I don't like this idea, and I don't really see why I'd use a compact drone generator when I can just use the real thing and probably not die as a result in the process.

The only people I see suffering right now are mid level players and no one cares about them.

Well that's insensitive.


And TW, consider all individual drones and things at all related to individual drones in the game were REPLACED with things related to drone generators. Besides anything to do with stats/augs/skills obviously.

Bp would be for a drone generator, and that's where the cost of drones comes from.

Edit: wait what? explain what you mean by saving hull... Finally understood what you're saying about putting drones in to what you get out of generator. That's a good idea. How would this save engineer's hull exactly? it's the exact same, the drones would be generated in the hull not just layed outside at will.

Problem with drones being neurobound and not cappable tho. I'm seeing a problem with this for perma drones so i'm gonna say perma drones don't have generators cuz that just makes sense.



It was already mentioned that it would only make 6 at a time, and never more than 6 bc why would you need more than 6 anyways if they're neurobound? Not losing drones every time you die and making the cost of losing drones the same as the cost of losing gear for other classes. Only problem I see from this whole topic is people would buy drones significantly less (bc they would just buy generators) but that's just how it should be, drones should be should be sold about the same amount as other weapons and lost less.

Edit: Currently one armada charge is 2-2.2b market price and people lose them every day, whereas how often does a shield monkey lose his weapon...

Stupid zerkers and their infinite lincins.

I think this topic is still relevant, so, it needs a bump. Drone issue must be solved now that that other classes can't lose their weapons... Granted fighters can be lost and missiles cost money, but Drone tend to cost many times more than is necessary for an item that is lost forever.

My thought is that a drone generator costs EXACTLY the same as the drone it originally was. Each generator correspond to one drone.

To deploy the drone, you must charge up the generator as you'd charge the drone now. But when the drone dies, that specific generator has a cooldown...say, 20x the charge time, BEFORE you can charge the generator back up.

Like, an AID generator takes 10 seconds to charge, and when it dies, it takes 200 seconds + 10 more seconds, taking three and a half minutes for that specific generator to get back in the game.

If, for some reason, manage to get all your drones blown up at more or less the exactly same time, the generators won't stack the cooldown. All 6 AID's would take 3.5 minutes, not 21 minutes.

*Note that if it may be needed, the DAMAGE of the drones can be reduced.


Results: If you paid 3b for an AID, you're still paying 3b for an AID. Drones don't have the chance of truly dying, so theres no chance of 3b loss per AID. Just note that Durability would affect the generators, either by the time it takes to charge/cooldown, or the drone itself.

Built drone generators that take a full set of drones for each. 6 armada charges = 1 generator. Generators make max 3 drones over a certain time, while some generators only make 1 etc. Generators should be expensive to repair, somewhere in the ball park of 300-500mil per death for an end-game engineer from drones alone. The less durability a generator has, the more time it takes to generate drones.

This still makes engineers the most expensive class to play by far, but there are cooldowns for being able to deploy unless you spend some serious cash for extra generators and if an engineer loses drones it doesn't make him completely fucking useless until he goes and buys more.

I don't mind the cost really, i only mind that people can exploit engineers for cash because there is no other way to get drones other than drops/buying them. Which you can't get them as drops unless you have drones, so it's kind of a self-defeating prophecy if you play solo.

I still don't like the idea that theres one single class that costs considerably more to run than even a slave owning class.

ShM and FC have slaves that...well, can use lower tech gear, but th engineer...500m per death. At T20 gear. An FC will be toting a 500m death at T21, with his fancy Zeus Throne. The Pax Engineer will have the same cost at death?

Thats why I mentioned that overall damage can be reduced for the ability to have less loss. I would gladly lob off 25% of my DPS if my death would be reduced from 15b to 100m like any other T20 class(main ship).

Agreed, and the inconvenience of having find or make the drone all over again