After reading through some of the threads about 3rd person camera/drone views, and having a number of ideas come to mind, I figured I'd jot some of the thoughts down here. The current developer notes have been for a 'beauty shot' camera (see https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=12464&page=101&p=673649&viewfull=1#post673649), but I started thinking about some of the gameplay possibilities that could come along with a drone as well. Some of these I have posted in other threads before.
The basic idea is for a remote-control drone, with no cockpit and hideable UI so you can use it for taking pictures. Swapped over from control of your ship when it is launched, will flash a warning if your ship is under attack or is in danger so you know you have to swap back.
However, what else could happen game-play wise, with a drone module (let's say we make it Class 1 slot)?
Now you can get quite fancy with the whole idea... and I've thrown around the ideas of there just being different types of drones for sale vs. drones loaded with different equipment (probably more changes required with the latter idea... and would personally seem too much like having to outfit a separate ship at this point, so I'd likely prefer the former, or maybe just an all-in-one drone).
The basic idea is for a remote-control drone, with no cockpit and hideable UI so you can use it for taking pictures. Swapped over from control of your ship when it is launched, will flash a warning if your ship is under attack or is in danger so you know you have to swap back.
However, what else could happen game-play wise, with a drone module (let's say we make it Class 1 slot)?
- If you swap control back without flying back, it ends up floating in space until you reestablish control (possible autopilot home? only on more advanced models?) This allows for the possibility for another player (or NPC?) to scoop your drone (cargo scoop) and sell it, or have it reprogrammed (black market?) so they can use it themselves. Or go scoop it up yourself later.
- Considering this behavior, it would make sense for the drone to be launched and recovered from the cargo scoop, since presumably the innards have robotic arms or such to handle the incoming cargo and make sure it ends up stored properly... they'd probably be able to do the reverse as well
- Scouting... obviously a drone could be used to scoop out a situation from a distance, if say you were hiding behind an asteroid in silent running mode.
- Drone probably would be low detectability?
- If you fly your drone back home to your ship, it could potentially be followed
- However, at this time, I can not think of any gameplay situations where it would be advantageous to use a drone for scouting. This is probably the biggest idea killer at this point, since the playing area changes so quickly that there's at current time no use for advance information. At least, not that I can think of right now.
- Examination of the exterior of your ship. There's been the EVA idea as well, not sure how these would work together or conflict.
- Potential for repair of systems that the field-maintenance unit can't reach
Now you can get quite fancy with the whole idea... and I've thrown around the ideas of there just being different types of drones for sale vs. drones loaded with different equipment (probably more changes required with the latter idea... and would personally seem too much like having to outfit a separate ship at this point, so I'd likely prefer the former, or maybe just an all-in-one drone).
