Grineer Informer Drone Feedback (Unit, Not The Event)

[Lady_Khaos]

Let me start by saying I love the concept, the look, and the event.

However, I feel like these drones simply do not do enough to warrant their existence. I mean, what all do they really do? They jam your mini map. OH NO!!! I barely used it as is, besides knowing which direction to go.
Improvements? I think they should 1) alert the crew if you get within a certain range [shorter range than the radar jamming], 2) scout around an area, rather than just floating there, and 3) have a light pistol caliber weapon to defend themselves to some degree, maybe equal to the Shield Lancer's Sicarus. With these changes, it would actually become a threat to not take them out quickly, rather than just a slight annoyance.

Also, just a thought that will make more sense as we get more ground based map types, why do the Grineer have spy drones floating around inside their own ships? Shouldn't they be scouting out enemy bases? Granted, I'd be even more weirded out if I saw one inside of a Corpus ship...

EDIT: Please keep the comments on topic to developing the unit. This thread is not about finding them and how to kill them during the event. -.-

Edited July 6, 2013 by Khaos_Zand3r

[N4F4N]

where have you actually seen any?  I can't seem to find any drones anywhere...

[K244]

where have you actually seen any?  I can't seem to find any drones anywhere...

 Been looking at missions with 15-??? Grinneer? I found a dozen so far.

[Guest]

Be warned, they seem to spawn only in 15-??? missions. I just ran a 16-something and didn't see a single. Might be wrong though.

Edit: I was wrong. They appear on Everest, which is 18-something.

Edited July 6, 2013 by Guest

[darksolgamer]

All the Drone kills I've gotten have been on Cambria (Earth). I've been getting between 5-15 kills per mission.

Edited July 6, 2013 by darksolgamer

[Westmin]

I imagine they will be given some sort of arsenal after the event. I assume they will be kept in, but spawn much less frequently (as with the Fusion Moas). My clan was just chatting about this and figured that there might be a few reasons. First among them was Sentinels - If the Informer is classed as a regular enemy, your sentinel will kill them, and not do enough damage to kill them (not to mention not counting as kills for yourself). If they toss weapons or support skills on the drones, presumably you would want your sentinel to engage them, but they would then also have more health to be viable as enemies.

What things could they do, you ask?

Medical Station - Heal nearby Grineer with a cooldown timer.

Ogris Battle Turret - Fires slow moving explosive shots.

Disruption - Radial, drains enemy shields and/or energy.

I would love to see these stay in the game with different (even varied) functionality.

[Anvildude]

I keep on seeing them for a second, then they flash away.

 

Kinda makes sense you wouldn't see the invisible spy drones.

[Guest]

(...)

I would love to see these stay in the game with different (even varied) functionality.

 

I agree, like a Grineer version of Ospreys. It was about time the uglies caught up with the 'bots.

[RockCambo]

I think that DE should introduce an enemy that gradually evolves in tactics and difficulty throughout the event as the bar progesses. It would make sense lorewise because our enemies are always trying to look for new ways to eliminate us, especially when we show them that their new toys and guns aren't as strong as they think they are.

Edited July 6, 2013 by RockCambo

[fatpig84]

Informer drones can use a carry bay.

And it drops Rollers !!

 

F**K yeah !

We should have maps with nothing but informer drones !

Edited July 6, 2013 by fatpig84

[Lady_Khaos]

where have you actually seen any?  I can't seem to find any drones anywhere...

 

Pretty much everywhere past Saturn. I've killed over 80 in the course of 4 missions.

 

 

I imagine they will be given some sort of arsenal after the event. I assume they will be kept in, but spawn much less frequently (as with the Fusion Moas). My clan was just chatting about this and figured that there might be a few reasons. First among them was Sentinels - If the Informer is classed as a regular enemy, your sentinel will kill them, and not do enough damage to kill them (not to mention not counting as kills for yourself). If they toss weapons or support skills on the drones, presumably you would want your sentinel to engage them, but they would then also have more health to be viable as enemies.

What things could they do, you ask?

Medical Station - Heal nearby Grineer with a cooldown timer.

Ogris Battle Turret - Fires slow moving explosive shots.

Disruption - Radial, drains enemy shields and/or energy.

I would love to see these stay in the game with different (even varied) functionality.

 

Healing ones would be cool. Though also a huge pain in the @$$. As would a missile turret one. Disruption I could see being in the game. Have it screw up the whole HUD rather than just the map, like the Ancient Disruptor does.

[Weird_Stealth]

all 20 of my info drone kills has been on Earth.

Also, Saryn's ult ability maxed out with maxed focus on kills them, Don't use Nyx to hunt them, if you do, don't use any ability that would cause an enemy to shoot it. Look up, they like to be above you.  Also there's a slight glitch of sorts, in a mobile defence mission one floated to the console I was defending, which was weird cause I was walking up some steps dealing with some shotgunners when it floated through the camera.

[Selvitarm]

Well my thoughts on this event are from what i have seen that it is a griefers paradise. All you do is take a aoe frame with sprint and run around and then just start spamming your ultimate and no one else in the game gets kills. The easiest solution to this would be that the whole group gets credit for the kills rather than just the player who kills them. Also the fact that you keep running events only on weekends in mildly irritating as i am a person that works long hours on weekends and plays during the week and i dont even get the chance to get any of the rewards as a result. With this event i did have the time to play for a few hours figured ok 20 kills sounds easy then i encounted ability spammers so the only solution i can see to that problem under the current system is to play alone so that no one can grief the kills with there frames kits.

[Chebarus]

As someone who always has Enemy Radar on, the drones actually provide a pretty big distraction. I can see how they still don't do much though.

[shimbaby]

they are really hard to find only got 3 so far

[YummyBubbles]

guys, stop using wyrm and dethcube, also, switch to a high-powered rifle. It took me less than half an hour to get 27 of them. pay attention to your minimap as you do a mission, they fuzz it up, but enemy radar doesn't sense them. note: I've seen them die with as little as 150 damage, so they're really easy to kill, but sentinels do auto-target them as do abilities, so if you're going to take one, take shade, it only fires on retaliation. Also, don't use nyx, using chaos will cause enemy soldiers to shoot them, and they'll disappear.

 

weapons of note to take: snipertron (if you have it), latron (power it up), paris, dread, lanka. don't take ogris, there's a chance they'll be close enough to the ground to take minor radial damage and disappear.

 

this mission is much easier than it looks, just think for a second to think about your loadout before you set out on a mission.  ^_^

[K244]

guys, stop using wyrm and dethcube, also, switch to a high-powered rifle. It took me less than half an hour to get 27 of them. pay attention to your minimap as you do a mission, they fuzz it up, but enemy radar doesn't sense them. note: I've seen them die with as little as 150 damage, so they're really easy to kill, but sentinels do auto-target them as do abilities, so if you're going to take one, take shade, it only fires on retaliation. Also, don't use nyx, using chaos will cause enemy soldiers to shoot them, and they'll disappear.

 

weapons of note to take: snipertron (if you have it), latron (power it up), paris, dread, lanka. don't take ogris, there's a chance they'll be close enough to the ground to take minor radial damage and disappear.

 

this mission is much easier than it looks, just think for a second to think about your loadout before you set out on a mission.  ^_^

Honestly, all I did was use my Rhino and Gorgon.

Gorgon mowed the law until the smell of fresh cut Grineer was in the air and then I collected the energy to use Rhino Stomp or Rhino Charge and I'd hit and kill them. Also my Dethcube never shot at one even when it was floating by, could've been a glitch or my Dethcube could have been shooting at some Grineer, but it didn't try to shoot.

[OoKeNnEtHoO]

I too agree that this unit should have more uses other than just to mess up the minimap.

 

It could function as a hidden camera and alert enemies to the area.

 

Maybe after the event is done, make them not cloak after being shot at once but not killed, and fire a lazer beam, taser shot or something as a punishment for not killing them on the first shot.

 

Like some mentioned above, they could also drop additional units like rollers or something else every once in a while, if it detects you but you do not kill it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have gotten 28 of them so far.

 

I played on Ceres. You need to do missions with lvl 15 and above grineers.

 

When your minimap goes fuzzy, look up and around the area and you should see it.

 

I used a Hek to shoot them and carrying a Dethcube did not interfere.

 

I used Dread and Acrid on them too and they work too. However if you are too far away, do not use acrid since if the following shots do not land quick enough after the first, then the drone will disappear. I believe it would be the same for all bolt weapons and weapons with bullets that have traveling time.

 

Happy Hunting!

Edited July 6, 2013 by OoKeNnEtHoO

[Oz270]

I really like the new drones, if they move around better they will be the real flying enemy that we were all waiting for (drones only float around head height, easy to spot)

Like to see a cluster bomb drone (drops cluster bombs that does damage and multiple explosions make it hard to see)

[shimbaby]

a

 

Well my thoughts on this event are from what i have seen that it is a griefers paradise. All you do is take a aoe frame with sprint and run around and then just start spamming your ultimate and no one else in the game gets kills. The easiest solution to this would be that the whole group gets credit for the kills rather than just the player who kills them. Also the fact that you keep running events only on weekends in mildly irritating as i am a person that works long hours on weekends and plays during the week and i dont even get the chance to get any of the rewards as a result. With this event i did have the time to play for a few hours figured ok 20 kills sounds easy then i encounted ability spammers so the only solution i can see to that problem under the current system is to play alone so that no one can grief the kills with there frames kits.

so true volt ftw

[IcarusNine]

Informer drones can use a carry bay.

And it drops Rollers !!

 

F**K yeah !

We should have maps with nothing but informer drones !

This and Nervos.

[XCodes]

This post is like asking what practical purpose the Fusion Core on Sabotage maps serves. These drones are simply an objective, and they scramble your mini-map in order to make them both harder and easier to find (harder because Enemy Radar doesn't work against them, easier because you know they're around when your map scrambles).

 

Also, solution to losing event kills is to play Private/Solo instead of Online, and if you pick a decent mission you'll have your 20 drone kills within a half-hour.

[PaperAlien]

This post is like asking what practical purpose the Fusion Core on Sabotage maps serves. These drones are simply an objective, and they scramble your mini-map in order to make them both harder and easier to find (harder because Enemy Radar doesn't work against them, easier because you know they're around when your map scrambles).

 

Also, solution to losing event kills is to play Private/Solo instead of Online, and if you pick a decent mission you'll have your 20 drone kills within a half-hour.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

[neKroMancer]

I simply want to see the Drones do more than this. They can't move, can't shoot, but hey they can scramble your minimap! How useful they are!

Being an informer drone, I think it should informs nearby troopers of hostile activity once they detect Tenno. Also, it would be nice if they act as detector unit - detect and decloak cloaked unit. They can be deadly without firing a single shot and become a big part of stealth gameplay.

[dyuxi]

As much as I like the drone's design, this "shoot the jammer drone hidden in stage" feels more like

a mini-game for a DOJO rather than it being an actual threat.

but who knows, maybe these drones will serve more purpose when the stealth system gets overhauled.