Drone control range

[Falcrack]

Just wondering if there will be a maximum range at which you can control your drones remotely from the mother ship. If for example your player controlled ship had to be in the same system, or within a couple systems of the drone you wish to control, that would add an extra measure of danger to the game since you would be be putting your actual pilots life closer to the fight.

On the other hand, it would be kinda nice to remotely jump into a fighter drone on the other side of the galaxy if there's a fight going on.

I'm also wondering if all the drones and technology available to the player was also going to be available to the NPCs. It kinda an immersion killer to me in games where I as a player have access to technology and techniques that NPC players lack, such as in X3:TC where I seem to be the only person in the universe who thinks putting jumpdrives on all their freighters for faster trading is a good idea. That bugs me.

[Kor'ah]

makes sense that there will be a maximum range the VR interface can be used. Range that you can give simple orders to drones like, "Go here and Do this" can be much greater, but I expect it to be kept inside the same solar system.

[Falcrack]

I just read in the economy sticky about a module you can put on stations to extend control range. So it seems to me that the range at which ships/stations can be controlled directly by the player is not unlimited.

[Skeeter]

My guess is the local "sector" your in which means anywhere where your at but if it needs a fast travel lane then nope.

[Eskymak]

I was always dreamed about being xenon like - forces controled from one mother (core) ship with limited range of transmission.

And interesting question for player ship/carrier builders:

Have AI (or VR pilots) controlling all drones in one mother ship, with benefit of great coorination and very pecision commanding (every move and action) but limited range of operation and if mother ship is lost (destroyed or out of range[emergency jump]), drones try to use free cpu power of other mother ship in range or will be inactive (or selfdestroyed as defend agains spionage)

or AI in every drone, independent on mother ship but accepting only classic autopilot command (attack target, etc)

or combination both of them - when mother ship is out of range, drones try to use preprogramed commands (defend sector, attack all enemies,... or inactive, autodestruction....)

[CharlieChop]

As stated before, i belive that the antennaes you can build in your station are probably to control drones in charge fo that specific station. Yur player ship itself is a hiveship with the necesary equipment to control drones. I wouldnt be surprised if you can control drones from your ship and extend your own range by standing withing one of your stations coms range. Similar to the way the fog of war worked in HW. But instead of unit detection we have area of control.

This actually is good because it forces you to slowly gain control of sectors by ensuring a stable network from which your drones can operate like a giant hive mind.

[Virtualaughing]

All we can hope is to order the player ship to follow your drone in uncharted territory