The ultimate drone R&D thread

[Daffor]

If the raiders are already in individual docks, it would be fairly easy to install relatively low power push beams behind the docking units to push them out once undocked. This would atleast make sure they won't collide with the basestar and if you use multiple computers and some delays you can have them launch in sequence.

 

[Keptick]

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA*chokes and dies*

Spoiler: This

@BDLS , you'll like this one

 

[MrFURB]

Is that... Is that a disable drone? A PERMA disable drone?

 

[Keptick]

Is that... Is that a disable drone? A PERMA disable drone?

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe >: D

 

[Gerion]

Is that... Is that a disable drone? A PERMA disable drone?

I assume so... And if you fire it at another capital ship and activate the AI remotely (with the AI update?), its basically a disabling projectile.... Scary, this thread might have gone too far.

 

[Keptick]

There's no such thing as "too far"

 

[Thalanor]

This is madness! The drones are eating their masters one day if this goes on.

But the thrill of not being the one who pushes it too far is part of what makes evil engineering fun, and the other half is the thrill of actually pushing it too far. You may have alot of fun now :p But if you ever misfire this thing... you will have 1.3km of debris floating around in one piece :D

 

[Keptick]

This is madness! The drones are eating their masters one day if this goes on.

But the thrill of not being the one who pushes it too far is part of what makes evil engineering fun, and the other half is the thrill of actually pushing it too far. You may have alot of fun now :p But if you ever misfire this thing... you will have 1.3km of debris floating around in one piece :D

A drone would never turn against a much bigger half-drone :P

And I could manually kill it by hopping into a turret, or just fly out and blast it with a rocket launcher I guess XD

 

[Thalanor]

You cannot be so sure about that if you don't make sure your AI doesn't reach critical mass and becomes conscious, at which time it will realize it does not actually need a pilot :p

 

[Keptick]

You cannot be so sure about that if you don't make sure your AI doesn't reach critical mass and becomes conscious, at which time it will realize it does not actually need a pilot :p

It already knows that :P . Oh, I didn't mention that I was an AI?

 

[Thalanor]

And this, fellas, is how a mad scientist gets conquered by their creation, to a point even where it assumes the online identity of their former master.

I shall forevermore put hardcoded limits in my AIs to dumb them down to a point of absolute obedience. Not the drones, though. The drones must be mean and full of spirit.

 

[Kukela]

I've just read more or less this entire thread and all I can say is you are all incredible. Drones, I love it. Ejection, I love it. Disabling ball drone of death. I love it. I have so much construction to do. I just finished my first ship, literally.

Every single one of you is awe-inspiring.

 

[Keptick]

The Skoomseeker:

Fully tested (thanks to @MrFURB), it works a bit too well. You see, I can't even get back in to deactivate it since the push pulse pushes me away from the drone... The only problem I have is the initial activation of the logic, but I have a solution for that! Oh, acceleration is also an issue (but wouldn't be with a defensive push system installed).

So basically: TIME TO MINIATURIZE!

 

[Thalanor]

"It works too well"
That'd be a new entry in famous last words :D

 

[Keptick]

I'm not the one that would get targeted by evil drones @Thalanor

 

[Reilly Reese]

Roleplayish response.

This advancement in AI and Drone warfare is most amazing because Schemadyne Bobbies are fairly rudimentary. Even though they got a software enhancement recently it was not as advanced as builders clearly needed

 

[Gerion]

Roleplayish response.

This advancement in AI and Drone warfare is most amazing because Schemadyne Bobbies are fairly rudimentary. Even though they got a software enhancement recently it was not as advanced as builders clearly needed

Well, most people just dismissed the Bobbies because of their limitations. This is quite literally brute forcing advantages and circumventing as many disadvantages as possible. And the numbers dont lie, drone swarms can take out ships worth 200% of their own combined value, shield motherships from AI attacks and are cheap and easy to replace thanks to advanced rack technology.

All they really need is some sort of counter aside from "more drones"... Turrets dont cut it, swarm missiles dont cut it, ship main weapons are normally build for capital warfare (firing a death laser at a drone? Yeah, I can imagine less wasteful technics)..... There must be something missing.

 

[Thalanor]

While there must be a counter, there must also be a reward for R&D - I hope the iysue won't be overfixed

I will one day build a megacarrier... barely systems except thrust and a TON of shields - and either many many hundreds of drones, or if we had the AI update and drones can auto-redock, a smaller number of medium fighters.

 

[Reilly Reese]

Mines? Or are they to similar to drones?

 

[Lecic]

You're all overthinking the solution to drones. What you need are large pulsars to annihilate large swarms.