The ultimate drone R&D thread

    Joined
    Jul 15, 2014
    Messages
    506
    Reaction score
    111
    Thinking about it you're probably right. Hopefully these invisible rails won't cause issues when you put them on a drone rack and retract it into a parent ship. That way you could have retrievable drones and the deployment speed of racks, but we'll have to wait and see. From the sounds of it the carrier update isn't going to be packaged in with fleets immediately.
     
    Joined
    Dec 3, 2013
    Messages
    552
    Reaction score
    182
    • Legacy Citizen 9
    • Purchased!
    • Community Content - Bronze 1
    well the use of racks was so we didn't have to retrieve all the drones. We would just build another rack and replace the drones. Ejecting them out was never the issue. Though we did find a few fun ways to do it using racks. Such as the one Loadout made which spun and flung drones out. IF what is coming, makes retreaving drones possible, it would also mean we need to replace them MUCH less. Though I could still see racks being useful if a player did lose a large number of drones, or had so many damaged they decide its better to scrap em.
     

    Thalanor

    CEO Snataris Colonial Fleetyards
    Joined
    Sep 10, 2013
    Messages
    818
    Reaction score
    708
    • Master Builder Bronze
    • Thinking Positive
    • Legacy Citizen 3
    I look forward to fleet AI + drone pickup so much!

    Had to make an up to date drone. No rails, no logic. Simple dual dumbfire missile/cannon/punch (360 total weapon blocks!) .
     

    nightrune

    Wizard/Developer/Project Manager
    Joined
    May 11, 2015
    Messages
    1,324
    Reaction score
    577
    • Schine
    • Top Forum Contributor
    • Thinking Positive
    FLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETS ARE HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE!!!!

    You know what this means!!!!

    IT'S TIME FOR SOME DRONE R&D! >:-D
    I need a "OMG HYPE" button for this forum now.
     
    Joined
    Dec 3, 2013
    Messages
    552
    Reaction score
    182
    • Legacy Citizen 9
    • Purchased!
    • Community Content - Bronze 1
    A few things I have been thinking about with regards to drones.

    1. Using a rack to deploy drones into the pickup area on a carrier, thus automagicly assigning them to the carrier without me having to fly each manually onto the ship.

    2. Combo Launch Method: I can ether launch drones via the shootout rail, OR just use push beams. Depends heavily on carrier setup. My thought about shootout rails, is that each rail sends the drone out 1 at a time. While using older methods like push beams, I can fling 50 or more out at once. Drones are week in low numbers, so having lots from the start might be an advantage.

    3. Been brainstorming how my logic for docking may end up looking like. I'm thinking about modifing my current rack that uses magnetic docking to pickup drones. But it will require HEAVY testing to see if the logic can keep up with drones that are trying to dock one after another.

    3a. If all docks are full, but for some reason more ships are trying to dock (like I released drones then reloaded without thinking bout it) I have an idea for a method to "Turn drones away". Somewhat like a U-turn using the shootout rail.

    That has been my brainstorming while I was at work the last few days. Gonna try and get a prototype of my launch/retrieval system going in the next day or two. Will report back with any findings.
     

    Keptick

    Building masochist
    Joined
    Sep 26, 2013
    Messages
    4,062
    Reaction score
    1,841
    • Councillor 2 Gold
    • Railman Gold
    • Thinking Positive Gold
    A few things I have been thinking about with regards to drones.

    1. Using a rack to deploy drones into the pickup area on a carrier, thus automagicly assigning them to the carrier without me having to fly each manually onto the ship.
    Yea, that's something I intend to try out as well. Good ideas with the other stuff!
     

    Thalanor

    CEO Snataris Colonial Fleetyards
    Joined
    Sep 10, 2013
    Messages
    818
    Reaction score
    708
    • Master Builder Bronze
    • Thinking Positive
    • Legacy Citizen 3
    Ohh this is just BEYOND AWESOME. Too bad I don't have time to really test anything of this in the next 2 weeks >-> Well, things will be awesome after that.

    Regarding push beams: I hate that they always cause the drones to shoot out in a messy way, with random rotations and all. The shootout rails will be much more up my alley. Can't wait to see how that works. I hope this lets me accelerate non-cube shaped drones in an ordered way without unwanted rotations or collisions :)
     
    Joined
    Nov 6, 2015
    Messages
    95
    Reaction score
    34
    2. Combo Launch Method: I can ether launch drones via the shootout rail, OR just use push beams. Depends heavily on carrier setup. My thought about shootout rails, is that each rail sends the drone out 1 at a time. While using older methods like push beams, I can fling 50 or more out at once. Drones are week in low numbers, so having lots from the start might be an advantage.
    Just a note, they don't need to use the same line of rails to launch, you could just have fifty or more lines of shootout rails. No idea which would be easier to build/less buggy, but you can definitely mass-launch with the new system.
     

    Keptick

    Building masochist
    Joined
    Sep 26, 2013
    Messages
    4,062
    Reaction score
    1,841
    • Councillor 2 Gold
    • Railman Gold
    • Thinking Positive Gold
    I gave the good ol' soul drone a well deserved aesthetic makeover, still need to redo the systems:



    I especially like how the front (where the eye is) turned out :D
     
    Last edited:
    Joined
    Dec 3, 2013
    Messages
    552
    Reaction score
    182
    • Legacy Citizen 9
    • Purchased!
    • Community Content - Bronze 1
    Just a note, they don't need to use the same line of rails to launch, you could just have fifty or more lines of shootout rails. No idea which would be easier to build/less buggy, but you can definitely mass-launch with the new system.
    I don't have the issue with push beams making my drones spin anymore. I tested extensively on beam placement to make them fire off very straight. And with my drones that are very boxy, it works extremely well. I'm not 100% on the multiple exit rails yet. BUT I have an idea that may make 1 exit rail very effective. Maybe. Gonna have to test things when I get the time. Now if only I could outsource my own job, so that I make most of the money but spend almost no time working.
     
    Joined
    Sep 15, 2015
    Messages
    81
    Reaction score
    117
    • Community Content - Bronze 2
    • Community Content - Bronze 1
    so im currently planning a 20 drone carrier that will launch drones on flat racks like the Annoying Stick I made. basically i intend for this thing to capture a small bunker in a battle or deploy guard drones/mines, bring back ONLY the racks and reload them.
     

    Keptick

    Building masochist
    Joined
    Sep 26, 2013
    Messages
    4,062
    Reaction score
    1,841
    • Councillor 2 Gold
    • Railman Gold
    • Thinking Positive Gold
    After some testing it looks like I'll be changing the soul drone's weapons from missiles to cannons. The missiles simply aren't powerful enough at that size to do damage that isn't significantly mitigated by armor. It's also pretty mediocre against other drones because the spherical explosion has lots of wasted damage (because drones are usually small non-flat targets).

    Cannons on the other hand have practically 100% damage efficiency at the soul drone's size. I'll just have to see if it gets too laggy with lots of drones (shouldn't be that bad since I'll be using unslaved cannons, so 1s reload).
     
    Joined
    Dec 3, 2013
    Messages
    552
    Reaction score
    182
    • Legacy Citizen 9
    • Purchased!
    • Community Content - Bronze 1
    Well, I am board, so I will link to my latest drone. Will be entering this one into the "Drone Wars Competition" once I finish the rack for them. They are based off of the Protoss Interceptors. Figured I'd post it here for anyone that wants to take an early look.

    Protoss Intercepters