Whispercrow
Seituoda Taskforce Command
Caldari State
102
   |
Posted - 2012.08.20 22:05:00 -
[1] - Quote
OK, time to nerd out and get all RP'ish. CCP, take notice if you want to protect your programming decisions!
Modern drones have all the control computers they need hundreds if not thousands of miles away. They also don't have to manuever in space at high velocities while attempting to maintain orbits and movement vectors, calculate attacks, maintain heat and power control, etc. Being effected by ECM is also rare as few enemies try. In fact, until that one US drone was 'tricked' by Iran, it's never really been done, and it's likely a small "drone ECM arms race" will occur.
I think it's safe to assume that the drones in EVE are mostly just crazy weapons and engine platforms with minimal on-board computers, and instead rely upon the ship they are launched from to do all that legwork for them. Which, realistically, would explain the bandwidth and drone control issues... if all that was built-in, you could use as many drones as you can carry with no limitations on the ship launching them.
In addition, I think it's also fairly safe to guess that there's a lot of 'basic' ECM and ECCM going on we don't see. Slowing target locks and the like, and that anything past a certain distance could render drones 'hackable', where the opponent could take control or deactivate them. So, naturally, there is a 'safe zone' around the ship at which it can maintain absolute control over its minions. Also, the ships would have to have numerous communications antennae covering their surface, as just one could easily be knocked out. Rather than a large powerful one, there are many small transmitters that provide redundant coverage, and they'd need to be of lesser power but have sufficient bandwidth. That would restrict the range from thousands of KM to dozens.
RP stuff ends.
Now, would I like to see ship-based drones strafing the HELL out of ground emplacements in Dust? ABSOLUTELY. I, personally, would happily send dozens of 1mil ISK drones to their demise if I could have my friends get their butts saved by waves of attack ships dropping in from orbit. But there's range issues involved, and it would require a bunch of extra programming to provide very little benefit. There's just not much bang for the buck, at least until the game is complete and running with everything else. |
Whispercrow
Seituoda Taskforce Command
Caldari State
102
|
Posted - 2012.08.20 22:30:00 -
[2] - Quote
Oh, no doubt, "future feature" it could be great.
And I agree it makes much more sense with Fighters and Fighter-Bombers. However... that's a sizable cost investment on the EVE side, for very little return on the Dust side. If fights give you 50-70k isk, I highly doubt people will be willing to risk Billions of ISK in EVE to have a chance of changing the outcome in a Dust battle. Because the carrier WOULD have to be there, and a great target for enemies. On the upside, some people would see that as a PvP opportunity, but there would have to be some more motivation methinks. |