The ultimate drone R&D thread

[Keptick]

i just came up with a wonderfly unpredictable drone....
basicly you would equip a drone with a logic jumpdrive and let it go... it would randomly jump whenever the drive was fully charged
this would lead to it encountering random enemies

Except that jumpdrives can't be activated with logic :p, and the chances of it actually encountering people is EXTREMELY slim.

 

[Lecic]

xcept that jumpdrives can't be activated with logic :p

eheh...heh...heh...

 

[StormWing0]

Except that jumpdrives can't be activated with logic :p, and the chances of it actually encountering people is EXTREMELY slim.

An AI ship with a push drive is more likely to run into players than a jump drive ship since it just keeps chugging along in a given direction. Aim it in the direction of a player HQ and just wait for the screams when they come online one day and find a fleet of drones passing through their system. You'd need a clear flight path though since if anything gets in the way the plan fails at the first thing the drones run into other than their target. :P

 

[Keptick]

An AI ship with a push drive is more likely to run into players than a jump drive ship since it just keeps chugging along in a given direction. Aim it in the direction of a player HQ and just wait for the screams when they come online one day and find a fleet of drones passing through their system. You'd need a clear flight path though since if anything gets in the way the plan fails at the first thing the drones run into other than their target. :p

Well, that and you'd need for all the sectors between the two bases to be loaded...

One thing you CAN do is rig a rack to automatically undock drones with a timer, activate the jump drive on it (with coords set at the enemy base) and jump out before the jump animation finishes. It might be hard since we get dropped aligned to the ships now though, you'd have to be pretty fast about it.

 

[Loadout]

Well, that and you'd need for all the sectors between the two bases to be loaded...

One thing you CAN do is rig a rack to automatically undock drones with a timer, activate the jump drive on it (with coords set at the enemy base) and jump out before the jump animation finishes. It might be hard since we get dropped aligned to the ships now though, you'd have to be pretty fast about it.

Actually did this. Was hilariously funny against my younger brother. Although I did feel bad and had to help him rebuild. I used a warp gate though instead of a jump drive. Vastly more reliable.

BrotherLazarus Glad I could be of assistance. If you need anything else don't hesitate to ask. That's what us dealers are for :p

 

[BrotherLazarus]

Actually did this. Was hilariously funny against my younger brother. Although I did feel bad and had to help him rebuild. I used a warp gate though instead of a jump drive. Vastly more reliable.

BrotherLazarus Glad I could be of assistance. If you need anything else don't hesitate to ask. That's what us dealers are for :p

I dunno if this'll properly post, with the current silliness on the boards (for me at least), but I made a small-ish drone using the basic guided missile I use for raider-type corvettes (8/8 of M/B), and it's a MUCH tinier drone than my first. Also used basic hull instead of the armor--still using creative to test. It's... well it's not imposing, but it's frickin' small compared to my earlier prototypes, and I can mess with the rest of it as I need to. A little disappointed that I wasn't able to make it even smaller and effective (total block count is still 165, thanks to all the aesthetic hull plating.

Spoiler: Sledge Prototype

 

[Thalanor]

Welcome to the most annoying problem in drone tech - decoration on a small scale. It is way better now with half-weight basic hull, and you made the exact right choice choosing that one

BTW, I am a little quiet right now due to life things going on, but thats temporary and I still have a rather large ship in the pipeline, hoping to also bring my foldout drones to bear sometime.

 

[max stripe]

Except that jumpdrives can't be activated with logic :p, and the chances of it actually encountering people is EXTREMELY slim.

kep... i have news for you....
they can...

 

[Keptick]

kep... i have news for you....
they can...

Seriously ? Since when?

Still, setting a drone off at random with a jumpdrive and hoping that it'd kill people is a bit ridiculous. There's thousands of sectors, millions even. The chance of it encountering people is practically null.

Setting it so that it jumps on an enemy base, now that's a different story :P

 

[StormWing0]

OK Now I say prove it. :P

 

[Trekkerjoe]

OK Now I say prove it. :p

This is an extreme example of a logic-jump ship. Keep in mind that I am recording this through build-mode, not flight mode:

You have to send a high quantity of on packets to get the full effect, thus why I used an overclocker. It is totally possible to make drones with jump drives. The smallest combination would simply have a simple clock linked to a miniature jump drive. It would take a long time to charge, but eventually they should jump. Also, keep in mind this system can charge multiple drives at a time, and the drives naturally wait their turn to jump, and it is easy to shut off with logic.

 

[Loadout]

This is an extreme example of a logic-jump ship. Keep in mind that I am recording this through build-mode, not flight mode:

You have to send a high quantity of on packets to get the full effect, thus why I used an overclocker. It is totally possible to make drones with jump drives. The smallest combination would simply have a simple clock linked to a miniature jump drive. It would take a long time to charge, but eventually they should jump. Also, keep in mind this system can charge multiple drives at a time, and the drives naturally wait their turn to jump, and it is easy to shut off with logic.

I gotta say that is pretty awesome... but totally useless. Unless we can specify where it's going to jump it'll just go in whatever direction it's facing to the maximum distance it can jump. So it'll probably make one jump into an unloaded sector and then never be seen again till someone stumbles across it, at which point it'd probably just try and jump again in another pseudo-random direction.

Now if this could work with cloakers or jammers that'd be another story... can it?

 

[Lecic]

I gotta say that is pretty awesome... but totally useless. Unless we can specify where it's going to jump it'll just go in whatever direction it's facing to the maximum distance it can jump. So it'll probably make one jump into an unloaded sector and then never be seen again till someone stumbles across it, at which point it'd probably just try and jump again in another pseudo-random direction.

If the pilot has a waypoint set, you'll jump there.

Now if this could work with cloakers or jammers that'd be another story... can it?

Not afaik, but I only recently learned logic works with jump drives.

 

[Loadout]

If the pilot has a waypoint set, you'll jump there.



Not afaik, but I only recently learned logic works with jump drives.

Problem, drones have no pilot. Hence no waypoints. You'd have to jump your ship in, undock the drones, and jump out. Which is exactly what we've been doing with larger ships. Doing it individually would be... well... pointless. One drone is an easy kill, 200.. not so much. But having to jump 200 times would not only take forever, it'd end up being meaningless.

So yeah, without some sort of automated waypoint system, or fleet waypoint commands... can't really see the drones knowing where to go without jumping inside and trolling about.

Making a jump rack is also meaningless as one ship can hold multiple racks and do the exact same job @ 10+ times the speed.

Kinda back to square one here

 

[StormWing0]

Well this new info could help with other things. Now back on topic.
[DOUBLEPOST=1442084077,1442083976][/DOUBLEPOST]It would be funny though to make a fleet of jump drones just to see how it'd work. The issue is you need to know the jump range for your server and also position the drones in a way the number of jumps needed doesn't come short or too far.

 

[max stripe]

Problem, drones have no pilot. Hence no waypoints. You'd have to jump your ship in, undock the drones, and jump out. Which is exactly what we've been doing with larger ships. Doing it individually would be... well... pointless. One drone is an easy kill, 200.. not so much. But having to jump 200 times would not only take forever, it'd end up being meaningless.

So yeah, without some sort of automated waypoint system, or fleet waypoint commands... can't really see the drones knowing where to go without jumping inside and trolling about.

Making a jump rack is also meaningless as one ship can hold multiple racks and do the exact same job @ 10+ times the speed.

Kinda back to square one here

if you create a rack with this and set it to undock them on timer and let it jump it works just as well
or have them all aimed in the same direction and have em jump

 

[Trekkerjoe]

I believe the idea is to stay far out of harm's reach with your carrier, only sending out a disposable grid or carefully setting up a drone attack. Besides, it also would potentially catch people by surprise, without giving them a chance to mobilize.

 

[max stripe]

I believe the idea is to stay far out of harm's reach with your carrier, only sending out a disposable grid or carefully setting up a drone attack. Besides, it also would potentially catch people by surprise, without giving them a chance to mobilize.

200 drones jumping in isnt much
also they would have a time limit before jumping to the next location (witch would be random due to realignment)

 

[BrotherLazarus]

I believe the idea is to stay far out of harm's reach with your carrier, only sending out a disposable grid or carefully setting up a drone attack. Besides, it also would potentially catch people by surprise, without giving them a chance to mobilize.

That's not -nearly- enough fun. Send in a couple light harrasser units (something with legs to avoid as much incoming fire as possible but enough damage output to be too much of a credible threat to ignore) to keep them occupied, jump in close enough to dismount drones but far enough to keep your carrier from getting gutted instantly. Giggle as their HUD goes from 2-3 targets to 4 to 120 and they start running away. It works for me in X3, I can't see it not working at least a -few- times here too.

I don't have the dimensions finalized yet, but the carrier I've got in mind will be mounting a limited traverse, decently powerful cap ship gun to add a bit of fire volume to the mix too--from a distance. I just need to finalize my basic drone rack, mike out the space it takes, and design the port and starboard hangar units. I did consider doing a completely modular hull design with different port and starboard modules, but the docked entity count with that idea is kinda... high. The side modules themselves, then the arms inside to extend the docking clamps, THEN either manned craft or the drone racks--which means then the drones too!--... lotta docked entities. Looootta docked entities.

 

[StormWing0]

I want to see this in action, get two people recording at the same time, one at the launch area and one at the area the drones are heading to.