Hey all, Drone Bays. I don't really use them. I want to use them, but they're too late game due to their build requirements - Aluminium being the key blocker for me traditionally. Picture this: Fairly early-game, new base build, starting planet just has the basic resources. Couple of Minigun Turrets and a few Sentries protecting the base. Even at this early-game stage where a Minigun Drone patrolling around my base would be great for suppressing hostile critters it's already too late. The presence of even one Sentry or Minigun Turret largely makes them pointless... there's already a better and significantly cheaper option deployed. Drones don't even get a look-in. Even very early-game, the presence of a Drone isn't really of any use if the player has a basic Turret built. They're a cool addition, and Drone working for the player is really nice, but they never get an opportunity to shine, due to their expensive (materials) buy-in cost. I started a new Beta game recently, with the Beta scenario. I've prolonged my time on the planet, explored various POI's, looted a lot, been to space, visited the moon and, as of last night, have all the needed parts to construct my very own CV with warp capability. I'm leaving this system soon. However, I still don't have the stuff needed to build that BA-Class Drone bay that would have been so very nice at the start of the game. It would be great if a cheap Drone was one of the earlier Base defences we could deploy. Perhaps they could follow the on-foot player within a certain radius, protecting them from hostile critters. I really want to have Drones Deployed around my base because it's cool and all, but there's little practical reason to do so as I can build better defences sooner. Where is a BA-deployed Drone supposed to fit? What defensive gap was it meant to fill? The material cost for the all the relevant bits is just too high. I simply don't gather the required materials soon enough, I've usually jumped to a new system before I have enough to build one, and it's too late by that point. What do people think? Do you make use of Base-deployed Drones? Are you able to build them early reliably outside of a bit of RNG loot luck? Even with lots of looting, I've found no aluminium this time. Have for any of my game starts in a long while... Even salvaging the shot-down PV's in this scenario hasn't yielded any Aluminium - plus I have a Deconstructor and haven't even found anything containing it. Very early-game, a Drone's ability to have 360 degree coverage around a Base might offer an advantage over Turrets. If they correctly "see" and hunt enemies within a given radius, that would be great too. However, I'm not sure they react fast enough. I'd like for the Drone Bay/Pad/Drones to be accessible earlier and be cheaper. By all means have "Tier 2" versions that are more expensive and deploy better Drones, but having something to play with early would be great.
After many hours I finally built a Drone Bay in the current Beta. I had to cheat in some Aluminium, as despite the sector map showing a planet in the system as having one - I jumped there in an SV - it did not. I built the Drone Bay, Spawner and ten Drones. Loaded them into the Drone Bay and turned it on. Two Drones Deployed and flew directly UP quite some distance. I used God Mode (flying) to follow their movement. They flew off about 500 metres East of my base, then "landed"... or rather dropped vertically until they hit the ground. They then flew up again and have been bouncing up and down for a while now. I just deployed them to see how effective they might be vs. the hostile critters that spawn in the area, but I'm not sure they're working as they should. If anyone has more experience using Base-deployed Drones, can you advise on what should be seeing? Considering the great (material) expense required to get this up and running, they're not really doing anything.... Edit: I think the Drones were trying to engage one of the Patrol Vessels that are part of this game start. However, said PV is just sat there, hovering several hundred metres up... the Drones seem unable to reach it. This perhaps explains the odd-seeming behaviour! It'd be GREAT if we could select target types like with Turrets.... two drones going after a PV isn't going to go well lol.
Yeah, I never use them. They are expensive, should be intuitive, but are more of a hassle then they are worth(even with the resources.) Kinda seems like Eleon added them with a skeleton code setup and then never went back. Bet there are notations somewhere to do a refurbing, but I have not seen them. After seeing the planet drone performance I have not even tried the CV variant. Too scared.
During this current beta, I sorta stuck around the starting planet far longer than I would have. I would say I was "testing" - which I was to a degree - but I was also having fun. Drone attacks were more brutal than usual, and my turrets were able to switch targets quickly, which is great. They still sometimes take a little too long to initially acquire a target, plus while they switch between Drones quickly, they're always slow to engage Troop Transports for some reason... Anyway, deploying Drones is quite cool, but I've acquired the ability to do so much too late in a fresh game. The Drone Bay is overly large and can be remarkably tricky to place. Drones deploy in response to threats, which is good, and they seem fairly competent at what they do - I suffered no losses over several Drone waves. However, they're not really doing what I want, they're not protecting me from Predators for example. Drones should be a way to project power outside of the range of traditional turrets. Different types of Drones, orders for Drones etc. As something available much earlier, and adding some addition functionality, they'd be great. I'd love to have a Drone covering my back as I wander away from my Base. Player-deployable Drones do feel very much like and unfinished feature... perhaps they ran in to a show stopper in regards to AI behaviours of Drones. Perhaps something similar to what's prevented AI-controlled HV's and SV's all this time. I'd really love to see AI-controlled HV's and SV's - I'd love to have to built a base to fend of that sort of attack!
