The Design Evolution of a Combat Drone to Fight the Factorum in Space Engineers gamepaly ep 24

[@Ledgnair]

Welcome Back Bob, The gat drones area nice start! doing pretty good on the design but as usual I shall always consider putting autocannons or rockets on the drones for some more heavy firepower when you need it, perhaps a second string of drones.. light attack drones and heavy attack drones for example. the carrier is a simple design INFACT with some modifications you can put on a trailer for the Drake as a drone bay, something you can attach and detach depending on your needs depending on the journey. Hope this helps!

[@SurvivalBobGaming]

Thanks! Good ideas! I’ll definitely consider some heavier firepower!

[@JohnnyHughes1]

I have around 460 Hours in SE and I have never actually fought any battle except one or two skirmishes with Pirates. I have done Automatons drones for hauling cargo, so I understand the AI Flight, Record and Basic blocks and Landings, take offs, etc. Just added ACS and I am gettting ready to battle ASSERT .. starting to create some attack drones to patrol around my base. I'd though I'd get the Bob perspective on Drones :) I really enjoy your NMS and SE content, keep up the good work.

[@SurvivalBobGaming]

@@JohnnyHughes1 thank you so much! Good luck in your battles ahead!

[@fett713akamandodragon5]

I was splitting a gut watching you deal with the runaway 🤣, something must have tripped it's flee protocol which sets the big thrusters to max override and that evacuate gyro to override. And yes, the original ship on the workshop was a minelayer named Sciurus by Bruce LeedleLeedleLeedleLee, I've restored mine to that setup. As always, great vid Bob. 👍👍

[@SurvivalBobGaming]

Glad you enjoyed it! That runaway was a wild ride for sure. lol

[@Beeblebum]

Yeah, I think assuming the drones won't come back is a good assumption - They are mainly going to be your distraction with the added bonus of perhaps doing damage. That should also leave the factorum ships open to missile fire, as their attention will be focused on the drones. The only thing you should consider is that if you weld up your drones in Normal mode, the batteries will not have full charge, so you probably will have more 6-8 mins of power on them. (this is more important if you plan on welding the drones on your ship while in battle. In that case, a reactor instead of one battery might be a good solution. Laughed out Loud when you missed your spacestation by a hair with the pirate ship.. 😂

[@jamestaylor9887]

glad you are back. quick note. you don't need both the offensive AI block and Defensive AI block. in fact it might actually conflict and cause the drones to operate weirdly as the defensive block will likely try to make it flee while the offensive would try to press the attack. they both can control the weapons to the same range so it shouldn't really matter which one you use, but the offensive block usually seeks out targets

[@SurvivalBobGaming]

@@jamestaylor9887 thanks! That will save me some pain when I try to program them!

[@refusalspam]

The offensive block needs a way to trigger actions when it detects a target and when it can no longer see the target.

[@jamestaylor9887]

@@refusalspam it has the function but in already. There is a "setup actions" button in the settings of the block specifically for when it detects enemies or doesn't. The defensive block has the same setting. It's how you can use them to make a radar

[@refusalspam]

@ offensive block doesn’t have that setting. I checked recently.

[@refusalspam]

@ offensive block doesn’t have that setting. Only defensive block. That’s why ppl often need to add defensive block.

[@RaithGyaron]

Yay! Bob is back! 07

[@athomps14at]

I like the drone designs but would swap the gats for a pair of autocannons, slightly slower fire rate but bigger punch. That green raider is begging to be a drone carrier, slap a action relay on it and the drake and you can send signals to deploy the drones.

[@rameymj]

You had big engines directly behind smaller engines. The two big engines burned and destroyed as you ask them what was going on. They didn't answer, I suspect because they were on fire.

[@SurvivalBobGaming]

That's no excuse! lol Besides, I didn't design that ship it's a vanilla NPC ship. Which is pretty bad tbh...

[@src6339]

I dont know, man. My first factorium trial runs used my (at the time) stadard heavy corvette and a small swarm of light drones i was already running with my frigate. ...it was enough to take on the smaller encounters but generally did not go well. So i went on to throw a few missiles into the mix. That was also a bust. Ultimately, the most reliable attack mode i found was building rc missiles for a first strike attack. Building a dedicated, agile destroyer capable of shutting down a factorium barage or high profile escort in a single volley. And deploying 2 AI driven, full-blown corvettes to provide further screening. After i did all that, i accidentaly discovered that my two AI drone corvettes were capable of knocking out a factorium warship on their own when set to hit and run tactics as they'd lead the factoriums own missile swarms back into the factorium warship. Though the corvettes themselves rarely survived a raid intact.

[@RazielTheLost]

would be way cooler if you launched the final version from tiny alcoves along the side of a ship using regular doors as the hatch to their alcove, imagine a row of these doors opening and each door launching an attack drone during combat or ahead of combat

[@SurvivalBobGaming]

@@RazielTheLost 🤔🤔

[@pularis1629]

I would remove the antenna and camera, add the forwards thruster back, and add enough batteries to keep full power even with 3 directions while shooting. It’s hard, but definitely doable, especially if you are willing to sacrifice on aesthetics. You can temporarily slap camera and antenna on for testing. The reason you want at least enough batteries for full power is because it will lose some in the fight, and the could be… bad. I also would recommend where possible spreading out the thrust more, so one shot doesn’t remove an entire direction of thrust. I would also make a small grid carrier drone, that has the projectors for making these, good thrust and armor, but remote controlled, so it’s more expensive, but you’re not risking as much. That would also make it much easier, as you would need 3 vehicles for full battles, and only 2 for the fighting part (## Drones, # Carrier Drones, and 1 large ship with a jump drive. That way it’s a lot less in the line so you can go out and explore more Factorum (NOT FACTORIUM) encounters. I also wouldn’t recommend the Missles, they are more of a “ideal world” type of thing, as rockets are cheaper than them, (and easier and harder to shoot down) and assault, artillery, and railguns (which themselves are bad) deal more damage and can’t be shot down, but with no AOE. I would recommend a weapons tier list video (I forget what it’s called) It included all guns/turrets, rocket launchers, custom turrets and warheads with no handhelds in the video. It helped me a lot. Okay bye now

[@SurvivalBobGaming]

Wow, lots of good ideas there, I’m going to have to try some of those out!

[@ponderoussirap2098]

Nice

[@graybacca]

Also to make your life a little bit easier usually what I wind up doing for my jump drive is if like if I have a control seat or helm I'll usually name the jump drive C1 or H1 jump drive and that'll put it like one or two spots above in the control panel tab

[@Controlled_Insanity_003]

You need a diverse set of drones, mostly gat (3×9 & 3×8), some missiles, 2 railgun

[@SurvivalBobGaming]

@@Controlled_Insanity_003 yes! All of the drones!

[@Controlled_Insanity_003]

@SurvivalBobGaming make sure to check how other creators are making their drones, Zero's legion comes to mind

[@Hijunk71]

Here's a name for the drone call it Little Friend as in Scarface

[@SurvivalBobGaming]

@@Hijunk71 😂😂

[@Brokenfang77]

Workshop?

[@graybacca]

Going in suit only is the easiest way and less expensive way but yes it is a little painful

[@MrAwesomdary]

Hydrogen gives you more thrust to weight and will make your drone require less power as well.

[@SurvivalBobGaming]

I know But then you need hydrogen and tanks. I didn’t want to mess with that on a combat drone. I will for the rockets as they won’t be around long hopefully.