Newbie Drone Questions

[babyshark]

My first post and it is a silly newbie question. I've searched the forum but maybe I missed the answer.

What exactly is a Drone and what are the strategic and tactical implications of drones? Why do people want them?

Also if PBW games are upgraded to Gold, what tech path will result in Drones? Will players who have followed that path have a sudden advantage?

[geoschmo]

Drones are a seperate tech area.

It is not clear yet whether we will be able to convert games to Godl in mid game like we have been able to with previous Versions, but if it is possible, nobody will get them automatically. All reaces will have to research them. Unless it's a high tech start I guess, then maybe everyone will get them. Not sure about that. Never tried it.

Geo

[Marco]

Drone is a feature not implemented in the actual Version of the game, it will be implemented in SE VI Gold. Sorry but I don't know what drones are expected to do in the game, if I remember correctly past rumors in this forum, it will be some type of unmanned and self guided vehicle launched by ships, something between a fighter and a very small ship, which can go trough warp point and has a set of preselected instructions. I don't know if the owner player will have some control on it after launch.
A place in the structure of the game is nevertheless reserved to drones since the first release of the game, you can check the bitmaps pictures in the races subdirectory, and I think the interest of many players in drone is due to that.
Hope this help you, and may be Richard or someone of the beta tester group can post some more information in the thread.
Bye, Marco.

[Phoenix-D]

yeah, I picture drones as a ROV- basiclly a use-once robot vehicle. Like a missle, but it can be given other orders.

It also means a Honor Harrington mod is possible, *if* we can get the AI to use them that way.

Phoenix-D

[Captain Kwok]

Drones could be more than just missiles though, here is a couple of ideas:

Spy/Recon Probes
Mobile Point Defense units

[dmm]

I believe drones will be units, but able to traverse warp points. The way I imagined them, you couldn't give them orders every turn like ships. Kind of like an interstellar Version of an ICBM, but capable of performing missions other than just carrying a warhead.

Idea: Wouldn't it be cool to have a class of drones that do nothing but imitate ships? So, beyond sensor range, it looks like you have a fleet of twenty warships, but in fact all you have is a fleet of drones? How would you write an AI to deal with stuff like that???!!!!