The ultimate drone R&D thread

[WaffulMann]

Smartbombs plz.

Best way to fight drones, yes, is with AOE weapons. Or turrets. Lots and lots of turrets. A turret is basically a drone that can draw power from its mothership so it's more efficient for size.

 

[Gerion]

Smartbombs plz.

Best way to fight drones, yes, is with AOE weapons. Or turrets. Lots and lots of turrets. A turret is basically a drone that can draw power from its mothership so it's more efficient for size.

The pulse weapon basically needs you to be close to the drone, so you either need to pilot the ship doing it yourself or have to launchauto-pulsing drones into a drone swarm.... and the logistics of that alone are mindboggling. The drone pulses, so it must not have another drone in pulse range while launching. The pulse needs to be strong enough to reach enough enemy drones. And the constant pulsing would make your ships shields recharge slow as hell until the drone is launched.

And turrets are theoretically superior, but due to the awfully slow turning compared to drones, they are at an disadvantage once the drones disperse around them. And the fact that they take the brunt of the force in drone attacks most of the time doesnt help either.

/edit: Just looked at the weapons chart. I made a mistake with the effect blocks on anti-drone turrets: Use pierce instead of punch-through, its slightly better. Even if against drones it doesnt make a big difference, it might help....

 

[Keptick]

Well, by using multiple swarm missile arrays fired by logic with a delay between each could theoretically be really effective. By timing it so that a new volley launches as soon as the old one hits, it could decimate drone swarms (since the missiles would go after drones that are alive).

Ok, don't go making a perma-swarm defense system now :P

 

[Thalanor]

Damn airport crappy WLAN *grumble*

I like the timed swarm missiles. Even just for the looks of it. They are dangerous though while you still have drones out yourself :p

I might just use swarmers after all my drones died. I hope 24 drones will be good enough under battle conditions, or I need a larger ship :p

 

[Keptick]

Damn airport crappy WLAN *grumble*

I like the timed swarm missiles. Even just for the looks of it. They are dangerous though while you still have drones out yourself :p

I might just use swarmers after all my drones died. I hope 24 drones will be good enough under battle conditions, or I need a larger ship :p

Well yea, I wouldn't use it on a ship that has drones. Just as a little something to use against drones.

 

[Argyle_Ninja]

I'm fairly certain that the Bobby AI still hasn't figured out how to utilize pulse weapons. I've only seen the pulse Isanth run around you in circles, setting off tiny pulses like they're putting on a firework show.

 

[Keptick]

I'm fairly certain that the Bobby AI still hasn't figured out how to utilize pulse weapons. I've only seen the pulse Isanth run around you in circles, setting off tiny pulses like they're putting on a firework show.

That's why I'm not giving the trigger to Bobby :P

 

[Keptick]

The SkoomDrone-mini™ is now ready for testing!

This version is meant to be carried on smaller, corvette sized ships. I really had to compress and optimize the shit out of everything to make it so small :p (I made multiple improvements to the system at the same time). May or may not have twice the blast radius of the previous SkoomDrone >: D

 

[Keptick]

This is the most minimal I could make (Notice the defensive push modules @Thalanor )

It's equipped with a single rapid fire pulse block. It Ugly as hell, but it works (and fits in a single block dock).

Edit: This is the most compact ok looking stun drone that I managed to make. Of course, the one above has better performance but it is really really really ugly.

Note: this one still fits in a single block docking unit. Edit: actually, it needs a single extendor in the z axis.

 

[Argyle_Ninja]

In my own docking troubleshooting with the raiders, I've noticed that your docking areas can overlap as long as the ships that are docked to them don't. I needed a lot more docking enhancers since the raider is so much longer than it is tall, but I found that I could sort of stack them in a bay so one of them is stuck to the roof. So with that kind of slim head-on profile, I think you could easily double or triple the number of drones built into your rack.

 

[Argyle_Ninja]

Gotten a lot of inspiration from this R&D thread, thanks guys. Hopefully now I can figure out how to make some kind of rack that'll fit a reasonable crapton of these babies. :D

 

[TwoNiner]

Smartbombs plz.

Best way to fight drones, yes, is with AOE weapons. Or turrets. Lots and lots of turrets. A turret is basically a drone that can draw power from its mothership so it's more efficient for size.

I'll fit my bombageddon right now!

 

[Lecic]

Gotten a lot of inspiration from this R&D thread, thanks guys. Hopefully now I can figure out how to make some kind of rack that'll fit a reasonable crapton of these babies. :D

I almost feel like these babies should be hung from hooks made of plexdoors that open and release them, but that obviously isn't a practical option.

 

[Gerion]

That's why I'm not giving the trigger to Bobby :p

So you fire the drone itself toward the enemy? Perfect, just dont miss, because that baby cant turn around if you do

Docked ships dont damage the ship they are docked to, right? Because then you could strap a auto-pulsing drone to an AI ship without weapons. Bobby without weapons goes into ramming mode, so the pulse would get into range utilizing Bobby.

/edit, scrap that, use it as a turret. Draws energy from its ship (bigger pulse) and doesnt need the logic setup (even bigger pulse). Dont know if Bobby doesnt realize that he has a weapon though....

 

[marcus87]

I think it is time to give kepkick the title he now earned "Lord of the flies"

 

[Gerion]

Hm, just with the pulse module, the turret wont shoot, so i gave it a cannon too, works fine now. Bug? Dont know, but the ramming definetly works. The first action Bobby takes is a full speed ram into the enemy ship while the turret fires both pulse and cannon. After that, things get wonky, the AI seems to be unable to just do the same thing again or stay at the enemy ship. It backs up, then goes again, but sometimes it doesnt.

I think in principle the idea works, but with collision damage it might not be worth it (as bobby would just drive your little ingenious design straight into an enemy cruiser)

Auto pulsing would work better in a turret strapped to the ship. The ship can just be another drone, basically nothing but thrusters, energy and docking unit for the weapons system.....

 

[Thalanor]

I wish I could check out the blueprint now @keptick will do next sunday when I am back. Awesome to incorporate the def push method

 

[Keptick]

@Gerion The pulse is activated by logic. There's also a disintegrator inside the ship making it so that the AI tries to ram the enemy ship. I've also added a defensive push system tied to a clock in order to overcome the AI's artificial speed and acceleration limits (and the fact that it decides to stop moving from time to time). The AI only has to turn towards the target and the internal logic system does the rest.

That's what I meant by "I'm not giving the trigger to bobby" :p

 

[TwoNiner]

@Gerion The pulse is activated by logic. There's also a disintegrator inside the ship making it so that the AI tries to ram the enemy ship. I've also added a defensive push system tied to a clock in order to overcome the AI's artificial speed and acceleration limits. The AI only has to turn towards the target and the internal logic system does the rest.

That's what I meant by "I'm not giving the trigger to bobby" :p

you have just invented kamikaze drones

 

[Keptick]

you have just invented kamikaze drones

That's not a new thing :P. No, what I invented is miniature permastun drones that are very hard to shoot down ^_^