Void Drones (early access)

A drone controller torn from a HOLLOW CARRIER. Former Ectypes found it and rewired it to METEM standards.

Fly your own combat drone from a gunner seat. The Void Drone Controller is a turret module that launches a drone armed with the controller's weapon, ammo, perks and ship upgrades. Add the Void Hive Mind and the ship flies itself while you're out there.

Early release: please report bugs with your BepInEx/LogOutput.log.

Everything starts locked. The controllers, upgrade mods, relics, the second equipment and the Void Hive Mind must be found and recycled each run, like vanilla's locked items (see Unlocking). To try everything straight away, the host presses F5, opens Void Drones and turns on Unlock everything (or types /drones unlock). It applies to the whole crew.

Quick start

1. Find a Void Drone Controller as loot (recycle one to learn it, then the Fabricator can make more), or have the host turn on Unlock everything in the F5 menu.
2. Install it in a weapon socket, power it, load its ammo and sit in it.
3. Click a weapon, then click LAUNCH DRONE (or press L). L again recalls it.

Features

• Three controllers, MkI to MkIII: Kinetic (orange, Benediction Cannon), Energy (blue, Confessor Carronade) and Support (green, healing beam). Upgrade them like any turret; each Mk adds speed and hull.
• Support drone (listed under the Fabricator's Utility tab): its green Healing Beam (an Absolver Lance that repairs instead of harming) mends other drones' hulls, and welds the ship's hull breaches from outside: hold it on a breach for 2 s. A major breach needs a repair plate first. While you fly it, the ship's breaches are marked on your HUD.
• Pick your weapon before launch from every weapon of the controller's type you've unlocked this run: Benediction, Litany, Bestower, Orison / Confessor, Shuriken, Recuser, Absolver.
• Real flight: inertia, boost, strafing, roll, collisions, a chase camera with a rear view, and a nose-mounted first-person view with a fighter HUD.
• Spotting and calls: aim and press T to target-lock an enemy for the gunners (or ping anything else); press H to have the Void Hive Mind bring the ship to your drone.
• Kill feed: your drone's kills show on your HUD, each player's kills are counted for the run (the controller shows its pilot's), and a sector summary appears at each void jump.
• Equipment (G), picked in the controller menu without a rebuild:
  • Kinetic: its Burst Mine (hunts down the nearest enemy), a homing missile that homes on the enemy you look at, or a cluster missile salvo of six small missiles spread over the enemies ahead.
  • Energy: its Beam Mine, an energy missile that homes on the enemy you look at, or a slow, hard-hitting heavy torpedo.
  • Support: a hull repair plate, which flies to the nearest major breach and fits itself (weld it with the beam); it uses up one of the plates you put on the controller's two-slot plate shelf, or a drone shield device, which flies to the drone you look at and gives it a shield worth half its hull, seen by everyone.
  • The homing missile, energy missile and shield device need the Fabricator at level 2, the cluster missile and heavy torpedo level 3 (no blueprints), or Unlock everything.
• Upgrade mods for the controller's mod rack: Reinforced Plating (hull), Extended Wings (speed and turning), Overcharged Thrusters (boost). Each one changes the drone's look too.
• Drone relics: Swarm Resonance (more damage, faster boost, longer respawn) and Signal Amplifier (3 km range, slower shields).
• Void Hive Mind (work in progress): an autopilot module. Engage the helm's cruise mode and it flies the ship: circles objectives, follows your drones, dodges, locks targets, collects loot with the gravity scoop, explores, and parks for EVA steps. When the sector is done, a drone pilot presses J to have it charge the void drive and set the escape vector, then J twice to jump. While it flies it brings a full pilot skill tree (every Pilot perk maxed). Its lever picks Objectives, Drones or Evasive (retreat and repair), its screen shows what it's doing, and a command map above its brain shows the ship, drones, enemies and objectives from above.
• Recon Sweep side mission: scan signal anomalies with a drone while Interceptors defend them.
• HOLLOW Carriers: sometimes a smaller, killable cousin of the Reclaimer jumps into the sector and launches wings of stolen Void Drones at you. Destroy it and it drops a Void Drone Controller (any Mk, rarer the higher it is), and sometimes a Void Hive Mind.
• Side missions buy time: a Recon Sweep adds 10% and a HOLLOW Carrier 20% to the sector's calamity countdown (Reclaimer, void sanction, void bomb).
• A full launch and recall sequence, damage sparks and smoke, a HULL CRITICAL warning, and a signal that fades to static as you near the 2 km range limit.

Unlocking

Like vanilla's locked items, everything starts locked each run. Find an item as loot or as a mission reward, and recycle it to learn it:

• Controllers: learning one teaches every Mk, as with vanilla weapons. Each Mk is inscribed on a blank crate of the same Mk. The Support controller drops where Absolver Lances do.
• Homing missile, energy missile and drone shield device: with the first Fabricator upgrade (level 2). Cluster missile and heavy torpedo: with the second (level 3).
• Upgrade mods: level 1 from the start, levels 2 and 3 with the Fabricator upgrades.
• Void Hive Mind (level 3): with the second Fabricator upgrade. It drops a bit more often than the Auto-Mechanic.
• Relics: learned only.

To skip all of it, the host presses F5, opens Void Drones and turns on Unlock everything (or types /drones unlock); it applies to the whole crew.

Controls (defaults)

Action	Key
Launch / recall	L (or the LAUNCH button)
Pick weapon or equipment (seated)	Click or 1 - 9
Move / up, down / roll	W A S D / Space, C / Q, E
Steer	Mouse
Fire / reload	Left mouse / R
Boost	Left Shift
Use equipment (mine, missiles, repair plate, shield device)	G
Chase / first-person camera	V
Rear view (hold)	Tab
Spot what you aim at (lock an enemy / ping)	T
Call the Void Hive Mind to your drone	H
Void jump (press twice; needs the Hive Mind)	J

Changing weapons: pick one, then leave the seat. The controller is rebuilt with it at the same Mk (its ammo and mod sockets must be empty, as for an upgrade).

Settings

Press F5 (VoidManager) and open Void Drones for the everyday options: unlocks, the custom missions (Recon Sweep and HOLLOW Carriers on or off, and how often), mouse and camera, the fish-eye, HUD and display options, and how the Void Hive Mind flies. Key bindings are there too (click one, then press the new key), and each tab has a button to put it back to its defaults. Everything else is in BepInEx/config/VoidDrones.cfg (r2modman: Config editor).

Multiplayer

Every player needs this mod (VoidManager checks when joining). The host runs the drones and any crew member can fly one, with no input lag. Enemies target drones too.

Known limitations

• The Void Hive Mind autopilot is a work in progress. It flies well in open space, but it can still misjudge tight spots around stations and wrecks, and its EVA parking and obstacle avoidance are being tuned. Keep someone near the helm, and send your log if it does something odd.
• Balance and visuals are still being tuned. The drone is a recoloured Hollow Morph.
• A rebuilt controller (after changing weapons) starts without loaded ammo.
• /drones is a chat command for debugging.