Swarm Drones.

[War Dog]

So I experimented a bit with the new docking system and with the new AI change; found a fun way to make pirates a bit tougher.

But first: Two simple ships: http://i.imgur.com/gRSNMvF.png

Completely unassuming ships that are fairly weak.

Now, in these two sments I made it so every time they are spawned, you get 8 of them instead of one (Cost is the same as 8 of them so no modified blueprints). If set as pirates, all 8 of those are spawned ready to engage.

Now, whenever a pirate group is spawned, you get 5-7 ships. If you set these blueprints as the only pirates; you get 40-56 swarm drones instead.

Being tested on the homesector server; so far we've gotten comments such as:

"It's like going into an angry wasp nest holy sh*t"

"It's like shooting at squirrels."

"OH GOD WHY DO THEY COME IN HEAVY VERSIONS TOO"

http://www.mediafire.com/download/d9qr1sowe663ife/Pirate_Swarm_Drone.sment

http://www.mediafire.com/download/km0sakojajq1s3a/Pirate_Heavy_Swarm_Drone.sment

They're still pretty weak, especially against ships with a good turret layout, but I'm planning on making heavier drone ships.

If you want to test it out in single player but don't want to wait for pirates to naturally spawn you can do the following commands:

/initiate_wave 1 1 (If these are the only ships set as pirates)

/spawn_mobs Pirate_Swarm_Drone -1 #ofships

/spawn_mobs Pirate_Heavy_Swarm_Drone -1 #ofships

As always, watch the lag when dealing with this many ships.

And a picture of going into the hive http://i.imgur.com/MOyxkqh.png

 

[Trollerbobman]

You sir have made my day :D

 

[Florrible]

Thats a lot of hostile ships...but sounds like something really fun to play with. Mind telling how you did it?

 

[Crimson-Artist]

You deserve one free internet with this idea!

you chain docked them all together while setting all of their ai to active before you saved the blueprint didnt you?

 

[Origsgtpepper]

It will be interesting to test these on a big server with 20-40 average players.

Also crimson the ai is set to \"off\" from spawned blueprints, but pirates automatically spawn with ai.

 

[War Dog]

Also made a smaller drone than others, you get thirteen of these per blueprint.



http://www.mediafire.com/download/iqakum98bdmamu1/Pirate_Light_Swarm_Drone.zip

Also working on a big drone for use against capital ships. Still have to put a lot of finishing touches.



It\'s rather blocky, but it\'s a drone so visuals aren\'t as important. Unfortunately, the fact that it has turrets means it\'s limited to a maximum of 5 per blueprint.

 

[Imperial_Gold]

I couldn\'t stop laughing at the thought of a swarm of these drones. Really nice man.

 

[War Dog]

But here\'s a quick snapshot of a swarm of the new light drones,

http://i.imgur.com/UH5myGV.png