Thank you for the report.
Aegyen wrote:I was considering suggesting that it be made into it's own piece of ware
DCS's ancestor, LSDC, required Fight Command Software, Carrier Command Software, and Patrol Command Software. In my experience, both personal and observations on the forum, it seems that people have trouble keeping track of all of the required wares for various scripts. It is frustrating when a script does not work and you don't know why!
That is why only Fight Command 1 is required. It could be Carrier Command Software, but I have heard that there are players who do not even know that it exists. So I stuck with FCS1. At least that is common.
I am open to other ideas, but my thought about equipment, in general, is that the best gameplay experiences with equipment happen early in the game; when you are trying to scrape together enough cash to be able to afford your first jumpdrive... if only you could find one. That's fun! But, later in the game, equipment is more hassle than fun.
On the other hand, the pricing and behavior of the Turbo Booster are excellent. That is one custom ware that I like in mid-game. So custom wares can be good... it is just that most of them seem flawed in some way. The EMP system is very restrictive, in that prices and required notoriety are already set.
If I find a reliable way to make a custom ware that works well, then I will certainly add it.
make it so it can 'control' only so many drones of each type
Yes, that is the primary feature of the planned "Balanced Mode". Also, it will have different behavior when In-Sector with the player. Possibly no drones at all in-sector... or maybe just fewer. I am not sure yet. Also, Balance Mode will charge more for on-board drone replication. I am thinking on the order of hundreds of thousands of credits. A Drone Carrier is so much easier to use than a real carrier -- there is no reason for it to also be less expensive.
Operating costs for a drone carrier will be somewhere near the costs of a real carrier; perhaps a bit more or less. There might even be the possibility of varied costs depending on the battle power of the carrier. For example, the ability to launch 25 drones might be less expensive than a normal carrier. The ability to launch 75 drones might cost *more* than a normal carrier. There may even be the possibility to purchase upgrades to the DCS software. We shall see.
but you must supply the drones.
There are issues with the player supplying the drones:
- - The logistics are complicated.
- The primary role of the Drone Carried is automated OOS patrol. Constantly feeding it drones seems contrary to the main goal.
- Some ships will launch drones on their own, and can spam them, especially OOS. So, if your Drone Carrier carries 1,000 drones, the vanilla routines might launch a hundred of them. That's bad. The best "cure" is to limit the number of drones on board. However, that more or less requires the ability to replace them on demand.
Eventually, I hope to expand DCS to include the new ship-type "race" drones in AP. When that happens, other possibilities open up.
No matter how you do it, if your Drone Carrier is out of drones when he is out on patrol, then he is going to get hammered by the first Q he runs into.
please make sure nothing in your script would interfere with MARS' turrets.
Of course. So far, DCS does not conflict with anything. MARS is one of my favorites, as well. Note that turrets are meaningless OOS, which is where the Drone Carrier should be, most of the time, so there is little chance for conflict anyway.
The only conflict that could arise (that I can easily see), would be if there were not enough drones on board to meet both scripts requirements.
Yeah, that might require some creativity. I would have to keep a small surplus number of drones on board. I think I can do it, but I can also envision potential complications. We shall see.
I will try it tonight, and tell you.
I would expect the current system to coexist OK with MARS goblins.
Also: 
(Free Jump)
(I will try it tonight, and tell you.. 
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