Please buff drones and turrets

Yes. That new cab was supposed to help. Doesn’t it?

In my opinion, automated weapons shouldn’t exist in the first place as they are reductive in nature by taking away player input. In this case, it’s the basic act of aiming and shooting. Then there are drones like Grenadiers and Fuzes which even do the driving for you.

Remember what happened during the helicopter event? Everybody started using missiles and Caucasus, because they were both easier to use AND more effective than “normal” weapons. People will always choose the path of least resistance, and PvP would naturally turn into drone wars.

Drone builds are annoying enough as they are, they absolutely do not need a buff. If you just want to watch the game play itself that badly, then there are plenty of streams and youtube videos to browse.

Do you include the tesla weapons, porcupine and minelayers in that? How about flamethrowers and shotguns? What about the really great spray and pray machine guns? Autocannons? Really, the only weapons you really have to be careful aiming are the actual cannons. In a sense, everything else is reductive. I don’t exert nearly as much energy or concentration aiming my Arbiters as I do a canon.


What exactly is it you find annoying about them? That’s a sincere question. Other than the occasional drone boat drawing out a lost cause battle, I don’t really find them annoying at all.

While I don’t have one in my current rotation, I have played drones extensively in the past. I am quite sure there are guys who play them and don’t pay much attention to what they’re doing, but as has been said on here before, if you are good with drones, you are probably one of the best players in the game.

You liken it to watching the match more than playing it but the reality could not be further from the truth. In most normal builds, I simply make sure I am not getting isolated from my team, and try to pick out easy targets on the map.

If I am playing drones, and trying to be successful, I am much more engaged with what my team and the other team is doing. I have to be much more strategic.

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Whether or not you need a buff depends on the weapon’s win rate, usage rate, and if you find drones to be annoying, then you can pay attention to the user’s score. See if they actually get high scores

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Do you include the tesla weapons, porcupine and minelayers in that? How about flamethrowers and shotguns?

I do not. They may be easy to use, but they don’t aim and shoot for you.

What exactly is it you find annoying about them?

I find them annoying because they are small, fast, and driven by AI. When I get hit by a drone, it feels the same as getting hit by a bot like Adam or Isabella. You don’t get “outplayed” by them, they don’t think about weaknesses or positioning, they simply lock onto your cabin and start dishing out guaranteed DPS without any human input.

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Here are my suggestions for drone changes:
Regular drones: 30% bullet resistance for falcon, hawk drones, 30% bullet resistance for owl along with 30% increase in durability, 50% increase in accuracy, speed and 10% attack speed for missiles fired by owl
Drone turrets: 50% increase in accuracy, speed and 10% attack speed for missiles fired by RT, increases the melee and bullet resistance of RT turrets by 30%
Wheeled drones: reduce sidekick, grenadier damage by 20%, reduce grenadier attack speed by 20%, increase detection range by 50%
Automatic drones: reduce yaoguai damage by 5%, remove vulture activation time

You can complain tell you are blue in the face about this one. But the fact is: these items are in game and are never going to be removed.

I dislike plenty of weapons and play styles, but I’m not going to ask them to be nerfed/removed just because I’m the one with the problem.

All weapons in this game take skill. If it was me I would argue that “peek-a-boo” range play is the easiest and cheesiest play-style in the game. Typhoons/scorpions have almost no drop, and fused ones have even less. Their is nothing hard about point and click.

I used to run a top ten clan during the time when everyone pretty much only ran ranged or you lost the match. It is hands down the darkest hour that this game has ever seen and was the worst state it has even been.

So no, we don’t have to worry about “Balance” of other weapons….

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Regarding this, I think the new cab’s a right step in the direction. Summoner gameplay in other games is about using pet-related abilities, not watching your pets do all the job. I hope we see more drone activated perks/abilities, and less “You only need to clic once, fool!” stuff (That was a LoL reference, yes)

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That is so true… If it weren’t for this being a thing, my Assemblers would be useless. This playstyle is so much easier than trying to make Grenadiers or Hawks work! :laughing: It’s literally WHY I DO IT! I have to get that canon challenge, and the Assemblers have zero drop, so I actually find them easier to use than regular canons.

The endlessly ironic thing to me is people complaining about weapons that require more practice and skill to use effectively as though these weapons are OP. It’s not just drones. People cried incessantly during the helicopter event about pyres… not because pyres are amazing, but because they were so accustomed to not having to deal with them in ground matches, they’d never learned how to counter them (much less use them).

Aiming and shooting a minigun, machine gun, shotgun or auto-canon is entry-level CrossOut. THAT is the play that requires the least skill/practice/patience to master. It’s literally point & click.

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Only thing I could think of improving turrets and drones it making the activation time from when deploy to when they start moving and or shooting shorter

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This is most likely all they need.

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You should try that, see how it works out. Then come back and tell us how it went.

For me, even fused, my Grenadier is an idiot I have to keep peeling of rocks and walls. Half the match it spends looking at the clouds, dreaming little robot dreams, or something. When it realizes I’m not right next to it, it panics and starts running around looking for me, driving right past enemies without firing a single shot, then lodges itself under my kilt, high-centering me and serving me up like a waiter to the red team. Then it clocks out, and explodes (thanks, little buddy). Happens too often.

I like this idea. I’m not sure how the best way to implement that in this game would be, but I like the line of thought. It seems like there’s a lot of potential there.

I often wish they would have set this game up more like a conventional RPG. I really wish the co-drivers had a buildable, customizable, character sheet. They could earn experience points, levels, have aptitudes, skill-sets, Character-classes, etc, just like in D&D. Instead we got…

This I would like. They could maybe use the Call to install this buff. That cab and the Dusk both are bad cabs for their supposed specialty. The Dusk is the worst though. It basically nerfs missiles. It’s bonkers and needs fixed, I think. I need to get rid of mine…but it looks too cool, and I can’t.

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:arrow_up:This x :100:

My tactic is to launch them BEFORE I get to the enemies, cloak, drive past the enemies if I can, turn around & ram 'em with melee or whatever my 2nd weapon is.

I mean, it doesn’t work, but it’s all I’ve got. :clown_face: :rofl:

They work good when they work. I’m thinking of trying them again as a support weapon. I think that’s what they were originally supposed to be, rather than loading a bunch onto a drone-boat. They seem to work better when you’re in very close proximity to your target, and maybe if you’re firing an actual weapon at the bad guy it would help them locate targets better. IDK. I think I tried that once, but they change the mechanics of this game often, so I should probably try it again.

The Call gets buffs that make it good for brawling, and usually I use a lot of passive melee with it. I’m going to have to try it with a gun of some sort and see how that works. My hope is that the Grenadier will tune into targets I’m actively engaged with better if I’m shooting at them myself.

Some folks say mixing up drones and using different types is bad, but I have some luck with that. It confuses the enemy a bit. Like if my grenadier actually engages an enemy, he never sees the Fuzes coming. Also the Owl/Anaconda combo makes kids wonder where the missiles are coming from, especially if I launch them from different positions. They’ll cancel the one and not notice the other sometimes. Then it’s too late, they’re hobbled and weak, and then I send in the Fuze…or they’ll catch me and pin my frail, unarmed, little body up against a cliff and shred me unto Valhalla. That happens a lot too.

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Lol, this for sure! I think this should be a canned response for everyone.

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It’s true for most weapons that look easy and free. Hovers too. I’ll not give the Boring-Trucker that much credit though…I play low PS and they are often my primary nemesis.

I will give them no quarter. Death to the Boring-Truckers!


I hate’m…but if it’s not one thing, it’s another…like Drones? Maybe. IDK.

If kids want to see them buffed, good for me, but I don’t think they need anything more than improved alertness, if that. I should have to work for my kills using drones. As it is, I think it’s pretty tricky, and of course I don’t like their flaws and would like it better if it was easier, but I don’t think it needs to be. I mean, after all, I’m still using art builds. If I was really upset about it, I could probably find more META way to go about drones.

I like it the way it is…mostly.

Art builds are prefect for drones. We don’t have a drone Meta, they are that bad :slight_smile:

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Well, get on it META-Monkey. What the hell?

No…on second thought, don’t. There was one once. It was awful. Glad it’s over, and I’m sure everybody else is too. I guess it was more like they were just OP. There really wasn’t any build trick, like with the typical META. You just did like the angry guy said, and loaded them up and drove around while they killed for you. When they expired, then you went into stealth mode. Wash, rinse, repeat.

They probably suck in the upper power-scores for various reasons (kids are too well armored, on hovers, or just packing too much heat too often). I think they work alright under 8K. The new drone-cab is supposed to help that issue along, but this battle pass is dragging battle ass, and none of us have gotten there yet to explore the potential. I haven’t. Maybe it’ll work? I think it’s too complicated for me. I tried it with an exhibition build and hated it, but then I can’t tinker with those either. It needs tinkering.

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Lol :slight_smile: I was hoping I could with the new cabin.

I even fused up all the drones before it was launched :slight_smile:

I still want to make some drone builds, but I’m less excited about it now know the cabin is not that good.

Hmmmm… maybe they just need to make that cabin better? It could be a start.

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There’s some other options too like make larger higher energy draw turrets. Many of the raids have larger turrets lingering around. If it was 6-8 energy players could have 1 with 2 support drones or just 2 of them. They could have longer life spans and higher durability as well.

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