The ultimate drone R&D thread

[Keptick]

We need a "rotation pulse"

It spins the target when it gets hit.

Steering locks up if you get stunned by the push pulse, so if you were turning when it happens you'll keep turning. I made @MrFURB spin like crazy with that thing.

 

[Gerion]

Here is the thing: The corvette will not have any turrets. You fire the main missiles against the enemy mothership and the swarm missiles when the drones get too close to your comfort zone. It really isnt designed to fight alone against a target of its own size, but it should be able to take on a drone carrier and its drones.

 

[Daffor]

I've been playing with the idea of an omnidirectional shotgun cannon array as an anti drone weapon. Basic idea is to have shotgun cannons all over the ship facing different directions and linked to a logic clock. Turning it on would create a flak cloud around the ship.
Ofcourse to get any kind of use and not having to sacrifice a significant portion of ship systems to this thing. I assume it would only be viable on very large ships, if even then.
No testing has been done so far, just something that's been rattling around in my head for a few days.

 

[Gerion]

I've been playing with the idea of an omnidirectional shotgun cannon array as an anti drone weapon. Basic idea is to have shotgun cannons all over the ship facing different directions and linked to a logic clock. Turning it on would create a flak cloud around the ship.
Of course to get any kind of use and not having to sacrifice a significant portion of ship systems to this thing. I assume it would only be viable on very large ships, if even then.
No testing has been done so far, just something that's been rattling around in my head for a few days.

I dont think you need a lot of damage to destroy drones, but shotgun cannons I definetly dont like. You are basically shooting with hopes of hitting in a specific angle (there will always be blind spots), while the swarm missiles will actively seek out drones (not much better, because their targeting is slightly borked). So you need less of them and can fire them when its needed (leaving more power and space for shields and main weapons).

 

[Dragleones]

A few days ago I wanted to make a fast firing missile turret, so I used a logic circuit to trigger 6 missile-missile systems in a chain to fire every 0,5 seconds.
I liked the idea and wanted to translate this to a broadside dreadnaught. Since broadside dumbfire missiles seemed pretty dumb i used heatseekers instead.

Spoiler: The Build

Just a clock with 29 delays and a pulsator. The weapon computers get triggered with 0,5 to 1 second delay inbetween. A full volley is followed by 8,5 seconds cooldown.
I think i'm going to rework it sooner or later with 20 weapon computers instead of 10 and a cooldown of 2-5 seconds ater each volley.

Each computer is linked to 4 arrays. Each array fires 5 rockets at once and has a 25% Punch-Through bonus.
Note: this is nowhere near to being finished... So it just has a flat hull.

Since i currently have no proper ships to test i used 100 Isanth-VI.
The biggest problem is if the ships are too close the heatseekers will fly a few hundread meters away in a straight line before they turn around and start to chase a target. Therefore ships which are too close won't get hit.
The system of my WIP above is better to tear apart slower moving bigger targets with weakened shields. As Gerion proposed a fast corvette would be better to hunt down drones (and carriers [maybe]).

 

[Mortiferum]

Out power the drones with superior turret firepower!

My solution to the madness is 60 turret per broadside. :p

 

[Gerion]

Out power the drones with superior turret firepower!

My solution to the madness is 60 turret per broadside. :p

That will be countered by a lot of drones, better to make them integrated (i think).

Unless turrets get an AI overhaul and some way to increase their turning speed, i declare them less than useful against drones. Hugh, Gerion spoken!

 

[MrFURB]

There's a couple of suggestions for counter-drone tactics I like here.
Putting in an anti-capital sized heatseeker array makes for a very nice dual-purpose weapon for both delivering moderate block damage and swatting flies without needing any other blocks for that specialization.
Having a set of external docking ports for a small number of larger 'gunship' style drones is also an excellent method that requires only a few extra blocks from the mothership in order to function properly. It's the most viable method for a jack-of-all-trades vessel to have a drone screen that I can see that doesn't require it's own large set of blocks or weapon systems.

 

[Argyle_Ninja]

I'd be interested to see, if/when the minelayer weapon system gets integrated, how well the Missile/Minelayer sub flak cannon will combat the rising tide of drone warfare..

 

[Daffor]

I dont think you need a lot of damage to destroy drones, but shotgun cannons I definetly dont like. You are basically shooting with hopes of hitting in a specific angle (there will always be blind spots), while the swarm missiles will actively seek out drones (not much better, because their targeting is slightly borked). So you need less of them and can fire them when its needed (leaving more power and space for shields and main weapons).

You are ofcourse correct in pointing out these issues and in most cases a heatseeker array is propably far more effective. To get proper coverage a shotgun array like this would propably require several hundred individual cannons. The main advantage is that it allows your ship to have turrets unlike the heatseekers where your own missiles are likely to target them. Oh and ofcourse a proper flak cloud should make it hard for missiles to get trough as well, altough point defence turrets should be superior for that purpose.

I think I have to actually make something that has this kind of system to fully evaluate the pros and cons of something this mad.

 

[Reilly Reese]

your gonna need to use the explosive effect

 

[Thalanor]

Ye, explosive effect against drones will, even if the core does not overheat, kill enough systems quickly to make the drone a floating piece of crap.

I wonder what the most optimal drone size is. Mixture of small drones and heavy fighter drones perhaps?
The former would come as a rack, the latter in small numbers and individual docking ports.

 

[Keptick]

That's the mix I'll have on my titan @Thalanor . 44 swarm drones and 2 heavy corvette drones (and skoomdrones to piss off doomcubes). The swarm should take care of smaller enemy turrets, as well as attract fire from the bigger ones.

The cruisers should be capable of taking out the bigger turrets, as well as provide nice support fire. The enemy will most likely ignore them, considering that it/they will have to deal with a 1.3km doom machine equipped with 12 heavy corvette sized turrets and one world ending turret (yes, it has enough damage to kill planets). To be honest, the enemy is pretty f***ed regardless of anti-drone weaponry or not ^_^

Of course, this doesn't apply to any vessel. So I'd say that equipping explosive effect on either swarm missiles or beam turrets is a good investment.

On an unrelated note: I plan on making a prototype cruiser or destroyer that can fire Mini skoomdrones at the enemy (with launch tubes) followed up by a volley of what ever hurts. Assuming that I can take out the enemy turrets first and that they don't warp out this tactic seems very promising. If it works well I'll integrate the launch tube technology into my titan. It's also interesting to note that different advanced projectiles can be used with this type of weapon, such as damage pulse drones (muahahahaha).

 

[Gerion]

Well @keptick, your titan is the kind of thing I would never want to bring to a battle...

Damage pulse drones would be funny, but i think we covered them before, you have an even bigger problem than with normal cannons: You aim wrong, the drone whizzes past your enemy happily pulsing at nothing and you cant just shoot another one (i think? You dont have multiple ones, right?!)

 

[Thalanor]

My downsized version of the drone mix will be 24 swarm drones and 2 heavy fighter ones, then. Too bad I won't have space for multi purpose launch tubes :D Maybe a fleet will indeed do well if there is a "skoombringer" corvette with a launch tube involved.

Still no usable computer till end of week, but I am currently planning (on paper) a corvette/more likely frigate that will physically bring a skoomseeker to the target if necessary, has alot of PD turrets and hurting weaponry against similar sized craft - basically an anti antidrone-corvette frigate which makes for an excellent escort for a droneship (even AI usable without the skoomseeker functionality). At the same time my fleet will thus have a smaller, faster and cheaper ship at it's disposal, too (I only ever use self constructed blueprints; in lore, the colonial fleet may only reverse engineer or invent, but cannot use their command protocols on stolen craft). Two flies with one nuke

Looking so forward to being able to build that one. Itll be fun, and won't take forever.

 

[Keptick]

Well @keptick, your titan is the kind of thing I would never want to bring to a battle...

Damage pulse drones would be funny, but i think we covered them before, you have an even bigger problem than with normal cannons: You aim wrong, the drone whizzes past your enemy happily pulsing at nothing and you cant just shoot another one (i think? You dont have multiple ones, right?!)

The point of it being a drone instead of a normal dumb projectile is that it can guide itself to the target and even turn around if it overshoots :P

 

[Thalanor]

Makes me wish for a "glue" block. Adhesive skoomseekers - oh the evil!

Only option I could think of now is using plex door "grappling hooks" that activate when the drone is almost colliding with something. Could that work?
Think alien facehuggers.

 

[Gerion]

Makes me wish for a "glue" block. Adhesive skoomseekers - oh the evil!

Only option I could think of now is using plex door "grappling hooks" that activate when the drone is almost colliding with something. Could that work?
Think alien facehuggers.

Test it! This might be the next thing! Drones with swarm missiles, but no thrusters attaching themselves to enemy ships and bombarding them with their little stings occasionally! Oh the horror!

 

[Argyle_Ninja]

Plex door face hugging tech.. Nice. Got some evil genius floating around in these parts.. if this kind of forced interface works, I can see legitimate boarding craft in our future. Perhaps even to just pick up asteroids and use them as camoflauge / armor... If you dug your claws into an asteroid, and then hit it with a push beam....? Did you guys just invent a wacky new form of transportation?

 

[Thalanor]

When I return on sunday, I shall build facehuggers! Mwahahahahar!