Frontier- A Case for Persistant Drones

[Frenotx]

Let me start out by making it clear that I'm not trying to say frontier's current plan for drones is a bad one. With the general lack of details, and without giving it a go, I can't really say if it's good or bad. All I'm trying to do here is make sure Frontier has fully considered certain aspects of an alternative approach.

I used to play Eve with my boyfriend. He primarily piloted drone boats. Something I noticed when I was playing with him was a sense of attachment to his drones. He was very protective of them, and got kinda bummed if one died. I mean, sure they were a little pricey to replace, but not enough to really be a concern. It wasn't the cost- it was just losing something he was attached to. He and those drone went through a lot together. I mean, enough so that he could say things like, "remember that one time where such and such happened, and s*** was hitting the fan, but then that one drone somehow managed to survive and win the day?" With persistent drones, you can gain that sense of attachment to them / fondness for them. I mean heck, it's not dissimilar to having some sort of virtual pet / familiar.

With consumable, essentially one-shot drones, you wont really be able to get this sense. Sure it's not something that's of terrible importance, but it certainly adds something to the game. Instead of people saying, "I'll send over a drone", they'd say, "I'll send over MY drone", or perhaps even better, "I'll send over [insert drone nickname here]". If you lose a consumable drone, the feeling of loss is minimal. I mean, it's basically just ammunition. Missing a shot with your rail gun is annoying, but you don't feel bad for losing that particular slug. With persistent drones, you'd have commanders actively trying to defend their drones. Sending out your drone would have that extra thrill of the risk of losing something important. Commanders would want to keep their drone in a good state of repair, and well fueled. Some commanders would give their drones nicknames. Commanders would be able to share stories about all the tough spots that their drones managed to survive, and stories of how past hero drones fell. I bet there'd even be a market for microtransaction drone paint jobs, or unique models.

All in all, what I'm trying to say is that a system based around consumable drones may turn out to be just fine and dandy, but it will always be missing out on that feeling of attachment and ownership (and the potential market that comes with it) that can be established with persistent drones.

 

[shinkicker444]

I'd like customisable drones, with their own modules and stuff. Make them nice and personalised.

 

[Frenotx]

I'd like customisable drones, with their own modules and stuff. Make them nice and personalised.

An example of this being successful would be the game Hawken (an FPS mech-based shooter). In that game, you can temporarily shut down and repair your mech. When you do, a little drone deploys, flys around, and does the fixing. Different skins for drones was one of the microtransactions I saw the most of. People loved being able to pick different looks for their repair drone.

 

[CMDR Starschulz]

You know, i never thought of it that way, even though i have done that before. I was incredibly reluctant to sell the eagle i got from the mercenary edition, i just couldn't bring myself to do it for the longest time. I think this would actually make a whole lot of sense, i would buy a drone like this regardless of the price, just for the awesomeness of the whole thing.

-RIP hammerhead drones, left in an asteroid belt and forgotten in the cold depths of space.

 

[Frenotx]

You know, i never thought of it that way, even though i have done that before. I was incredibly reluctant to sell the eagle i got from the mercenary edition, i just couldn't bring myself to do it for the longest time. I think this would actually make a whole lot of sense, i would buy a drone like this regardless of the price, just for the awesomeness of the whole thing.

-RIP hammerhead drones, left in an asteroid belt and forgotten in the cold depths of space.

Generally speaking, the more things in a game (ships, drones, etc.) that people really feel like the own- things that people are attached to- the better. It adds drama when you have to risk said things, and adds a potential market to pretty them up.

P.S. And yes, I always felt bad if I saw an abandoned drone. So sad.

 

[Enride]

Drones should be an advanced feature to be added to your ship and not some dumbed down, easy to use consumable.

This is something that will work AGAINST the feeling of "a pilot and its ship" that has been the main point of the game...

 

[Valethar]

The way they're set up now, from what little they've told us, they look like the illegitimate love child of a half baked credit sink and a poorly thought out ammo mechanic.

 

[GT3000]

So why couldn't we customize the disposable drones? Just sayin'. Seems easier than figuring out or implementing a persistent drone system.

 

[Tusken]

I'll back you up on this 1.
Whats the logic behind a consumeble drone any way?
I know humanity hasn't learned mutch in the Elite universe and are still stripmining the galaxy like a swarm of locust, but that just seems wastefull.

 

[Troa Barton]

While the emotional pet thing is something I am neutral to, I do agree with making them persistent.
if they were just a module with higher tiers having more drones I'd be on board.
the throwaway aspect could perhaps be just a cheaper way to get into it or if you wanted maximum cargo without the drone bay taking up a slot as an option that's fine.
the customizable aspect is a big oversight on frontier's part there is obviously a potential market there.
+1 to this petition much more depth to this than the thow away money sync.

 

[Tar Stone]

I have a terrible habit of pointing out that every time Frontier has changed something in the game in response to this here forum, it has made the game dumber, easier, more casual and led to even more arguments on this here forum.

Eg
Less interdictions
Friendly fire mechanics
10 second bounty rule
Shorter SC dropout distances

It would be nice to let their design team implement something and roll it out and everyone try it out for a while.

We've gone from the forum demanding changes to established mechanics, to demanding steam keys within 20 seconds of the game going on steam, to demanding changes to mechanics BEFORE they've even been implemented.

About time Frontier got on top of their forum again and knocked stuff like this on the head.

 

[Moriarte]

You have a good point. But even with drones like you describe, mining is just ... hollow, asocial and pays squat. Weĺl, we can say it is realistic, at the very least.

 

[Frenotx]

I have a terrible habit of pointing out that every time Frontier has changed something in the game in response to this here forum, it has made the game dumber, easier, more casual and led to even more arguments on this here forum.

Eg
Less interdictions
Friendly fire mechanics
10 second bounty rule
Shorter SC dropout distances

It would be nice to let their design team implement something and roll it out and everyone try it out for a while.

We've gone from the forum demanding changes to established mechanics, to demanding steam keys within 20 seconds of the game going on steam, to demanding changes to mechanics BEFORE they've even been implemented.

About time Frontier got on top of their forum again and knocked stuff like this on the head.

The first part of my post:
"Let me start out by making it clear that I'm not trying to say frontier's current plan for drones is a bad one. With the general lack of details, and without giving it a go, I can't really say if it's good or bad. All I'm trying to do here is make sure Frontier has fully considered certain aspects of an alternative approach."

 

[S.P-A.]

I was thinking the same thing when i read this disposable drone idea. I'm ok with the fact that drones need fuel or returning to their parent ship to recharge batteries or anything along those lines but disposable... It made little sense to me.

I mean, judging by their size, it's like throwing away a canister of 1 ton of robototics for each one of them.

The point that it's to keep the scooping usefull does not also made sense.
Drones, I guess, will occupy a internal compartment. I see thing this way :
- when the ships are short on internal compartment, pilots will use their skill to scoop cargo/asteroids. It's not an issue since the cargo hold is not so big ;
- when the ships used are big (t-7, t-9 size), an internal compartment is used to store and deploy drones for scooping. This in turn render the usage of such ship viable again for all scooping opperations (mining, scavenging, pirating).

Drones yes ! Disposable no.

 

[Mohrgan]

Don't you suppose the disposable nature of them will make you use them more judiciously? If it was persistent you would never scoop again. Just send Jesop the Drone for every little thing. I suspect they will be a Module, that needs to be re-loaded. The actual drones will work more like ammo, that anything. You will have to decide when and where to use it, or have none available when you need it. More decisions = more drams. No?
.
I really have no strong opinion, I just thought this view point might elicit some more consideration for the, yet unknown, mechanic.

 

[Tar Stone]

The first part of my post:
"Let me start out by making it clear that I'm not trying to say frontier's current plan for drones is a bad one. With the general lack of details, and without giving it a go, I can't really say if it's good or bad. All I'm trying to do here is make sure Frontier has fully considered certain aspects of an alternative approach."

Well maybe you should ask them.

Or try it out.

Both of those options will give you the answer.

 

[S.P-A.]

Don't you suppose the disposable nature of them will make you use them more judiciously? If it was persistent you would never scoop again. Just send Jesop the Drone for every little thing. I suspect they will be a Module, that needs to be re-loaded. The actual drones will work more like ammo, that anything. You will have to decide when and where to use it, or have none available when you need it. More decisions = more drams. No?
.
I really have no strong opinion, I just thought this view point might elicit some more consideration for the, yet unknown, mechanic.

The fact to have to sacrifice an internal compartment for them is already a decision, don't you think ?

The bigger the compartment the more drones are available. I agree, however, that a batteries or recharge time could be beneficial and more realist.

 

[Valethar]

Don't you suppose the disposable nature of them will make you use them more judiciously? If it was persistent you would never scoop again. Just send Jesop the Drone for every little thing. I suspect they will be a Module, that needs to be re-loaded. The actual drones will work more like ammo, that anything. You will have to decide when and where to use it, or have none available when you need it. More decisions = more drams. No?
.
I really have no strong opinion, I just thought this view point might elicit some more consideration for the, yet unknown, mechanic.

I'm not sure if they'll be a module, at least not as we currently know them, based on this.

Because the collected item takes the drone's slot in the hold.

That doesn't make a lot of sense from a mining perspective, given that the ore doesn't go into the hold itself, it goes into the refinery hoppers/bins, and then when a sufficient amount has been collected, it gets turned into a ton of cargo. I imagine having one chunk of ore that produces a ton of material by itself is rare, if it happens at all.

Perhaps the drone brings back ore until the refinery processes a ton of material, then when that is complete, it expires?

Personally, I wouldn't mind some sort of mechanic that worked in a similar fashion to the SCV's in Starcraft. Place a module in the ship that holds a certain number of drones that continually snag chunks of ore to be processed. Build in a wear and tear mechanic that degrades them over time requiring a run back to repair or replace the drones. The modules could follow the same class structure we have now, with the larger class modules carrying more drones. If you want a larger class drone module, you sacrifice something else in order to fit that larger module, which means you would end up carrying less cargo, no shields, etc... as a tradeoff.

I think that might be more in line with what the miners had in mind, rather than having drones replaced by ore as it's retrieved.

In the case of picking up cargo canisters pirated from other ships, the idea of replacing the drone with the cargo might make some sense. From a mining standpoint, it doesn't look particularly attractive as an option.

 

[unite]

The proposal for the drones is an interesting one. Making them disposal forces the player to reload every now and then reducing the potential for miners to mine a belt dry in one session or a for pirates to demand ALL your cargo. One thing that I think most people have overlooked is the statement from FD that says the drone can operate in two modes, click and collect or collect within range. They have said for the collect everything in range mode that the drone will continue to collect cargo until it expires. This would suggest that each drone is capable of picking multiple chunks of ore or multiple cans. I would suggest that the proposal for the click and collect method will allow a player to use the one drone to selectivately scoop up multiple items.

It will be interesting to see how much 'ammo' of drones we get. I would like to see a class system were bigger ships can outfit with more drones.

 

[Freddie Mc]

4000 word essay complaining about a feature that hasn't been implimented yet. Go internet.