The ultimate drone R&D thread

[Loadout]

Soooo preliminary results from my skoom-pedoes are going quite well. They don't offer much offensively, but the ai forces enemy turrets to shoot at them. Thanks to the armor protecting the drones this pretty much guarantees the drones are going to be a nasty surprise once the turrets have unloaded their missiles on a useless skoomer.:D

Or if said skoom-pedo manages to slam into an enemy vessel, ta-da! drone release!

 

[CaptainTaz]

I'm curious if any of you drone guys know how effective suicide bombers are. (I bet I missed a discussion of these somewhere, but I couldn't find it....)

Example: a squad of 50 suicide bombers( |Thruster|PowerReactor|AIBlock|Core|Disintegrators| ) parked on the side of a ship that are undocked all at once to bombard a ship after it's shields have dropped.

Is this a viable strategy or something very wasteful?

 

[Snk]

I believe that's called a missile. And disintegrators are pretty powerful, so if you have enough of them I'd say go for it

 

[CaptainTaz]

I believe that's called a missile. And disintegrators are pretty powerful, so if you have enough of them I'd say go for it

*Adds to concept ship list*

 

[Loadout]

I'm curious if any of you drone guys know how effective suicide bombers are. (I bet I missed a discussion of these somewhere, but I couldn't find it....)

Example: a squad of 50 suicide bombers( |Thruster|PowerReactor|AIBlock|Core|Disintegrators| ) parked on the side of a ship that are undocked all at once to bombard a ship after it's shields have dropped.

Is this a viable strategy or something very wasteful?

Suicide drones at the moment are not at all useful. Mostly due to non-stacking issues with disintegrators. They just don't explode properly, probably because they're not grouped and one blast just destroys the others or something along those lines. I know I personally have tried to make them work like torpedoes but the only result I got was a small explosion and waste of a few blocks.

So yea, pretty wasteful in my book. If somehow you can get them to work together they may one day be a threat, but currently I wouldn't count on them for much of anything.

 

[CaptainTaz]

Suicide drones at the moment are not at all useful. Mostly due to non-stacking issues with disintegrators. They just don't explode properly, probably because they're not grouped and one blast just destroys the others or something along those lines. I know I personally have tried to make them work like torpedoes but the only result I got was a small explosion and waste of a few blocks.

So yea, pretty wasteful in my book. If somehow you can get them to work together they may one day be a threat, but currently I wouldn't count on them for much of anything.

good to know. all of the materials aren't too expensive, so I'm going to try it out for a while and see what I can come up with.

At the very least, they can be good for distracting turrets xD

 

[Snk]

Suicide drones at the moment are not at all useful. Mostly due to non-stacking issues with disintegrators. They just don't explode properly, probably because they're not grouped and one blast just destroys the others or something along those lines. I know I personally have tried to make them work like torpedoes but the only result I got was a small explosion and waste of a few blocks.

So yea, pretty wasteful in my book. If somehow you can get them to work together they may one day be a threat, but currently I wouldn't count on them for much of anything.

Probably depends on your server config. One can take out a ship of 100-150 mass quite easily if the shields are down.

 

[Loadout]

good to know. all of the materials aren't too expensive, so I'm going to try it out for a while and see what I can come up with.

At the very least, they can be good for distracting turrets xD

As armed chaff go for it, but keep in mind they won't automatically attempt to ram the enemy. So you'll a push computer with at least one effect block attached to a repeating clock to make them ram stuff.

Look back a few pages for the skoom-drone blue prints. That should be used for making disintegrator drones ram enemies. Simple concept but should work just fine for this purpose. =D
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Probably depends on your server config. One can take out a ship of 100-150 mass quite easily if the shields are down.

100-150 mass isn't much to take down at all. Most large enemies are about 10-15000 mass, and even that is pretty small. Unless you're referring to drones, cause 150 mass for a drone is a pretty hefty cost.

in any event, server settings don't appear to contain anything for disintegrator damage or shield/block damage in general. So I have no reason to believe without mods there's any way of making disintegrators function better than they do. Which at this point is sadly not well. =(

 

[Gerion]

I really want the better AI now.... and support for salvage beams on drones, because that would just be nice. Swarms of drones harvesting EVERYTHING.


Anyway. Put some long range weapons on your anti-drone ships. Otherwise goddamn drones will ping at you from all angles and you have to chase them down.

 

[Loadout]

I really want the better AI now.... and support for salvage beams on drones, because that would just be nice. Swarms of drones harvesting EVERYTHING.


Anyway. Put some long range weapons on your anti-drone ships. Otherwise goddamn drones will ping at you from all angles and you have to chase them down.

I would happily settle for AI understanding how to use damage pulses and stealth tech. I'd call it perfect at just that.

 

[Thalanor]

Stealthy AI won't happen, or else we droniacs will make entire galaxies uninhabitable when a weapons test goes wrong :p

BTW Gerion , if you are content to ditch the swarm and instead go for a larger "drone", it works like magic. I use these guys here (the SCF Mercer-B mining platform). They have a mining speed cruise control option (push effect keeps a constant speed of 0.4m/s) and logic driven downward facing salvage beams. You bring them to a planet, make them hover above a segment(stop effect is available if you need to be very close for whatever reason) and press the button. While you do something else, go AFK or even deploy MORE of them, the others will gradually strip-mine the planet segment. You will need to fetch them manually afterwards, but it is such a relief not to have to do the entire mining process manually.

 

[Snk]

Stealthy AI won't happen, or else we droniacs will make entire galaxies uninhabitable when a weapons test goes wrong :p

BTW Gerion , if you are content to ditch the swarm and instead go for a larger "drone", it works like magic. I use these guys here (the SCF Mercer-B mining platform). They have a mining speed cruise control option (push effect keeps a constant speed of 0.4m/s) and logic driven downward facing salvage beams. You bring them to a planet, make them hover above a segment(stop effect is available if you need to be very close for whatever reason) and press the button. While you do something else, go AFK or even deploy MORE of them, the others will gradually strip-mine the planet segment. You will need to fetch them manually afterwards, but it is such a relief not to have to do the entire mining process manually.

Good idea. On the server I play on, my faction sells small auto mining drones. A mining rig like this would bring in a lot of money.

 

[jorgekorke]

About disintegrators, I tested some stuff with them and they seem to do zero damage against shields. Confirm ?

 

[Gerion]

Good idea. On the server I play on, my faction sells small auto docking drones. A mining rig like this would bring in a lot of money.

Auto-docking? How? WHAT? Is there a way to do that?

Also Thalanor , its... so beautiful....

 

[Snk]

I hate to burst your bubble, but that came out wrong somehow. I meant mining drones.

 

[Loadout]

Stealthy AI won't happen, or else we droniacs will make entire galaxies uninhabitable when a weapons test goes wrong :p

BTW Gerion , if you are content to ditch the swarm and instead go for a larger "drone", it works like magic. I use these guys here (the SCF Mercer-B mining platform). They have a mining speed cruise control option (push effect keeps a constant speed of 0.4m/s) and logic driven downward facing salvage beams. You bring them to a planet, make them hover above a segment(stop effect is available if you need to be very close for whatever reason) and press the button. While you do something else, go AFK or even deploy MORE of them, the others will gradually strip-mine the planet segment. You will need to fetch them manually afterwards, but it is such a relief not to have to do the entire mining process manually.

Just once I would like to see a galaxy filled with our collective failed creations. As I'm sure they would be hilariously dangerous.... to every living thing in existence. x)

Then again... I suppose stealth drones wouldn't be a terribly great idea, still though, some stealth.... :/ I mean it's practically useless atm, even just a basic radar blocker turned on every 20 seconds or something to break missile locks... Or perhaps an automated scanner?? < _ < AI needs non-combat stuff too.

Mining Drones... honestly I've been so focused lately on making a larger ship that I hadn't thought about non-combat drones. I shall have to invest some time in auto-miners soon. =)

As well as photographs seeing as how your Procyon frigate was used as a size measure (max dimensions) for my own "frigate".

About disintegrators, I tested some stuff with them and they seem to do zero damage against shields. Confirm ?

As of right now, there is quite a bit of shield damage that appears to be done but it's easily regenerated so depending on your setup disintegrators may not even penetrate shields. Definitely look into staggering your explosions btw, if you're serious about using them they should all be at least 2 blocks apart, not connected.

 

[Gerion]

So, here is fun (if you define "fun" as "oh, goddammit"). Swarm missiles cant reach drones at max simple cannon range unless shot directly towards them. If the drones move, the lifespan of the missiles is not high enough to catch them. Only tested with simple drones, can someone confirm it?

 

[Loadout]

So, here is fun (if you define "fun" as "oh, goddammit"). Swarm missiles cant reach drones at max simple cannon range unless shot directly towards them. If the drones move, the lifespan of the missiles is not high enough to catch them. Only tested with simple drones, can someone confirm it?

I can confirm this. It happens alot to me actually, so i've gotten into the habit of getting about 100-200 meters closer than I need to be before I fire. What I think is happening is the missiles don't actually travel in straight lines, they have a tendency to arc, which limits their effective range somewhat. It's REALLY noticeable with 1:1 missile-beams, those kinda zig zag all over the place before they hit the target.

In other news, I incorporated a simple sliding rack launcher on my new warship I just finished(except the insides, those need work still).

You can see the tracks here on the left side in grey. The rack actually fits just barely inside those, and as it flies out of the dock towards the back it glides smoothly. Looks really cool in effect when both racks are launched. Also tested at high speed and this works flawlessly, so that's a huge boon.

 

[Keptick]

I can confirm this. It happens alot to me actually, so i've gotten into the habit of getting about 100-200 meters closer than I need to be before I fire. What I think is happening is the missiles don't actually travel in straight lines, they have a tendency to arc, which limits their effective range somewhat. It's REALLY noticeable with 1:1 missile-beams, those kinda zig zag all over the place before they hit the target.

In other news, I incorporated a simple sliding rack launcher on my new warship I just finished(except the insides, those need work still).

You can see the tracks here on the left side in grey. The rack actually fits just barely inside those, and as it flies out of the dock towards the back it glides smoothly. Looks really cool in effect when both racks are launched. Also tested at high speed and this works flawlessly, so that's a huge boon.

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[Loadout]

keptick I'm not great with gifs but here ya go...