drone bandwidth as the system to determine allowable drone combos.
5. As a part of the assembly, I would like the damage type of each drone to be determined by an item that is part of the drone assembly parts pile. This is because drone damage type currently trumps all other stats for PVE and drone DPS/damage type is all anyone cares about in pvp. If you at least let us adjust damage types you will likely see people selecting the less popular drones more often for their other stats.
6. Current drone menu flights could be used as flight load-outs. This would work by you simply designing what combination of light/med/heav/sent/EWAR/mine//salvage drones you want to deploy at once. this would still be subject to bandwidth for the current ship and drone skills for the current pilot. Then to deal with the initial deployment you could have 1 full flight of drones assembled once un-docked ready for immediate deployment and combat. To address the problem of changing flights mid fight, an option to have a different flight assembled and cached but not deploy-able until the currently deployed fleet is withdrawn would likely work. This would make the pilot have to think about what they should cache as a part of the fight. Additionally, if you wish to change the cached flight while a different flight is currently deployed, this would have a timer to penalize constant changing and reward good forward thinking and planning. Additionally, I would suggest limiting the number of saved drone flights by and per ship and increasing the amount available based on a skill.
7. EWAR drones should just be made FFA. That is to say that when i use a drone assembler of a certain type, all my ewar drones will simply be that racial type and i should simply be able to select which EWAR variant of that drone i want when designing my flights. They would still have the specs of the selected racial drone type, they would just do whatever ewar i selected when i added them to my flight load-out.
As I see it:
I will use a dominix for a simple example of how I would propose this work. Essentially, the Dominix would have its drone bay removed and its cargo hold slightly increased. Before un-docking for my mission or my PVP fleet I would select which drone assembler i want for my current fit. The assembler could gain drone production speed as its meta level increases and the racial variant of the assembler could determine the drone type produced. I would also have to load a stack of "drone parts" into my cargo hold to have made into drones. These parts should be what is used to determine the damage type and the assembler should be what is used to determine the drone type. So in this example i load a Gallente assembler with kinetic parts. This would allow me to use any combination of gallente drones and they would all do kinetic damage. I could bring parts for multiple damage types and they would have to be loaded into the assembler like ammo in a turret or missile launcher with some kind of timer. In this example though i deploy with only the gallente assembler and the kinetic parts. I have saved 3 load outs (lets keep this simple), large/med/small. I warp to a mission pocket (easiest example) and deploy one of my saved flights called large. 5 ogres that all do kinetic damage are deployed and sent in to fight. Immediately 1 dies, i click the assembler and 5 seconds later another ogre is deployed and off he goes to fight. I then decide that i want to switch to my saved flight of small to deal with all the frigates. Before the ogres are withdrawn i right click the small flight and select Make Ready. 10 seconds later an option of deploy becomes available for that flight. Once the ogres get back into the ship they are immediately turned back into parts because the active cache is now light drones. |
Super Dan
EVE University Ivy League
0
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Posted - 2013.08.23 15:59:00 -
[2] - Quote
ddd |
Danika Princip
Freelance Economics Astrological resources Tactical Narcotics Team
1600
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Posted - 2013.08.23 16:56:00 -
[3] - Quote
How long would it take to build a drone? Would the time vary based on the size of the drones? What kind of parts are we talking? How would this affect fighters and fighter bombers? |
Taur Ambraelle
The Industrial Consortium G a l a c t i c Industries
0
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Posted - 2013.08.23 16:59:00 -
[4] - Quote
Its a good idea.
It might be slightly OP but you could limit that by saying that once drones are made and recalled, they can only be disassembled at a station rather than in flight.
Limits you to the amount of different permutations available.
This amount could be increased by skills.
Lets even consider T3 drones, one set of parts makes all drones but they are expensive.
You can model them for more dps but less hp or the other around.
Repair bills would also have to scale up as well.
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Cade Windstalker
Donohue Enterprises Ad-Astra
33
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Posted - 2013.08.23 17:50:00 -
[5] - Quote
Somehow I don't thing the "Drones rework" is going to be a complete overhaul of every single mechanic dealing with drones.
I'm not saying this is a bad idea, but it's unfeasible on CCP's part and I think most of us would rather see them rebalance drones so there are reasons to use all types and drone ships are more competitive in more roles with gun/missile ships, rather than re-work the entire system at the expense of other features or content. |
Super Dan
EVE University Ivy League
2
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Posted - 2013.08.24 04:08:00 -
[6] - Quote
Danika Princip wrote:How long would it take to build a drone? Would the time vary based on the size of the drones? What kind of parts are we talking? How would this affect fighters and fighter bombers?
All valid questions, All of them require data that CCP has proprietary access too unfortunately. Except the capital drones question. I personally would apply this system to the capital drones but that could be a matter for debate. I assume long time null sec folks may have very strong opinions on changes of any kind to capital ships. |
Super Dan
EVE University Ivy League
2
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Posted - 2013.08.24 04:08:00 -
[7] - Quote
Cade Windstalker wrote:Somehow I don't thing the "Drones rework" is going to be a complete overhaul of every single mechanic dealing with drones. I'm not saying this is a bad idea, but it's unfeasible on CCP's part and I think most of us would rather see them rebalance drones so there are reasons to use all types and drone ships are more competitive in more roles with gun/missile ships, rather than re-work the entire system at the expense of other features or content.
That certainly is unfortunate. |
Luc Chastot
Daktaklakpak.
469
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Posted - 2013.08.24 04:44:00 -
[8] - Quote
The work being done on drones right now is more than likely just some minor stats change. CCP has had the chance to do radical changes to some systems that would greatly improve the game, but opted for some minor tinkering at a superficial level. Make it idiot-proof and someone will make a better idiot. |
Super Dan
EVE University Ivy League
2
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Posted - 2013.08.24 15:00:00 -
[9] - Quote
Luc Chastot wrote:The work being done on drones right now is more than likely just some minor stats change. CCP has had the chance to do radical changes to some systems that would greatly improve the game, but opted for some minor tinkering at a superficial level.
That would be very unfortunate as some stat changes will in no way solve the problem of AFK missioners or replaceable drone death in pvp/missions. |
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