Donator
What does this suggestion change/add/remove:
Some form of alteration players can make to drones, or even a separate 'cargo drone' type - That would allow them to transport a small item or small amount of some kind of item; This would include documents (potentially including 096 pics?), cheques, dropped cash, small vCraft vials, vCraft food items that have an inventory space of up to 2x2. This could be as part of the Entities menu and/or a Warfunds asset, available to all factions & MCND in some fashion. A cargo drone will be significantly 'worse' than normal drones in terms of movement and/or reconnaissance - To encourage the continued use of normal drones for those purposes and give cargo drones a weakness to be exploited for interception.A decision would need to made as to whether or not this could carry vCraft conical flasks - Personally, I'd say no, but if you think it can be balanced, go for it.
While they should still be possible to destroy, It should be possible to shoot down a cargo drone and make it crash to the ground without destroying it.
Access permissions for the drone's cargo would be determined similar to how vehicle ownership works and could similarly be locked/unlocked via the connected drone controller and potentially with the keys SWEP? Or via a GUI element. Consider adding an option to be able to hack a locked drone to unlock it, to enable third parties to be able to intercept cargo drones and obtain their contents. A decision would need to be made about giving the drone the ability to directly drop its cargo - Although if it's decided that conical flasks could be carried by these drones, consider the potential (mis)use of this to create hume bubbles for dimension use, or the similar (ab)use of other chem effects.
Enable cargo drones to optionally be able to be fitted with a self-destruct explosive that only destroys the drone itself and its cargo. This would most likely be a separate Warfunds asset.
Has something similar been suggested before? If so, why is your suggestion different?:
This has a little overlap with Money Briefcase suggested before by @YandereMuffin, where this could potentially be used in the same manner, as a method of secure money transfer in negotations - The primary difference being is that this is being suggested as a general mechanic for players to develop and explore the uses of, rather than something expressly designed and prescribed for one specific purpose. It was denied for:Full agree. The cheque system is perfectly suitable for that situation and wasn't a problem that needed a solution. This suggestion differs in that it is not trying to solve some kind of existing problem, but give players new avenues to engage in regarding exchanges, intercepting exchanges between others, or even new forms of RP that could stem from this addition.
@Shinan's Hostage Rule Addition suggestion is worth a minor mention, as it has a slight overlap with hostage/negotiation RP that an implementation like this could potentially be involved in. That suggestion was withdrawn because in those situations, you should generally just be checking your guys anyway so that they aren't disguised agents/DCs and can't swindle you of the hostage/SCP. This suggestion differs for the same reason as above, and the fact that this is a content addition rather than a rule change.
Possible Positives of the suggestion (At least 2):
- + More use of drones
- + Creation of unique/interesting RP centred around cargo drones, or them being used to enhance existing RP and RP storylines
- +More things to do on surface
Possible Negatives of the suggestion:
- + Dev time, bugs
- + Abuse/Misuse
- + Balance concerns
Based on the Positives & Negatives, why should this suggestion be accepted:
Obviously, this shouldn't aim to replace in-person exchanges, but rather supplement them - The limitations serve not just as a "this makes sense that a drone can only carry so much," but also so that things like high-quantity/big items or SCPs still require in-person meetings to be held and RP to take place.Obviously, this can be used to safely withhold items in an exchange until the other side has exchanged their items - It can also be used to quickly deliver/RTB important documentation or small items from the field, encouraging/enabling document gameplay, etc. Third parties can intercept a drone-based exchange, for example if F or GOC wanted to give something to the other without the need to organise a meeting and wanted to use a cargo drone, they run the risk of it being shot down by CI and them RTBing with the cargo.
I'm sure there are also plenty of other uses for this idea that players could organically come up with and create RP around. This would be an extremely useful addition to the server that I definitely didn't come up with just because I want to airdrop fake 096 pics into compound and be warned for it.
