The ultimate drone R&D thread

[Loadout]

Update: Got around to it this morning so the Mangler is available in the CC section here.

LSD Mangler

The top bubble part has a one time enemy detector if anyone is interested. I'll get around to posting the reusable one later on.

 

[WeTitans3]

Is this thread the best place to read up on Drone Tech? Or is there another thread?

 

[BrotherLazarus]

Is this thread the best place to read up on Drone Tech? Or is there another thread?

Should still be this thread, though it's been a few months since I stopped in to check up on the latest inventions.

Even with the new features, a lot of the theory hashed out earlier on in this thread is going to remain sound (though launching techniques have certainly come a long way from single use racks, what with the addition of the fleet system)

 

[Pacific_Jim]

Is this thread the best place to read up on Drone Tech? Or is there another thread?

Here seems like as good a place as any, though drones are pretty straight forward now. There's probably some more advanced things I'm missing, but launch rails are pretty much as usable as any push beam set up and pick up points are simple to use. The only real thing about them is it's a good idea to put some distance between pick up points to reduce crashes.

 

[Thalanor]

Most of the older information in this thread is by now obsolete. Back when drone R&D was started by keptick, we had the bounding box docking system, our only option for shootout drones were unreliable push weapons, and in general alot of things that are now natively supported by the game had to be approximated by extensive engineering. So reading the entire thread probably won't be that important nowadays, but the post-rail parts of this thread are as relevant as ever

 

[TapDrew]

Tormentor Class Drone carrier

I have two rails for exit and entry. Thought about making a locking type missile mine with no engines. It would be an effective minelayer.

is the community content page messing up, or, is there something wrong with that link?

 

[Crimson-Artist]

not sure if anyones brought this up in thread yet but i've been doing some testing with damage pulse mains and drones will now use them to attack a target! They will charge in and fire it at point blank range. from the testing ive done i've been able to discern some very useful drone build aspects.

1. Damage Pulse mains only make the drone charge at targets if the damage pulse is the only weapon system. if another ranged weapon is added like a cannon then the AI will default to its attack range and make the drone back away. however if you use a docked weapon system this can negate this aspect. This should allow a drone to close in on targets while still firing its guns at it.
2. damage pulse drones will use the location of the damage pulse array its engagement range. if you put the pulse array at its nose then it will try to keep its nose a reasonable distance away from the enemy's hull while still firing its pulse. However if you put the pulse array back more than say 10 blocks (which is the range of a pulse bubble) then the AI will have no trouble just ramming its nose into the enemy's hull. This is great for homing warhead torpedoes.
3. you can effect the engagement range of drones by using invisible/intangible blocks to artificiality extend the drone's size. adding a open plex door bout 20 blocks in front of a drone will cause that drone to stay 20 blocks/meters away from its target at all times! havent tested if this behavior also happens with docked entity's. if this doesnt effect docked entities then all sorts of logic contraptions can be added to rush down drones like shield/power drain systems.

hope you guys found these useful as I now have some plans to build some cool attack and support drones with this

 

[philthy mcnasty]

has anyone tried using drone fleets for blockades? I am curious to see if it is possible to trap a hostile faction at their stations by having tons of defensive fleets set to idle just out of range of their missiles.

 

[AtraUnam]

Drones do not take the dimensions of docked entities into account Crimson-Artist

 

[EricBlank]

Pulse-EMP drones sound incredibly useful. I can see myself employing something along those lines to help cripple a ship.

This also means that pulse frigate I built can actually be operated by the AI. I figured it'd only be applicable if piloted by the player, but this news means I can cut out the beam lasers and turn the AI on, and expect them to do their thing.

 

[sleepnow2]

not sure if anyones brought this up in thread yet but i've been doing some testing with damage pulse mains and drones will now use them to attack a target! They will charge in and fire it at point blank range. from the testing ive done i've been able to discern some very useful drone build aspects.

1. Damage Pulse mains only make the drone charge at targets if the damage pulse is the only weapon system. if another ranged weapon is added like a cannon then the AI will default to its attack range and make the drone back away. however if you use a docked weapon system this can negate this aspect. This should allow a drone to close in on targets while still firing its guns at it.
2. damage pulse drones will use the location of the damage pulse array its engagement range. if you put the pulse array at its nose then it will try to keep its nose a reasonable distance away from the enemy's hull while still firing its pulse. However if you put the pulse array back more than say 10 blocks (which is the range of a pulse bubble) then the AI will have no trouble just ramming its nose into the enemy's hull. This is great for homing warhead torpedoes.
3. you can effect the engagement range of drones by using invisible/intangible blocks to artificiality extend the drone's size. adding a open plex door bout 20 blocks in front of a drone will cause that drone to stay 20 blocks/meters away from its target at all times! havent tested if this behavior also happens with docked entity's. if this doesnt effect docked entities then all sorts of logic contraptions can be added to rush down drones like shield/power drain systems.

hope you guys found these useful as I now have some plans to build some cool attack and support drones with this

HEY GUYS! I hope to God this forum isn't dead. I mean, it has been two years or so.

In any case, I have some cool ideas that are so crazy, they just might work...

1.Since drones now register pulse and you can fleet cloak... What if we re-attempt a weaponized version of the *cough cough* "skoompedo" that is jammed and painted black as it approaches your target. You can then have an activator block on its nose to launch your mass of drones onto their face.
2. Another idea we can reattempt is dedicated torpedoes. All we really need is a measly 3x3x3 or so jammed micro entity with a one block pulse array and a disintegrater maybe four blocks ahead of it in order to keep the micro entity after the disintegrater detonates. These little buggers then become chaff as you can have their radar jammer directly behind the disintegrater, then breaking the jam and causing millions of entities to appear out of nowhere, distracting turrets (because turrets fire at closest.), dropping shields from the detonations, striping armor, again from detonations, and having pulse drones to deal at least a tiny bit of dps. Also, you can activate a jammer on your ship. Although you will not have enough power to keep the jammer active, it will break the lock and then the enemy will be unable to gain it again because of the chaff. And since they hover close, they really cloud the enemy player and become too close for enemy's to counter, even with turrets. And if they try to use guided weapons against them, they will turn around and smack the sender in the face!
Prepare to have your career hide in plain sight, And use the biggest threat against drones against them!

These ideas are just too evil not to use!

Also. If I remember correctly, asteroids are capable of station blocks, yet are capable of movement. What if you set up a warp gate on one of them, haul it (severely stripped down) cloaked and jammed to an enemy base, told your friend to hit that big red button, and sent billions of drones over to the enemy from outa nowhere! Either that or put a factory on it and mass produce drones in the middle of combat. You can easily make an endless, constantly growing swarm. It would also make use of very large drones because you do not need to store them, only make them.

Loadout
AtraUnam
BrotherLazarus
Keptick
Please come back to us. We have many more toys for you guys to play with.

With love from a man who uses drones for everything from annoying friends with swarm missile swarms of micro drones that kill themselves to actual combat, to mining, and from a fan that took all 78 pages to heart. Please come back!

 

[Sgtwisky]

I don't think these ideas will work. The reason is the power overhaul that is coming. effects like Cloak and Jamming will be done with "Reactor Chambers" that charge from the reactor on a ship. Thing is, docked ships will have their reactors set to OFF to prevent exploits. Chambers have to "Charge Up" for an amount of time before they can be used. SO If you launch something, then give it the order to Cloak, it might not be able too for a little while.

This is speculation based off what we know about the impending update. So Maybe? But I don't think it will work based off what I understand of the new power system, and effect system.

As for Asteroids, you cannot place/use warp gates on them. I have tried . It was going to be amazing too !

 

[BrotherLazarus]

HEY GUYS! I hope to God this forum isn't dead. I mean, it has been two years or so.

In any case, I have some cool ideas that are so crazy, they just might work...

1.Since drones now register pulse and you can fleet cloak... What if we re-attempt a weaponized version of the *cough cough* "skoompedo" that is jammed and painted black as it approaches your target. You can then have an activator block on its nose to launch your mass of drones onto their face.
2. Another idea we can reattempt is dedicated torpedoes. All we really need is a measly 3x3x3 or so jammed micro entity with a one block pulse array and a disintegrater maybe four blocks ahead of it in order to keep the micro entity after the disintegrater detonates. These little buggers then become chaff as you can have their radar jammer directly behind the disintegrater, then breaking the jam and causing millions of entities to appear out of nowhere, distracting turrets (because turrets fire at closest.), dropping shields from the detonations, striping armor, again from detonations, and having pulse drones to deal at least a tiny bit of dps. Also, you can activate a jammer on your ship. Although you will not have enough power to keep the jammer active, it will break the lock and then the enemy will be unable to gain it again because of the chaff. And since they hover close, they really cloud the enemy player and become too close for enemy's to counter, even with turrets. And if they try to use guided weapons against them, they will turn around and smack the sender in the face!
Prepare to have your career hide in plain sight, And use the biggest threat against drones against them!

These ideas are just too evil not to use!

Also. If I remember correctly, asteroids are capable of station blocks, yet are capable of movement. What if you set up a warp gate on one of them, haul it (severely stripped down) cloaked and jammed to an enemy base, told your friend to hit that big red button, and sent billions of drones over to the enemy from outa nowhere! Either that or put a factory on it and mass produce drones in the middle of combat. You can easily make an endless, constantly growing swarm. It would also make use of very large drones because you do not need to store them, only make them.

Loadout
AtraUnam
BrotherLazarus
Keptick
Please come back to us. We have many more toys for you guys to play with.

With love from a man who uses drones for everything from annoying friends with swarm missile swarms of micro drones that kill themselves to actual combat, to mining, and from a fan that took all 78 pages to heart. Please come back!

I still live, I've just been taking care of real world stuff and waiting good chunks between updates. I've actually been experimenting with single-rail recovery systems and newer drone designs the last couple weeks, but not what I would call "efficient" so much as "effective vs. AI and looking kind of neat" so I've thus far stayed off of the forums and out of the thread. I have a failed carrier that spits 80 micro-drones that I scrapped, and then a much more efficient system I need to experiment with further, time permitting.

Definitely not space efficient, but it looks neat and it works better than the system I had that rotated the interceptors. The new toys are definitely neat, I've got a mining carrier prototype I've been playing with that's been doing me favors while I take care of other things. So take heart, the community isn't totally dead, just... hibernating.

Edit due to broken image link.

 

[sleepnow2]

Looks great! Who needs space efficiency. I would rather die in style than dominate in a doom brick.

I have a mining carrier too. I find them to be less effective than planet eaters, but they sure are fun.

 

[StormWing0]

lol now if only mining drones could auto target overheating wrecks of ships and stations, as well as derelict stations and ships, and why not detached planet plates as well.

 

[Reilly Reese]

Ded thread revived I see?

 

[sleepnow2]

Ded thread revived I see?

You're welcome

 

[BrotherLazarus]

Looks great! Who needs space efficiency. I would rather die in style than dominate in a doom brick.

I have a mining carrier too. I find them to be less effective than planet eaters, but they sure are fun.

I find with an even dozen of my MiniMiner Max drones, they mine at about the same overall speed as my manned mining frigates, it just looks a lot slower due to the smaller beam arrays being scattered around the 'roid. Granted, I've never bothered to build a massive planet eater, but for a small time salvage outfit it works just fine; gives me time to catch up on my reading or check in on my batch of mead.

 

[Sgtwisky]

Ded thread revived I see?

But its one of the best threads to resurrect.

The timing of the thread being resurrected is spot on for me. I got the itch a few days ago to start work on new drones and a new carrier for them.

 

[StormWing0]

Oh if it makes anyone feel disturbed I used some large miners a faction member made as drones on my carrier. XD