The Gecko was supposed to make up for the loss of bonuses on light and medium drones on the Rattlesnake in PVE.

Geckos need a different AI. The Gecko was supposed to make up for the loss of bonuses on light and medium drones on the Rattlesnake in PVE, but the heavy drone AI makes it a annoying micromanagement burden. Instead of destroying all the aggroed ships of a type, frigates or cruisers, as light and medium drones would do, the Gecko always wants to return to whatever battleship you are shooting at after it destroys its target, or wants to go pop the BS trigger, whatever it may be. Destroying frigates and cruisers shouldn't be so much of a PITA , having to reassign them constantly and losing DPS.

Because of this, I find the former iteration of the Rattlesnake far more preferable to play. The elimination of creative play via reduction of drone bay from 400m3 to 175m3 was also unappreciated.

Giving Geckos light or medium drone AI should be an easy band-aid fix while we wait for better drone AI improvements.

All drone AI is the same...

All drone AI is the same...

Fix the Gecko's so they at least have the same bandwidth as Large Drones so that four of them can be used.

Fix the Gecko's so they at least have the same bandwidth as Large Drones so that four of them can be used.

As someone who has trained exclusively for a Torp fit, passive-shield tanked Rattlesnake that primarily uses light and medium drones,

This is a very poor use of this ship.

We already established that you don't know what you are talking about, as per usual.

Geckos are the worst heavy drone choice vs Battleships and they always want to go after them after each frigate or cruiser it kills.

And yes, the Gecko was meant to make up for the loss of bonuses medium drones, lights (albeit poorly), and needs to have the proper AI to match.

All heavy drones/sentries prioritize battleships over smaller targets (unless the smaller target attacks first) because they are most likely to actually hit these. This is not a unique quirk of the Gecko. This is more of a problem you have with the AI of Heavy Drones in general and you would garner more support if you were to champion for a more robust drone UI.

All heavy drones/sentries prioritize battleships over smaller targets (unless the smaller target attacks first) because they are most likely to actually hit these. This is not a unique quirk of the Gecko. This is more of a problem you have with the AI of Heavy Drones in general and you would garner more support if you were to champion for a more robust drone UI.


Nowhere has it ever been stated that the Gecko was meant to make up for the lack of the smaller drones. Just because it is what you think does not make it true and I am going to need a link of proof to wherever this statement was made.

Finally, the change in drone bay has not hindered the ship as much as you would like to claim. Previously 400m3 was 3 flights of heavy drones and 25m3 to spare. The new 175m3 is... 3 flights of heavy drones with 25m3 to spare.

Equally. How can you prove that the Gecko is not intended for this role?

wrong

CCP doesn't always spell everything out for you, even if some of you desperately need it.

The Gecko seems to fullfill the role of medium drones. It even requires the same bandwidth of 5 medium drones. It also has the highest tracking to be found on a heavy drone, comparable to medium drones.

Equally. How can you prove that the Gecko is not intended for this role? Given the loss of bonuses on light and medium drones, it seems more likely than not. The fact it is a Guristas drone and the Rattlesnake is the only Guristas ship that can use it should be telling you something as well.

The loss of 400m3 drone bay eliminated the ability to use the perfect light or medium drone type for whatever may be encounterd, it also eliminated any possibilities of creative play with heavy utility drones.

You couldn't be more wrong.

CCP doesn't always spell everything out for you, even if some of you desperately need it.

The Gecko seems to fullfill the role of medium drones. It even requires the same bandwidth of 5 medium drones. It also has the highest tracking to be found on a heavy drone, comparable to medium drones.

Equally. How can you prove that the Gecko is not intended for this role? Given the loss of bonuses on light and medium drones, it seems more likely than not. The fact it is a Guristas drone and the Rattlesnake is the only Guristas ship that can use it should be telling you something as well.

The loss of 400m3 drone bay eliminated the ability to use the perfect light or medium drone type for whatever may be encounterd, it also eliminated any possibilities of creative play with heavy utility drones.

You couldn't be more wrong.

SNIP

So this thread has run for a while and it seems that none can seem to offer a valid reason why we should not have a change to the Gecko AI.

Personally, this is a change that I need to continue enjoying the game. I had my primary playstyle ruined on a highly SP intensive pirate faction battleship, the Rattlesnake, the only combat ship I have been training for, dreaming about and perfecting since I started this game over 4 years ago. This change would go a long way towards improving opinion(at least mine) of the game...

What ultimately makes it all too much is the annoying hassle of having to babysit your gecko onto every single frigate or cruiser you want to destroy if there are Battleships present, as Battleships will be prioritized by the AI script used with Gecko.

Under the effect of jamming or dampening, this problem is amplified as other drone boats have bonused light and medium drones which will continue to deal high-end damage upon frigate and cruisers without popping Battleship triggers like a Gecko will, or leaving you web scrambled and webbed as it uselessly wastes time attacking a random battleship, ultimately compromising the great benefit of using drones to combat e-war.

There is now a heavy micromanagement burden required in using a Gecko to combat ships smaller than a battleship that is compounded by the ship being limited 7 locked targets max. Since the Gecko appears to be compensation for the loss of bonuses on light and medium drones and a -225m3 reduction in drone bay space, it would greatly benefit the game if they could be made to prioritize the target type they are tasked upon, frigates or cruisers, instead of prioritizing battleships, something that traditional heavy drones do much better at dealing with.