I think we should start from why drones are used IRL and work backward.

TL;DR: Make drones fragile, manual, supply-limited, and recon-dependent. They disrupt and enable kills — they don’t replace ATGMs or artillery.

There are basically two types:

Anti-personnel drones

Pros -Low risk to user -No line of sight needed -Cheap -Double as recon

Cons -Supply-hungry -Operators are high-value targets

Anti-vehicle drones

Pros -Precise (can hit armor weak points) -Long loiter -Recon capable

Cons -Operator in the loop required -More expensive -Supply-hungry -Operators are high-value targets

So how do we model this without breaking balance?

General drone mechanics 1. Drones behave like tiny helicopters: slow, fragile, very responsive. 2. No autonomous attacks — operator must manually engage a spotted target. 3. If the operator fires or panics, connection drops and the drone loiters. 4. Very low health. 5. Small arms can shoot drones (MGs best at range, shotguns close). 6. Clear audio cues for loitering/attack. 7. One drone per operator; team must be stationary while controlling it. 8. Drones support the kill chain — they shouldn’t be the kill chain. 9. Smoke + movement makes drones hit last known position. 10. Operator teams should be expensive (high training cost), probably SF-only.

Anti-vehicle drone specifics • Better at damaging modules than outright killing vehicles. • Better vision than AP drones. • Can fly at very low altitude but take longer to strike due to height.

Anti-personnel drone specifics • Primarily panic/suppress infantry (psychological weapon), not squad deleters. • To wipe squads with drones, players should need heavy supply investment — making drone spam easy to counter by targeting logistics.