Scout Drones

PAGE IS OUTDATED AND AWAITING NEW FINAL INFO FROM THE OVERHAUL. PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING WITH THAT IN MIND!

Things we know have changed: Drones will now be only available as loot drop and will be tier based.

Scout Drones can be purchased at Bandit Camp or Outpost. **/buydrone** provides all available commands. All Scout Drones are one-time use. Once deployed and piloted via a Computer Station, the drone will self-destruct under the following conditions:

* Upon reaching its maximum battery life
* Upon reaching its maximum radius from the origin of its deployment
* If its maximum health is depleted by being shot down
* If the drone collides with terrain and lands on the ground in a flipped-over state
* If the pilot presses space bar and disconnects from piloting the drone
* If the computer station is destroyed
* If the drone pilot is killed
* If the Scout Drone achieves its goal and gets a successful scout reading

### Drone Qualities

* **Basic Scout Drone**: 125 Scrap / 2.5 Minutes Battery / 250 Meter Range / 1.25 HP
* **Advanced Scout Drone**: 250 Scrap / 5.0 Minutes Battery / 500 Meter Range / 2.5 HP
* **Superior Scout Drone**: 500 Scrap / 10.0 Minutes Battery / 1000 Meter Range / 5.0 HP
* **Elite Scout Drone**: 1000 Scrap / 20.0 Minutes Battery / 2000 Meter Range / 10.0 HP

Scouting Drones have their own User Interface which details remaining Battery Life as well as HP. Additionally, players will be warned when reaching somewhat close to their maximum flight distance with a UI that ticks down the exact radius remaining until they can go no further.

### Controls

* Shift will increase height
* Control will decrease height
* Mouse will allow for direction pathing
* Spacebar will cancel piloting (causes the drone to self-destruct)

### Deploying Drone

To deploy a Scouting Drone, first one must be purchased from Outpost or Bandit Camp. Then, it must be placed down near a Computer Station. Once placed, it will automatically be assigned an RC ID. For player's convenience, the RC ID is automatically added to the Computer Station when the drone is placed, so players don't have to manually input the ID's each time.

From there, accessing the RC ID will begin piloting the drone, at which point it will need a clear vertical path from which to escape out into the world.

### Scout Reading

To get a successful scout reading of a base, the Scout Drone must be piloted to the highest valid building block of that base. Valid "highest building blocks" are: Floor, Triangle Floor, Foundation, and Triangle foundation. Even if there are other building blocks or other things above those building blocks on a base, the Scout Drone can still land on them, so long as it is landing on or above the highest valid building block.

An example would be, is if the highest valid building block is a Floor, but a player also has roof building blocks above that. Landing the Scout Drone on the roof will still work, because it is on or above the valid highest building block.

Once landed, the Scout Drone must "settle" for 10 seconds, staying 100% perfectly still. Once the initial 10 seconds settling period is complete, the Scout Drone will begin its scan of the owner of the Tool Cupboard of the base, which takes an additional 80 seconds.

If the Scout Drone survives the full settle and scanning periods, it will shortly self-destruct, having successfully served its purpose, and providing the Pilot with the scanned information: Tool Cupboard Owner, Clan of Owner, Alliance of Owner (Alliance will be valid once the new Clan/Alliance System is live).

Scout Drones can be shot down by SAM Sites and all other traps, as well as player damage. So if you want a way to protect your base from being ownership-scouted, there will be methods to do so. Additionally, as a pilot, there will be skill required in dodging and weaving between all the bullets/rockets being sent your way and landing in peace and safety to get a successful scan.

It should also be noted while Drones have a small amount of HP, they have incredibly high damage resistance

Scout Drones can also be used for other scouting purposes, such as keeping tabs on player movements around the map, scouting out Monuments, checking world bosses, looking for event crates, and many more possibilities.