Deflector Drones

[chemical_art]

I would be game for added damage reduction against ions and minor electric...and maybe sniper.

I don't think beams should be included, since it would so arbitrarily would increase difficulty for FS due to nothing more then a roll of the dice.

[keith.lamothe]

I don't think beams should be included, since it would so arbitrarily would increase difficulty for FS due to nothing more then a roll of the dice.

Yea, even with only a 50% reduction that would be pretty harsh as a single RNG kick.

[chemical_art]

Yea, even with only a 50% reduction that would be pretty harsh as a single RNG kick.

As a counterpoint, you could differenate the beams of FS only craft from the others, but that would take more work

[TIE Viper]

Yes please! I would like to change deflectors to not be in the catagory of being so underwhelming I will ars hack even if I hacked the other four.  Iirc I think those are the only ship I put into that catagory. (not sure though cuz it's morning and brain no work good morning in the ...need food or caffiene first) Ideally that catagory needs to be empty, as they stand now, I would absolutely never choose them as my bonus ship either.

[laughingman]

I haven't used them in a while, but don't they have some ridiculous range, like 11,000? I remember using them quite effectively, combined with Riot Starships, to thin out AI forces from a distance. They're also very useful at keeping your fleet alive against Laser Guardians, which tend to chew up bombers and Heavy Bomber Starships.

I'm not saying that they don't need a buff (I like raising the cap and the radius they can protect), but I wouldn't consider them as useless as many here do. That does make me the odd one out, but I'm used to that.

[TIE Viper]

I am probably biased towards them a bit.  I haven't really tried to use them as effectively as possible.  Honestly, I kinda judged that book by its cover at the time.  And I've been avoiding them like the plague ever since.  I still want them buffed though.

[Diazo]

I'm thinking balance them as a straight combat ship that is in line with the rest and the 'deflector' effect stays as a nice bonus.

That would also mean leaving it to affect just lasers.

That would give you a competitive ship in terms of combat stats with the nice bonus of shutting down AI raid SS and the Laser Guard post when you ran into it.

Making affect more ammo types would quickly get into OP territory I think.

The other option is to make it the same as the Weasel, but for energy weapons instead of missiles. This would cover multiple ammo types but because of the attractor effect you are not making them overpowered.

D.

[TIE Viper]

An 'energy weasel' is a very interesting thought.  I'd use them for that alone actually.

[Kahuna]

Deflector Drones after buff
Cap dps: 152.320
Cap dps with bonus: 365.568 | This new DPS does seem a bit high. This might be overpowered especially when combined with their long range and new movement speed.

Their damage could be reduced to 4600 from 5600. Then the cap dps would be 125.120 and dps with bonus would be 300.288. Would this be more reasonable?

[Toranth]

Making affect more ammo types would quickly get into OP territory I think.

Depends on what ammo types are added.
Shell is the most popular type, with 26 users.
Laser is next, with 12.
Missile, with 10.
Energy Bomb with 9.
Dark Matter, with 6.
Energy Burst, with 6.

Then 24 different types with 2-3 users each.

We already have a Shell immune ship type.
We already have a missile immune ship type, plus multiple other ways to get missile immunity over an AOE (turret, Scout SS IV).
We also have the Weasel (when it works), for anti-missile.

If you made the Deflectors an anti-Energy Weasel, which ammo types would it work for?

[keith.lamothe]

I'm not sure the Deflectors would consider this a buff if they wind up getting called "Energy Weasel".  I mean, I think they prefer being called "Useless"

But mechanically that could be very interesting.

[TIE Viper]

I suppose a rose is still a rose (maybe) even if you do a whole bunch of genetic manipulation so that it's radically different. 

If we still call them deflector drones will they still feel useless enough that they wouldn't mind us using any stat buffs/changes?   

[Wingflier]

No objections from me.

BUFF AWAY, GOOD SIR! AND BUFF ALL THE OTHER SWARMERS WHILE YOU'RE AT IT!

[KDR_11k]

How about having them work against flame waves?

[keith.lamothe]

Just in for next version:

* Deflector Drones, in honor of developing quite a reputation for being, um, "usefulness-challenged" among a substantial portion of the playerbase:
** Base mkI cap-health from 5,213,600 => 10,880,000.
** Base mkI cap-dps from 54880 => 76160.
** Base move speed from 24 => 32 (so now same as fighters).
** Base radius of the protection effect increased from 1000 => 9000.
** No longer reduce the damage done by laser weapons to nearby allies; instead they now attract laser fire against nearby allies to target them instead (much as the Youngling Weasel does with missiles).
*** Please, if you know a physicist please prevent them from thinking too much about this: it could pose serious health risks.
** Has been renamed to "Atrractor Drone".

I didn't want to increase the cap because there's enough CPU strain as it is, but I increased the DPS by about the same amount as the proposal would have yielded, I believe.

Also went with the "attractor" idea rather than broadening the ammo types affected: so it's still a very niche ability, but with this and the range increase it's much more effective at that niche.  Since it's just a niche ability, the combat stats should stand on their own as a decent combatant.

In other words, if you saw these on an ARS as a hackable type you probably wouldn't hack for them unless you were having trouble with some laser-using things, but if they were on an ARS as the non-hack type you wouldn't feel compelled to hack for anything else just to get better base numbers.