Drone - the most annoying thing ever.

M

MikeSixx

New member
Please, just make drone no-clip/non-interactable and place it on top of player head and make drone interactions a page in TAB key inventory/craft/skill menu. 

As it is now, it is hella annoying: 

Trying to build, you can't place block because drone is blocking it. 
Fighting zombies, you can not shoot the zombie becuse drone is protecting the zombie and blocks your every shot or strike. 
Trying plant crop, you can not place seed as drone block you. 
In your base trying to opne strage boxes the drone blocks you and you keep opening the drone invetory instead the storage box. 
Then when actually trying to interact with the drone, it keeps flying away form you and are spinning around trying to catch it.

Best one is digging straight down and they stack wood frames under you by jumping to get back up , like you always do, only realising that you can not anymore, because drone blocks you and you do not have enough inventory space to pick up the drone so you are stuck underground. I did discover then if you keep jumpin like 4-6 times that might nudge the drove up just enough so you can place building block under you. Still annoying though. 

Sure, this can be esily solved by telling your drone to stay put, then 20 minutes later having moved kilometers away you remember you forgot the tell your drone to follow again and try to remember where was it that you left it. 
 

 
Last edited by a moderator:
yeah, i hear you on these complaints.  I don't really have a workaround for any of them.  But when i am farming or miniing now i think i'll just pick the drone up and get my work done.  then re-activate the drone afterwards.

 
Javabean867 said:
yeah, i hear you on these complaints.  I don't really have a workaround for any of them.  But when i am farming or miniing now i think i'll just pick the drone up and get my work done.  then re-activate the drone afterwards.
Click to expand...
That's the best option when doing a lot of building or mining... That or tell it to not move, though you might forget it and have without it. 

It wasn't so bad until A21.  It was bad like this in early A20 but they fixed it so it wasn't too bad.  But then I'm A21, they changed the distance to you and it broke whatever fix they did in A20 and now it is always in the way and takes forever to stop moving so you can click on it.  You basically have to stop moving for a few seconds to get it to stop.  Shouldn't be necessary.  It shouldn't move just because you turn if your aren't moving forward or backwards.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I agree about it being the most annoying thing ever.  I can appreciate that it must be very difficult to program the pathing for it but man, something needs to change with it.  The problem is, it is always trying to get right in front of you.  I don't know if it's possible but maybe it can just follow you around, staying in your general vicinity, and when you need it you hit a keyboard button...boom...the drone moves to you instantly.  That way, it's never getting in your way anymore.

I stopped using it because it's just too annoying.

 
I think the hardest part is getting it to properly handle moving through a POI with you.  If it's set to only be in your vicinity, that could be a problem.  But that's just my guess.  If anything, I think that having a button that tells it to move behind you would be enough.  If you're moving small amounts like building and mining, once it's behind you, it will *normally* not end up in front of you again.  Having that initial "get behind me" button would help a lot.  And if it did get back in front of you as you moved around, you could just hit the button again.  That avoids any issues with changing how it normally moves and positions itself and just adds an extra movement controlled by you.

 
For me, I think it would solve all the problems if we had a remote way of saying Stay or Follow. Well, 'solve' is probably a strong word, but it would make all the issues manageable. I've been asking for this since they were introduced but I doubt tfp will ever change things. I am surprised that no one has created a mod, or if they have I haven't seen it. I see no reason why we have to be close enough to directly 'interact' with the drone. If we could have more than one at a time then yes that might be the case, but we can't.

 
Cr0wst0rm said:
They initially planned to make dogs but were either too lazy or for "iT WouLD Be HArD To CoDE" reasons, so that is why we have that useless flying piece of trash  :)
Click to expand...


I don't recall them saying they were planning on adding dogs to the game, I do recall a lot of people asking them to add dogs to the game though.

 
Pathing for a dog would be a problem.  The player can jump high with parkour.  Unless you expect them to allow a dog to jump just as high (that would be pretty ridiculous), the dog will often not be able to follow you.  Something  that flies avoids the problems associated with a ground-based unit.

 
Cr0wst0rm said:
That is just a stupid excuse, I am sorry but I would never expect such an answer.

1) Why does it work in other games?
   1.a) You can use other techniques (like teleporting it towards player when the dog is behind (ever heard of dot product in vector math?)).
2) Pathing is already calculated for quadrupedal AIs, why it should be a problem for a dog? Does it move like a chess horse or what is the source of path problem? So in short your arguments make no sense.
3) Are you telling me jumping 1 meter block for a dog is a problem? Really? Have you ever walked a dog in real life?
Click to expand...
1) Sure, but that would look stupid.  Dogs can't teleport.

2) Zombies can't do parkour.

3) I'm not talking about normal 1m jumps.  I'm talking about max parkour.

Just because you can make the dog do what the player can do doesn't make it a good thing to do.  It would look pretty dumb having a dog teleport around or do crazy jumps or climb ladders (yes, certain dogs have been trained to climb ladders in real life, but that's not normal and just looks stupid regardless).

 
Suxar said:
So a teleporting drone is normal, but a dog is not?
Click to expand...
If there was a such thing as teleportation technology, a drone could certainly use it.  A dog would not.  I suppose if you had a robot dog, then that would not be an issue.  It's really a moot point anyhow because they've said they have no intention of adding a dog companion.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Suxar said:
No ifs. The current game already uses this.
Click to expand...
The discussion about dogs teleporting is related to real life as should be clear in the original comments about it.  Just because the game has teleporting doesn't mean dogs should.

 
Cr0wst0rm said:
Which again is showing that it is just your opinion because either you are trying to defend reasoning for choosing drone / you have something against dogs / you have no clue how games have been working for past 15 years.
Click to expand...
Did I ever say it wasn't my opinion?  The only facts I provided were that TFP has said they wouldn't add a dog and that dogs in real life don't teleport and that the reason given for not having drugs is pathing, which includes parkour issues.  I might have also said in this thread that most dogs cannot climb ladders and stated my opinion that people training them to do so is dumb.

Shall I be perfectly clear so you can't complain about the wording?  In my opinion, and this in entirely 100% opinion (yes, this is an opinion), I do not think did should be allowed to teleport to overcome the parkour challenges in the game just so people can have a dog instead of a drone.  I did day, again it is an opinion, that if the dog was a robot, I would not care about teleporting.

Now, you clearly understood that what I said was an opinion because you said it was.  So what are we talking about here?  Are you trying to say I am not allowed to voice my opinion because it is different from yours?  That and trying to make me look like an idiot just because I have a different opinion?

You should realize that everyone in this world will have different opinions than you, even if they agree about most topics.  No one's opinion is more right or wrong than anyone else's.  They can't be because they are opinions and not fact.  A fact can be right or wrong, but an opinion is subjective.  And everyone has the right to express their opinion, even if it doesn't align with your view.

And, btw, thinking dogs should be in the game is also an opinion.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Okay, so back on topic.  Let's put aside the facts for a moment - let's forget that TFP said no, let's forget that there are issues with pathing related to parkour jumps and ladders (even if you don't care about teleporting animals).  Let's just look at it as if there wasn't any reason not to have a ground based animal as a pet/companion for a moment.

It seems that every game with an animal pet/companion uses a dog.  (I said it "seems"... obviously some do not).  I would be fine with a dog.  There's nothing wrong with a dog.  But it is used so often in games that it's cliché.  If given a choice, I'd rather something different just for variety.  Given what we have in this game, I'd choose a mountain lion instead.  I'm sure there's at least one game that uses a mountain lion for a pet/companion, but I don't know what it might be and it certainly isn't common.  It would be a nice change.  Or it could be something else.  As I said, a dog would be acceptable, but I'd rather see something we don't normally see instead.  So there is my opinion when you disregard the things above (or if TFP agreed and pathing could be fixed in a believable way).

But, just so we are on the same page, changing from a drone to a dog or something else isn't going to solve the reasons why the drone is annoying.  The drone might fly over your farm plots when you're working, but a dog would walk over them while you're working.  A drone might be in your way mining (usually only when mining at eye level since that's where the drone is... it's not normally an issue if you're digging down), but a dog would also be in your way but would instead be in the way when mining down rather than at eye level since it's at ground level.  The issues with the drone aren't due to it being a drone.  The issues are with the pathing for it.  And those issues wouldn't just go away because you swapped it for a dog.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top