RoTS drone vehicles?

[mbear]

With the Republic using drone 'Mechs for various purposes, do you think we'll see more drone vehicles used by the Republic for defensive duties?

[Natasha Kerensky]

With the Republic using drone 'Mechs for various purposes, do you think we'll see more drone vehicles used by the Republic for defensive duties?

I think it depends on type of drone.

Lots more Celerities?  Probably not.  Yeah, the crazy speed is fun, but with the XXL engine, it's an insanely expensive way to get a +4 movement modifier and do recon, spec ops, and spotting duties that much less expensive units can execute with much less fragility and for a fraction of the cost.  The -05 has to be the Inner Sphere's most obtuse and costly cruise missile.  At some point, even with the riches of Terra, the Republic can only afford so many of these things.

Lots more Revenants?  Also probably not.  Even if they're not exposed to combat, you still have to provide people with some level of mechwarrior training to run the Revenant (or take trained mechwarriors out of better mechs), and the Revenant doesn't offer much that's worth that investment (same goes for the Celerity above).  You'd rather put those skills towards more capable mechs (see Lich below).   And Revenants are so easy to defeat with ECM that they're not worth the cost once the opposition figures this out (also goes for the Celerity above).

Lots more Liches?  Most probable of the ground-based drones.  The Lich is a very capable sniper, worth the investment in training and/or taking a MechWarrior out of their current ride.  And it's well protected from ECM interference by its Angel suite.  And while as expensive as most mechs, the Lich is not insanely unaffordable, unlike the Celerity.

More knowledgeable folks should chime in on aerospace drones.

[mbear]

I was thinking more like the drone zephyr but you make a good point about the 'Mechs. I could see a ground based command station in a fortress controlling a group of drone Behemoth tanks for example.

Edit: What prompted the question was the Scorpion Tank article in Fan Articles. Several people mentioned how terrible it is and how you're dooming the crew to a horrible death wen I thought "What if it was like a drone? Put a Drone OS in it and go to town."

[Natasha Kerensky]

I was thinking more like the drone zephyr but you make a good point about the 'Mechs. I could see a ground based command station in a fortress controlling a group of drone Behemoth tanks for example.

If you put some value on either the lives of the crewmen or what you have to their training and salary, then the argument for drone tanks is actually easier than for drone mechs because most tanks require more than one crewman.  Assuming one drone crewman remotely controls one drone tank, you free up crewmen and can field more tanks with fewer crewmen using drones.  Because they are crewed by only one mechwarrior, mechs don't benefit from this argument.  But most combat vehicles do.

Like the Lich, the omni-Zephyr carries Angel ECM, so it has the added benefit of being hard to disrupt with other ECM systems. Although Angel ECM is expensive, if I was investing in high-end tanks like Behemoths, I'd probably add Angel ECM so I wouldn't lose control of them to the first Succession Wars-era Raven that strolls by.

Lich snipers in the rear screened by Zephyr As and Bs up front make for a decent all-drone force.  It's too bad the Lich doesn't carry C3 to benefit from the Zephyr B's targeting data.

Edit: What prompted the question was the Scorpion Tank article in Fan Articles. Several people mentioned how terrible it is and how you're dooming the crew to a horrible death wen I thought "What if it was like a drone? Put a Drone OS in it and go to town."

At some point, the costs of drone systems overwhelm the economic benefits of cheap tanks like the Scorpion.  Cheapo tanks have to operate in numbers to be effective.  Can I still buy enough Scorpions to meet my needs if I'm adding drone systems to them or am I better off buying more Scorpions and crews?  This becomes an especially difficult economic argument if we're also adding the costs of ECM (especially Angel ECM) to the cheapo tanks to protect their operability as drones.

To get the biggest defensive bang for a given number of crewmen, I could definitely see the Republic converting or fielding large drone vehicle garrisons.  Would be a nasty surprise when the walls come down.  Same could have held true for the Blakies in the closing stages of the Jihad or the Society in the Clan Homeworlds.

FWIW...

[glitterboy2098]

to be honest, the cost of the drone systems (in terms of resources if not Cbills) would preclude common use on cheaply made fragile tanks like the Scorpion. you just don't get much benefit combat wise.

now, a Shildkrote? i could see that. darn near impossible to kill or immobilize, and still boasts decent firepower. your not going to be replacing all your drones after every battle. and yet still light enough to fit into light vehicle bays, or just load as cargo.


recon platforms are a different kettle of fish, in that they are expected to avoid fighting. one of the reasons the PathTrack and NapFind Drones for the Hi-Scout are unarmed. prevent the operators from getting funny ideas. the main reason to use drones for recon is just to avoid having to write "i am sorry to inform you" letters should the drone stumble over an enemy force and be unable to escape