Dr K
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Posted - 2004.03.18 01:59:00 -
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I''''ve been thinking about the dynamic of drones as they apply to combat in EVE and wanted to see what some people thought of random ideas for expanding the current system:
Drone Bay <-> Cargo Conversion:
The first thing I noted when I started playing Eve was the fact that there was no way to convert between cargo and drone space, yet both are ''''space'''' on the resultant ship. I realize that partial conversions pose a serious game balance risk, allowing for drone mining in industrial ships, etc, so here is a proposal to address that situation.
Cargo Conversion
- Reduces drone bay to 0. Adds half of what the drone bay used to be to the size of the cargo bay. Space lost is explained as the size of the automated loading and canning equipment, etc.
Low slot. Requiring something like Hull Upgrades IV or V
Carrier Conversion
- Reduces cargo bay to 0. Adds half of what the cargo bay used to be to the size of the drone bay. Space lost is explained as the bulk of the hatches, and automated launch systems, etc. Low slot. Requiring Hull Upgrades IV or V
These ''''whole hog'''' conversions would indeed allow an industrial ship to carry drones, but if they did, they aren''''t going to be hauling anything.
Currently drone tactics center around fitting big drones into your drone bay and using them to keep frigates from getting close enough to get under the optimal range of your battleships'''' guns.
Here are some proposals on ways to change up the mix a bit. I realize some of these have already been proposed and/or are already on the way.
Shield Drones
Orbits host ship beaming down shield energy. Have them beam over about a third of the damage that a normal scout drone deals with its weapons as a shield booster effect. defense on the shield drone should be almost entirely shield driven so EM based weapons should rip them apart.
Heavy Shield Drones
Same concept, bigger, heavier, slower. Make them move slow enough that they can''''t follow you when you are using an MWD to encourage mixed fighting styles.
Possibly add a skill: Shield Drones, which adds 5% to the shield boost effect and requires something like Drones V to learn. Each of the following categories could go with a new skill as well, Power Drones Skill, Repair Drones Skill, Sensor Drones Skill, etc. probably requiring Drones III or IV
Power Drones
Similar to the shield drones, but beams a small amount of capacitor energy to the host ship. Little orbiting solar panels. If you want to take that idea to the logical extreme it would be neat to factor in the distance to the star and perhaps scale the power output appropriately. That would add a new dynamic.
Heavy Power Drones
As above, but considerably slower, so they can''''t follow you when using an MWD. Perhaps even the base power drones should be slower than MWD speed to discourage people from using them to help keep the MWD running perpetually.
For the sake of completeness:
Armor Repair Drones
Slow moving, repairs armor slowly over time.
Heavy Armor Repair Drones
Hull Repair Drones
Slow moving, repairs hull slowly damage over time.
Heavy Hull Repair Drones
Sensors:
It was recently said that Gallente were intended to be the kings of EW but it fell to Caldari kind of by accident. In the interest of adding some spice to the EW conflict, here are some thoughts for some alternate uses for drone space:
Gravitometric Sensor Drone
Adds +1 to the Sensor strength of the host (other flavors for other sensor types)
Small and fast
Heavy Gravitometric Sensor Drone
+4 to the appropriate sensor strength of the host.
Salvage Drone
Will loot targeted cargo containers, bringing back cargo small enough for them to fit. Arguably the hardest of the batch proposed because of the multiple states involved in the retrieval process.
Possibly a source of problem as well, as people might use them to sit there macro-killing in relatively safe pirate bases.
Drone combat modules:
Signature Shifter
Med Slot. High Power requirement. Mid range CPU requirement. Broadcasts noise constantly changing the ships signature. No real effect on piloted craft, but the constantly changing signature can break the locks made by drone targeting systems. percentage chance of either not getting attacked or breaking a lock by drones attacking you as the developers see fit. Should consume a fair amount of cap when used and have a side effect like +300% to signature radius when mounted. This might allow frigates to fly in under the radius of a battleship's guns and fight close if balanced right. Perhaps this unit should be more effective when used on smaller ships, basing its effectiveness inversely on the tonnage of the vessel or something similar.
Drone Jammer
Hi Slot. High CPU. Low Power. Gives a chance to ''deprogram'' a drone, removing its knowledge of who its ho
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