Suggestion: Allow Frigates to construct Defence Drones

[Scoob]

Hey all,

I was pondering the utility of Frigates - so the likes of the Argon Cerberus or Paranid Gorgon - vs. a regular Corvette. Frigates tend to be a bit tankier perhaps, but otherwise under-armed vs. many of the Corvettes as well as being a bit slow, with the Paranid Nemesis being a great example of both. The theoretical strength of a Frigate is its ability to launch Defence Drones of course. However, IIRC, they only launch one Drone + the Pilot's level. I.e. a level 0 total rookie Pilot would launch just ONE Drone, a full five-star Pilot would launch six - at least, that's how I read it worked.

What I'd suggest would make Frigates better is two things:

Firstly, allow them to deploy MORE Drones per Pilot level. I'd start with a base of two or three, going up to ALL Drones at the highest Pilot levels

Secondly, as per topic, allow Frigates to BUILD Drones in the field. Defence Drones are very much a consumable asset, as they're pretty weak, but in numbers they can be quite effective. Attrition is high though.

Having to return to restock frequently is a pain, if the Frigate could build its own Drones, based on resources, that'd be pretty darn nice I think. Giving these vessels improved utility would be worth it, I think. Perhaps give them some extra cargo capacity to support this feature.

I remember when I first played X4 (at launch) and I was really keen to get one of these ships. It was great to feel that I had a "mini base" I could land my Fighter on, however, it had such limited utility. Weaker than a decent Corvette in a fighter, and not able to deploy many Drones.

Note: I'd often order a Frigate's Drones to "Escort" duty, so ALL of them would be deployed at all times. This made them VERY effective, however, this does not appear to work in the current v7.0 Beta - I might do a report on that.

Random thought: While they could build Drone using the current recipe (Universal, Terran or Closed-Loop) perhaps a new "Drone Kit" product could be put in place especially for any Drone Carrier vessels, where it'd stock multiple Drone Kits, able to be assembled into Drones as existing Drone are deployed. This implies than a Frigate hasn't got a full Drone construction bay like a Station has, but it can assemble them when they're supplied in kit form. Just a random musing, I just want these ships to be more useful. Currently they rarely deployed their drones other than singularly - same for Faction-owned ones - and have to return to restock, or just run around empty.

What do people think?

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

I would like a patrol base, with a means of producing drones. The base would be in a sector, it needs to be well defended. Ships using it as a base would land restock on drones and then take off and patrol the sector.
All we need is an effective means of setting up a patrol strategy or set of way points.
[edit]
Also the base should be able to produce other consumables, satellites and laser towers for instance.