I would like to give more suggestions about drones and other automated systems.
Curretly we have information about a single kind of drone.A trirotor defending scorpion 7 locations.
General Suggestions
- Drones should be controllable from a computer or some other computing device, and players should be able to hack into these computers to gain control or steal these drones and set them up to defend their base.
- Drones should reload their ammo at special stations which could double as repair stations if require.
- Drones should have 2 versions one can be a scorpion 7 the other should be a military version with a different paint job,weaponry and armor. Perhaps there can be a unarmed civilian version which can be used for just reconnaissance.
- The Drones could have scorpion 7 as a manufacturer this could be a plot point where perhaps scorpion 7 takes control of the military and civilian versions during the apocalypse creating more chaos perhaps.
Drone Weapons and Equipment
- Drone weapons shouldn’t be just the base guns in a slot, instead they should be heavily modified weapons with perhaps just the receiver,barrel and buffer tube(if present), I understand that most most modern drones have standard weapons in rigs but think this is inefficient as a drone doesn’t need extraneous features like a stock or sights, so eliminating these will make drones more efficient. The guns in drones should be Assault rifles or light machine guns(I prefer LMGs as these are more suited for sustained automatic fire).
- Also Drones can have rocket launchers or bombs that can be dropped but i think these shouldn’t have guided missile launchers instead they can fire unguided rockets. The bombs could work like in spigot mortar where the munition is propelled by a spring. The drone could also launch mines or sticky charges which can then be remotely and safely activated by the player.
- All drones should be equipped with a camera(maybe movable), a microphone and a speakers to play messages or so that the owner of the drone can talk to or war off intruders customers or others coming to his base or near his drone, computers controlling drone should be able to play preset threats or messages welcoming the player. Drone cameras and the drones themselves should also have night-vision capabilities.
- Drones should also have cargo modules which enable them to carry items through a certain distance. the weight of the package should determine the speed and range of the drone.
- Drones should have modules which gives them the ability to do certain things, for instance there can be a small arms modules, a cargo module, Heavy weapons module etc. These enable owners to use the same drone for different things and changing functions simply requires changing a module.
Controlling drones - In my opinion drones should primarily rely on their AI for combat and flying but if there will be an option to control the drone it should be very simple and not too complex. For ground based drones the controls should be like that of a tank(the player controls the motion and the gun simultaneously). For flying vehicles the wasd and control and shift keys can control its flight but the mouse should control the gun.
Additional drones - First a land based drone
These conduct patrols of the interiors of scorpion 7 or Military facilities
These can have 2 versions one smaller and the other bigger, the smaller one can carry very light weapons and maybe even the ability to have explosives on board for use in Kamikaze style defensive tactics. The bigger one should be able to carry slightly heavier weapons. - Long range Aerial Drones
These should be able to fly to any place in the map and are designed to mainly conduct reconnaissance, they could have weapons but these should create penalties in the range or speed of these craft. - Underwater drones
These drones could help players explore wrecks,underwater caves or the seabed. I dont think these should be armed but maybe a it should have the ability to attach or drop explosive charges to objects or at a certain location. These definitely should have the ability to collect loot from from submerged areas.
Security Systems
- We can have cameras, turrets with cameras and sensors in and around our bases. Alarm systems can be connected to sensors as can be external floodlights. All sensors communicate with one another and when detecting a threat they activate the security system.
- There can also be motion tracking floodlights which track and illuminate targets for players. Turrets can also take data from sensors to obtain targeting data. These systems should be controllable from a single console or computer in the player base.
- Another system or mechanic i would like is turrets using targeting data from drones, Eg: drone detects target outside turrets detection range but not out of range of its gun, so the drone can ask the turret to open fire on the target.To make this less OP Turrets can have less accuracy as range increases.
Loot Gathering
- Drones especially land based ones could be equipped with a robotic arm and we could control it remotely and send it to different locations. Or one can send it somewhere and make it pick up random or loot of certain rarity. The main downside to this would be that the drone would only be able to carry so much before it reaches max capacity so this could be useful for grabbing one or two very rare or OP items from a certain location.
Player interactions with drones
- Drones will obviously be defending bases, but another aspect i would like to add is that drones could act as NPCs with the scorpion 7 controlling them, there could be NPC quests you can do for Scorpion 7 or its remnants where you defend a drone,control drones to destroy targets, collect materials for drones.
- Drones could also be a part of random encounters where a group of drones are fighting with zombies, bandits etc or Scorpion 7 could send drones after you if you piss em off.
Conclusion
Now I’m not saying that all of these have to be added, but i was just adding some stuff that i thought was cool and how drones could make survival, base defense, and PVP better through these drones.I would like to thank you for reading through this really long post.
I’d like to hear your thoughts about this as well.