Beren Hurin
Onslaught Inc
RISE of LEGION
2379
   |
Posted - 2014.05.29 12:28:00 -
[1] - Quote
I think I'm interested in a few more nuanced directions that these questions imply such as:
What is the relationship between loot and drones?
I think generally, the game should link the amount of drones on a planet with the possibility to find more/rarer resources. The drones would be going through the process of locating/collecting/processing lots of loot. Your job would be to intercept the drones, prevent the acquisition, and also, maybe repatriate collected drone salvage.
Where does the 'threat' from the drones come from?
It really can come from extreme intelligence, superior statistics, or numbers advantages. Programming intelligence could be one of the more difficult things, so most systems will/should probably most go into a process that generates a competitive environment that enables and expands on the last two ideas.
I think drones should be kind of 'ant-like'. They would have nests/hives that they spawn from with a few different varieties and threat levels of the different kind of drones. Hives/nests would level up over time, spawning more/deadlier drones. The more difficult the planet the higher tier possible hives. At most times, drones would be randomly patrolling terrain based on their settings and 'hive role'. They'd have a variety of economic and combat 'priorities' along with some different weapons profiles. If someone is attacking their nest, they prioritize killing them, healing their friends, scanning for loot, scanning for stealth/cloaked players, etc. Each drone class would also have their own variety within the class (often heavy/medium/light).
You could have a 'queen drone' that is only interested in activity around her nest. Therefore she doesn't wonder more than 100m from the nest, and even then, only to chase invaders. She can only detect things that are 36db+. She has a fairly limited ranged attack, is very quick and extremely highly tanked with some significant regeneraion potential. She will attack anyone attacking/salvaging the main hive if she can see them. If she is attacked, she will trigger an 'alert' for any other drone that is within 200m to assist her. Also, if the queen is alive, she will trigger the hive to slowly replace any drones lost drones based on the hive tier. These drones will be created at the expense of stored/collected salvage. Queens would be the heart of a swarm. If you kill the queen, you've probably aggravated most of the swarm, but they won't last much longer.
Integrator drones would be sort of like 'drone commanders/officers'. They would multiply the threat/danger of nearby drones. The more integrator drones around, the higher tier hive you have. Integrators would be able to broadcast the 'alert' status of any drone that it can see (150m) to any others within that same range. The integrator's broadcast would then re-task any nearby drones to patrol with it to locate any other nearby enemies. The higher tier a hive, the more drones each integrator would re-task for patrol. Integrators would be the brains of a swarm.
Alternatively you could have a class of 'dismantler' drones who's economic role is to scout for and collect salvage. They would be very fast, have a long scanning vision that can see 13-20 dB (depending on the hive's level). They would 'share sight' with other drones, but could only 'alert' other dismantlers or integrators. They would mainly be the eyes and ears of the drone swarm.
Constructor drones would be like roaming healers. When not near the hive, they would heal anything that has the lowest health with significant speed. They would have a very limited detection ability and alert range. So, if they were individually attacked they'd first retreat to the nearest integrator to get into its alert range.
Striker Drones would be the basic 'killers' moving back and forth between the forward roaming dismantlers and the queen near the hive. They would be the most deadly.
Cloak drones would be fairly rare, but they would be hard to detect and would not constantly attack. They'd switch targets occaisionally and attack for a short period of time, cloak, move, then restart attacking.
So the idea would be that individually, these drones wouldn't be THAT much of a threat, but they could quickly become a problem if you don't know their behavior.
Also, there could be a kind of variation of 'drone races' some that are more about repairs, others more for shields, others big hybrid tanks but slow, etc. Players would then have to assess the strength of the nearby swarm. Failure to identify the proper threat could be quickly fatal. Properly prioritizing targets, or quickly getting salvage and then leaving would be the key to efficient resource collection. |
Beren Hurin
Onslaught Inc
RISE of LEGION
2379
|
Posted - 2014.05.29 15:07:00 -
[2] - Quote
So to expand on my thread. There would be a delicate balance between the gameplay that involves 'farming' drones. The longer you are around without destroying a hive, the more likely the hive would upgrade into something more dangerous than you could handle. Depending on the system security level. The hive development itself could have a kind of sideways and vertical progression.
All hives would start as basic hives on a planet when the infestation starts. Left unattended they would 'evolve' from basic hives to a variety of different kinds of drone 'strains'. Each strain's hive and tier level would be visually identifiable, but you wouldn't know the upgrade level of the 'swarm' that you face until you've found the swarm's hive. Each hive would have between 0 and 12 drones active at a time.
The basic hive would just have a queen, a commander drone, and a bunch of scout drones roaming around.
The sideways progression would shift the hive into a certain kind of 'style' of enemy based around healing, stealth, heavy drones, damage, and intelligence. The different drone types could follow Eve with the "avlior, alvatis, alvii, names etc." Each drone would have a spawn rate, and once a hive would have all 12 of its drones spawned then it would go into a progression mode where it ticks down a timer to let it change into the next tiered version. Once the hive evolves, it would have more HP, and would occaisionally recall drones that don't match its 'hive-style table'. It would then reprocess all of its drones one at a time until it matched, and then proceed to upgrade to the next tier. There would be 3-5 tier upgrades depending on the security level of the system. More difficult areas would also have more hives. A hive, unatended, would take about 1 hour to fully upgrade to tier V. A Hive's upgrade progression can be stopped by destroying its drones forcing it to replace them before proceeding.
Directly attacking a Tier I hive while it has all 12 drones would be somewhat difficult for even a 6 man squad. A tier V hive with all of its drones aggroed would be nearly impossible. The trick would be knowing the type of hive you are up against and the progression of drones to attack to not aggro too many at once. Each progression hive level and 'race/style' would have its own nuances. For most tier levels, just attacking the hive directly would result in a quick death. |