Maintenance drones [Needs sprites]

[Kelenius]

Featuring:

Any ghost can join as a drone, provided there is a powered, not broken drone station on the map.
Can pick your own 3-letter name.
Lawset:

Code: Select all

1. You may not interfere with any being that is not a drone.
2. You must maintain and improve the station's condition.

Can walk over tables and ventcrawl.
Cyborg all-access and binary chat.
Can withstand whopping 30 points of damage before becoming an ex-drone.
Can be emagged just like cyborgs. Even easier, because all you need to do is swipe emag (their cover can't be unlocked). No emag module (yet, can't think of anything).
Explode when destroyed, or if user ghosts or logs out.
Drone station recharges and repairs them. Can use cyborg chargers, too. Cyborgs can't use drone station.

Module includes: engineering tools, metal, glass, wire, wood, space cleaner, fire extinguisher. No flash. Resource amounts are small. 50u of cleaner. 10 wood planks. 20 metal/glass sheets. 10 welder fuel. 30 coils of wire.
There is one station at the start in old gravgen room, more can be built if humans want to. It can also be upgraded for faster repairs and recharge.

---

http://i.imgur.com/XYSNO16.png
Needed sprites for the drones themselves and the station.

What do you think about it?

[Bluespace]

Remove ability to talk.

When emagged, get new laws, no equipment.

Silent station repairing ghosts sounds fun.

[Lo6a4evskiy]

Well, it's pretty cool, but we have few matters to discuss.

1) What kind of admin protection do they get? Are they valid?
I guess not since they're mini-cyborgs in your interpretation, but I'll talk about it later. I'd consider them more like pAIs than cyborgs.
2) Lawset. It's kind of vague in my opinion. What does "interfere" mean, exactly? Can you not interact with anyone? What if you can save their life, are you forbidden from doing it? What if somebody's fucking with you (removing floors all over the place, bloodpainting, etc.). "improve the station's condition" is also kinda vague. What if I want walls in front of bridge doors, can I do that, why or why not, etc. CE's building second singularity engine. Can I help him? But that is interference, law 1, so I cannot help him?
3) Binary chat and AI link. Well, there's no AI link, so why binary? Rogue Ai plans its moves, army of drones comes and kills it because you know, maintaining the station and all that. Okay, murder is forbidden by law 1. Then cut cameras. Is that considered interference? Well, what if I need to remove camera for construction purposes or whatever? Again back to laws being vague. All in all, I think they need a separate chat. I mean, listening to binary can be interference of itself, eh?
4) Speaking of, can they talk to people? Is that interference? It could be interesting if they couldn't, if a bit lonely for single drone.
5) It may seem as unimportant, but I'm strongly against them having space cleaner. Frankly, I'm against janitor having space cleaner. It's just a nice little piece of life on the station - janitor mopping floors and people slipping because they don't see signs. Now janitor has a huge fucking tank of space cleaner, which is not a good cleaner now, but simply another tool. I'd really like to see some more mopping, honestly. Give these guys mops instead, may be.
6) Combat balance. Well, I guess their health is low enough to make no matter, but they can tablewalk and ventcrawl and are in possession of good weapons, they can also be emagged.

By the way, when emagged they could receive RCD.

[Kelenius]

Remove ability to talk.

Do you mean binary or regular?

1) What kind of admin protection do they get? Are they valid?
I guess not since they're mini-cyborgs in your interpretation, but I'll talk about it later. I'd consider them more like pAIs than cyborgs.

They're still players, and shouldn't be killed randomly. If they're being dicks, they're valid, I think. After all, even if you do get killed, you can just get a new body. This isn't a code matter, though.

2) Lawset. It's kind of vague in my opinion. What does "interfere" mean, exactly? Can you not interact with anyone? What if you can save their life, are you forbidden from doing it? What if somebody's fucking with you (removing floors all over the place, bloodpainting, etc.). "improve the station's condition" is also kinda vague. What if I want walls in front of bridge doors, can I do that, why or why not, etc. CE's building second singularity engine. Can I help him? But that is interference, law 1, so I cannot help him?

"Interfere" for "directly interact or provide information". If you see a human in critical condition in a locker in maint, you go and mind your own business. If you see a changeling eating someone in dorms, you go and mind your own business. If you see a scientist putting bombs all over the station, you go and mind your own business. First, do not intervene, second, repair/maintain/improve. If you're "helping the CE build the engine", you are interfering, if you're "finishing an unfinished engine", you're not. "Hey drone, this engine would look a lot better if it would have been finished" is a magical phrase.

As for walls in front of the bridge, well, rule 1 and stuff. Also, if ordered to stop, they stop, and it's the only kind of order they have to listen to.

On that note, if you have ideas for laws, tell me.

3) Binary chat and AI link. Well, there's no AI link, so why binary? Rogue Ai plans its moves, army of drones comes and kills it because you know, maintaining the station and all that. Okay, murder is forbidden by law 1. Then cut cameras. Is that considered interference? Well, what if I need to remove camera for construction purposes or whatever? Again back to laws being vague. All in all, I think they need a separate chat. I mean, listening to binary can be interference of itself, eh?

Binary is so that AI can say something of the kind "gee, how bad it is that there is a huge hole at escape", and drones can react. Killing rogue AI or trying to stop it any way is interfering with it, and is forbidden by laws. Listening is not a problem, talking over binary is where you should be careful. If you're telling them something about the station events, you're interfering. See the examples above.

4) Speaking of, can they talk to people? Is that interference? It could be interesting if they couldn't, if a bit lonely for single drone.

They can't. Keep in mind that this is an alternative to being a ghost.

5) It may seem as unimportant, but I'm strongly against them having space cleaner. Frankly, I'm against janitor having space cleaner. It's just a nice little piece of life on the station - janitor mopping floors and people slipping because they don't see signs. Now janitor has a huge fucking tank of space cleaner, which is not a good cleaner now, but simply another tool. I'd really like to see some more mopping, honestly. Give these guys mops instead, may be.

I'm not sure how they would refill mops, and keep in mind that it's just 50 units. That's 10 sprays. 30 cleared tiles at best. Remember how quickly everything gets bloodied.

6) Combat balance. Well, I guess their health is low enough to make no matter, but they can tablewalk and ventcrawl and are in possession of good weapons, they can also be emagged.

Their best weapons are welder, which has ten shots, and an extinguisher. They have no means of stunning anyone and are vulnerable to flashes. First hit with a toolbox disables one module, second two, third kills them. A monkey with a normal welder in paws is a lot more dangerous.

By the way, when emagged they could receive RCD.

Not really matching the idea of a tiny drone.

[Lo6a4evskiy]

Binary is so that AI can say something of the kind "gee, how bad it is that there is a huge hole at escape", and drones can react. Killing rogue AI or trying to stop it any way is interfering with it, and is forbidden by laws. Listening is not a problem, talking over binary is where you should be careful. If you're telling them something about the station events, you're interfering. See the examples above.

Give them their own channel and ability to listen to common. There you go, they can listen to everybody, not only AI.

"Interfere" for "directly interact or provide information". If you see a human in critical condition in a locker in maint, you go and mind your own business. If you see a changeling eating someone in dorms, you go and mind your own business. If you see a scientist putting bombs all over the station, you go and mind your own business. First, do not intervene, second, repair/maintain/improve. If you're "helping the CE build the engine", you are interfering, if you're "finishing an unfinished engine", you're not. "Hey drone, this engine would look a lot better if it would have been finished" is a magical phrase.

Somebody bombed the station. You cannot fix it since it interferes with their plans.

[Cheridan]

Well first I'd like to say that this is great just because we absolutely need more things for ghosts to do besides whine in deadchat and make restart-votes.

That said, I dunno about giving them binary chat. I feel like the AI and borgs are going to get 'drowned out' by the 20 drones yelling about the panty-storage room they're building or whatever.
There's also the issue of them hearing a rogue AI's BEEP BOOP EXTERMINATE chatter. While they're not supposed to interfere in this scenario, you know that people are going to try and get away with being the DRONE HERO, SAVIOR OF STATION.

I also don't really like that they get the full toolbox... Basically, the only thing that an actual Engiborg has over one of these disposable drones is an RCD, which isn't even useful for construction except for doors. If a ghost can do all the building a borg can, then it sort of devalues them. Then the only borg that gets used is secborg.

[paprika]

Give them drone chat so they can circlejerk but not binary chat. Binary chat works on bay but it wouldn't work here.

[Steelpoint]

They should either have their own private communications channel, or none at all. They should be limited to only being able to communicate to other Drones, anyone else would just hear binary or garble.

Their lawset should be to maintain the standing function of their assigned space station, they just repair breaches and do other miscellaneous activities that do not interfear with anyone else.

[Kelenius]

Give them their own channel and ability to listen to common. There you go, they can listen to everybody, not only AI.

Give them drone chat so they can circlejerk but not binary chat. Binary chat works on bay but it wouldn't work here.

That said, I dunno about giving them binary chat. I feel like the AI and borgs are going to get 'drowned out' by the 20 drones yelling about the panty-storage room they're building or whatever.
There's also the issue of them hearing a rogue AI's BEEP BOOP EXTERMINATE chatter. While they're not supposed to interfere in this scenario, you know that people are going to try and get away with being the DRONE HERO, SAVIOR OF STATION.

They should either have their own private communications channel, or none at all. They should be limited to only being able to communicate to other Drones, anyone else would just hear binary or garble.

Their lawset should be to maintain the standing function of their assigned space station, they just repair breaches and do other miscellaneous activities that do not interfear with anyone

Currently they have same radio as cyborgs.
Those are good points. I guess they'll still have the radio, and will only be able to talk over 'general drone channel'.

Somebody bombed the station. You cannot fix it since it interferes with their plans.

"You may not directly interfere with any being that is not a drone."
Sounds better?

I also don't really like that they get the full toolbox... Basically, the only thing that an actual Engiborg has over one of these disposable drones is an RCD, which isn't even useful for construction except for doors. If a ghost can do all the building a borg can, then it sort of devalues them. Then the only borg that gets used is secborg.

I'm not really sure what to take from them. Multitool, perhaps, but that's needed to repair doors occasionally. RCD allows you to quickly build walls, which is useful. Plus, drones have very small resource amounts, e.g. they can build five walls before needing to recharge.

[miggles]

give ai access to drone channel so it can talk to drones but they cant hear about the evil plots it is planning
also pete's unfinished keepers have a good base and if nothing else you should use the sprites because they can wear hats and little drones wearing hats is important

[Lo6a4evskiy]

So... you can fix false wall and trap assistant inside? Is that considered indirect?

You can build unfinished engine while somebody else builds it, but not help them directly (like bring them shit, for example)?

Well, it's better. Still, we may have to fiddle with it until we find the best laws and policies. It should do for now. Oh, and add "living being" to be sure.

The problem that Cheri pointed out is actually quite more important. I guess the fact that you're kind of away from everybody doing your own business not interacting with anything makes it different from engiborg. Still, I think wood should be removed for sure. Drones also don't have a way of building airlocks (which is a bit sad, but oh well), so that makes up for it as well. I guess we'll see where it goes. Also remove flashlight and add mesons instead.

Oh, by the way, make them cost plasteel to build, so robotics doesn't produce 20 droids at round start. Plasteel is scarce enough usually.

Frankly, having million droids in wizard or blob round isn't gonna be that great. Also, blob, how do droids interact with it, exactly?

[miggles]

i would imagine they could try fixing the damage it makes, but not actually fight it

[Kelenius]

So... you can fix false wall and trap assistant inside? Is that considered indirect?

Sure, why not.

You can build unfinished engine while somebody else builds it, but not help them directly (like bring them shit, for example)?

Yup. If they're wrenching one half, you can wrench the other half. If you're fixing a hull breach and an engieborg comes to fix it, it doesn't means that every drone should flee the area to avoid interfering.

Oh, and add "living being" to be sure.

Absolutely not. They shouldn't be dragging corpses around.

The problem that Cheri pointed out is actually quite more important. I guess the fact that you're kind of away from everybody doing your own business not interacting with anything makes it different from engiborg. Still, I think wood should be removed for sure. Drones also don't have a way of building airlocks (which is a bit sad, but oh well), so that makes up for it as well. I guess we'll see where it goes. Also remove flashlight and add mesons instead.

Wood floor tiles and beautiful wooden chairs. Mesons is a good idea.

Oh, by the way, make them cost plasteel to build, so robotics doesn't produce 20 droids at round start. Plasteel is scarce enough usually.

Robotics has nothing to do with them. They are made in the drone station, when a ghost clicks a 'join as drone' button. Perhaps there should be a delay though, so you can't spam-suicide.

Frankly, having million droids in wizard or blob round isn't gonna be that great. Also, blob, how do droids interact with it, exactly?

Blob is a being. So... fix stuff around him, but- yeah, what miggles said.

[Reimoo]

So... MoMMIs then? Just port /vg/station's code instead of arguing over how to design something that already exists.

[Lo6a4evskiy]

Uh huh and port baymed and goon traitors.

Just because something exist on another server doesn't mean it should be blindly ported over.

[Lo6a4evskiy]

Robotics has nothing to do with them. They are made in the drone station, when a ghost clicks a 'join as drone' button. Perhaps there should be a delay though, so you can't spam-suicide.

Er, well. Every time I see a droid I know somebody's dead (most likely). Every blob round there's million droids. People are impossible to clone because they immediately go to be droid.

That's only few problems that this system has.

[Steelpoint]

Simple solution, make Droids something that have to be built by either the Roboticists or other Droids.

[Kelenius]

Er, well. Every time I see a droid I know somebody's dead (most likely).

Or observing, or ghosted.

Every blob round there's million droids.

How is that a problem? They won't be fighting it anyway.

People are impossible to clone because they immediately go to be droid.

They probably don't expect to be cloned, then.

Simple solution, make Droids something that have to be built by either the Roboticists or other Droids.

It's not simple and it kills the point of being able to get back into round without relying on competence of other players.

[miggles]

kelenius you havent responded to my demand for cute drone hats

[Lo6a4evskiy]

Or observing, or ghosted.

Who cares? I will check suit sensors and cameras every time I see a droid pop up. And call in all people from department.

How is that a problem? They won't be fighting it anyway.

Silly, hard for admins to track and no people to clone or borg or whatever. It's not JUST blob, it's wizard and nuke ops and any murderboner round.

Like there's murderboner round, most of crew ends up dead. Do you seriously expect an army of drones not to fuck with murderboner? "Oh I'll just indirectly build a cage of rwalls". "Oh let me just indirectly rwall the escape shuttle and all pods". "Guys, let's indirectly drag the objective away."

They probably don't expect to be cloned, then.

Uh huh. More like "they don't expect to be cloned in the next 30 seconds". We already have the same problem with succumbing.

It's not simple and it kills the point of being able to get back into round without relying on competence of other players.

But that shouldn't be the point! Why the fuck would we allow people to freely get back into the round without any restriction? May as well enable respawn.

No, no, no, I'm absolutely and utterly against the idea of bringing people back into the round without restrictions. Once you're dead, you're dead. Tough. Deal with it. Now, we can add more OPPORTUNITIES to bring people back into the round, sure. But nobody said anything about ghosts just pumping back as an army of fucking drones.

And I mean, holy shit, imagine traitor with emag and murderboner just emagging 20 fucking droids.

On an unrelated note, hands and electronics. I personally think that they should have no hands and that they shouldn't be able to access electronics like borgs. Want to fix an airlock? Sure, do it manually. Can't use computers, can't toggle APC settings, no sir. This also fixes the "a little worse than engiborg" problem.

[Kelenius]

-snip-

I'm not sure if you're even with me at this point.

1) They have no hands
2) People are supposed to be checking sensors and cameras, so it's like "I'll be doing what I am supposed to do from time to time when I see a drone".
3) They can't build rwalls, and it is possible to notice that a drone is doing something shitty.
4) We trust the traitors to be borged, and expect them to not do things you described
5) Without relying on competence of others != without any restriction. Station can be destroyed/depowered. There will be a delay on how quickly you can become a new drone.

Uh huh. More like "they don't expect to be cloned in the next 30 seconds". We already have the same problem with succumbing.

First, how is it a problem. Second, how is it a problem of drones. People who join as drones when someone later finds their body and brings it to cloning are punishing themselves.

And I mean, holy shit, imagine traitor with emag and murderboner just emagging 20 fucking droids.

"Just" getting at least 20 people killed, "just" getting all of them join as drones, "just" catching 20 tiny things that can move over tables and ventcrawl, and are lawed against interfering with you and thus shouldn't really be standing next to you. And they're not even that dangerous, compared to the cyborgs.

[Lo6a4evskiy]

1) They have no hands

Cyborgs have no hands, let's allow people to turn into cyborgs for free.

2) People are supposed to be checking sensors and cameras, so it's like "I'll be doing what I am supposed to do from time to time when I see a drone".

Metagaming is still metagaming despite this silly claim. Like, say, ling eats somebody in maint, they immediately jump into droid. I see droid, immediately check suit sensors. Oi! Fresh body. Send security. Boom.

3) They can't build rwalls, and it is possible to notice that a drone is doing something shitty.

Jesus, rwalls are not the point here. I didn't say it's not possible, but it's harder to do in a clusterfuck, especially if nobody ahelps it.

4) We trust the traitors to be borged, and expect them to not do things you described

I don't get this.

5) Without relying on competence of others != without any restriction. Station can be destroyed/depowered. There will be a delay on how quickly you can become a new drone.

Can you stop trying to make the wording look wrong and get to the point? Unrestricted under normal circumstances then.

First, how is it a problem. Second, how is it a problem of drones. People who join as drones when someone later finds their body and brings it to cloning are punishing themselves.

Lack of people to alien, golem, clone, syndieborg, wizard contract, clone, pAI, borg. Why would you go for all those things if you don't have to wait or do anything at all to become a droid?

"Just" getting at least 20 people killed, "just" getting all of them join as drones, "just" catching 20 tiny things that can move over tables and ventcrawl, and are lawed against interfering with you and thus shouldn't really be standing next to you. And they're not even that dangerous, compared to the cyborgs.

Number is not relevant. Make it 5. Make it a bomb that killed few and you're standing with emag near the machine that makes them. Irrelevant.

[miggles]

holy shit stop arguing and give me hats

[FJKrake]

holy shit stop arguing and give me hats

Definitely a big YES to drones. Would be nice alternative to pAI.

And for the sole purpose of spiting Miggles I'd say we should defenitely not get drone hats.

[miggles]

yeah but youre a faggot so your opinion doesnt matter
anyone who doesnt want cute hats is a faggot
and there's already good sprites here https://github.com/NTStation/NTstation13/pull/397/files
INCLUDING cute hats

[Steelpoint]

There are two minor problems I can see arising from the addition of Maintenance Drones.

The first being the viability of destroying the station as a antag. Many antags, from Malf AI's to simple Traitors rely on causing mass destruction to force a shuttle call or end game, a team of Maint Drones (Which given the people being killed by the antag they will be numerous) can easily nullify most structural damage to the station, all those holes from bombs are fixed, the leaking Plasma is stopped at the source and the Engineers are put to shame again.

Secondly is simply the fact that getting rid of the Drones can be difficult, the implication of this Idea is that a Ghosted player can, infinity, return to the round as a Drone even if their prior Drone was killed. Then again this can be nullified by destroying the Drone Station.

[miggles]

the first thing is good in my opinion, as it encourages people to actually allow things to be fixed before kneejerk shuttlecalling whenever someone throws an IED
any traitor seriously intending to force a shuttlecall has several other ways to do so
perhaps, in regards to your second point, there could be a computer which can disable drones like the robotics computer

[cedarbridge]

holy shit stop arguing and give me hats

Definitely a big YES to drones. Would be nice alternative to pAI.

And for the sole purpose of spiting Miggles I'd say we should defenitely not get drone hats.

But I want to be the cute little mommi with a top hat.

[Bluespace]

Drones need to look like this.

[Fatal]

If nobody provides a sprite, a simple resprite of the mining bot/drone that you rarely see would work pretty well

Also, give them more health, maybe 60? I know with such low health, people are going to hit them just to be an annoying tool

[miggles]

holy shit am i invisible
i gave you a sprite

[Atticat]

There are two minor problems I can see arising from the addition of Maintenance Drones.

The first being the viability of destroying the station as a antag. Many antags, from Malf AI's to simple Traitors rely on causing mass destruction to force a shuttle call or end game, a team of Maint Drones (Which given the people being killed by the antag they will be numerous) can easily nullify most structural damage to the station, all those holes from bombs are fixed, the leaking Plasma is stopped at the source and the Engineers are put to shame again.

Secondly is simply the fact that getting rid of the Drones can be difficult, the implication of this Idea is that a Ghosted player can, infinity, return to the round as a Drone even if their prior Drone was killed. Then again this can be nullified by destroying the Drone Station.

Just make it so roboticists have to build the drones which can then be possessed by a ghost if an MMI isn't implanted first.

[Miauw]

I don't really like this idea tbh.
1) It basically completely devalues engineering borgs, which are the only worthwhile borgs apart from, god forbid, secborgs.
2) All dead people will always be building autismforts. If they want to do that that badly they can make a local server.
3) There's always the inherent risk of letting people back into the round. They shouldn't be able to talk on anything but their private channel.

The only way this could work is if they would be valid and if people could killers them or tell them to fuck off at their own discretion. Basically, worthless sub-human slaves.

[paprika]

That's the idea.

Anyone can do whatever they want with drones. They have low health, if they steal from the autolathe you can just shove a screwdriver in their face. You can pick them up and they can't wriggle out of your arms or anything. You can dunk them endlessly. They have less rights on the station than fucking mice. Someone might be upset at you if you kill a drone but that's entirely IC.

They're pests with a positive purpose. But they're still pests in normal departments.

[MisterPerson]

I don't think playing as one would be all that fun. Law 1 literally says "Don't participate meaningfully to yours or anyone else's fun". If you think this would be fun, just go play Minecraft or whatever and let us play our multiplayer game with multiple players that can fucking talk to each other.

[paprika]

I see your point MP, honestly, but it's a very small amount of people who just want to fuck around as drones exclusively and not just use it as something to do when they get gibbed. It's worked extremely well on other servers, and translating it to ours with the play styles of our players shouldn't be too hard. Drones make the station feel actually -more- full of life, like NPCs walking around, and you don't have to worry about them killing you.

[MisterPerson]

True, doing something is better than nothing, but I feel this is attacking a symptom (people knocked out of the round have nothing to do) rather than the real problem (too many people are getting knocked out of rounds in the first place).

[leibniz]

I don't think playing as one would be all that fun. Law 1 literally says "Don't participate meaningfully to yours or anyone else's fun". If you think this would be fun, just go play Minecraft or whatever and let us play our multiplayer game with multiple players that can fucking talk to each other.

I dont really see the issue, nobody is forced to play as one afaik.

[miggles]

remie's version of drones are live on ntstation pending a server update

[Alex Crimson]

The only issue i see is that doing this takes away ghosts that could be used for things like Aliens, Admin Events, Golems and such. Has that been addressed yet?

[paprika]

>we shouldn't have drones because there's a 1 in 20 chance one ghost will become and alien, golem, or ninja

uh

[Reimoo]

I think this is weighted a little unfairly against antags, considering the drone's sole purpose is to keep the station from being fucked over. There is little an antag can do against this, either. If the idea merges as it is proposed, when one drone is destroyed, two will take its place because of the increasing number of ghosts as the round progresses. The shuttle may never come in this case, considering any heavy station damage will be reversed in minutes with an army of robotic engineers on call.

Subverting/destroying one at a time won't do much good, considering the risk/reward it takes to subvert one, and a destroyed drone may just rise again in a different body. Therefore, I think if antags were allowed to subvert all current drones and temporarily prevent new ones from spawning by emagging the drone station, much of the problems listed above would be solved.

[paprika]

The shuttle will come if /tg/ ports crew transfer shuttles at 2 hours.

[Alex Crimson]

>we shouldn't have drones because there's a 1 in 20 chance one ghost will become and alien, golem, or ninja

uh

I never said we shouldnt have them. Maybe allow Drones to still be selected for special events involving ghosts?

[Lo6a4evskiy]

Or just don't make drones to be able to spawn endlessly because that makes no sense IC or OOC

[Gun Hog]

They have to be built first. You will only have 10+ drones on the station if someone is specifically printing them off.

[Lo6a4evskiy]

Oh, okay. It's just Kelenius was talking about making some machine that makes them whenever ghost wishes to enter.

[Kelenius]

There is a machine that makes them, with these limitations:
1) Machine can only build a drone once per two minutes
2) If you're a drone and you die, you can't become a drone again for 15 minutes
3) There is a limit to 5 active drones at given moment; thought something like (players/10) may work better.

You are seriously overestimating the amount of repairs drones can do, and the amount of players that will want to join as drones.

And yeah, I think they should be always valid. It will encourage them to not approach people at all, which is good.

[Incomptinence]

How about making the machine constructable and the limit tied to the number of existing machines?

So if the drones aren't being a pain in the ass and the living players want more of them they allow the creation of more.

[Gun Hog]

Just use NT's strategy. Drones may only exist if a Scientist or Roboticist builds them, with the exception of any map-spawned ones. They would have the same state as pAIs. There are a set number spawned with the map, and if anyone feels more should exist, they can request more from Science.

On a more personal opinion note, I would have preferred that the Positronic Brains update (still in PR stage on NT) had been implemented first, and that the drones would simply accept any MMI.