GDF Operators feel bad to play with

[Mercure]

First things first, I actually rather enjoy the game for most part, despite some clear balance issues (DYN simply has a stronger economy and it's easier to mass units and still use them effectively).

That said. one of my main gripes of GDF - more so than anything else - is the drone operator. On paper, it's an amazing unit (especially the concept of it all). In practice however, well...

Broadly speaking, there's two ways to use them. You can either use them as a regular unit (in which they will generally get too close to the enemy and die early), or you can deploy them, in which case you can control their drones and attack from a greater range.

Now, this arguably already puts them at a disadvantage when compared to the DYN rocket troopers, as you need to do more micro to get the most out of them, while with rocket troopers you can usually get away with a simple attack move. To make matters worse, the drones can be shot out of the sky, and while yes, it means some enemy fire is wasted on targets which are quickly replaced for free, the drone operators also lose their main source of anti-armour damage, which is their whole reason for existence. This isn't great for the average player.

This all doesn't have to be deal-breaker for the unit - as long as it's potentially still more powerful than the DYN rocket user when in capable hands, as a reward for the extra effort one has to put in. Except... Well, it isn't.

The main issue is the controls. First of all, to move the drones (after "deploying)", you have to select the drone operators - NOT the drones. This is incredibly counter-intuitive, especially if you've moved your drones away already. Secondly, the range is pretty short, while at the same time, the UI shows the maximum range - so if you click near the maximum range of the circle, only the nearest drone operators will actually send their drones, meaning that half the time you'll only send half of the drones (or less) to the area you want them to go. You can fix it by clicking a bit further back, but it's likely that a bunch of the drones have already been destroyed by the time you correct.

The range is also unclear. Want to attack something? First, you have to move your drones near the target, and then click on it. You can't just click on it from the original location, even though you could reach it if you moved closer first. It's just another step of needless micro which makes the unit harder to use.

Worst of all, because you're controlling the operators and not the drones, when a drone dies, the previously static ("deployed") operator becomes mobile again, meaning that if you give more attack commands, the operator will happily charge into battle with their little pea-shooter, meaning that if you don't pay attention, they will get fried/riddled with bullets/exploded/meet some other grisly fate. Like... What? How is this logical?

The end result is that it's not only a unit which is harder to use than its competitor (the rocket user), it's also demonstrably worse as you have to babysit it to prevent it from actively trying to get itself killed.

It's such a cool concept, yet the execution is so poor that I find it hard to get excited about the game. It may actually end up being a deal-breaker for me if it isn't fixed.

Speaking of fixes, there's a few things that can be done to improve the unit:
1: Make it possible to directly select/command the drone instead of the operator when deploying. It's far more intuitive, and should fix the suicide run issue when the drone explodes as well.
2: Increase the range, even if just a little. Or alternatively, have the drone operators get some sort of network link with each other, allowing any drone operators near others (in a certain radius, to prevent abuse) use the maximum range of nearby drone operators as well, for easier movement (and less risk of splitting drones).
3: Improve drone targeting in general - the fewer clicks needed to attack the better.

As a "basic" infantry unit, it simply HAS to be viable to use in most games, or GDF will be kneecapped beyond belief. I wish the developers the best of luck in fixing this, because right now, it just doesn't feel good to play GDF.


PS: The unit actually shone at times in the two campaign missions, with the ability to fly over cliffs and the like, which made me want to love it. But it also exposed all the issues mentioned above, including one kamikaze charge (after drones got blown up by the Sam sites) which lead to the barbecue of over a dozen drone operators at once.

[SAS]

Originally posted by Mercure:

Worst of all, because you're controlling the operators and not the drones, when a drone dies, the previously static ("deployed") operator becomes mobile again, meaning that if you give more attack commands, the operator will happily charge into battle with their little pea-shooter, meaning that if you don't pay attention, they will get fried/riddled with bullets/exploded/meet some other grisly fate.

+1
it's very frustrating behavior

[|.:|Shotgunfist]

I found their effectiveness to be massively increased just by taking the Drone units fire lasers instead of micromissiles and the laser weapons gain 30% bonus range doctrines early on, pretty easy to form a deathball and laser everything to death - throw a riot medic in there and the group is nigh unstoppable