Drone Bays for Carriers

[Impyness]

I fully agree with this. I think that it should not be an issue at all with balance while at the same time greatly increasing the roleplay experience and satisfaction from flying carriers. This change would only do positive things for the server.

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#Snakded

[Titan*]

This change would only do positive things for the server.

Exactly

I am definitely in favor of this. An idea sort of like this has been around in internal discussion at the beginning of the year, so I'll just repost my take on it.

Special NPCs can be set up for this if necessary. If possible without a mess in the inis, NPCs should reflect your faction but we can also make them generic drones that roam around.

Spawning these NPCs should have a cooldown and consume some sort of materials. Normal fuel at different rates per spawn or nanobots, perhaps? And also different types of NPCs would be neat, too.
- Straight-forward attack drones with weak, fast short range guns.
- (Stationary?) Artillery/missile drones that would be able to fire missiles / dumbfire torpedos or a combination at a long distance.
- Support drones to kill, dropping nanobots/batteries/fuel (should drop less fuel than what was used to spawn them)
- Suicide drones without shields, which fly close to a target and then fire a gun which immediately kills them and deals AOE damage (no instant kills on snubs though) that would require, as usual, the shield to be down before it can do hull damage.

This ability could be made available to anyone with a docking module while the cost, cooldown and amount would be improved if you have a carrier.
(Thinking of 1 ship per docking module on normal ships, 2-3 on carriers at lower fuel cost and cooldown).
I would personally prefer it on carriers only.

Right now carriers are just another battleship, and with a unique gameplay-element to them that's independent of another player's choice to dock on them, they could also see more use as utility vessels or ships that try to stay back a little.

//edit Stationary spawns can likely be implemented in a way similar to POB weapon platforms, but with obviously less potent weaponry.

I think stationary drones not a good idea because npcs shoot to closest target however it can be solved if there is command like /attacktarget

it should be only for carriers

Well there should be military drone and civillian drones too

Military Drones should be stronk and expensive
Civillian Drones weaker than Military Drones but cheap

Since Bustard is a civillian light carrier then it shouldnt use same drones that military carriers using.
Bustard Carrier shouldnt carry more than 10 drone so that means 2 wing of drones and 1 drone bay

[Moberg]

I think stationary drones not a good idea because they shoot to closest target however it can be solved if there is command like /attacktarget

I am not certain if a command like that is possible. Unless we have a way to force NPCs on a target via FLHook, I don't think this can be implemented. NPC gun AI is targeting the closest enemy that can be reached in the gun arc. It would also allow players to take the focus of NPC guns.

//edit Wait, I just found something. Have to experiment with it thoroughly. It allows shipclass focus at least.

[JobBlock]
attack_subtarget_order = anything
field_targeting = always
loot_preference = LT_ALL
attack_preference = fighter, 5000, guns | guided | unguided
attack_preference = freighter, 5000, guns | guided | unguided
attack_preference = transport, 5000, guns | guided | unguided
attack_preference = gunboat, 5000, guns | guided | unguided
attack_preference = cruiser, 5000, guns | guided | unguided
attack_preference = capital, 5000, guns | guided | unguided

[Titan*]

//edit Wait, I just found something. Have to experiment with it thoroughly. It allows shipclass focus at least.

[JobBlock]
attack_subtarget_order = anything
field_targeting = always
loot_preference = LT_ALL
attack_preference = fighter, 5000, guns | guided | unguided
attack_preference = freighter, 5000, guns | guided | unguided
attack_preference = transport, 5000, guns | guided | unguided
attack_preference = gunboat, 5000, guns | guided | unguided
attack_preference = cruiser, 5000, guns | guided | unguided
attack_preference = capital, 5000, guns | guided | unguided

But all capitalships,cruisers,transports,gunboats players can buy classified as freighter
You can see that in FlStat

[TheShooter36]

They have a class plugin that gets classes from 19 different class titan, its ok.

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[Titan*]

They have a class plugin that gets classes from 19 different class titan, its ok.

oh...ummmm, okay

It would be awesome to have deployable sentry drones(stationary) that firing missiles/razors/mortars to cruisers,gunboat and battleships but ignoring snubs
or Solaris Sentry Drones that firing at fighters

[Titan*]

Bumping this thread because carriers need this

[Unlucky_Soul]

I still think it will contribute to lag. I mean why does the game npcs drop when a certain number of players are present???

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[Epo]

I'd want it to be implemented for a test period. It looks promising, at least as text

[Sanctions]

Push it to the limit, mom!
Finally I will have an army of NPC slaves which will wreck all of my enemies! Ride on!