The ultimate drone R&D thread

[Tunk]

I'm kinda interested in the idea of interdiction drones or micro inhibitors now (already got jump spikes, but they aren't really as portable).
I recon you can have them activate a inhibitor on undocking, problem is the inhibitor chews up so much power.
I think I'll give it a go tonight.

 

[jzimmerman4]

Posted some now old drone designs on page 6 or something so I figured it is time to update my inventory!

Spoiler: Hunter

Spoiler: Ghost

http://starmadedock.net/content/ghost-hunter-drones.2874/

 

[BrotherLazarus]

Posted some now old drone designs on page 6 or something so I figured it is time to update my inventory!

Spoiler: Hunter

Spoiler: Ghost

http://starmadedock.net/content/ghost-hunter-drones.2874/

Robot space bugs! Man... my drones have become so industrial...

Someone (Loadout !) needs to cover handling aesthetically pleasing designs in very small dimensions, I am rather bad at it.

Still waiting for Raisinbat to uplink that spiffy magazine fed drone rack as well.

 

[Tunk]

Decided I need to start work on a drone bay, so heres the start of the octobay:

Spoiler: no tentacles, yet

The octobay has 8 bays available using what I call the 'Velcro' docking system, which basically allows you to throw ships/drones in its general direction and have them stick.

Couple of soul drones slapped in for scale/example purposes:

Could probably fit 2 souls per bay if the docker was orientated right.

The idea is you slap one of these on the ship, hook up the logic and go fishing with whatever drones you feel like.
Alternatively it is chain dockable, so you could dock several of them together into a stack and chain the logic.

 

[BrotherLazarus]

Decided I need to start work on a drone bay, so heres the start of the octobay:

Spoiler: no tentacles, yet

The octobay has 8 bays available using what I call the 'Velcro' docking system, which basically allows you to throw ships/drones in its general direction and have them stick.
View attachment 16480
Couple of soul drones slapped in for scale/example purposes:
View attachment 16481
Could probably fit 2 souls per bay if the docker was orientated right.

The idea is you slap one of these on the ship, hook up the logic and go fishing with whatever drones you feel like.
Alternatively it is chain dockable, so you could dock several of them together into a stack and chain the logic.

It... reminds me of a vacuum cleaner filter. Like the Soul drones are giant dust mites caught in a vacuum cleaner filter. Interesting docking system though, I bet if you mate it with the Extendo-Arm you can make a well protected drone holder.

 

[Loadout]

Robot space bugs! Man... my drones have become so industrial...

Someone (Loadout !) needs to cover handling aesthetically pleasing designs in very small dimensions, I am rather bad at it.

Still waiting for Raisinbat to uplink that spiffy magazine fed drone rack as well.

I suppose I could do a special on this tomorrow(Saturday the 3rd), was going to do weapons groups next but Aesthetics are on the list anyways. It's a pretty hefty list of things you can do in a small space though, I doubt I could fit it all in one 15 minute video.

If you're looking for some quick ideas though look above...

Spoiler: Hunter

http://starmadedock.net/content/ghost-hunter-drones.2874/

This drone in particular uses some of the techniques on my list, even though it's not my own. For starters, use very few square blocks from the start, instead use heptas, wedges, and other blocks. Blocking things up from the get-go makes it really tough to ever make something different.

It... reminds me of a vacuum cleaner filter. Like the Soul drones are giant dust mites caught in a vacuum cleaner filter. Interesting docking system though, I bet if you mate it with the Extendo-Arm you can make a well protected drone holder.

Was just thinking that actually...<_< very shop-vac-filter-ish...

 

[Tunk]

Well I guess the only response here is to put it on a salvager.

 

[Loadout]

Well I guess the only response here is to put it on a salvager.

Salvage Vac?

Suctioning asteroids since 2015...

Kinda catchy!:D

 

[BrotherLazarus]

Salvage Vac?

Suctioning asteroids since 2015...

Kinda catchy!:D

Wait, does that mean we're going full Spaceballs now?

I can dig it!

Edit: that reminds me... Loadout , would you mind seeing a couple of your drones showing up in the R&D section (fluff area/manufacturing section) of the public station I've got brewing? I've been planning to make a large-ish station with a ton of pretty (and useless) features to post up, and a drone R&D bay would be fairly amusing. I should ask Raisinbat if I can use his drone launcher concept in there too... (don't mind me too much, my painkillers kicked in and I've reached the "babbling stupid" stage)

 

[Tunk]

heheh alrighty you've convinced me that project megamaid is a good idea.

Definitely fits two soul drones per bay, so a single octobay can store and launch 16 souls (using souls as a sort of benchmark drone).
Tried initially to use a pulse to throw the drones out, but that worked about as well as farting in a large room.
Each bay now has its own launch beam system, so that opens up other possibilities anyway.

 

[Tunk]

Got the logic and what not sorted now, gotta doing a lot of fine tuning on the launch system though.

Spoiler: Its kinda hypnotic

Looks like imgur is playing up, or the forum isn't grabbing the album/gifv properly so head on over to the imgur album

Some pulse lasers with push effect timed to bunt drones hard as soon as the doors open.
Also decided the wireless output on this has a arbitrary half second delay, so when chain docked they open in a wave.

Also made it a little less ugly.

 

[Lecic]

That looks so cool...

 

[Sgtwisky]

I approve of the new Drone Canister.

 

[Thalanor]

That deserves a like! I see keptick's soul drone is still immensely popular.

 

[BrotherLazarus]

I just finally broke out of staring at the gif long enough to post on the thread again. Very pretty. All hail the hypnovac!

 

[Loadout]

Wait, does that mean we're going full Spaceballs now?

I can dig it!

Edit: that reminds me... Loadout , would you mind seeing a couple of your drones showing up in the R&D section (fluff area/manufacturing section) of the public station I've got brewing? I've been planning to make a large-ish station with a ton of pretty (and useless) features to post up, and a drone R&D bay would be fairly amusing. I should ask Raisinbat if I can use his drone launcher concept in there too... (don't mind me too much, my painkillers kicked in and I've reached the "babbling stupid" stage)

No I don't particularly mind you using my drones. =) more advertisement the better! Maybe someday people will actually rate them on the Community Content section. Speaking of which I should really update most of them on there :3

Project megamaid, Sweet! Well we've got the filter part down, now we just need to have a transforming hull that turns into a maid. hmm... nah too busy with my own random captial ship to bother making one. :P

In other news about to start recording a drone aesthetics video, or tiny design tips. Just gonna take all afternoon and then a painful chewing out by the missus later on for not doing housework. Never the less, it shall be glorius!

 

[Tunk]

Well push beams are kinda disappointing, definitely not suitable for rapid deployment.
Would be more effective to take the push effect off and insert the filter into the enemies exhaust port (actually serious, the launch system consumes roughly 18m power currently, and testing with a 50m variant shows negligible difference).

Guess I'll need to go with a collision based launch system.

[edit]
Sorry, just got to rant here.
How the hell does hitting a 100ish mass drone with 180k to 270k push damage from 6-9 beam systems only move it 2 inches, even in open space?

 

[Loadout]

Well push beams are kinda disappointing, definitely not suitable for rapid deployment.
Would be more effective to take the push effect off and insert the filter into the enemies exhaust port (actually serious, the launch system consumes roughly 18m power currently, and testing with a 50m variant shows negligible difference).

Guess I'll need to go with a collision based launch system.

[edit]
Sorry, just got to rant here.
How the hell does hitting a 100ish mass drone with 180k to 270k push damage from 6-9 beam systems only move it 2 inches, even in open space?

probably a center of mass issue. try aiming one beam at the center of mass, it should push alot more than 2 inches. my beams are only about 20 blocks and push for a few hu ndred meters or so.... could you share your setup? something is definitely not right

 

[Tunk]

Had a go docking a drone with its CoM on one of the beams, a lot better results but still feels off.
Going to need to remove most of the rails in that case to force drones onto the beam outputs and see how that goes.

Each output is 3x3 b-p-push.

Anyway, enough rambling heres some internals and a gif:

 

[Loadout]

Tunk

likely culprits;

• drones aren't centered in front of a beam.
• beam pulse combo

in the first case you saw better results but not good enough. this leads me to think its the second case.

how momentum effects work: multiple hits stack thier effects, but, since your ship is always trying to slow down, the effects wear off quickly. meaning you'll need to hit rapidly.

try basic beams with push, you'll get 5 hits per second instead of 1. alternatively you can use scatter lasers (beam missile) to cover a wide area.