The ultimate drone R&D thread

[Loadout]

Your cannister concept would probably work better on smaller ships than my drone rack tbh, considering that it would need less space.

I'm starting to think about a magazine fed skoomdrone launcher type thing (only one barrel to shoot multiple drones separately). It's just a concept in my head but I think that it could work :D

I had the same thought not long ago. It was based on the canister/rack idea in that you'd load up a can/rack and then they'd be pushed into a launch tube and logic gates would repeat some push lasers to force them out. I thought it'd look awesome but honestly I think unless the timing was perfect it'd be a little too slow, each drone would prolly be chewed up before the swarm was entirely done....

Then again if it shoots behind you... drones would take longer to get there, meh, it's a lot of logic gating to get that to function, maybe I'll make a giant tommy gun that does that or perhaps a shotgun style to launch em all at once? xP

Link to Canister DL...https://www.dropbox.com/s/cuva9fudjm809nm/TinCan Quad.sment?dl=0

(I know I can upload here, it's just faster to dropbox it before hand while I fiddle with descriptions and things :p)

 

[Keptick]

I had the same thought not long ago. It was based on the canister/rack idea in that you'd load up a can/rack and then they'd be pushed into a launch tube and logic gates would repeat some push lasers to force them out. I thought it'd look awesome but honestly I think unless the timing was perfect it'd be a little too slow, each drone would prolly be chewed up before the swarm was entirely done....

Then again if it shoots behind you... drones would take longer to get there, meh, it's a lot of logic gating to get that to function, maybe I'll make a giant tommy gun that does that or perhaps a shotgun style to launch em all at once? xP

Link to Canister DL...https://www.dropbox.com/s/cuva9fudjm809nm/TinCan Quad.sment?dl=0

(I know I can upload here, it's just faster to dropbox it before hand while I fiddle with descriptions and things :p)

Those things aren't made to be used in swarms. It's actually IMPOSSIBLE to use them in swarms because they'd stun each other.

 

[FunnyBunny14]

@Thalanor , you could use and one clock and 1 AND+memory cell for every drone to get the desired effect.

Use the clock to trigger the first memory cell, which then triggers the first launch. The memory cell activates 1 of the needed signals for the AND. The next time round the clock triggers the AND, which then triggers the next launch and changes the next memory cell. This can be repeated as many times ad needed, and it is all on the mothership.

This does depend on ships being able to be undocked by logic from the mothership though, and if that can't be done then this won't work.

 

[Loadout]

@Thalanor , you could use and one clock and 1 AND+memory cell for every drone to get the desired effect.

Use the clock to trigger the first memory cell, which then triggers the first launch. The memory cell activates 1 of the needed signals for the AND. The next time round the clock triggers the AND, which then triggers the next launch and changes the next memory cell. This can be repeated as many times ad needed, and it is all on the mothership.

This does depend on ships being able to be undocked by logic from the mothership though, and if that can't be done then this won't work.

I think the logic from mothership -> docked ship was tested earlier in this thread and it was a no go. I would have to check on it as i'm not 100% certain.

@keptick agreed, the shotgun idea would prolly not work unless they were spread very far apart and pushed evenly, in which case what's the point of using a single tube? It'd be massive for sure. But a drone can dream err... compute can't it?:p

 

[Keptick]

It's possible to undock things by logic, I even figured out a way to undock things from an entity that is itself docked to an other ship with the activation signal being located on the main ship. Like so:

All the drones are docket to a docked rack. That activator is linked to the main ship. The system works 99.9% of the time.

 

[Loadout]

It's possible to undock things by logic, I even figured out a way to undock things from an entity that is itself docked to an other ship with the activation signal being located on the main ship. Like so:

....gif...

All the drones are docket to a docked rack. That activator is linked to the main ship.

So if the activator is actually on the main ship can the main ship undock said units? I thought it was posted that the main ships logic couldn't do that ~confused~

 

[Keptick]

So if the activator is actually on the main ship can the main ship undock said units? I thought it was posted that the main ships logic couldn't do that ~confused~

Logic can't do that indeed, I just got creative :P

The way it works is that a core docked to the main ship gets undocked and pushed (via push beam) into an area trigger located on the Drone rack, therefore triggering the ejection sequence.

 

[Lecic]

How have you managed to launch the stun pulse drones without them permastunning your own ship when they're docked?

 

[Loadout]

Logic can't do that indeed, I just got creative :p

The way it works is that a core docked to the main ship gets undocked and pushed (via push beam) into an area trigger located on the Drone rack, therefore triggering the ejection sequence.

Ah, so exactly the same thing I did with my canister launcher then. I was thinking you somehow magically linked the main ship to the docking units on the rack itself.

Yeap logic is a fickle and strange thing, especially when it comes to drones.

 

[Keptick]

How have you managed to launch the stun pulse drones without them permastunning your own ship when they're docked?

I have a delay of 1 or two seconds on the drone before the systems activate :p . The plan is to shoot them out at max velocity towards the enemy. Besides, if I ever happen to get stunned it would only be for 1 or two seconds.

 

[Thalanor]

Slightly unrelated, this simple measure will make swarm missile spam an invalid measure vs drones. PD turret spam :D
A very large amount of PD turrets that target missiles and have a very weak cannon/cannon weapon will not only pretty much clear the air of swarm missile clusters, but also not do any considerable damage to your own drones if they get hit by the point defense spam shots

The main weakness of a large amount of microturrets (missiles) will in the ideal case never reach the ship :p

This little sucker consists mostly of shields and will be mounted in masses in turret "pockets" in the hull on my support frigate and on the destroyer:

Oh and when using the core-in-trigger method to transmit signals to docked entities, it actually works 100.0% of the time if you do not move at Vmax forward with your ship (almost Vmax is fine). If you are at maximum server speed, the core cannot actually be faster than you, and thus will be "standing still".

 

[Loadout]

Slightly unrelated, this simple measure will make swarm missile spam an invalid measure vs drones. PD turret spam :D
A very large amount of PD turrets that target missiles and have a very weak cannon/cannon weapon will not only pretty much clear the air of swarm missile clusters, but also not do any considerable damage to your own drones if they get hit by the point defense spam shots

The main weakness of a large amount of microturrets (missiles) will in the ideal case never reach the ship :p

This little sucker consists mostly of shields and will be mounted in masses in turret "pockets" in the hull on my support frigate and on the destroyer:

...pic...

Oh and when using the core-in-trigger method to transmit signals to docked entities, it actually works 100.0% of the time if you do not move at Vmax forward with your ship (almost Vmax is fine). If you are at maximum server speed, the core cannot actually be faster than you, and thus will be "standing still".

Excellent to know about the core trigger, I was building one just a little while ago and was hoping speed wouldn't be an issue, although with launching it is, so I guess I'll just have to spam more push lasers :p

Was thinking about the cannon/cannon micro turrets... kind of wondering how small I can get one while still remaining effective against missiles.... 12 weapon blocks? 10 maybe? hmmm regardless having anti-missile defenses is quickly making it seem like missiles themselves are going to be next to useless. Good thing I switched from Ion missiles to Ion mines.

"Erm... cap'n we've got loads of small masses approaching."
"Quickly launch the drone counter-measures!"
"Uh... cap'n shields are down. "

 

[Thalanor]

Missiles only have 1 hp afaik, so weapon damage should be minimal to avoid collateral damage, I think.

 

[Argyle_Ninja]

pretty bare-bones at the moment, but that's hopefully a step in the right direction.

 

[Loadout]

...pic...
pretty bare-bones at the moment, but that's hopefully a step in the right direction.

Your drones look awesome @Argyle_Ninja but they look really close to each, unless that's an optical illusion. If you don't mind me asking how do you intend to deploy those? the racks are over/under configuration? I imagine you'd use push lasers from the center no? If so be careful, they can be tricky buggars

 

[Argyle_Ninja]

oh yea, they're stacked about as tight as they can go. Should be able to have a partition in between, so at least the only collision is with the rack until they hit open space. The plan is for vertical launch, and I'm sure that I'll need a hand with all the behind-the-scenes logic controls.

 

[Krazykat]

The tommy gun drone launching idea sounds interesting for maybe a quick response defense system on a station? So you don't have to worry about the space required or systems needed as much

 

[Loadout]

The tommy gun drone launching idea sounds interesting for maybe a quick response defense system on a station? So you don't have to worry about the space required or systems needed as much

Problem is the logic circuit alone would be massive. Imagine having to calculate all the positions of the drones @_@ then having to perfectly time the launch sequence to clear each of them from the tube, it'd take forever to nail down let alone launch them all.... but that's not stopping me from trying with mines. Since i'm not likely to carry 200 mines <_< maybe only 20 or so, @Max.

oh yea, they're stacked about as tight as they can go. Should be able to have a partition in between, so at least the only collision is with the rack until they hit open space. The plan is for vertical launch, and I'm sure that I'll need a hand with all the behind-the-scenes logic controls.

Are they sideways in the picture then? it seems like the rack would conflict with the vertical launch. Unless the rack itself isn't upright in the pic, hard to tell. Vertical is always super awesome so more power to yah. Mine is going for sideways to have a "spreading wings" effect. I'll share pics or a gif whenever I finish the casings, I look forward to seeing more of your drone carrier as well. =)

 

[Keptick]

The tommy gun drone launching idea sounds interesting for maybe a quick response defense system on a station? So you don't have to worry about the space required or systems needed as much

You'd be better off with a normal drone rack in that case. You can either have the entire rack get ejected and the drones simply undock from it afterwards or the much cooler yet more space consuming ejection from the main ship.

Spoiler: Like so

 

[Argyle_Ninja]

I'm shooting for a fully operational Cylon Base Star. Raider bays were tucked into the bottom spires and up top in the celing. Now I'm really trying to get everything scaled right.