Drones#73

This is going to be a long one, good luck for reading all of it lol.

Disclaimer : The two images are here for inspiration, and to represent better what I imagine. (they’re not mine and may very well be copyrighted)

Before I talk about drones, I have to talk about the module that is required to make them work : The Drone server. It would take 2 walls, have a substantial energy consumption as well as 20 core slots. It would be placeable both on the sides and on the ceiling.
But all of this is justified by how useful it can be ! Along with this module, two new items would be added : Repair Drones and Military Drones.
Once produced, drones would be instantly transferred to a free drone server. Drone servers can manage up to 3 drones at the same time. You could set what drones you want in a specific module, for example, 3 defense ones, or 2 repair ones and 1 defense one. If not set to anything, the server will just take any drone in online storage.
If a server is equipped with repair drones, it will require some repair kits in online storage, just like turrets require ammo. If no repair kit is accessible in storage, repair drones won’t work. Repair drones would deploy and fly to any damaged module to repair it automatically (not destroyed modules, these must be manually replaced.) If a server is equipped with one or multiple repair drones, it has two modes : Automatic and on demand. Automatic sets all repair drones assigned to this server to deploy and fly to damaged modules and repair them whenever they are damaged. On demand does the same, except you have to tell the module to deploy the drones, it won’t do it automatically.
For defense drones, they would also need a new special type of ammo in online storage. If a server is equipped with one or multiple Defense drones, it has two modes : Patrol and defend. Patrol sets all defense drones assigned to this server to constantly fly around the ship, attacking all enemies getting close, as long as the module is deployed. Defend set all defense drones assigned to this server to remain stored until the ship takes damage ; whenever the “Drillship under attack” alarm goes off, all defense drones assigned to this server will deploy and fly to the attacker (as long as the module is deployed.) This would help to defend the ship even more, it would also look cool, and imagine how threatening it would be to go raid a ship and seeing it with a swarm of drones flying around it.
Now you may ask “why these options” ? Well it’s quite simple ; Drones can be destroyed by enemies. So you may want to control when they are deployed or not. If a drone is destroyed, it just explodes. End. And the module it was bound to now has a free slot. So having some drones in online storage is not a bad idea !
However, if the module itself is destroyed, all the drones bound to it will just fall to the ground and stop working. Anyone can then pick them up, or destroy them. If a drone is non-fonctional when an eruption happens, it will be destroyed.
If the ship runs out of energy, the module will not be able to deploy any drones. But if some drones are already deployed, they will stop what they are doing and go back to the module. Same will happen when closing the module ; it will not close until all drones are back inside. Make sure to think about it when hiding from eruption !
For the deploying animation of drones, I thought about something like Subnautica (see 3rd image (sorry for poor quality))

And it goes by itself, but of course you couldn’t deploy a drone server underground.
Now, there is another option. Since there’s only two types of drones, maybe there could be two separate drone servers, one for repair and one for defense. It wouldn’t change much, it’s just that they would only accept one type of drone.

And for those who have read my DrillShip Modifications suggestion #72 , here are a few examples ! (shameless self promo)

• Unstable drones : Drones explode when destroyed dealing great damage BUT they have less health and may damage your ship if too close
• Sharper drone ammo : Defense Drones deal more damage BUT they have less health.
• Stronger drone hull : Defense drones have more health BUT they do less damage

subnatica drone… cool!

repair drones… well, could add one more to the list: scout / sensor drone.. fly around the drillship to increase detection (and readiness) of deployed turrets…

..and should latter be added the mining torpedo-drone, it could also increase detect range to launch these.. or increase their efficiency on getting there or something..

We’re already going to get a scanner/radar type module, so drones with the same purpose wouldn’t be really useful I think :)

Maybe instead of a military/defense/healer drone, you would need the specific branch materials from each different cog. Like Research cogs would make healer drones, refinery cogs would be more defensive and good for mining, and then Production cogs would be the offensive type (good for attacking/defending), then maybe new parts were added to the black cogs that would make the unstable drones you mentioned (Higher risk but with better rewards).

Research drones will leave a poisounous cloud when destroyed.
Military drones will explode on death.
Refinery drones will be able to mine ores.
Production drones… Well, we haven’t seen any of them. But I have a suggestion for them : #295

In this suggestion, the 4 domains don’t matter that much. For the actual drones that we know are planned, that’s another story.

was this the drone update that just happened? or is this another type of feature?