Didn’t see a thread on the first 5 pages, so here goes.
Why are the Federation frigate drones so bad?
They get blown up instantly when someone opens fire at you, they deal next to no damage… and vanguard ones decide to stop firing and become even more useless the moment an enemy scratches the shield.
Why is it that the federation gets shafted so hard on their frigate module, while the remaining factions get game changing tools, with variants that actually matter and have a purpose?
Those things really need a rework.
Here’s an idea:
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Make the drones indestructible.
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Make their secondary feature a toggle with the primary one(using the module key).
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Give them usefull secondary features that are worth toggling the bonus DPS off.
= Basic drones can repair the hull.
= Armada drones have more range and can slow/thruster lock the enemy ship instead of damaging it.
= Vanguard drones can repair the hull of nearby allies before your own.
It is extremly annoying, more than there limited usefulness, to be unable to easily know if your drones are up or not.
When you zoom in for fight, you cannot know if you have your drones up, if you zoom out, you are not shooting, and can have hard time to clearly look for your drones if your map side if dark or ligth obscurated.
Just do them invicible, or at least add a kind of visual notifier on your “F” abilitie to notice you if your drones are up or not.
Just tired to spam “F” and zoom out & in during the whole game, because a random sniper or a missile OS all your drones AGAIN.
The problem is not that the drones are useless, infact, they are very useful. The problem is, is that they get blown up with 1 simple Jericho Frigate, or when someones shooting lasers at you, a drone drifts in the way, and its instantly destroyed.
The problem simply is the HP and defense of the drones, Federation frigates are supposed to be front line support frigates, therefore, the drones need to be able to withstand a front line type of combat.
A small missile from my interceptor seems to be enough to kill both drones at the same time.
Yup. 100hp is simply too little.
Will the drones survive better if you use the ability that shoots down enemy missiles/torpedo?
Only slightly. Especially with the firestorm and octopus missile types.
Only slightly. Especially with the firestorm and octopus missile types.
Why? Do those shoot multiples projectiles and you can only shoot down one?
Correct. Each fires 5 missiles, firestorm fires dead fire rockets and octopus fires 5 homing missiles.
500 hp, 500 shields imo. ive never flown federation, but that 100hp seems dumb.
Or, you could make the ability a passive, spawning a drone every # seconds maxing out to a cap. A stance toggle could replace the activation, between offense and defense.
How about replacing drones compleately with very fast micro interceptors
1: Ship will automatically spawn micro-interceptors every 30 second, upto the limit.
2: The special key defines attack or defence mode
3: In attack mode they will leave you side and persue your target out to a certain range.
4: In defence mode they with either repair your ship, or shoot down missiles depending on your choice.
5: In defence mode the circle your ship in much wider radius to avoid splash damage
Or, you could make the ability a passive, spawning a drone every # seconds maxing out to a cap. A stance toggle could replace the activation, between offense and defense.
That is a good idea, maybe also make the drones a little smaller and hover further away from the ship to help avoid aoe damage and laser spam
I agree, federation frigates’ abilities need to be looked at. I like the OP idea and I especially like the idea of drones being able to act as a mini interceptor. And of course, drones’ HP is nowhere near being high enough.
I think it would help if the drones would Profit from equipped protection\repair\support Modules to improve their durability.
Thoughts?
When I am fighting a Fed Frigate in an Interceptor I know the drones can be nasty if not shot down. They are relatively easy to kill with a rocket or lasers, but the other weapons are a bit more difficult.
We could possibly keep the drones HP the same but maybe make it so until the actual Frigate shields are destroyed, the drones themselves are protected? Kind of like they are firing and hiding behind the main shield of the Frigate?
Edited to add: Maybe they are spawned passively(a great idea) up to a max of 2.
Then, you actually hit the “F” button to send the drone to attack your targets .