Suggestion : Airborn drones

[mumble]

One idea which would be interesting is airborn drones : you know, those cheap flier drones which are remote controlled?

I figure they might be handy in scouting tasks (monster attacks on towns) as well as just in general, as an agile, flying, flexible unit to look around, and possibly even grab light objects out of reach. The flying alone would be useful for scouting, making it immune to all sorts of critters assuming its in the air, allowing it to imperviously peek around and scout where people would be in more danger

Also, maybe as a later game option, a heavier, armored drone, with minebea SMG, or even modified berreta installed?

I know flying armor is a long way out, but getting some kind of airborn capability early on would be very useful, EVEN if the first one is extremely fragile, and without weapons. Plus, if you gave it the ability to hold 3 weight units, it could even be used as a sort of bomber with grenades.

And honestly, such units don't sound too far outside the scope of xcoms funding, tech level, and military regulations to access.

[alinare]

In the Xenops mod, there was a mini aircraft armed with rockets, and with the sound of turbines moving, or something.

[mumble]

I was mainly thinking a cheaper, lighter version : Something like cypher from metal gear solid, or even a 200$ commercial drone with a few mods put on it.

Later on the hoverdrone does the job, but that is a VERY long time, and I'm confident the airborn visuals would be more than enough to be worth the troop slot.

[Solarius Scorch]

Maybe you could appropriate hybrids' drones for that... But I'm not sure I'd want to waste a slot on such a drone.

[mumble]

I mainly think this for monster based missions : 80% of them are ground based melee, which is extremely dangerous, but would allow you to put one in the sky to see where danger is, while the drone itself is impervious to melee, being in the air.  I could see this help saving civilians in the spider nest scenario, as I could afford being more aggressive...but its your call

[bluberd]

There are such "drones" in the Piratez. Parrots are very useful and I for one, am willing to sacrifice one slot for airborne recon which is hard to shoot down.

[Solarius Scorch]

It's mostly a matter of doing it. I plan to overhaul everything drone-related, so it would be a good moment.