Tactical Drones vs Retriever Drones: A Comparison
The purpose of this article is to showcase how the newly released craftable Tactical Drones fare in comparison to the existing Retriever Drone available to all players.
Contents
• Retriever Drone
• Tactical Drone
• Tactical Drone vs Retriever Drone
• Future Updates to Tactical Drones
• Assembling a Tactical Drone
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Retriever Drone
Remember when the only way to collect wallets scattered on the map was to physically head there yourself to pick them up?
The introduction of the Retriever Drone made it possible to collect wallets while you remained indoors, especially useful in situations where it might have been raining outside or cold at night. In fact, the drone also comes in handy when you are out but find yourself stuck outside private properties.
The Retriever Drone is the most basic iteration of a player-controlled drone, available free-of-charge to all users. It has the ability to retrieve wallets and collect items (one at a time) and is meant for new players to utilise and experience our gameplay loop without feeling pressured to immediately head out of their homes.
Note: There will be no further upgrades released for the Retriever Drone in the short term. Instead, players may customise and assemble a Tactical Drone to perform more actions on the map.
Tactical Drone
Tactical Drones are capable of performing everything a Retriever Drone does but more efficiently in both energy cost and speed. They also unlock more features, capabilities, and drone-exclusive gameplay modes down the line that would encourage players to craft them based on how they plan on utilising the drone.
Tactical Drone vs Retriever Drone
The tactical drones that you craft and assemble are not only customisable to suit various gameplay styles and upgradeable, it also offers a lot more capabilities than the basic retriever drones available in the in-app store.
Here are some of the advantages presently available in-game for owning Tactical Drones:
- Retriever Drones consume 0.05 energy for every meter the item is away. This means it would cost 20 energy to collect an item 400 meters away. In comparison, the base level Tactical Drone costs 0.04 energy per meter — therefore consuming 16 energy to travel the same 400 meters. This can be further optimised in the future by crafting more advanced drone parts when the relevant blueprints are made available in-game.
- Tactical Drones can move around the map twice as fast as Retriever Drones as it stands, with the potential of having its speed increased even further in the future as players upgrade the propulsion system.
The best part?
You do not have to choose between the two drones when you can use them both at the same time. That means between the two different drones and yourself, you can collect up to three wallets/items at the same time from heading towards different directions.
Talk about being extra efficient with time!
Note: Only 1 Tactical Drone can be deployed at a time. Letting users acquire 10 Tactical Drones and sending them all out as a fleet is not currently part of our plan.
But wait, there’s more!
Tactical Drones will be able to perform a lot more functions than down the line as we continually release new features to them, as well as make advanced drone parts available for crafting. Imagine having your Tactical Drone be equipped with a weapon to take down Future System drones by itself?
Future Updates to Tactical Drones
Note: These features will be rolled out progressively in the weeks and months to come. Detailed information for each of them will follow when they are set for release.
Here are some of the capabilities we intend on having for Tactical Drones down the line:
- Enter and collect items from a neighbouring zone without physically being there yourself.
- Take down Future Systems Collector and Hunter Drones
- Carry more items than Retriever Drones
- Partake in time-trial challenges and compete within the leaderboards
- Additional gameplay modes involving drone piloting, FPS, PvP battles, and PvE experiences.
Assembling a Tactical Drone
Each Tactical Drone requires five parts in order to function:
1. Drone Chassis — defines the type of slots available to add parts
2. Propulsion System — defines how quickly the drone can move and how much it can carry
3. Power System — defines how much power the drone uses when performing actions
4. Processor — increases the number of waypoints the drone can visit within a single deployment
5. Communication System — defines how far the drone can go into other zones and how hard it is to detect
As of now the base level (Class 1) parts are available for crafting. They include:
Drone Chassis — Limited Edition Chassis*
Propulsion System — Ducted Fans C1
Power System — Lithium Polymer Cell C1
Processor — FSMD System on Chip C1
Communication System — 2.4Ghz Radio C1
*The regular Drone Chassis will be made available sometime later this month.
There will eventually be various options to choose from for each of the five parts, based on their class level.
For more information on the Drone Chassis, you may read the following article published detailing the difference between the recently released Limited Edition Chassis to the Regular Chassis.
In order to craft the individual drone parts via the Nanoforge, players first have to acquire the appropriate blueprint for each part.
The blueprint will reveal the necessary raw materials required to craft the part via the Nanoforge. Once you acquire all five drone parts, you may assemble your Tactical Drone with the use of our Drone Configurator portal.
Once complete, you will be able to view it in-game when selecting drones to deploy.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
1. Is there any benefit to owning more than one Tactical Drone?
Not at this time apart from having the ability to sell a fully assembled drone in our marketplace to players that may prefer to buy them instead of going through the effort of crafting the different parts. Eventually having crafted different types of Tactical Drones would allow you to optimise them for different purposes or gameplay modes when they are released, like having increased carrying capacity for collecting items, or being lighter and faster for competing in time trials.
2. Will I be locked out of game content if I do not own a Tactical Drone?
There will be certain elements of gameplay you will not be able to partake, however, the existing gameplay will remain as it stands — especially for free-to-play users engaging with the current gameplay loop and utilising the Retriever Drone. Owning a Tactical Drone will enable you to get through the existing gameplay loop faster, including having the ability to defend yourself better from Hunter Drones and potential new enemies.
3. Can I swap out drone parts when the more advanced blueprints get released?
Similar to our mask decals, drone parts get burned when applied onto the chassis. You may add a new part onto an existing Tactical Drone to replace it and avoid having to rebuild the entire drone, however you will not be able to dismantle the drone for the old parts.
4. Will I be able to buy/sell a whole drone and its parts on the web-based marketplace?
Yes. The web marketplace serves as a platform for Operatives to buy and sell the various in-game assets available. Do note that the marketplace transacts exclusively in $DEFY only at this time.
5. Do Tactical Drones require maintenance or repair over time when utilising it for in-game activities?
No. Tactical drones utilise energy in order to send them out to carry out tasks, therefore your energy will be the key resource used to power the drone to have it perform the different types of in-game activities.
About DEFY
DEFY is passionate about building the next generation tools and platforms that allow users to view and interact with NFTs and other digital collectibles in the real world. DEFY’s vision of the metaverse is one that involves merging the virtual and physical worlds in a compelling and inspiring way.
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