Drones coming for powerplay

[Huros]

Mining is profitable when starting out and the big problem with it is it is out performed on a credit per hour basis as you progress. With this proposal i can see much bigger ships being great mining vessels making hundreds of thousands of tons per hour. Implementation and pilot technique will be vital. Would have like to have seen a mineral scanner with a big power draw or a probe laser that you shoot at an asteroid from a much longer range and tells you what it is composed of quote quickly, that it is limited to the bigger ships who can really harvest large amounts of minerals. beyond the hauler mining is not really worth doing right now. Think the Devs will balance this about right and make mining work further up the ship ladder at Asp, Python and the Lacon traders. positive development for me.

Combat drones would be nice too but think they should be a way off, and should have very specific uses like holoprojectors that confuse opponents, or ones that mass lock an enemy, or even ones that attach and heat the ememy up lots of options if they expand them. but then Point defence might work against them too....

 

[Cosmo]

The drone is is one shot - so cannot be reused.

Michael

It makes more sense for drones to be reusable. They could instead require maintenance.

 

[ChrisT]

I want a button drone, that will press the button for me, that makes all my other drones do all my tasks, piloting, attack, defense, shopping, cleaning the ship etc.

Meanwhile I will be playing zero-g golf in some abandoned space-station.

 

[Surly_Badger]

Might make more sense to have drones get a cooldown. Then if you wanted to mine, you'd need to have a fair supply of drones so you could rotate them. Or, if you just needed one now and again, you'd wait for the cooldown between uses.

I am still underwhelmed by the debug camera and hope they do a camera drone.

 

[Nutter]

Consumable Drones just hurt my head - I have no idea why or what FD are thinking.

I have two drones with me right now, Fly recharge - rinse and repeat...

Fire a drone? Collecting what it can before expiring? Huh? What does the drone turn into when it is consumed?

Might as well pick up the chunks myself, as long as the bins stop asking me if I want what I collected every ton then I don't see the point of a consumable drone.

I'm going to just ignore the drone thing till it arrives, nothing makes sense.

 

[mossfoot]

Michael, be honest, it's hard reading through the forums here some days, isn't it?

 

[Jordan Cobalt]

So, what's the problem of having the option of both?

You want disposable assets you're forced to restock on? You can have them for a cheaper price. Most people would see the advantage of reusable machines, however.

Having options is definitely a good thing, but adding reusable and disposable ones, adds a lot of extra work. There's remembering health and fuel across multiple drones, there's balancing between different types, there's adding ui for fuel and health of the drones.

It seems like extra work, for not much gain. I think that's what FD is thinking too. Have them be cheap and disposable, doesn't make much of a difference, gameplay wise, but it's easier to put into the game.

 

[Vincent Starson]

Drones sound fun.

I'm unsure about them being consumables. Sounds like a gameplay / time tax. I would rather have a companion cube type drone. Slightly personalized (longer deployed time, slower collection / shorter deployed time, faster retrieval). I was a hunter in WoW, would love to have pet like qualities!

It makes more sense for the drone to have to return to your ship and refuel / rearm / repair instead of just expiring and becoming space junk. I would rather wait a few minutes before I could redeploy the drone instead of flying back to a station to get another.

I'm curious if we'll be able to shoot the drones, what they'll look like, how big they'll be, how you fit them, how much they'll cost, and when exactly I can go get them.

Those are my thoughts. I welcome the addition of drones, regardless of their consumable status. Thank you for adding them!

 

[beelbeebub]

I'm just surprised there aren't different sized modules of drones containing more/less of them. You can then simply target an object and send one of your (available) drones off to collect it. The drone return and can then be re-used again and again and again. In effect you simply dedicate some of your internal space to the drones.

I'm not sure why our actual drones are more like disposable razors, but I'm sure it's been thought out so there's logic/reason behind it

I think the reason is to add some reason not to use them.
.
If they never wore out they would be a "no brainer" and everyone would use them (after all; why not?) so there would be no "decision" or "risk vs reward" to make.
.
Now they are single use, there is a decision as to "should I equip them" and "should I use them".
.
I did put forward an alternative mechanic but I suppose it's too late now.....

 

[YoBuck]

I for one welcome our new cargo scooping drone overlords. =P If they cost a couple bucks each, so be it. Keeps cargo scooping from being such a pain in the butt.

I wonder if they'll go in a utility or internal slot, though. I'd like to know what kind of gear I'll be sacrificing in order to use them.

They live in the cargo hold.
That's why they are disposable. They place the cargo in the space they took up.
Not having a go at this ^ guy as it was a question but honestly. Half of the people complaining have no idea what they are talking about here. They are suggesting alternatives without knowing how they work.
Half baked ideas as usual from you bunch.

Yes you.

 

[Nutter]

I think the reason is to add some reason not to use them.
.
If they never wore out they would be a "no brainer" and everyone would use them (after all; why not?) so there would be no "decision" or "risk vs reward" to make.
.
Now they are single use, there is a decision as to "should I equip them" and "should I use them".
.
I did put forward an alternative mechanic but I suppose it's too late now.....

Well, a long time ago we mentioned that drones would be expensive, take up cargo space and vulnerable to fire.

Leaving drones behind would be a costly affair if you had to run from pirates/police.

When it comes to mining I would have thought you deployed your drones and told them to collect the chunks as you mine... from the description from MB it would seem you zap a roid for it's 10 chunks, fire a drone, 10 chunks in the cargo hold and drone disappears.

Which raises the question how much drones will cost, how much space they will consume, how many chunks/cans can they carry before disappearing?

We can all wait and see exactly what the idea is, it would help if the drone 'design' was shared so we could feedback on it. It's all a bit fluffy right now

 

[wstephenson]

I think the reason is to add some reason not to use them.
.
If they never wore out they would be a "no brainer" and everyone would use them (after all; why not?) so there would be no "decision" or "risk vs reward" to make.
.
Now they are single use, there is a decision as to "should I equip them" and "should I use them".
.
I did put forward an alternative mechanic but I suppose it's too late now.....

I'd like it if they were reusable but fragile and degradable. It would lead to us getting attached to long-lived drones and sad when they finally get junked by a stray 'roid or the beam of an uncaring NPC miner.

 

[Doctor Axel]

Disposible isn't so bad though - if you're a pirate, you just fill up your entire hold with drones, which over the course of a successful 'outing' you will entirely replace with cargo - at which point it's time to go cash in.

As far as mining goes, that's obviously less clear since 1 fragment != 1 cargo space. We'll have to see about that.

 

[Jay8ch]

This just doesn't really sit well with me. Adding something that removes certain aspects of the game and then making them disposable as an afterthought. I'd rather you left something expensive in a field and came back days later to collect what it had mined, with all the inherent risks of someone else finding it and stealing the contents. It would make the universe feel genuinely persistent if things happened while you were offline.

 

[bamber]

This just doesn't really sit well with me. Adding something that removes certain aspects of the game and then making them disposable as an afterthought. I'd rather you left something expensive in a field and came back days later to collect what it had mined, with all the inherent risks of someone else finding it and stealing the contents. It would make the universe feel genuinely persistent if things happened while you were offline.

But Mining isn't an aspect of the game at the moment - it needs some love to make it more than a diversion and the problem is collection. I like this way drones that go out with a small amount of fuel and life that are stripped back. There is other options as well (like nicking someone elses fragments) and should give some love to mining and make it a career path

Id like some love to smuggling to where the blackmarket doesn't only operate like a fence where you only get a percentage of worth but also will pay over the odds for things too (such as narcotics or slaves)

 

[DogTailRed2]

You do realise that this game has become sooooo boring that we are actively debating
the pro's and con's of a drone that collects rock? Not only that but the cost and recoverability of said drone.
Can't wait.

 

[wstephenson]

Drone sighted in today's newsletter:

http://hosting.zaonce.net/elite/newsletters/newsletter_201504_02/Collector_Drone_Screenie.jpg

That's a quite a chunk of hardware. I wonder what happens to it after it expires. Does it explode? Drift? Disappear?

 

[woodhouse]

I wonder if there will be anti stutter drones and broken audio maintenance drones.

 

[Iskariot]

Most players moaning about the 'boredom' of current mining usually refer to the process of scooping fragments. While this requires at least a little bit of skill (if you want to be efficient that is) I totally fail to see how it'll be more interesting/challenging/not boring/whatever if you automate the mining process via drones. In the case I missed something crucial I'll be thankful for anyone proving me wrong here.

I would not be able to explain it, if it is not already obvious to you.
Perhaps you should try the new feature out when it gets implemented and go from there.
I think you will like it.

 

[iAmLegion]

I like the idea of drones, but i don't like that they will expire mostly for immersion reasons as most other seems to be thinking as well. I don't see how an engineer can fail to make reusable drones.

I would be a lot better to have them take up a slot (forgot the name of it but the "utility" ones on the weapons page) The more you have the faster you scoop.
They would require maintenance after a while so repairs.
They should work within a 3-5km area and scoop any fragments coming of the asteroid(s) you mine (possible to set another mode so they could steal fragments.
Several ratings of the drones, the more expensive the more drones in each slot up to 3.
and on and on.

I would also like to see turreted mining lasers. Put those on a type 9 and blast every roid in range and have the drones scoop them up.

Also to make mining more interesting there should be a crafting system.

But on overall mining needs a major overhaul from the ground up i'd say.