Constructive Approach to.... Drones...

[Morax]

Hey all,

I think everyone is up to speed with the whole drone discussion (namely me) taking place but a few pointers:

One, please look at these replays:

4191944.fafreplay

and this one: download/file.php?id=11051

1) The current cost is very cheap. Regardless of the fact as to whether or not it can be shot be an intie it can fly to reclaim on team maps way quicker than a ACU (pathfinding vs flying)

2) A teammate can simply give someone an engineer to continue building per the norm

3) Cost of air fact and intie is far greater than a drone, which means if you are to counter it you need to spend more. The mass/energy cost itself is imba, and throw in the build time and you are screwed.

Not sure what the balance patch will do to it, but please consider these facts when saying "it will be fixed."

Not a rage post but just a discussion.

[yeager]

I don't know, I like that its a change, that its something different than everyone sending coms up to reclaim, but it is not balanced and definitely needs to be nerfed, maybe add an additional upgrade and weaken the base drone build power so a uef com can still send it up but it needs an additional upgrade to have any real build power, and won't reclaim as much as a com, even if it gets there first. Or perhaps just decreasing flight speed. In any case I have no idea what the solution is, I just hope whatever the team comes up with suffices.

[Ithilis_Quo]

Ohh replay with my mighty drone strategy:D

- But as you see on replay, it didnt work, we lose that game, and we lose it becasue we build drones, that was the main reason.
-- Single AA (28m) destroy 480m in drones, and deley as for 40s on start.

-I was also trying rush drone on canis where is shitons of recalim, and even when it do single palyer from 5 its not worh, make it before factory, and after factory single AA deny it. So i dont understand where is the problem.

[IceDreamer]

Not OP in the slightest lol. Drone has cost what it does forever and a day, it's not like anything changed. No, this is a problem with stupid-ass maps like Gap having stupid-ass designs, and stupid-ass players not taking advantage of the MASSIVE hole first drone puts you in. As you can see, that game was lost spectacularly. Delays at the start of the game are cumulative in their impact, and 40s is a massive time-out for one player, no matter how much mass they harvest.

[Gorton]

I disagree ice.
It can suck huge amounts of reclaim and get to middle areas on very common teamgame maps e.g tabula/hilly/(most maps..)
On most of these you are not far from allies, so you can easily get support with engies to fix the economy issues
On top of that, enemies will rush acu to middle and get basically nothing, which weakens them too.

And the worst part : it's unscoutable. You have to guess. We don't want to have a guessing game, do we?

[Tremarl]

The benefits of a drone are balanced by the deficits of a drone.

Benefits: -- Possible mobility allowing for you to get some extra reclaim (on the chance you catch an enemy of guard, easily countered by first int strategy or first mma) - still it is effective most times --
-It can build on cliffs etc and thus you can get those mexes where often a transport might usually be needed

Now lets look at the downsides

-The build time it takes to get the drone leaves you massively out of pocket. That's to say going first drone means you don't have a fac, even with an allying lending an engie than means your first fac will be out well past a minute at about 80 seconds.
-It can be shot down and costs to rebuild it


Just a few pros and cons that I've thought of, this isn't meant to be an exhaustive list, but this is what prima facie, is apparent to me.

I think it is a balanced upgrade, but I think it quickly becomes useless (as in you will want shield or tac at some point mid game rather than 2 engies buzzing around), it'd be nice if the second tier of the drone upgrade 1. cost more 2. was a t2 engi