heady spruce
The ability to sortie with a drone that follows you around and helps you in combat. Give it simple commands like "engage this aircraft" "laser designate that tank" or whatnot. Much cheaper than a regular, manned aircraft but can't operate independently of a manned aircraft and can't carry as many weapons.
lusty tartan
I'm hoping that this is part of the drone gameplay Mitch has talked about adding down the road.
heady spruce
I saw that and debated not posting this but I saw it just said "drones" so I figured yeah why not
smoky tendon
Agree. This is the only way drones should be implemented imo
heady spruce
I think if there was a penalty for pilots being killed or captured then regular autonomous drones could work but in the games current state thered be no reason to pick a drone over a manned aircraft
unique crag
I think if there was a penalty for pilots being killed or captured then regular ...
drone doesn't black out from too many g's right?
olive urchin
Agree. This is the only way drones should be implemented imo
i can see them working if we get better RTS controls
we can already issue barebones move orders to units, so i can imagine one player controlling drone swarms instead of flying a plane
smoky tendon
Should be player + 2 unmanned wingmen per sortie at most imo.
olive urchin
they'd be annoying to micro mid flight and not that useful in small numbers
alternatively as a player controlled unmanned fighter with no G limit
smoky tendon
they'd be annoying to micro mid flight and not that useful in small numbers
I disagree. Its always a couple of extra missiles you dont have to carry externally. And I dont think a fighter role should be the only one. Have recon and general support too (tanker + ewar combo maybe). Keep things simple but useful.
You could have them mostly follow you while keeping their autonomy to an extent. Probably with preset behaviour which you could always quickly change in one of the map view tabs or some new UI element similar to the comms in WT (very quick and easy to use imo). I dont think its that difficult, especially since older games (IL-2 1946 being one example) had that exact feature decades ago. Its basically just an AI aircraft that follows you with a couple of extra functions/behaviours.
I cant stress enough how much I dislike player controlled UAVs with no G limits. However you try to balance a thing like that you are guaranteed to either make manned aircraft completely undesirable or UAVs not worth ever flying. I would have to get into details as to why that would be the case, but I wont because I already have in other threads. And no, tweaking their price or vulnerability to jamming to offset its lack of G limit is not enough to make it work.
olive urchin
air AI isn't even good enough to deploy flares or not crash into terrain