Posted - 2006.05.06 17:49:00 - [3]

 

Also you may see a skill book still in the database that you can't buy any more. This allowed 5 extra drones at one time so it wasn't uncommon to see people with 10 drones flying at once until they nerfed it.

I heard they nerfed it because some people were using drones to create too much lag for those with slower connections as an exploit. Not sure if this is true though.

Pity though, with all those extra support drones avaialable now, it would be nice to have control over them as well as the combat drones.

Posted - 2006.05.06 17:52:00 - [5]

 

Originally by: Dark Shikari

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Originally by: Drizit

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Also you may see a skill book still in the database that you can't buy any more. This allowed 5 extra drones at one time so it wasn't uncommon to see people with 10 drones flying at once until they nerfed it.

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"Drone Interfacing" allowed up to 5 extra drones.

They didn't nerf it, either, they simply changed it.

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Made it so it'll take until I'm old and grey to use......

Posted - 2006.05.06 20:20:00 - [7]

 

well, now if you lose one drone...

Posted - 2006.05.07 00:17:00 - [9]

 

Thanks alot for the information.

Another thing that threw me off is that the Drone guide shows you get +1 drone control as a ship bonus for every level as the Dominix.

I guess giving you a skill to make drones do double damage and doubling thier HPs but cutting amount you can control in half is a good way to cut down lag.

Posted - 2006.05.07 09:30:00 - [11]

 

Originally by: Wraithwing

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Thanks alot for the information.

Another thing that threw me off is that the Drone guide shows you get +1 drone control as a ship bonus for every level as the Dominix.

I guess giving you a skill to make drones do double damage and doubling thier HPs but cutting amount you can control in half is a good way to cut down lag.

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Precisely. The Vexor and the Dominix used to get +1 drone controlled per level - they could eventually spit out 15 drones at once.

The thing was, this meant that without maxed skills, you ended up with very uneven drone deployments off of vessels meant to carry specific flights of drones. It made for annoying drone management (such as half-used drone bay space and uneven drone flights) and a general feeling that the ships were "gimped" without maxed or near-maxed drone skills. The 15-drone blobs were always fun to watch, though.

The best part was the old bonus on the Moros - it could deploy five drones per level of Gallente Dreadnought, so at max skils it could spit out 35 drones at once.

Fast forward to Red Moon Rising. Drone Interfacing is turned into +20% damage and mining per level, and all ships in the game are rebalanced around the fact that you control 5 drones maximum. It makes for much cleaner drone use - you aren't keeping track of as many at once, they're doing more damage, and some oddities like the Thorax drone bay are addressed. (It originally had a drone bay twice the size of the Vexor - it could deploy eight heavy drones off of a Cruiser frame!) The Dominix even got a buffed drone bay - previously it could only hold two "full" flights of 15 heavy drones. Now it can hold three full flights of five - five which are heavily modified for damage and durability by skills.

So yes, you used to control many more drones, but the changes they made were for the better. Driving ships like the Vexor and Dominix is great fun now, since the drones themselves are modified, not the number you control.

Of course, the Moros still controls not so much "drones" as it does miniature cruisers at higher skill levels, but that's another thread for another day...