Apprentices Broom Drone

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Akkamaddi
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Apprentices Broom Drone

Post by Akkamaddi »

Apprentices Broom Drone

This is an expansion of an idea presented in the VIP thread. The short version is that these drones can slowly transport certain ores from a local settlement CS/CSTS store to an orbital refinery, where the ore can be processed by Automated Merlin Refineries.

This expansion is just a potential idea. I welcome any constructive input and Coops will do the work. My personal belief is that it is more useful to present a more fleshed-out idea than “do something cool with drones”. This is what has bounced around my head for the past week.

“Apprentices Broom Drone by Penworthy Industries allow some captains to transport mined ore from planetary stores to the vaults of orbiting refineries. Here, the Automated Merlin Refineries, which are far too dangerous to operate planet-side, use technology bordering on alchemy to create high value materials. This transfer is very slow, as the ores must be sanitized of hazards introduced by a planetary environment, such as oxidizing gasses and Perlite-neutralizing chemicals, stray industrial nanites, warehouse workers looking for a quiet place to nap, and Ribbelz. There are three models, and each Captain can operate a limited number of drones.”

For an image, I think the Melar Smuggler from Project Terran would be the perfect image.

My suggestion is to not tie them to drone points, but enforce a limit of globally active drones equal to the number of global Merlin Refinery slots the captain can activate, based on their Penworthy Rank level. If a flat number is easier, I would say five, but I think it would be better to start with one and be able to use more as the captain raises Penworthy Rank. A captain can own many more drones, but only the limit can be in use at any given time.

The drones work slowly, depositing an hourly amount. They are designed to enhance ADV mining drones, not replace them.

The drones transport ore from a settlement within the same system as the Orbiting Refinery, which must have a CSTS. The drones cannot transit jump gates. So, the source ore must be in the same system as an Orbiting Refinery, but once deposited the Advanced Ore Storage is global. This means the player must maintain a stash of ore within an appropriate system(s) for drone transport.

To activate a drone:

The captain would dock at an Orbiting Refinery, and go to the Advanced Ore Store. A new section would be added at the bottom, “Active Apprentices Broom Drone”. The layout would be in rows, with a new row for each drone. A row would appear for each drone the captain can activate. The section would be mirrored across all Orbiting Refineries.

Each row would have four elements, an “Acitvate//Model” button, a pull-down menu for the source, a pull-down menu for the resource, and a recall button.

The first button would say “Activate”. The player would press it, and then see a list of drones in ship storage. The player would pick one. The button then changes from “Activate” to an inactive button that shows the name of the drone model.

The player is then moved to the next pull-down menu, which will list all settlements in the system with a CSTS. The player must pick one. If there are no systems with a CSTS, the menu says “NO SOURCE AVAILABLE”, and the player must pick the recall button.

The player is then moved to the next pull down menu, which lists all the ores in that settlement’s commercial storage that can be moved to the Advanced Ore Store. The player must pick from this list. Note that only ores that can be stored in the Advanced Ore Store can be transported.

(Allowing basic Ore can also be done. Players who do not have Penworty Rank can still technically use one Drone, and could slowly move Ore to the Orbiting Refinery. It could be more efficient than a Titan Refinery, but would be much slower and would require regular trips to the Refinery. A Titan Refinery is faster and easier.)

When the two menu options are selected, the drone begins to work on an hourly tick. Each hour a specific (and small) number (based on the drone model) of the specified ore units will be moved from the specified settlement into the Advanced Ore Store. If the settlement’s store goes empty, the drone becomes inert until an activity tick where the source material is replenished, or it times out and returns to the player’s ship.

The “Recall” button deactivates the drone entry and moves the drone back to the ship storage. The Recall button is a global function; the player can recall drones from other systems.

The Apprentices Broom Drones also appear in a new section under View Assets > View Drones. In Drone view, the player can see the model, system, material transported, time to live, and also has a recall button.

The drones:

There are three models, each with a transport rate and time to live. If a drone’s time expires, it is returned to the ship hangar.

Flanigen Drone
Ore transport: 5 per hour
Time to live: 14 days
Captain level: 20
Source: Player made, Festive Store (500 points)
Player trade/sell: Yes

The Flanigen Drone is the simplest model. It can transport five units of ore, with facilities to sanitize it for Refinery safety en route. By Penworthy regulations it must undergo maintenance every two weeks, so it requires regular attention from a captain.

These are named after the old Earth chemist Edith Flanigen best known for first making synthetic emeralds and zeolite.


Lyon Drone
Ore transport: 10 per hour
Time to live: 21 days
Source: CES & VIP
Captain level: 30
Player trade/sell: No, player lock

The Lyon Drone is an advanced model, usually only available to those who grease the right palms in Penworty administration. The schematics have never been publicly released. These units can transport and sanitize ten units of ore an hour, and only require maintenance every three weeks.

They are named after Mary Lyon, a college chemistry teacher from old Earth who pioneered having lab exercises be an integral part of basic chemistry education.


Noddack Drone
Ore transport: 15 per hour
Time to live: 28 days
Source: CES & VIP
Captain level: 40
Player trade/sell: No, player lock

The Noddack Drone is a model normally only used within Penworthy Industries. It can safely transport fifteen units of ore per hour, and Penworthy regulations only require maintenance every four weeks.

It is named after Ida Tacke Noddack, an old Earth chemist who was central to the discovery of nuclear fission.


Schematic for Flanigen Drone:
Purchased from Coopers Shchematic Supply. Unsure of price, but on par with deep core mk1 (about one million credits).

1000 Refined Ore : Geodesic Guide Lenser (x4) : Drone AI Locator System (x6)
Core AI Housing (x1) : Heavy Retrieval Hopper (x1) : Merlin ASC Unit (x1)

Geodesic Guide Lenser is High Tech Engineering Loot.
Drone AI Locator System is High Tech Loot.
Core AI Housing is a schematic for ADV mining drones from Warstrider Schematics.
Heavy Retrieval Hopper is a schematic for Deep Core Heavy Retrieval Drones from Warstrider Schematics.
Merlin ASC Unit is a schematic for AMR’s from Coopers Schematic Supply.
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Coops
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Re: Apprentices Broom Drone

Post by Coops »

LOL - consider this 'idea' expanded and posted :) My oh my, I need to be careful what I ask for LMAO :)

Coops.
A Walk in the Woods helps me relax and release the tension from a hard day at the code.
The fact that I'm dragging a body behind me should be irrelevant!
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