Soon Dust 514 will have a PVE mode where you fight against rogue drones (click here to see). They seem to be come equiped with different kinds of weapons like the shotguns and HMGs, and in different sizes. I'm sure the weapons they use and their size would be good for variety, but their is a massive advantage drones have when it comes to variety; their bodies can be anything.

Unlike humans, drones are AI. An AI can be installed on a variety of completely different body types. This can be from massive giant robot spider boss that requires many squads to take down, to small logistics drones that keep the other drones intact. In this thread I will make proposals for drone types that go beyond the basic hovering tentacle monster type of drone that we have seen so far. I will also cover roles that drones can occupy on the battlefield.



[Swarm drones]:
These should be very small, and they should attack in swarms of dozens. They should be very weak, like only 10 points of health, and their damage should be very minuscule. They should only be a threat when they attack in large groups (a swarm). Swarm drones should only be able to damage when they make physical contact.

[Logistics drones]:
These should be moderately small, and hover above the standard attack drones to repair them. They should also be able to revive destroyed drones within a few seconds of a drone being destroyed; the revived drones should have with 20% of their health. Logistics drones should be fast, high flying, but moderately weak.

[Attack drones]: I don't know what they're really called.
The ones we already seen before in trailer.

[Heavy attack drones]: I don't know what they're really called
Bigger versions of the attack drones, we've seen those before as well.

[Fast attack drones]:
Motorcycle drones (or hoverbike since drones seem to like hovering) mounted with weapons. About as durable as a regular attack drones, but significantly faster. Here is an image from a movie to illustrate the idea (click here).

[Digger drones]:
Originally designed for drilling through tough terrain for mining purposes, these massive centipede-like drones have been modified with dozens of small turrets for offensive capabilities. They burrow underground and pop out to do surprise attacks on enemies. These have high health. They should be trackable underground with active scanners. Imagin a robot version of (this) with lots of guns mounted on it. This may be quite a challenge to do considering it will that it breaks through the ground, and that will require destructible grounds.

[Tank drones]:
Hovering HAV drones with powerful defenses, and wields powerful small turrets as well as a large turret. It could look something like this, (click here).

[Aerial attack drones]:
Large flying drones that have small turrets, drops bombs, and also deploy attack drones like a dropship. Has moderately high health, flies slowly. It can look something like this (click here).

[King spider drone]:
A giant spider drone the size of a building with multiple large turrets. It has around 20,000 total HP, and requires a full team of mercs, or a group of tanks to take down. This would make the ultimate final boss. Here is an image of how it might look (click here).

I realize CCP may already be developing a wide variety of drone types that may already do all the things I would like to see (though probably not), but I'm just posting this preemptively I guess.

NOTE: THIS IS GOING TO BE LONG. Read the Core Concept, if you don't like it, post to let me know it sucks and that I should suicide in a public area. Any feedback is good feedback.

Core Concept:

Drones have overrun an important research facility. The facility will be demolished by orbital bombardment in 15 minutes to contain the drone infestation.

Your team, working for the installation owners, and a...

Ship boarding would be fun, and exciting. It would offer players a new type of environment to enjoy (freaken space ships IN SPACE!).

[SHIP BOARDING PVE MISSION]:
I did some Googling earlier, and stumbled upon some pretty pictures of EVE NPC ships, like rogue drone ships (click here, here, and here for the coolness). We will already be getting rogue drones on planets as a PVE enemy in the future for Dust 514, but why not take the battle to space? These rogue drone ships could be carrying planetary rogue drones as a defense against mercs boarding them. This could lead to such a great PVE mode much more interesting than fighting off some horde infestation; we can be the infestation, and fight our way through a series of objectives and disable and entire ship, set up a bomb, and boom. This would give the sense of progression that Skirmish 1.0 had, since you have to move through the "map" (ship), and unlock more of it by completing the objectives. Objectives can include hacking doors, disabling indoor defensive systems (like a computer controlling turrets and cameras), fighting our through to the ship's "brain" to plant a bomb, all while fighting past all the hovering killer drones patrolling the corridors. Another plus could be the lack of artificial gravity, meaning that can drift through with some kind of boosters on our backs.
This kind of NPC ship boarding could also apply to Sansha's Nation. We could board Sansha ships, and fight our past the enslaved mind-controlled cyborg armies await us inside.

Thank you for reading.