Drones!!

[Lemmy]

quote:

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Originally posted by ZeroAdunn:
Just thought about drones. Can you make mobile mines? This would work for cruise missiles.

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i think not, you can modify them so that engine can be added, but they won't get any actual movement, mines just aren't meant to move.


and the more i think about drones, the more i think they would be better as fighters than ships. If a drone is larger than a fighter, you can make specific components that can only fit on a drone, and you can have a drone weapon mount if you want fighter weapons on drones.
If drones are cheap, then you can make more in one turn if they were fighters.
You can also make drone launch bays, but i'm not sure yet what properties they would have.

[Suicide Junkie]

Mines WILL move, but only in a black hole system:P, or a "random movement" ability system.

[mac5732]

As I read the Posts, I think one of the problems with the use of drones is what exactly we want them to do. My opinion only, I agree with the Baron. I think they should be used in only 2 different ways. The major use would be similiar to a cruise missle. They should have a limited amount of damage capability. They could launch and hit planets, destroying facilities, wp's, etc, but should not be able for 1 to completely glaze one. They could launch plge bombs, destroy 1 or several facilities including shipyards. I haven't decided if they should be able to hit a space station, still kicking this one around. But if they did, I would think they would damage it but not utterly destroy one with only 1 hit, damage should be accumulative with multifple hits and after maximum damage is reached then it would be destroyed. The other suggestion is that they could be used for spying, however, supply would enter into the picture in this regard. If used as missle, a questions comes up if they should be able to be shot down or destroyed by defenses ie; wps, ftrs, bs's. something would have to be done in this area or they could be to powerful or not powerful enough to be worth building. Any ideas on this??? As far as launching, could you take say ftr bays, re-name drone bays and see if they would launch. I know you still have the warp problems and more then likly this would be a hard code problem. SJ any ideas on this, I know you did a lot of changing in your Pirate mod with numerous modifications and possibilities in this launch area???

just some ideas mac

[Lemmy]

Here is what i came up with, there are 3 types of drones.
One is a weapon, like CSM, but bigger, higher seeker damage resistance, and a 30 reload rate, so it can only be fired once per turn : one component = one drone. I tried to add the "Component Destroyed on Use" ability, but that won't work on weapons.
Size := 100
Seeker Damage Resistance := 200
range = 20, damage at range = something between and around 500-1000 ?
Seeker Speed := 7 or 8
i was also thinking that maybe it could skip all shields, because of the large size, shields are useless ?

Another drone is a fighter size, but bigger (50-100kt), and on that drone planet and star destroying weapons can be placed, new components will have to be made for that. This drone shoulds only be usefull later in the game when star/planet destroying components are discovered. To make it usefull in the beginning a Drone Weapon Mount can be available to put fighter weapons on the drone.

And the Last is a ship size, smaller (50-100kt) with low maintenance, extra movement and no bridge etc. required ( a ship size with "Master Computer" ability ). This size is only usefull in the begining of the game for cheap exploring ship. To emphasize this, the ship size could also store some supplies to increase to range.
Later when cloaking is discovered, a cloaked ship size can become available to make it useful later in the game.

The order these drones could become available in :
Ship sized drone. (low tech, every command must be given)
Component drone. (more autonomous, seeks targets)
Fighter sized drone. (can be launched and recovered, can be used for fighting/kamikaze, and star/planet destroying components can be fitted on it.)

[Suicide Junkie]

quote:

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if they should be able to be shot down or destroyed by defenses ie; wps, ftrs, bs's

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This could be applied to every sector the drone passes through:
Count the number of enemy guns, and give them all a 1% chance to disable/destroy the drone.

You get diminishing returns, with a stack of sats blocking a decent fraction of the drones, but it would be impossible to completely protect a planet from a drone assault.

With this setup:
11 guns, 10% combined chance to hit
23 guns, 20% to hit
36, 30%
51, 40%
69, 50%
92, 60%
120, 70%
161, 80%
230, 90%

Note that a single small sat could have 4 guns on it, meaning two of them can shoot down almost 10% of the drones entering thier sector.

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[Baron Munchausen]

Since drones would automatically enter combat if they entered a sector with enemy forces, I don't think any 'statistical' effects are necessary. Just run combat (tactical or strategic as appropriate) and you get the results.

The more I think about the possible AI problems, though, the more concerned I get. This is an AI that doesn't remember it used to control a system after you wipe out all the colonies. How will it respond to drone attacks launched through a warp point from another system? hmm...

[mac5732]

I agree with the Baron on the AI aspects of Drones, thats why I think the issue should be as simple as possible. SJ's ideas on the percentages sounds good but would they apply to Worm Hole defenses as well? would the total of all gun defenses be added for l shot or would each planet & worm defense shoot as drone passes thru, in effect gving multifple chances for a hit? LemmyM's ideas sound good but like the Baron mentioned the AI isn't to swift in the managent area and if to complicated the drone issue won't get off the board, so maybe concentrate on only 1-2 simple uses like just the missle aspect and the scting drones. Also what weapons should be counted on to hit the drones? I don't thing every gun should be able to hit.
SJ, Baron, any ideas how to get some form of drones to work other then thru hard code changes??? LemmyM have you tried launching the ones you are designing??

just some ideas mac

[Lemmy]

quote:

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LemmyM have you tried launching the ones you are designing??

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i tried all the design except the fighter-sized drone, but that is just a modification to the large fighter, so that shouldn't be a problem.

[Suicide Junkie]

quote:

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would the total of all gun defenses be added for l shot or would each planet & worm defense shoot as drone passes thru, in effect gving multifple chances for a hit?
...
1-2 simple uses like just the missle aspect and the scting drones. Also what weapons should be counted on to hit the drones? I don't thing every gun should be able to hit.

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The 1% chances would be for every drone-targetting weapon (anything that hits fighters, say). Gun #1 gets a 1% chance, then gun #2 get a 1% chance. That gives you diminishing returns, so even with 100 shots, you get (0.99)^100, rather than 0% chance of the drone surviving.

quote:

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Since drones would automatically enter combat if they entered a sector with enemy forces, I don't think any 'statistical' effects are necessary.

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Why would drones ever want to start a battle? The only way they could ever have a chance in combat would be with a huge movement bonus, +300% ECM (ignoring talismans) and carry a null-space warhead.

If you do the statistical thing, you could have Ships/Bases/Planets be hit just like natural events, using any sort of damage effect you like. You would also be able to skip a potentially large number of huge fleet battles (against a stream of drones), saving time.

[Lemmy]

it seems that stellar manip. doesn't work on fighters, i copied the star destroying component, and changed it so it could fit on a fighter. But when you build a fighter with that component, you can't select Stellar manip.