The original XCOM had different unmanned tanks you could research and build and include on missions. Today we call them drones and they are a HUGE part of any operation. Small handheld flying drones that can scout out ahead or provide a quick bird’s eye view of the area. Armored suitcase sized ones that can go into harm’s way and retrieve bombs or peek inside a hot zone. I can’t find anything on the status of drones in PP.
I think drones should be included. And can be used several different ways.
Overall research will develop and enhance drone capabilities and they can be selected and included on missions.
Individual soldiers can select a “drone operating” skill and have the option of using and deploying handheld drones to scout the area, distract or confuse enemies, remote heal other soldiers, transfer items from one soldier to another… numerous options.
I’m seconding this.
In a variety of games ranging from Doom 3 and Bioshock to Xcom 2 I always love having a little robot buddy to help me out.
If there is some way to include robot helpers please include some way to heal them. I usually end up feeling a twinge of sadness when my buddy eats it.
There’s an idea. Drones can evolve or develop new/better skills.
After successful mission, increase drone’s armor/HP.
Research offers options -
Self-regeneration
Faster movement
Enemy avoidance
Stealth
Customize drones - colors, name, skins to match owner
I was originally thinking disposable drones each mission or repair them upon mission completion. But it might be cool to get a drone and it stays with that soldier until destroyed.
I would love to get a drone with decent armor, medium ammo capacity, and health regen abilities.
If there was a way for it to draw enemy fire it would be the perfect support for keeping softer units safe.
Here is an example of a specialist class we call the ‘infiltrator.’ The main abilities for this class involve stealth, evasion, reconnaissance, booby traps, target designation, close quarters combat and scaling difficult terrain.
…
One possible loadout includes a ‘drone hive’ - a backpack loaded with miniature drones which can rapidly spread out in all directions for highly effective reconnaissance.
All of the main factions have technology that is relevant to build equipment and skills for an infiltrator, but Synedrion have the most advanced tech in this area.
I guess if we will see drones more than a visual effect of a skill (the Infiltrator’s scouting drone-hive sounds like not controllable drones but a normal “AoE reveal” skill), then they should be mostly NJ/Synedrion tech.
Drones are always fun, I hope we get at least some, if a “full-drone” squad is not possible.
The issue with this in comparison to the PP lore and what we know of some of the core strategic mechanics: It has been said that in this destroyed world, components and the like are difficult to find, with any flying vehicle a “rarity”. You will have to scavenge for resources. This might mean drones will be very uncommon, so you may only get a couple in the late game
I’d like to see drones that can spec themselves to the different classes.
i.e Assaults can deploy a shield of some kind. Heavy’s can help targeting so you can send a rocket into the queen’s face or into a building through the doorway. Snipers could get a spotter drone which improves their aim and sight range.
This might mean drones will be very uncommon, so you may only get a couple in the late game
I second this. While drones are pretty cool, I feel like they should be something rare and valuable in this setting. However, “drones” can have different meanings. The mutated dogs of the Disciples of Anu could also be considered a kind of “drone”.
What I’d like to see are different drones for each faction: small, disposable rovers for NJ, more akin to a remote controlled gun on wheels, the “pets” of the Disciples with different abilities, and for Synedrion small hover drones without weapons, but providing buffs and recon. What PP has for drones… I don’t know, since their aesthetic is still a bit unclear.
Still, I would prefer the drones to be a valuable asset and not something to mass produce, given the limited production facilities and technlogies available.
One possible loadout includes a ‘drone hive’ - a backpack loaded with miniature drones which can rapidly spread out in all directions for highly effective reconnaissance.
Lots of small, “disposable/easy to replace” drones may still be possible (even more for the Big 3), but one which can mount weapons or other more expensive equipment should be more rare.
There are literally drone toys on Amazon going for 13 us dollars produced in bulk (over 50k different models in amazon store) for consumer use. Salvaging that old Walmart or online shopping warehouse could enable your team to find and repurpose them into intelligence gathering platforms. Such drones could be implemented in game relatively easy as one time use look ahead recon deploying from a grenade Sprite while more survivable stuff like the high end photography videography market that runs them upwards a grand with advanced audio visual and even weaponry platforms. It gives you a whole new reason to “target Target.”
Drones and other unmanned machines (possibly even Armadillo-like hovercraft) sound like a Synedrion thing. From what we’ve seen of NJ, they seem to like a “put a guy in a heap of metal and weld a bunch on guns on it” approach. So maybe later builds?