[FLHook] Drone Bays

[Titan*]

Is it possible to create an NPC that is capable of near player-like maneuvers?

I think it is possible but not sure how. Testing AI Settings is kinda hard. I actually against making drones very strong like players because Carriers will able to launch them infinitely but there will be launch time.

Missile Super Fighter: Comes with 2 Missile Launchers and Flashpoints.

It looks like very annoying loadout for infinite drone spawner carriers. Drones not going to have Missile Launchers. Rest of the loadouts looks fine.

Sabotage Bomber: Double Novas, Scatterguns.

This can be used as anti-snub. Bomber Drones will have 1 weapon and it will be anti-capital only and no SNACs for Drones because of their super aim.
Drones not going to have lots of variants, it will confuse people.

Interceptor Drone: CD, low firepower, low armor, very fast speed
Fighter Drone: high firepower, medium armor, standard speed

Torpedo Drone: Torpedo Launcher, Anti Battleship
Bomber Drone: Bomb Launcher(Scorcher Bomb) - Anti Gunboat,Cruiser

we may add more in the future but these will be enough. It is too early for drone variety.

I didn't create loadouts yet so it can change anytime.

Also, light carriers would be in BS or BC class?

Battleship class, carriers will have their own class so we can just call them Carriers.



Let's hope nothing will go wrong, so we can have this feature for discovery.

[Sand_Spider]

Fair enough regarding no dual-novas.

I hadn't thought of the potential for infinite missiles.. In that case, a dual-missile SHF is a bad idea, for sure.

Let me not get ahead of myself! I'm happy to see the initial Drone Variants, especially the Scorcher Drone (Even though I don't own a carrier myself and might rue the day I come across one of these xD). Capital job, Titan and Remnant!

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[Jessitrescott]

CD Npcs shouldnt be a thing, it breaks the balance.

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[Enkidu]

Can't wait to use the Sirene as a battle-carrier.

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[Y'berg]

It looks like very annoying loadout for infinite drone spawner carriers.

This could be avoided, if the drones are buyable equipment with a limit of what the carriers can hold (kinda like ammo, but can return, if not shot down)

[The League]

*heavy Brick breathing*

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[Titan*]

It looks like very annoying loadout for infinite drone spawner carriers.

This could be avoided, if the drones are buyable equipment with a limit of what the carriers can hold (kinda like ammo, but can return, if not shot down)

that was first plan actually but not possible i think. We can make drones cost money if you deploy a drone i think that is possible but still people with tons of money will able to launch infinite drones.

CD Npcs shouldnt be a thing, it breaks the balance.

Maybe, like i said drone types can change, balance devs did not talk about it yet that is how i planned and it is not up to me.

Curious: will drone-ships get their own custom-model exclusively for the drones, or will there be a crapton of variants scattered around all with the different houses' fighters/freighters/whatever they're going to be?

I was going to use standard fighter/bomber models. Maybe in the future someone can make Drone models for them. It has to pass quality standards though

Will Carrier Bays be relatively cheap to produce in comparison to other POB items? To rephrase: Will they be similar to Docking Modules in terms of construction cost? Or will this be an NPC-purchased item?

I'll add drone bays to npc markets because of carrier rework. They will be useless without drones.

[sindroms]

After thinking this over, I cannot see this baing used practically on the live server due to certain ways this mechanic would need to work with server rules. A player killed by such a ship would not leave behind a proper kill message. In this case - the flhook needs to display a warning window that a player X is being targetted by Y's drones for sanction material clarity during server log checking. And yes, it means that it also needs to appear in the server logs somehow.

The npc loadouts themselves are an issue as well. @Xalrok can tell you how many times he was requested to adjust the Cultist and Beam Nomad loadouts until they became ''tolerable'' to deal with by snubs. The issue is that npcs will never fly in a way players do, which makes them impossible to balance against both snubs and caps. The main challenge was to make an npc that provides danger against, for example, snubs and that cannot be instakilled effortlessly by capital ships with missiles/turret zoom. Likewise, an npc that can be dangerous to a cap, but cannot instakill a player-flown snub just for flying too close to it/standing still for a moment.

And yes - as an admin you can spawn npc types depending on the situation. In this case, however, players spawn their own npcs and it can lead to huge issues to certain ship types.

Depending on how many drones per person can be launched will directly influence the loadout. Likewise, expect a LOT of players fly these ships as a new mechanic is unveiled. Then expect a lot of complaints regarding ganking, where multiple drone users target the same player.


All I can say for sure right now is that if the mechanic goes in, the requests for ships with missiles for the sake of npc-control will skyrocket.

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PSA: If you have been having stutter/FPS lag on Disco where it does not run as smoothly as other games, please look at the fix here: https://discoverygc.com/forums/showthrea...pid2306502
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[Hannibal]

After thinking this over, I cannot see this baing used practically on the live server due to certain ways this mechanic would need to work with server rules. A player killed by such a ship would not leave behind a proper kill message. In this case - the flhook needs to display a warning window that a player X is being targetted by Y's drones for sanction material clarity during server log checking. And yes, it means that it also needs to appear in the server logs somehow.

he should be able to add a debug line to satisfy that need

The npc loadouts themselves are an issue as well. @Xalrok can tell you how many times he was requested to adjust the Cultist and Beam Nomad loadouts until they became ''tolerable'' to deal with by snubs. The issue is that npcs will never fly in a way players do, which makes them impossible to balance against both snubs and caps. The main challenge was to make an npc that provides danger against, for example, snubs and that cannot be instakilled effortlessly by capital ships with missiles/turret zoom. Likewise, an npc that can be dangerous to a cap, but cannot instakill a player-flown snub just for flying too close to it/standing still for a moment.

it doesn't have to be good against everything else like were used to in freelancer
e.g : it can spawn a bomber with nova torpedoes which can be good enough against caps or transports but still be killed easily since it shouldn't be that effective as a real player but merely an annoyance in times of need

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[sindroms]

Anything is useful when used in large enough numbers though. A single cap putting one or two bomer npcs on someone is one thing. 6 of them doing the same will instakill the player.

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PSA: If you have been having stutter/FPS lag on Disco where it does not run as smoothly as other games, please look at the fix here: https://discoverygc.com/forums/showthrea...pid2306502
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