Eniram Resh
L.O.T.I.S.
Legacy Rising
0
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Posted - 2013.03.01 01:43:00 -
[1] - Quote
I love the idea of drones being in the game. I love drones. I love lamp.
My "questions"/ideas/random thoughts
I think that it needs to be discussed how big these things are actually going to be. The size of a mercs head with just enough room to hold an smg for a little fire support, as big as a merc, LAV, or an HAV?
Considering how you mentioned that we could control up to three drones at the same time, I would suggest that these lovely creatures be relatively small, about the size of a mercs head... or a cat... maybe a fashionable lamp put in your living room. However, I feel that there should be equipment specifically for drones, not the same stuff that you can put on your merc. My reasoning behind this is because the equipment for mercs is sized differently. This is assuming that drones are small in stature of course, and if they are allowed to have a fitting. I saw that you already suggested that it could be in consideration that drone specific weapons (in response to Canari Elphus's post) would be appropriate, and I agree with that.
It can all be simplified too, by making stock variations like Canari Elphus wrote earlier. In my opinion this method makes a lot more sense and is much easier to implement, but the idea of fitting a drone how you want it and determining its behavior is appealing too. However, when it comes to fitting a drone, doesn't that limit it on what type of behavior you want it to have? For instance, if a drone has an SMG equipped ((better yet a suicide drone)), I highly doubt it would have the behavior of a triage or medic. Though that would be hilarious to watch on the battle field. "Woops I programmed my drone wrong, now every time I get hurt I get shot in the back of the head with an SMG because its trying to heal my with whats in its equipment slot."
It seems like the behaviors themselves could be put into a specific stock types like Canari Elphus wrote. However, the attack mode, direct attack mode, and guardian mode could probably be left alone as specific commands given to your offensive drones.
In essence, they could make triage drones to heal, medic drones to revive allies, and combat drones to kill people. The variation in drone fitting is appealing in many aspects, but in my opinion drones are made to perform certain tasks, and are mass produced, having little to no variation if of the same type.
The more advanced drones of a certain stock type will heal for more,damage more, revive for more, have a larger scanning area, etc... Perhaps you will have to go down a certain skill selection to have these nice fancy drones. For instance, if you want to have a meta level 3 scanning drone, you'll have to have "logistic drone operation" up to level 3. If you want a meta level 3 combat drone, you will have to have "combat drone operation" to level 3.
The fear that drones put in people isn't normally a "Oh no that creature is horrendously formidable" but a fear of "Jesus Christ there's 50 of those things and there's only one of me". That being said, I do think that 3 drones per person should be the limit. Any more than that just seems kind of silly, but maybe they'll come out with a drop suit specifically for drone operation that allows you to have 5 drones at a time.
What I like:
I like the Distance from Drone uplink allowed
I like the movement you suggested, these things should be small and fast in my opinion.
I like the total hit points that you provided, they should be flimsy, but a threat when in numbers.
I like the price provided, these things should be mass produced to beyond stupidity thus decreasing their price.
I like the behaviors, but I do think that they can be put into stock variations fairly easily.
I like the idea of kamikaze drones, but feel that if you wanted to do that, then why not implement homing missiles?
I like the reward points appointed to the player if said players drones kill an enemy.
What I don't like
The WP reward suggested for killing a drone is far to high for how flimsy their armor and shield is.
I feel that the player should be awarded in a kill if his drones kill someone. Telling your drones to go and attack someone, or having them defend you after you spent the ISK on them and not be rewarded a kill that "your" equipment killed is like saying; "Your honor, I didn't kill that man. The gun I bought, and the bullet that was fired from the gun did".
Argument: But wait! The gun is in "your" hands while the drones are acting on their own!
Rebuttal: The drone that you have has no free will, it was bought by you, you have control over it, it is a tool. You knew that the function of the drone in question is to kill an opposing player. It is working as intended, much like a hit man, those who hired the hit man are just as guilty as the hit man himself.
Credits:
Sorry for such a long post, and any grammatical errors that may lay within. My brain has melted by this point. I hope you find my feedback constructive and enlightening.
I like drones. |
Eniram Resh
L.O.T.I.S.
Legacy Rising
0
|
Posted - 2013.03.01 03:13:00 -
[2] - Quote
Okay! I can see torso size working, making them have a little more room for customization. Thanks for clearing that up for me. I also like the canister idea, especially since they're torso sized now. Can't really see people lugging around 3 torso sized scraps of metal  .
I kind of see where you getting at with behaviors now. Sounds good to me.
You say that it would be hard to have multiple drones from one person, which is fine. You also state that these things will basically be considered glass cannons, which is fine too. Once again, My problem comes with the WP that killing a drone provides. I feel that the WP provided for killing it is a little too high at 50 WP. Especially since a nice LAV only awards 40 WP.
You state, in response to my earlier interjection at the amount of WP awarded for killing a drone, that this is to counteract the sheer amount of drones that drone users are going to have. Yet earlier you stated that it was going to be hard to fit a suit with max drones without being severly outmatched in gear. If the drones are formidable and don't melt under small arms fire then I could see them being worth 50 WP per drone, but right now it seems like pure drone users will depend heavily on their drones, which will end up feeding the enemy team WP. If drones are just going to be supplementary, then this might be okay, because no one will really go pure drones.
I see where you're coming from on why the owner of the drones shouldn't get many WP for having their drones kill people, I suppose. Maybe the amount of WP for killing a drone could be lowered to 10 since they are so flimsy, and the WP for the drones killing people is kept to 10 WP too?
I suppose most of this depends on how good their AI is, how good of a shot they are, and many other variables. If a drone is told to defend a spot will it sit there like a lump on a log, or will it try to evade bullet fire and fire back? If told to go kill someone and they begin to approach said target, will they just go at the enemy in a straight line, or try to evade so that they wont be destroyed so easily. They do seem to move rather fast, but they aren't as small as I initially thought so they might be easier to hit.
Also, do you think that implementing race specific drones would be nice? Amarr drones, Caldari Drones, Minmatar Drones?
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Eniram Resh
L.O.T.I.S.
Legacy Rising
1
|
Posted - 2013.03.01 17:54:00 -
[3] - Quote
Quote:The LAV may only provide 40 WP but if there is a driver then thats an additional 50 Wp, if there was a passenger and gunner an additional 50 for each. The biggest thing that is important IMO is that the enemy team has a counter to drones. Of course the other team will have access to drones but were talking about balance and this seems like the best way to balance. Of course I could be wrong on my theory of balance here.
Forgot about the extra person, derp. That is, of course if they don't manage to jump out before the vehicle is destroyed. I can see where your coming from on the 50 WP per drone now, though I do believe that it should be lower.
Quote:Im sorry what I meant was having 1 Drone Uplink would have no penalty, however each additional Uplink will have a stacking 10% penalty to CPU/PG and this is where we run into having to sacrifice gear just to have the max number of Uplinks per your dropsuit.
I now understand, and agree. Sorry for the confusion.
Quote:I think their AI should be dumb as **** honestly. They fly in a straight line, they turn like heavies when being shot at. These things can be buffed by implementing sensors, nitrous injectors, afterburners and so on, but yes I think they should be dumb as hell. As far as evasion of enemy fire I think they should have a radius of about 2 meters where they will strafe left and right, up and down, forward and backwards. This could perhaps be increased with skills in drone control or something.
Couldn't agree more
Quote:In the future I would love to see racial drones.
This pleases me. I'm a large Amarr fan, so I like anything that sports their look. Waiting for the Amarr scout drop suit since I like the scout role so much.
Hopefully they'll implement something like this eventually. |