"C-D1 \Rover\" Engineering Drone
-
Drones serve a purpose... A very, very, VERY niche purpose.
A purpose that is almost never seen or even achieved in 95% of matches.I believe their largest drawback is their resource costs.
Each drone is equivalent in cost to that of a T1 transport.
A drone's best operational time is very, very early into the match - for expansion.
That is quickly offset by their return value.
Which is close to none.Another drawback is that of the awkward time you need to have your ACU just standing there just to get another 5 BP that would otherwise get shot out of the sky by someone dumping like 5 mass per second into Interceptors.
And the 2nd drone is basically as useful as the first... meaning it isn't.
But, if you manage to pull off a play with them - they're almost worth it.
Good luck with that, though.
~ Stryker
-
I think with the level of variety in maps on FAF in terms of size and the sort of utility that mobile bp gives you, drone always dance between being insane and useless while never being able to get into the goldilocks zone where it’s decent. I’d rather just move away from them being used to build anything and turn into mobile radars or something.
If the BP niche is kept, then just make them unselectable and untargetable.
-
Drone is fun and therefore buffing it would make the game even more fun.
-
for mobile radar to me it seems air scout would be just better than drone, faster, cheaper and more durable
like stryker said, the biggest problem about it is the cost being ridiculous for such a weak unit just because it can fly (but dies to any aa or even ground aoe that wasn't aimed at it because it has like 7 hp and "flies" barely off the ground)
-
Scouts die and can’t be held back in safe areas.
-
drones die too and far more easily than scouts like I mentioned, idk how big radar you mean they should have to compensate for being 1 shot from even token aa
-
Probably t1 radar for the first drone and t2 radar for the second drone with costs adjusted to match. I don't really care if HP is adjusted as well. Point is that it serves a decent utility as a middle upgrade for some early game push or if you're a UEF player being safe with ACU in a teamgame.
-
If they could inherit acu's tech they could have utill starting t2 structures at home while acu had t2 at front.
If it cost a bunch more it could be like an engie drop or proxy but without the drop part. Kinda cheesy so idk. -
@ovenman
I like the idea! If I may; a spin on your idea would be to make the 2nd drone have the T2 suite, instead.
But takes considerably more BP (and resources) to obtain.
Basically a T2 drone, with better Build Power, but would only be viable to obtain when the ACU has T2 (or T3.)I wonder how these ideas would work.
Though, to be honest, I doubt it'll make the drone itself more viable, but, this could at least give the upgrade(s) more longevity by increasing their utility into the T2 stage.
~ Stryker
-
The only purpose of the current drone i can think of is to take highground on maps 5km size where you would not want to make air
or maybe a poor-man's kennel to reclaim wrecks around the map quicker -
I had a beach player use drone to reclaim on setons front which worked because opponent front didn't build any maa at all
-
Alternative: make the drones a standard part of the T2/T3 engineering upgrade. Not targettable or selectable, just extra ACU build power. Basically just fancy visuals, like Cybran engineers' little drone things. (Practically speaking, this is just removing the upgrade but keeping the graphics.)
Another alternative: as above, but as a separate build-power only upgrade. Possibly T2/T3 engineering could be cheaper with less BP. Affects balance since e.g. TML upgrade is less useful without build power which doesn't work if both are back upgrades (could drones be moved to a 4th non-conflicting category?).
@FtXCommando's suggestion of radar is interesting, though I wonder if they'd just get killed by inties (making it only useful if very cheap, and making the second drone useless). ACU radar drones which can't be shot by air might work though might be OP. But inties already can't shoot radar buildings so maybe it's fine.
