[Jourin]

geoschmo,

Thank you for your insight into drone development.

Reference fighters not being able to warp: If your expectations were clearly set that fighters would have the capability to warp, and when you discovered they couldn't, you would have a legitimate reason to consider that a bug, independent of the fact that fighters are not designed to warp and are functioning as designed. However, I believe the fighter capabilities were clearly stated, so do not believe this could be considered a bug.

I have a clear expectation that drones would have the capability to provide warp point recon, clear warp point minefields, and do pre-warp point assault bombardment. In a series of e-mails with Aaron in Jun-Aug 1998 time frame I sent in some ideas for improvements to SEIII/ideas for SEIV.

Based on the novels In Death Ground and Crusade, by David Weber and Steve White based on the Starfire system, I requested a missile probe to recon warp points, a mine sweeping missile, and a warp point assault missile. I received an e-mail back from Aaron that said something like, Great idea, see drones in SEIV. My expectation at that time was set that drones in SEIV would have these capabilities. Nothing I have every seen or read has changed that expectation. Also the name drone implies, to me, recon which continued to reinforce my expectations.

My first reaction was that the code is not working and Aaron will fix it prior to the Gold release. Then from a lot of Posts, I got the impression that the Beta Testers, for some unknown reason, talked Aaron into removing this capability. Couple this analysis with the irritation of "it can't be a bug if it was designed that way", and "its not a bug, its a feature" and you have the basis for my responses.

The analysis was flawed and so I apologize for some of the comments I made. Currently I can not fathom why Aaron did not design the other drone capabilities from the start.

PS: One of my other recommendations was that fighters have the ability to move in system but not have the ability to Warp - sorry.
Of course I am not the only one who made recommendations.