Drone improvements (CSM)

Note: Similar/Related proposals Drone improvements (CSM), Drone implants (CSM), Drone protocols (CSM), Drone quirky behaviour (CSM) and Drone stance interface (CSM) should be considered as a group.

Stats

Raised by: Ankhesentapemkah
Submission Date: 02-12-2008
Issue ID: 0201-03-0100

Summary

Currently, drones as a weapon system offer less options and progression than other weapon systems. The issues are as follows:

• No implants available for drone users (as brought up in issue 0027)
• Few T2 and no Faction ships for drone users
• Only 3 modules available for drone users, no T2 modules for drones at all
• No damage-related modules and rigs besides the sentry drone rig
• Utility drones are invalidated by damage drones, it is better to bring extra damage than web or other utility drones
• No ship bonus for ECM drones, can be used to maximum efficiency by all ships

Where users of missiles and turrets have access to many upgades and options, drone users lack these. They have a rather limited selection of ships available for them, and as their skill level increases, there are no modules that have these as prerequisite. There should be implants, modules and additional rigs to fill these holes and offer natural progression for drone users.

Potential Solutions

• Higher priority to getting the promised drone-related implants implemented
  • Pros
    • Fills an immediate gap
    • Should not be too hard to balance
    • Is one of the things promised to the players but still on the Soon(tm) list
  • Cons
    • Slight power creep, risk of nerf to bring drones back to their original power level, which affects the people without implants
• Add T2 and Faction drone ships (Navy Dominix often requested)
  • Pros
    • Offers logical progression options to drone players
  • Cons
    • Assumption that new ships are resource and balancing intensive for CCP
• Add new drone related modules
  • Pros
    • Fills an immediate gap
    • Provides new production opportunities
  • Cons
    • Slight power creep, risk of nerf to bring drones back to their original power level, which affects people without access to T2 etc
    • Many options, balancing intensive
• Changes to utility drones (web, neut, ECM etc)
  • Can be accomplished through:
    • Specialized ships that offer bonusses to these drones
    • Reducing stacking penalty
    • Modules/implants that affect this type of drones

Relevant Forum Threads

• http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=934047

Meeting Minutes

TBA

Votes

• Ankhesentapemkah - Yes
• Darius Johnson - Yes
• Extreme - Yes
• LaVista Vista - Yes
• Omber Zombie - Yes
• Pattern Clarc - Yes with reservations
• Tusko Hopkins - Yes
• Scagga Laebetrovo - Yes
• Sophie Daigneau - Yes