The ultimate drone R&D thread

[Keptick]

Ok, so I modified my drone rack for use with a ship mounted activation and ejection system. While I haven't actually installed it inside the ship (or installed the systems on the ship for that matter) the rack works! It undocks the drones in sequence once a core gets in the activation zone, which will be launched from a mechanism inside the main ship. The main advantages of this is that I can use the same rack on both sides and that the price of the entire rack is now 6.2 million instead of 15+ millions (it was really worth it). Here is the aproximate location of where the rack will be (it's just beside the ship atm, it will be embeded inside the ship, which is the next thing on my todo list):

I'm pretty sure that it'll look really cool :D

 

[t3xx3r]

@t3xx3r That's a calderon ship (my faction).

You should post it up for download. I'd like to test it once you manage to include the drone rack.

BTW, that drone rack is very innovative! Keep it up, keptick!

@Thalanor Awesome .gif! I agree with @Gerion! "DAAAAAAAADDDDDYYYYYY!"

 

[Thalanor]

Oh god, did not know about the damage pulse slaves (thats what you get for not checking out the game for more than a year) - looks like I have some upgrading on my drone rack to do later :D (which needs to be done anyways, because now that you all show your super long drone racks, I am no longer satisfied with twelve :p)

@keptick, awesome. I may just have to kind of double the previous intended size of my destroyer to get one of these sweet sweet long drone racks, too. Might be using a 32-rack (16 to each side). I kind of prefer both sides to be included in one twin rack, but that is only possible with the slim, high and long ships. The original goal for my destroyer was 200m. It will turn out to be 350 easily now -- looks like you don't have that problem with your badass super titan :D
Also:

It undocks the drones in sequence once a core gets in the activation zone, which will be launched from a mechanism inside the main ship

Are you KIDDING me? Does that work?? Oh. My. God. So. GOOD. :D So now even the pilot could technically eject the drones without ever leaving the mothership core. Reason enough to completely overhaul my systems while I am extending them to hold more drones.



Current plan of awesomeness:
- Have damage indicators on mothership (almost done)
- Module for transmitting an activation signal from mothership to rack (testing phase)
--> When the ship takes area hull damage (missiles), activation block(s) get destroyed, and the ship automatically launches all drones.

 

[Gerion]

I always liked the idea of activating them via a turret firing.... Would make drone racks lying around waiting for prey so much more fun..... But even I in my limited (I E none) understanding of logic systems I know it doesnt work....

 

[marcus87]

Ok, so I modified my drone rack for use with a ship mounted activation and ejection system. While I haven't actually installed it inside the ship (or installed the systems on the ship for that matter) the rack works! It undocks the drones in sequence once a core gets in the activation zone, which will be launched from a mechanism inside the main ship. The main advantages of this is that I can use the same rack on both sides and that the price of the entire rack is now 6.2 million instead of 15+ millions (it was really worth it). Here is the aproximate location of where the rack will be (it's just beside the ship atm, it will be embeded inside the ship, which is the next thing on my todo list):

I'm pretty sure that it'll look really cool :D

I have found that the drones exit better when you remove the frame from the rack. Or at least on the side where the drones get ejected.

 

[Thalanor]

Pushing cores from mothership into a special area of the rack where area trigger blocks are (thx @keptick) = CONFIRMED
As a matter of fact, automatic on-board-alarm drone ejection from replaceable drone racks* = CONFIRMED
:D


*of course manual drone ejection from several locations onbaord the mothership is also possible, after all, you don't always want to wait for a hole in your hull until the drones are out (as then you are likely buying an entirely new ship afterwards anyways), but one thing is pretty clear: IF you have a hole in your hull, and you haven't ejected any drones yet, then now is a good time, and the logic will do it for you in an instant, even during combat with no crew.

 

[Keptick]

Precisely! Now I can just activate the entire launch sequence simply by switching to build mode and activating an activator (located in the core room most likely). The entire operation would take a max of 4 seconds. The other advantage is that all the push beams I need will be directly mounted on board the ship, so it cut the price of the rack in half :P.

Can someone confirm that unmanned cores will trigger area activation logic? Cause I just flew a core into the trigger area in order to test it, so I'm not sure if an empty core will work (I'm pretty sure that it does).

 

[Thalanor]

@keptick - yes, with CONFIRMED I actually meant that :D While my ship itself is maybe 20% done at this stage, I have a mini testing rack docked, and got a board system for launching the core into an area working with 100% success - it does trigger, and the concept works!

There are two ways of launching drones now (both confirmed and functional 100%):
- Activation buttons found all over the ship and directly next to the core (you can exit the core, press and reenter the core - even faster than 4sec and does not even use build mode "cheating" (in the RP sense))
- When the hull takes damage, drones are launched automatically

Currently in a maniac spree to redesign the lower maintenance deck to visually present the entire mechanism - its quite something that hasn't been done alot in StarMade yet, so when doing it, it must be done right :D

View from main ship WIP interior:

View from drone rack hangar:

My own version of the rack still includes the launch mechanisms. However, I was able to cut down the needed amount of tech per drone to one delay, and one push pulse (w/ damage pulse support) system consisting of 4 blocks that launches two drones (one to each side) - makes for only 2 weapon and 2 support blocks per drone plus respective computers (affordable enough). I also needed to let the systems remain on the rack because I don't want to give up the "twin rack" thing

Nice bonus of using push pulse in this case: When the core flew into the activation area, the subsequent push pulses that launch the drones will propel the core back into the core launcher, where someone only has to re-dock it. Plex doors with a delay then make sure the core does not re-enter the activation zone after it was launched once, as the rack is empty then anyways. Once the crewman has redocked the core, they can lift the plex doors to the activation zone again.

 

[NeonSturm]

I hope it works if you turn collision damage on too

BTW : Gave me a sweet idea : use the speed of a core to trigger a fast clock by letting it pass multiple area triggers.
BTW : My last experiment used Cores and ships similar to the Station-Lift, but they all glitched out after a few times thrown onto opposing area triggers... if everybody wants to share EXPerience, please PM me

 

[Thalanor]

Well with collision damage, I haven't tested it yet, but all that could happen is the core getting destroyed - after it passed the activation area already, so when it's purpose is done. If it dies, then creating another when back in the base won't hurt me
A single core even at medium speeds won't be damaging anything on the mechanism (or will it?)

 

[SilentRider_14]

It would probably be better to launch a drone from the main ship out the trigger area from the drone rack itself than a core deeper into the main ship. It's possible to do because docking areas are currently allowed to overlap and as long as the docked objects themselves don't collide or overlap it wont glitch to much.

 

[Thalanor]

Hm don't get exactly what you mean - sending a core from ship to rack, or from rack to ship?
It has to be the former, otherwise there is no way to connect mothership logic to the drone rack undocking sequence.

 

[NeonSturm]

A single core even at medium speeds won't be damaging anything on the mechanism (or will it?)

AFAIK ramming a planet with just a core (even with hull below it) at 3 m/s will kill you :D
Dunno if it's fixed jet (can't play right now, the drivers are broken)


I think he means you eject a drone, not the core. (through the trigger area.)

Triggering the launch sequence, thus:
1 drone from mother-ship, others from the rack.

 

[Thalanor]

As long as the core dies and not the planet, I am fine with that :D as the core is auto-launched, noone would have to pilot it.
The core may die, it only needs to activate something once. As long as there is no structural hull damage to the main ship or the rack all is fine, like as if the core just punched through everything and then obliterated a few suns on it's way to the boundaries of space.


Hm as for the drone from the mothership idea - it would boil down to the same problem: get it to hit the trigger area on the rack in 10/10 cases. That is easier to achieve with just a core as it can easily be guided to the trigger area quickly with some sort of pushing method (push pulse works in the example, but is maybe not all that elegant). If a separate single drone docked in the rack hangar (not the rack itself) is used, then you'd have to rely on the AI; it may not always act like you want it though, unlike a dumb core with some momentum.

Thumbs up for a clever idea though. I will try to find a way to at least make the core method more compact, maybe by relocation. Although a part of me just likes a visible mechanism very much :D





@Thadius Faran: oh yes! core railguns!

 

[Reilly Reese]

Core Guns the best collision based weaponry!!! :p

 

[Keptick]

My empty rack will actually be usable as weapons since they enter/edit from the front. So I could actually "shoot" them at enemy ships.

 

[Mered4]

Has anyone tested anti-drone vessels with Swarmers? I know they aren't reliable in 90% of situations, but if you are surrounded by 30-40 drones.....

I have my IF Sentinel equipped with some swarm turrets and two swarm arrays with independent computers. I haven't been able to test it against any good drones yet - anyone have one I could use?

 

[Vengeance42]

This is an interesting thread, i havent messed with drones much yet, aside from some suicide ram drones.

But I have a dumb question - why do you need ejection systems? Won't the drones just leave on their own after undocking them?

 

[Thalanor]

But I have a dumb question - why do you need ejection systems? Won't the drones just leave on their own after undocking them?

When undocked, they will be separate entities, but no momentum is added - as such, it is possible that they either mass collide (with the main ship or each other) trying to find the way out of the hangar, or that the main ship makes a slight turn causing the same issue. Launching them by fore will make them spread out exactly like you want until AI kicks in. But let's not forget the most important reason:

launch pods are kewl. :D

@keptick: Did you consider unmanned raid ships yet? Basically, you would fly them to a target base in the hangar of your main ship (well out of turret range), then enter, point and exit them and press an activation button. A clock + push module would then propel them forward in a straight line, and an onboard timer launches one incredible dronefest after e.g. 20 seconds - when the turrets are busy with the swarm, you then break in with your main ship. And if it wasn't enough yet, if the main ship also has drones, you can decide to increase drone density even more :D

On my base I would then have a large hangar full of ready AI-enabled drone racks for easy rearming after I return.

Currently extending my rack module to either 24 or 36 drones, depending on how many I can fit into my ship.

 

[Gerion]

Has anyone tested anti-drone vessels with Swarmers? I know they aren't reliable in 90% of situations, but if you are surrounded by 30-40 drones.....

I have my IF Sentinel equipped with some swarm turrets and two swarm arrays with independent computers. I haven't been able to test it against any good drones yet - anyone have one I could use?

I have done a bit of combat testing, using the Isanths (they are basically shitty drones).
Turrets wont help you for long, they get swarmed and disabled. Punch-through weaponry (especially beam/cannon/punch-through) increases casualties amongst the drones tremendously, as they are rarely heavily rmoured, so the hit goes straight to the core.
Swarm missiles are at best unreliable, since their tracking doesnt take obstacles into account, so they might crash into the mothership/station/shipwrecks/obstacle. And they choose their targets... poorly, 50% going after the same target, other targets just getting hit once.
Armour seems to be more important against drones then shields. The drones rarely hit the same point since they move around quickly (and the turret turns because it aquires new targets in quick succession), so the thicker your armour, the more shots the turret can take before loosing something important.
If you give the drones missiles, everything is off. They wreck turrets quickly (tested with modified Isanths, which had their cannons replaced with a small missile/pulse combo and a dumb fire missile) and neither shields nor armour will keep them away for long.

So, my conclusion:
1. Put the faction module directly in front of the drones core. Since its indestructible, punch-through seems to not get to the core (unconfirmed, this was found inspecting wreckage after the battle).
2. Give your drones missiles. Missile/pulse is evil, but needs a lot of power. Dumb-fire works really well but makes your drones worse in drone to drone combat.
3. Equip your turrets with punch-through weaponry if you fear a drone attack. Beams or cannons are best for this and I recommend cannon as slave. Missile might be tempting, but the spread pattern is too unpredictable to ensure killing shots against small targets.
4. Swarm missiles dont work well unless you fire multiple barrages of them and get lucky.
5. Armour your turrets at least to the point at which a normal missile doesnt punch straight to the core. If you have to skimp shielding for that, so be it. Shields wont save you.
6. Have your own drones. More targets means less focused attacks on your turrets and ship, thus reducing the effectiveness of attacking drones.