I have been looking over some of the Mechanics, and an over all improvement would be to allow you to build some of the smaller items straight from the A.N.T. I have already stated that the A.N.T. needs more than what it has in order to function, because it has things it needs to protect. Stealth is still the best defensive option, and I want that back, however, a secondary option is allowing the truck to Spawn A.A. and A.V. turrets while on the move. This will allow A.N.T.s to mark their territory and get started with Defensive measures in a hurry to offer at least some protection in the event the location is compromised. If it were up to me, the only reason you would need to get out of the A.N.T. is if you wanted to use it as a Spawn-point and equipment swap device. "Advanced" means something to me. Bases look to be too fragile to expose the Driver Especially considering how many people are complaining about how long it takes to build. Adding the fact that you have to find Crystal to drink..... I do not even have access to it and I do not see it catching on too fast as a mainstay as is because of how Tankers and Liberators act here. I liked the little preview of it we had almost 2 years ago but the bases you placed were not breakable. So perhaps in stead of the base walls being destructible, perhaps some of them can be timed, with timed versions obviously costing more. We have not seen anything about it since. If building straight from the driver's seat is already a thing here, disregard, if it is not, I think it might be neat to test.
Micro Intelligent Drone. Or M.I.D.s with A.A. and A.V. Anti Infantry, and Combination Intelligent Drones: A little bigger than a Flash, it would be able to be deployed strait from the driver seat. These little guys would be a neat little add-on to what you already have if you are not wanting to mess with how the builder works. I am a bigger fan of just adding new features anyway. The basic single turret M.I.D.s would cost 25% of your Base C. Tank. and would have a 1 second cool down between summoning and a Maximum active units of 4. These units while having the same kick as an A.A. or A.V. base turret, would only have slightly better armor than a flash. Say 2600? and a top speed of 2 tank shells of any type (other than a Viper of coarse) to kill them. You can sort of rake in with these by selling various drone formats and giving them names, such as, "Crusader" which boasts Heavy Armor, so it is impervious to small arms in exchange for speed top speed, or "Roach" the fastest Drone Available but make use of Lighter Armor which still has like 50% defense from light arms, but none the less can be damaged and destroyed with any gun. This could also extend into the types of armaments they make use of. "Sparrow" an A.A. could makes use of locking missiles, while Wasp makes use of dingo and Coyote style missile. The "Trooper" could make use of a Trawler style Ranger Flak Turret, so on and forth. The options are almost endless. Owning more than one would allow you to mix and match as you see fit. While these drones will react to being shot or at by infantry proximity, their main focus is on vehicles so if you leave them alone on foot they will leave you alone. M.I.D. Trooper starter skin sample look. The Combination Intelligent Drones, while no larger, are more robust versions of their class. Unlike the standard M.I.D.s these units would have their own customization slot once bought as they would boast fully 2 turrets. You could then sell the all of the M.I.D.s Turrets as interchangeable C.I.D. turrets. Double your payday. They would cost 50% of the base A.N.T. C. tank and would have unit limit maximum of 2 in addition to the the 4 light units for a possible total of 6 active units. Giving A.N.T. drivers the feeling of not only making their own, but then manning their own colony. These would boast 3500 points Heavy Armor with a top speed of around 90 K.P.H. to allow it to chase even Prowlers, as well as have a built in orbital flying spitfire drone printer for added A.I. defense which if destroyed has a cool down of 10 seconds before it can make another. The Orbit Drones would have 1500 points of Light Armor. They may need to be buffed depending on how they perform.... It should be worth half a tank of Cortium. C.I.D. A.I. and A.A. Locking Missile with Hawk Cinder Drone sample look. All of them should be able to be set to attack or defense by looking at them clicking a thumb stick to give orders and then taping Circle in order to toggle between these two orders. Defense mode can have sub options in which the set a parameter around the A.N.T. is set to 10, 15 and 20 meters worth of free roam space around the A.N.T. where it can perform evasive action, before the Drone is forced to cease dodging and come back within the set barrier around the Truck. Attack extends the operation barrier to a Flat 50 meters, so it can give chase to enemies it spots for better or worse. M.I.D.s would be able to be damaged by a Harassers Ram, C.I.D.'s on the other hand would only be not. Only A.N.T.s and heavier would be able to Road Kill these which would give rise to risk. If a Harasser is on a roll running down M.I.D.s, slamming into one of these would stop, seriously damage or kill them; which will make them think twice about blindly running over things in their car next spawn. C.I.D.s would be more aggressive toward infantry actively going after them until reaching the set command Attack/Defend barrier and maintaining a safe orbit of at least 7 meters from spotted soldiers that are not already in its line of sight, to cut down on C4 attempts. This would put the A. back into Advanced Nanite Transports, and even comes equipped with a little dark humor. I would not be upset if this were a PlayStation exclusive, for a few years, in order to lure back out player base. Plus, you know, we deserve it, for hanging in as long as we have being second class citizens.
I would also add something like this as a Repair Drone for the A.N.T. and its other Drones for 25% of a full non-upgraded Cortium Tank. 2500 A.P. since it has no weapons. Hits make it bob around and periodically hide behind the A.N.T. or drone it is trying to heal.
I like all of this... Xil, if I ever got the chance to build a game, I'd want to build it with you. I've seen your suggestions for a while, just figured I'd put that out there.
That is very high praise and I really do appreciate it; so thank you for doing so. There is no emoji for "Hug" but I placed one in your E-mail. Right in between: "Do you long to be debt free?" and "You have just WON A PHANTOM!" Both of those are scams, but the Hug is real.
OH MY GOODNESS THESE THINGS ARE ADORABLE I WANT ONE. Honestly this isnt the worst idea I've seen. A small remote controlled tank drone would be fine so long as its health is similerly weak compared to actual vehicles. Give it the ability to die to a single rocket or C-4 but be bulletproof and voila, you have a mini-max that is cheaper to spawn and perhaps even better for outdoors combat if it is faster. We could even arm it with SAM launchers for AA, ATGM systems for AT (or maybe a rapid fire 20-30MM), and a machine gun for infantry. Or hey, we could just give it a secondary turret slot from the main MBTs as its primary weapon. Imagine one of these little guys with a Vulcan or the NCs new autocannon. Alternatively still, we could give them repair tools to allow engineers to remotely repair vehicles from a safe distance at the cost of standing still wherever they are. In either case, I would go with the ANT deployable idea, but I think these should also be able to be built by engineers at a decent nanite cost (maybe like 200-250).
Speaking as a VS player... if they do make this a thing, I hope they keep it as a "for all" vehicle or for NSO only. Reason being, seeing a Magrider version of this would irritate everybody, and nobody would feel as though it was balanced.
While I think a hover drone version of these would still be balanced as I have no issue downing a hover-bike with either my bumper or well placed Devastator round, I do think your hover craft needs would largely be taken care of by the Flying C.I.D.s, as they would only fly around 500m away from the A.N.T. in attack mode, and 50 in defense. HOWEVER, If I would offer the hover versions of the M. and C.I.D.s; I would offer them to everyone as a vehicle type for B.C. or like.... VERY high amounts of Certs. I will place some ideas about that later. The way the terrain is in the game, a hover drone would definitely look neat, but over all it would make them MUCH easier to hit. Prowlers and Lightnings use their low profiles to hide in sink-holes, Mags have no such Lux. Given the M.O. of high maneuverability being off set by angle-of-fire stability; an anti-gravity base would not be the best to use against ground vehicles. Now hover as a base for A.A. would work much better. (Various propulsion styles would add to the build aspect of these little drones as well as give the player a little room to sacrifice a little function for fun and vanity as well as make for a nice little payday to keep the lights on.) For that reason I would not turn them down and keep my mind open to their usage.
The Subjugator Drone. While I would love it if you contacted this person and used this exact model, I put it hear to use as an example of the attack points. This type would be almost as big as the A.N.T. and would cost 100% of a non-upgraded Cortium tank. This would offer a really neat feature of spot protection like say for Sunderers as an ambush defender. This would be a direct counter to a Liberator. A focused Anti-air weapon with the ability to fight Ground targets just as well. This would have 4500 A.P. Like the other Drones it would be able to be given orders, but only to defend It would not be able to be given attack orders as that feature would mainly be to help transport it once it has been built. It would have an attack mode however. This would come in the form of direct real-time link controllable by the player, only usable once the A.N.T. has been deployed and the driver has swapped to one of the rear passenger seats. Swapping to the gunner seat or driver seat, severs the connection and the Drone reverts to Defense mode and starts heading back toward the A.N.T. 50m bubble. As with all of the other drones, In defense mode it will still target vehicles that have been spotted and are in range or that damage it, however this will not deter it from its R.T.B. protocol. It would only serpentine in the direction it is headed. I would also make it to where it is almost completely unencumbered by NATURAL terrain in this mode. (Goes around buildings, but can stick to, climb, and descend mountains without the fear of tipping or falling.) Its armaments would consist of dual, fast-firing omni-lock humming birds that are slower to over heat as the forward guns. The secondary weapon (Or right rear, long abdomen cannon) would consist of a tandom firing Walker and Ranger the (one of which could be A.I. controlled but that is optional). The left abdomen box missile launcher WOULD be controlled via A.I. and would automatically lock on and launch heavy G lock missiles at spotted targets. however this would only activate if a Liberator or Galaxy has been spotted. Defensive options could range from active camouflage while in R.T.B. mode to Minor Cloak, where sitting still allows it to cloak after a few seconds. I have an idea about an active Umbrella Cloak that cloaks the top half of the vehicle and fans out like an umbrella so aircraft cannot see it, but ground targets would see the legs, so they would have a hint as to where to shoot. It would still hide smoke and fire completely, however. To balance all of this out, I would say it is weakened by what it is: A drone. Drones are sensitive pieces of equipment. Also unlike other vehicles that can have access to an Engineer on hand for healing, via the player or passenger, the Drone has no space for any passengers, so it is already at a pretty big disadvantage for active combat time. Sadly to that end, unless you had enough to extra Cortium to build and order your Repair Drone to heal your Warrior Drone, it would not truly have access to quick healing unless a teammate had a repair vehicle pulled; so newbies are not going to get away with having access to a fully powered up unit without some heavy investment in the right area first. If your Drone, is destroyed the screen turns to snow like the Camera on a Phoenix launcher missile and the player is screen is returned to the passenger seat. If the A.N.T. is destroyed, the drone is set to self-destruct without an operator, and the player who managed to detonate the A.N.T. is rewarded for destroying both vehicles once the drone does so after 5 seconds. It would be designed to compete with M.B.T.s due to its high firepower offsetting its lower armor, but it would absolutely HAVE to land the first blow. Its movement characteristics would be a hybrid of sorts. A rolling Magrider capable of moving in all directions at a top speed of 77.7kph. I can already feel your hands around my neck for that, Mech. Hahahaha! I am definitely in favor of Mechs idea of the Drones being for N.S.O. only, as the underpopulated teams are so very bad over here, and we NEED this kind of help. to balance our numbers, or lack there of.... This would go a loooooong way on the road to a complete N.S.O. faction.
The Subjugator Drone. While I would love it if you contacted this person and used this exact model, I put it hear to use as an example of the attack points. This type would be almost as big as the A.N.T. and would cost 100% of a non-upgraded Cortium tank. This would offer a really neat feature of spot protection like say for Sunderers as an ambush defender. This would be a direct counter to a Liberator. A focused Anti-air weapon with the ability to fight Ground targets just as well. This would have 4500 A.P. Like the other Drones it would be able to be given orders, but only to defend It would not be able to be given attack orders as that feature would mainly be to help transport it once it has been built. It would have an attack mode however. This would come in the form of direct real-time link controllable by the player, only usable once the A.N.T. has been deployed and the driver has swapped to one of the rear passenger seats. Swapping to the gunner seat or driver seat, severs the connection and the Drone reverts to Defense mode and starts heading back toward the A.N.T. 50m bubble. As with all of the other drones, In defense mode it will still target vehicles that have been spotted and are in range or that damage it, however this will not deter it from its R.T.B. protocol. It would only serpentine in the direction it is headed. I would also make it to where it is almost completely unencumbered by NATURAL terrain in this mode. (Goes around buildings, but can stick to, climb, and descend mountains without the fear of tipping or falling.) Its armaments would consist of dual, fast-firing omni-lock humming birds that are slower to over heat as the forward guns. The secondary weapon (Or right rear, long abdomen cannon) would consist of a tandom firing Walker and Ranger the (one of which could be A.I. controlled but that is optional). The left abdomen box missile launcher WOULD be controlled via A.I. and would automatically lock on and launch heavy G lock missiles at spotted targets. however this would only activate if a Liberator or Galaxy has been spotted. Defensive options could range from active camouflage while in R.T.B. mode to Minor Cloak, where sitting still allows it to cloak after a few seconds. I have an idea about an active Umbrella Cloak that cloaks the top half of the vehicle and fans out like an umbrella so aircraft cannot see it, but ground targets would see the legs, so they would have a hint as to where to shoot. It would still hide smoke and fire completely, however. To balance all of this out, I would say it is weakened by what it is: A drone. Drones are sensitive pieces of equipment. Also unlike other vehicles that can have access to an Engineer on hand for healing, via the player or passenger, the Drone has no space for any passengers, so it is already at a pretty big disadvantage for active combat time. Sadly to that end, unless you had enough to extra Cortium to build and order your Repair Drone to heal your Warrior Drone, it would not truly have access to quick healing unless a teammate had a repair vehicle pulled. (So newbies are not going to get away with having access to a fully powered up unit without some heavy investment in the right area first.) If your Subjugator, is destroyed the screen turns to snow like the Camera on a Phoenix launcher missile and the player's screen is returned to the passenger seat of the A.N.T. If the A.N.T. is destroyed, the drone is set to self-destruct without an operator, and the player who managed to detonate the A.N.T. is rewarded for destroying both vehicles once the drone does so after 5 seconds, with the force of a Cortium Bomb. It would be designed to compete with M.B.T.s due to its high firepower offsetting its lower armor, but it would absolutely HAVE to land the first blow. Its movement characteristics would be a hybrid of sorts. A rolling Magrider capable of moving in all directions at a top speed of 77.7kph. I can already feel your hands around my neck for that, Mech. However, that is the only way it would be able to truly fight a Liberator. They are too fast and maneuverable for traditional wheeled movement. I am definitely in favor of Mechs idea of the Drones being for N.S.O. only, as the underpopulated teams are so very bad over here, and we NEED this kind of help. to balance our numbers, or lack there of.... This would go a loooooong way on the road to a complete N.S.O. faction. confused: Please remove the other of the double post, as this one contains edits. Thank you, and sorry.)
