New Military Unit: Drones

[Alex]

In real life, warfare is changing quickly with the implementation of cheap drones that can be remotely operated and cause damage.

Military units haven't really changed in a long, long time. So I am proposing Drones as a new military unit.

Like all military units, I think they should have a specialized purpose that is different than every other military unit. If they do the same thing as aircraft, for example, then that's not a meaningful addition to the game.

My thought process is that Drones should be cheap (like IRL), do pretty minimal damage, and be able to target military units and infrastructure. In a lot of ways, they would be similar to aircraft, but I think we could specialize them a bit more.

Here are the key points to my idea:

• Drones would require a new National Project to be able to build. The new national project would be relatively cheap and affordable for, say, a C10 nation.
• Drones would be able to target Soldiers, Tanks, Aircraft, Ships, and Infrastructure
• The damage that Drones do would be pretty minimal. Maybe 75% of the equivalent for an Aircraft strike
• Drones would be cheap to build, say 1 Aluminum + $1,000
• Drone Strikes would use 1 or 2 MAPs (everything will need to be balanced/finalized, but the purpose being they can be done quickly and repetitively)
• Successful Drone Strikes would reduce minimal resistance (3?)
• We could add a defensive project, like a Laser Defense System that has the ability to shoot down anywhere from 25%-100% of the drones
• There would be no other defense against drone attacks (like Missiles + Nukes), e.g. your drones do not "defend" against attacking drones

The intention is not to completely overhaul warfare or drastically change the meta, but just to introduce something new and fun with a niche usage. Obviously the specifics are open to suggestion, but this would be my vision for a new unit that would make the game more fun and interesting.

[Jacob Knox]

This definitely sounds like an interesting addition, but I definitely think it would have to go through a fair amount of testing in the test server for balancing purposes.

[Black Oily Men]

Great idea, but the way its put now, it seems to be unbalanced. I could very well see drones be used as a cheap way to take the air out every single time. But with testing, would be a great update.

[pqnos]

This idea is amazing I hope it gets added 

[Boltzlem]

Woah, I actually really like this idea.

[hidude45454]

Can the drones also have a Target Hospitals option

[KindaEpicMoah]

2 hours ago, Alex said:

• We could add a defensive project, like a Laser Defense System that has the ability to shoot down anywhere from 25%-100% of the drones

I think it'd be neat if this was instead an improvement without a cap that scaled logarithmically in effectiveness and differed from city to city (depending on which city the drones would attack)

[Kyubnyan]

I don’t like the mechanics requiring a project ( particularly one that lives or dies based on very unreliable rng) to counter them at all tbh. There should be at least some other counterplay.

Edited May 20 by Kyubnyan

[Kevanovia]

Let drones have a 25% chance of hitting non-military improvements.

You need AS in order to use drones.

Airstrikes can also damage drones.

Nerf air by allowing naval to hit parked air after blockade just like how GC currently works.

 

edit: @Alexwhere are the infinity stones? We need to snap away bad AA’s….

Edited May 20 by Kevanovia

[Szgwuere Ceegzuuhuuk]

Cool idea, I support this

Cannot wait to the "beige the enemy with only drones challenge"

 

 

I don't think AS needs to be a requirement to able to attack with the drones

Also, like 30-ish % chance of destroying one military/non-military improvement would be good for drones to make them more realistic tho

Edited May 20 by Szgwuere Ceegzuuhuuk
Suggestions

[KindaEpicMoah]

Are drones meant to be a conventional units like planes and tanks? Or are they meant to be more like asymmetric warfare units like spies, missiles, and nukes?

Based on your description, I assume they're the latter, which means that they should have a fixed rebuy rate (that can be improved upon with projects, maybe giving space program + drone rebuy) that doesn't scale with cities. 

In my opinion, spies should be able to destroy drones, but it'd also be interesting if drones could kill spies in small amounts. That'd be somewhat tricky to balance though.

[Jesus Prime]

In real life drones have proven to be very effective against soldiers and existing resources providing a large threat to existing ship infrastructure due to their cheapness and remote abilities enabling them to destroy supply lanes. 
 

maybe we can incorporate something like this and have drones destroy soldiers and give an increased consumption bonus upon multiple consecutive attacks? Like after 3 attacks aircraft use 1 extra fuel per attack?

[Stanko1987]

16 hours ago, Alex said:

In real life, warfare is changing quickly with the implementation of cheap drones that can be remotely operated and cause damage.

Military units haven't really changed in a long, long time. So I am proposing Drones as a new military unit.

Like all military units, I think they should have a specialized purpose that is different than every other military unit. If they do the same thing as aircraft, for example, then that's not a meaningful addition to the game.

My thought process is that Drones should be cheap (like IRL), do pretty minimal damage, and be able to target military units and infrastructure. In a lot of ways, they would be similar to aircraft, but I think we could specialize them a bit more.

Here are the key points to my idea:

• Drones would require a new National Project to be able to build. The new national project would be relatively cheap and affordable for, say, a C10 nation.
• Drones would be able to target Soldiers, Tanks, Aircraft, Ships, and Infrastructure
• The damage that Drones do would be pretty minimal. Maybe 75% of the equivalent for an Aircraft strike
• Drones would be cheap to build, say 1 Aluminum + $1,000
• Drone Strikes would use 1 or 2 MAPs (everything will need to be balanced/finalized, but the purpose being they can be done quickly and repetitively)
• Successful Drone Strikes would reduce minimal resistance (3?)
• We could add a defensive project, like a Laser Defense System that has the ability to shoot down anywhere from 25%-100% of the drones
• There would be no other defense against drone attacks (like Missiles + Nukes), e.g. your drones do not "defend" against attacking drones

The intention is not to completely overhaul warfare or drastically change the meta, but just to introduce something new and fun with a niche usage. Obviously the specifics are open to suggestion, but this would be my vision for a new unit that would make the game more fun and interesting.

I actually like this idea. However i would increase the resistance killed for a Immense Triumph as 7 resistance, Moderate Success 4 Resistance Eliminated, Pyric Victory maybe 1-2 Resistance Eliminated. 

[KindaEpicMoah]

8 hours ago, Stanko1987 said:

I actually like this idea. However i would increase the resistance killed for a Immense Triumph as 7 resistance, Moderate Success 4 Resistance Eliminated, Pyric Victory maybe 1-2 Resistance Eliminated. 

 

This would make it as MAP/Resistance efficient as Navals, which is pretty high for something that has no counterplay. 

 

[Duluth]

Alex and good ideas? What has the world come too.

[Tartarus]

14 hours ago, Stanko1987 said:

I actually like this idea. However i would increase the resistance killed for an Immense Triumph as 7 resistance, Moderate Success 4 Resistance Eliminated, Pyric Victory maybe 1-2 Resistance Eliminated. 

If it takes one MAP to use, no that’s broken.

[AustinH]

On 5/20/2024 at 11:39 PM, Alex said:

 

• Drones would be able to target Soldiers, Tanks, Aircraft, Ships, and Infrastructure
• The damage that Drones do would be pretty minimal. Maybe 75% of the equivalent for an Aircraft strike
• Drones would be cheap to build, say 1 Aluminum + $1,000
•  

I feel like this should be a good idea, but i feel like with it not having any other counterplay is kinda, too good, it forces people to just get it or else you are fcked, mabye add another way to kill them or smth, also 75% damage of planes seems too.much for a super budget plane, mabye 30%?? not sure, or mabye it can be mainly a military killer and it drops no resistance, just throwing out ideas, i feel like with the drones if done right can be a somewhat good addition to the game, but it can be super op if not tested first lol, better than the dynamic defence slots thing tho

[Stanko1987]

3 hours ago, AustinH said:

I feel like this should be a good idea, but i feel like with it not having any other counterplay is kinda, too good, it forces people to just get it or else you are fcked, mabye add another way to kill them or smth, also 75% damage of planes seems too.much for a super budget plane, mabye 30%?? not sure, or mabye it can be mainly a military killer and it drops no resistance, just throwing out ideas, i feel like with the drones if done right can be a somewhat good addition to the game, but it can be super op if not tested first lol, better than the dynamic defence slots thing tho

Austin is right, it should use perhaps 30% of the damage instead of 70% and it shouldn't take any resistance but rather taking out military units instead to assist in the war, if it is only going to take 1 or 2 maps to perform a air drone attack.

 

[KING NUHAID]

I like the idea, but I suggest that the drones eliminate 7 resistance and it will use 2 maps. Also make the drones destroy some infrastructure, so it makes it more fun. I also like the laser project that will shoot the drones, make the project cheap as well

[Sabarish]

My view.

1) On normal days, each drone will drink 0.5 gas and on war days it's 1.5 gas and 1 ammo.

2) Instead of laser project, I think "EMP Blasters" can be fun. Laser project sounds like advanced version of missiles like rail gun. With emp blasters some infra can be damaged and drones can be fried.  

3) It's takes 2 MAPs. Two sucessful drones strikes damage can be equal to a decent airstrike damage.

4) May be it's good to have a focused attack like attack infra only, attack ships only etc. If over all attack selected damage limited to 10 to 20% on all or auto select a thing and do 20% damage and remaining will get 10% damage. 

@Alex These are my view points. 

Edited May 22 by Sabarish

[KindaEpicMoah]

19 hours ago, AustinH said:

I feel like this should be a good idea, but i feel like with it not having any other counterplay is kinda, too good, it forces people to just get it or else you are fcked, mabye add another way to kill them or smth, also 75% damage of planes seems too.much for a super budget plane, mabye 30%?? not sure, or mabye it can be mainly a military killer and it drops no resistance, just throwing out ideas, i feel like with the drones if done right can be a somewhat good addition to the game, but it can be super op if not tested first lol, better than the dynamic defence slots thing tho

No resistance damage would also be broken since you could spam it while sitting on someone without needing to beige them. 

There's a fine middle ground that must be walked between too much and too little. 

[Shiho Nishizumi]

6 minutes ago, KindaEpicMoah said:

No resistance damage would also be broken since you could spam it while sitting on someone without needing to beige them. 

There's a fine middle ground that must be walked between too much and too little. 

If they behave like an all or nothing unit like missiles and nukes do (i.e. full res damage or blocked), then 2 resistance damage per MAP spent would make it nearly equivalent to a nuke's resistance damage, which seems fine.

[Buorhann]

Honestly this seems like a repetitive idea.

Should rework the combat units into more niche roles before introducing more imo.

[Son of Sparda]

I think this is a fun idea. Can see an issue being that no limit to drones would mean a lower city nation can completely have a massive amount of drones to command like say 2k and can absolutely decimate the units for a bigger nation . So i think some tweaking is required like adding a limit to the drone count .Also a laser project should at max shoot down a fixed number of drones say 35% or something @Alex

Edited May 22 by Son of Sparda

[Ronjoy Tehmina]

Interesting! I could definitely get behind this idea.