Hey all, Space Drones. They can be a good source of materials, sure, however, they're a really pain to loot, aren't they? I mean, here I am nice and safe in my well-armed and shielded CV and some pesky Drones come in. Moments later they're just loot crates lol. However, to collect their loot I need to exit the safe environs of my CV, and venture out EVA. Typically, I find, the Drone wrecks are strewn all over the place, requiring a lot of jet-pack action to navigate to them. Then, identifying Drone wrecks I've looted vs. those I have not isn't always easy. You know, I invested hours to be in this position, sat in my mobile base ship. It's far from a battleship, but can fend off Drones. Now I have to leave that earned safety to loot? No thanks lol. Does anyone else feel that we need a better way to loot, perhaps from the comfort of our CV? Could we perhaps send out a Drone of our own to auto-loot things? It'd certainly save time. During the earlier game stages, doing things manually is a given, and can be fun. However, as things progress, and tech improved, a degree of automation would be nice. Perhaps it's just me, but I'll happily shoot up a load of Space Drones, then just leave them as I simply do not want to float around in space for several minutes - vulnerable to new Drone that certainly weren't on my scanner moments ago. What do people think? Any suggestions?
Never actually tried but what would happen if you opened a sufficiently large shutter/hangar door in your CV and moved your ship so the killed drone gets through that door? Or does it? How do the collision mechanics work in this scenario? Is the drone simply bumped away by the force field of the door or would it get inside your ship? If it works, you could loot the drone right there in your own hangar bay...
Worth testing again. Sometimes Drone wrecks appear solid, but often they're not. I mean, I can just fly through - in the space suit - most Drone wrecks. If we could do this reliably though, we'd still have to leave our seats to loot. However, it would open up the possibility of a block that auto-loots anything that comes near it. Imagine positioning the ship in such a away that this new block can loot any Drones in proximity, that might be good. I still think being able to deploy a Drone, like the Player Drone, but from the Cockpit would be great. Imagine, with this module installed, you could hit F5 while in the Pilot's seat to deployed a longer-ranged version of the standard Player Drone, and collect stuff that way. Not automated - which would be cool - but a far less jarring method of looting those space Drones. Perhaps such a Drone module would allow for limited exploration too, just like the standard player Drone does... I think, considering how various things work now, a controlable Drone that can be deployed while in the Pilot's seat would be perfect. I'd imagine the Module would be a bit like a turret, it'd open up to release a Drone, controlled directly by the player. Unlike the standard player Drone though, perhaps it'd need to be rebuilt when destroyed. Perhaps it'd have it's own inventory OR be linked to connected Storage in some way. Regardless, it'd be darn useful. I hate getting out of my warm and comfortable ship to loot. Early-game, fine, but once I'm buzzing around in a Mobile-base Class CV, nope.
If you get close enough you could just stop your CV and use your personal drone to loot (F5), doesn't that work? If you are behind a door with a forcefield you cannot be harmed, of course a drone hatch would be ideal. The worse that could happen is the enemy shooting down your drone which does nothing to you. But I don't remember if you can loot with your drone, you can collect backpacks with it and mine with your tool, I did it already, but accessing other drones IDK.
Range is the key issue here. Destroyed space drones can regularly be well over 100 metres away, excluding the player Drone as a practical option to loot. I still think a version of the Player Drone that can be deployed while in the Pilot's seat would be a perfect solution. It still requires manual looting of course, but it's using a tech that's already in the game and, I would think, not so tricky to implement because of that. A turret-sized hatch that can release just the one Drone under player control, but with a significantly longer ranger (500 metres?) would be a good fit. As an aside, ages ago now, I did suggest that the Multi-tool Turret be able to also loot things. I mean, it can take an intact block and teleport it to an assigned storage, or break that block down into its component parts with ease. So, why not collect any container contents too? Using this approach, we'd not only loot a Drone Wreck, but perhaps dismantle the Drone proper too perhaps...
I would welcome a feature extension with the Drones from your new Drone Bay, an 'explorer drone' where you have remote control over it for the purpose of spying and looting. This would sensibly increase your action range with it. But currently the drone bay is way too large to make it a profitable element in gameplay.
I did think of this being something the player Drone Bay can provide. However, that thing is just too big and bulky. I'd suggest something more compact and that doesn't have a crazy material requirement. So, something like your basic Minigun/Cannon Turret level when it comes to cost. Perhaps due to its range, it uses a bit more power, but only when deployed. I just want a better way to loot space drone wrecks, flying around in the slow space suit has just gotten way too old at this point.
A AI controlled loot drones from the Drone Bay that there main purpose is to loot defeated enemies would be nice. They would have a inventory and could be programmed to drop the loot off into programmed cargo boxes. Manually looting each one is time consuming. Be cool if there was auto looting.
Anything as long as I don't have to get out of my comfy seat lol. Seriously though, this would be most welcome as it's very clunky currently having to EVA just to loot something. Early-game, it's all about doing stuff in person, by the "I've got a CV" stage, I think it should be automated more. Hopefully something the devs might consider...
