CCP seems to have lost the plot. It seems in their mind the game is dead and nothing can be done to save it. And in their mind its not their fault either. The game is just dead because reasons. And thats a shame because then they are not going to try and improve it. Just going to maybe update the models or maybe a little ship rebalance here and there until the money runs out. Nothing fancy. I mean in their mind the game is dead so why bother. And that makes it a self fulfilling prophecy. So good bye eve.
Anyway, if i, or anyone else who seem to care and played the game had anything to say, the first thing on the agenda, in order to revitalize the game, could be a drone update. And i know you are all shaking your pants because updates in the past has not really been good. But hear me out. This one will actually matter because its designed from the players point of view. The update is based on actual player feedback. Anyway here it goes.
Individual drones and drone groups can be dragged to action bar and released and if already released attack the target by pressing the button
Drones can be overloaded
If safety is on and drones are out you have to confirm if you want to warp away
Full HP drones will be prioritized over damaged drones when releasing drones
If a drone is taking damage the player will be alerted with a sound effect
But thats not all. Im sure there are even more things that can be done that more advanced users could benefit from. But these small things can go a long way to improve drone usage for all pod pilots imo.
Just to add to point number 1. If drones are in bay and you activate a drone or a group of drones they will release and attack. But there will be a new setting where drones automatically return to drone bay if/when their target dies. So you can choose between having them Auto Attacking or Auto Returning or a combo where they only return to bay if there are no more targets to auto attack.
To add to number 2. If drones can be overloaded the heat needs to be displayed somewhere. But it shouldnt be much trouble to find a good place for that. Thats it. Thats what i had on my mind. Thank you for reading and have a nice weekend.
Im not sure why this would revitalise anything but maybe Ive missed it.
Doesnt the Drone interface already allow you to group drones via type in any number you wish, and in mixed size (though not type iirc) squadrons?
Some of your other suggestions seem to be around losing drones and avoid that, so Im not quite sure making them more fragile by allowing them to melt would be desirable?
I think this would result in more dead inexperienced players than the saved lost drones would be worth.
Again, with careful use if the drone interface you can pretty much already do this.
If you are drone reliant, the red part of the damage bar is generally eye cati g enough, though I dont really see a problem with this idea other than it should be turn offable.
Drones while technically autonomous should not be workable afk though, and having them return once done on their target I dont think is a good idea.
The point isnt to group the drones the point is to activate them without ctrl+f → f every abyssal, mission, or whatever and for each group. Just simply put a drone on the bar hit F4 or whatever you have binded and they will release and attack.
But these ideas are probably too much engineering work to be worth it in 2023. They may not even be feasable from technical standpoints. Only the highly qualified software engineers will know. I hope im wrong.
I click launch in the time it would take me to move my hand and press a key, so I dont really see the big difference but I suppose it could matter to some folk.
That’s an awfully big straw man just to complain about losing your drones.
CCP have added a bunch of new game systems this year. I’m not sure shitting on them for a couple of paragraphs is the best way to encourage reception of your ideas.
Thats interesting premise considering there are 20k players clients on average stable for more a few years.
The remaining players seems to provide enough cash to make it worth running. Players are willing to play it and pay it despite all the nerfs, nearly no new content (there is a new content, but it caters to 1% of player base), canceling events, horrible UI and no improvements for last decade other than graphic stuff that nobody but few solo client miners care - to the rest of us it only causes lags.
So why would CCP care? They don’t need to do anything but to milk the rest of us because we so love it.
Besides it is terrible idea that brings nothing to the game. It will be even harder to use drones in any ship that has more than 2 flights.
having hotkeys for different groups/drones would be a nice addition. for the rest we already have keybinds
this would definitely make drone gameplay more interesting. though, drone ships perform already quite well since they can mutate dda and drones and this could arguably make them too strong
no thanks, i rather lose a set of drones than a ship
the first suggestion with different hotkeys for drone groups sounds much better
sounds annoying af, i would definitely turn this off all the time
i like the suggestion for more control and a more engaging gameplay. those “crutches” get a no from me, or a maybe at best if i can put those features off.
i would also like to see the drone auto aggro gone.
Can you just try to be objective, fair, and rational for once?? You won’t make any allies by right out the gate BASHING THE GAME LOL. I lost you after that paragraph dude.
Please… I beg you… Go take a public speaking/debate class at your local community college. Learn how to actually convince people to agree with what you say. You are not winning anyone over by calling the game dead.
Bro by the time your ship has aligned you have clicked to confirm warp anyway. Besides its a feature that you have to toggle on. So you can just have it work like it does now if you want. But forget about it.
the first suggestion with different hotkeys for drone groups sounds much better
Some people have more than 5 drones in a group. It would be nice if it released the highest HP ones first. Why would you ever release a drone that has lower HP than the other. But really, forget about it. This sort of stuff should have been added 10 years ago. The fact it has not is a testament to the incompetence of CCP and the more or less desparation of the people who still pay them money. There are other games out there, just saying.
you want to pick the best drones for a particular scenario. sometimes the best choice is tanky drones, but often there are other choices. fast/small drones against fast/small ships, depending on the enemy resist profile, for utillity (ecm, neut, web), to get the most out of a ship with a weird drone bandwidth, for more damage (T2 vs navy) and there are most likely even more things i dont think of right now
I want to be able to name my drones.
CCP could also make drone skins like little costumes people put on their pets. I’d pay a few dollars for a cute little costume on my Gecko
