Decoy Drones.

[Brian]

Just had an idea for avoiding pirates/the law....

Decoy Drones!

As you fly through systems you could pop out a bunch of decoy drones to confuse pirates - or at least put them off your scent for a while. You'd need a decoy drone controller, and a bunch of drones. You fire them off while in super cruise, and they fly off in a defensive pattern to try and draw the enemy away from you. They should only last a couple of seconds, and their speed should be roughly the same speed as you were doing when you fired them. Reloading and numbers of active drones would be dependent on the rating of the controller. If an attacker locks onto a drone and interdicts it, the FSD would have the usual cool-down time. Drones wont stop anyone locking onto you, but they may distract someone long enough for you to get away

This could almost make flying into Shinrarta Dezhra in open almost survivable!

Maybe the drones could be a two tonne unit to accommodate the power supply and FSD drive? They could also cost a lot more than the usual drones to stop people spamming them like confetti?

Waddaya fink?
CMDR Smokey

 

[Bigmaec]

Or you simply use all other options to not getting ganked.

 

[space voyager]

Or you simply use all other options to not getting ganked.

But why when you can have decoy dones?!

Anyway, I kinda like the suggestion. I'd also like to have my warship look like a trader, think of Q-ship.

 

[varonica]

But why when you can have decoy dones?!

Anyway, I kinda like the suggestion. I'd also like to have my warship look like a trader, think of Q-ship.

And then lets give pirates an optional sensor upgrade that identifies when a target is a decoy, because that's what will happen right afterwards you realise. For every advantage you give yourself there will be a counter supplied to the enemy, that's how these things work.

 

[CMDR X]

And then lets give pirates an optional sensor upgrade that identifies when a target is a decoy, because that's what will happen right afterwards you realise. For every advantage you give yourself there will be a counter supplied to the enemy, that's how these things work.

Nope. The enemy already has all the advantages (ship, speed, firepower, position, skewed interdict mini-game, etc ad nauseam).
That's the whole point of OP, to balance things out a bit. And the "simply use all other options to not getting ganked" argument
is getting stale really fast. So is that type of "gameplay".

I guess some people are just afraid..
X.

 

[varonica]

Nope. The enemy already has all the advantages (ship, speed, firepower, position, skewed interdict mini-game, etc ad nauseam).
That's the whole point of OP, to balance things out a bit. And the "simply use all other options to not getting ganked" argument
is getting stale really fast. So is that type of "gameplay".

I guess some people are just afraid..
X.

If you can demand drones they can demand counter measures. You seem to think you are the only one they listen to. Every single defensive and offensive action and weapon has been answered with a counter measure. You get this then the PvP players will loudly complain that the game is skewed to escape and it will be rebalanced to make it the same. This happens every single time. It's why mines got nerfed, all you are proposing is another step on the endless introduction of measure/countermeasure. You want a new defensive measure that can't be countered, not going to happen.

You can say nope, but you don't get to make that decision, that's all I am saying. You get these then the PvP'ers will get counter measures and we will be back in the same place, only with more unnecessary stuff to squeeze into our ships.

 

[Skyteks]

Every single defensive and offensive action and weapon has been answered with a counter measure.

That is absolutly wrong!!!
Let's say I fly my fully loaded T9 and some lowlive tries starts to interdict me.
Countermessure? "Yea just try to evade..." Which is absolutly not possible, since every ganking ship is more manouverable than a cargo freighter.
Now I have dropped out of supercruise, and boosting for my life, while the ganker keeps blowing fragments into my drives.
Countermessure? "Yea try to outrun them..." Ehm nope, I'm basicly a brick in space. He could basicly kill me by ramming.
So I try to charge up my FSD to get out of there asap.
Now here begins the funny thing. Thanks to Yuri Grom, Ganker can now Countermessure that, with the FSD-Interruption Dumbfire Missile.

Honestly, the only viable things a trader can do is, give up, or selfdestruct. I'd love to see something that makes life for traders easier and running away a surviable solution.
A decoy drone, that clones and emits the users heat signature, which can be launched after the interdiction, or maybe while being interdicted would give the trader finally the chance to act themselves, instead of just being forced to react on the gankers decisions.
And balancing wise, the module size here should be so big, that the trader has to think twice if he wants skip on so much cargobay, just for a bigger chance of survivability and safety.

 

[varonica]

Countermessure? "Yea try to outrun them..." Ehm nope, I'm basicly a brick in space. He could basicly kill me by ramming.
So I try to charge up my FSD to get out of there asap.

Running in a straight line, boosting and charging your FSD, certain death, I'll just leave this here before the T9 flyers jump in to tell you how to get away.

 

[Skyteks]

Running in a straight line, boosting and charging your FSD, certain death, I'll just leave this here before the T9 flyers jump in to tell you how to get away.

Yeah... Have you ever flown a T9? If yes, you should know its not capable of anything else but staying still or flying in a straight line.

 

[Skyteks]

A decoy drone, that clones and emits the users heat signature, which can be launched after the interdiction, or maybe while being interdicted would give the trader finally the chance to act themselves, instead of just being forced to react on the gankers decisions.

To truly make this an Action for the trader. It could be implemented in a way that the trader has to launch it a few seconds before he get's interdicted in supercruise. The ganker's target lock is now focused on the decoy, and trying to interdict it, will cause him to drop out of supercruise at once (where he is greeted by the remains of the decoy and the nice spray "Have a nice Day" on it). This decoy would fly at the current speed and the current direction of the trader for several seconds, before unvealing it's fake identity and then selfdestructing due to power/fuel loss. This decoy doesn't even have to be a drone but could be a sort of launcher similar to the mine launcher, with limited ammo capacity.

I came to this idea after remembering an ability of a League Champ called Neeko, which can also create a decoy in a similar fashion (and clone other's appearences but that's beside the point here):