Drone Improvements

When you die in multiplayer and take over a drone with Remote Operation, the run isn't over for you: your drone can use the world like a survivor, flies faster when you sprint, gets Disconnect and Teleport to Player skills, and the Mithrix arena and the escape ship don't wait for it.

Survivor actions (host setting)

While controlling a drone you can open chests, use shrines, printers, scrappers and the teleporter, pay with your own gold, and pick up equipment. Items that a stage's objective needs (keys and the like) stay off-limits, as in the base game. With DroneSurvivorActions off, drones are locked out of all that as in the base game; they can still pick up items and open barrels (unless DroneBarrelGold is off), which the base game allows. Using interactables needs a drone that can interact: every base-game drone can, but a drone added by another mod might not.

Drone gold (host settings)

The mod never takes gold a drone player already has (the base game still can, for example Brittle Crown when they're hit). Three settings decide how they earn more, one for each source of gold. All are on by default:

• DroneCombatGold: gold from combat: enemy kills, money packs (Ghor's Tome, Cleanup Drone, gilded enemies), Brittle Crown, Roll of Pennies and other gold from hitting or getting hit. Off: they get none.
• DroneBarrelGold: opening barrels and getting their share of the gold. Off: they can't open barrels.
• DroneShrineOfBloodGold: using Shrine of Blood. Off: they can't use it.

Shared gold a drone player doesn't get (combat gold, barrels) is split between the living survivors instead.

Gold from other mods follows the same rules when it comes through the game's own payouts, and gold a mod pays straight to a drone player during a kill, a hit or damage counts as combat gold. Mods that give every player the same wallet, such as ShareSuite's shared money, decide drone players' gold themselves.

Flight controls

Drones fly with the base game's controls, except that Sprint now makes you faster instead of flying down:

• Space (Jump) flies up.
• Left Ctrl (DescendKey, per player, you can rebind it) flies down. Only the key itself counts, not modifier keys, so it also works while you hold movement keys. Pressing Jump while you hold it flies up, as in the base game.
• Shift (Sprint) flies SprintSpeedMultiplier times faster (host setting): 2 by default, 1 to 3. At 1 this is off, and Sprint flies down as in the base game.

Drone abilities

Both show in the skill bar with their own icons, like any skill. Holding the key doesn't repeat them: press it again.

• Disconnect (Utility): hold it (1 second by default) to leave the drone and go back to spectating. The drone is removed, not killed, so nothing that happens on death triggers: a Dio's Best Friend is neither used up nor revives you. You can pick a drone again from the spectator menu.
• Teleport to Player (Special, R): jump next to the nearest living player, never into terrain. One charge, with a 30 second base cooldown by default (cooldown items can shorten it). It's greyed out while there's nobody to go to.

Objectives (host settings)

• A drone inside a holdout zone (the teleporter, pillars, Void Fields cells, ...) helps charge it. A drone outside never slows it down.
• The Mithrix arena and the escape ship only wait for survivors, not for drone players. Drones that are there anyway still count: they're safe when the arena seals and leave with the ship.
• Drones left outside the sealed Mithrix arena aren't killed (which would also use up a Dio's Best Friend), so they can teleport in.
• The run still ends when every survivor is dead, and picking a drone works exactly as in the base game.

Settings

In BepInEx/config/revor.DroneImprovements.cfg, or in game under Settings → Mod Options → DroneImprovements when Risk of Options is installed. Changes apply immediately.

• DroneSurvivorActions (default true, host): drone players can interact, buy and pick up equipment.
• DroneCombatGold (default true, host): drone players earn combat gold.
• DroneBarrelGold (default true, host): drone players can open barrels and get their share of the gold.
• DroneShrineOfBloodGold (default true, host): drone players can use Shrine of Blood.
• DronesCanChargeHoldoutZones (default true, host): drones inside a holdout zone help charge it.
• IgnoreDronesForAllPlayerChecks (default true, host): the Mithrix arena and the escape ship don't wait for drones.
• SpareDronesFromArenaVoidKill (default true, host): drones outside the sealed Mithrix arena aren't killed.
• DisconnectEnabled (default true): your drone's Disconnect skill.
• DisconnectHoldSeconds (default 1, 0 to 5): how long to hold Disconnect.
• TeleportEnabled (default true): your drone's Teleport to Player skill.
• TeleportCooldown (default 30, 1 to 600): Teleport's base cooldown in seconds.
• SprintSpeedMultiplier (default 2, 1 to 3, host): how many times faster drones fly while holding Sprint; 1 is off.
• DescendKey (default LeftControl): hold to fly your drone down.

Multiplayer

Every player needs the mod, in the same version: the game doesn't let players with a different version, or without the mod, join each other. Settings marked host are decided by the host for everyone (in Risk of Options they're greyed out while you're a client); the others only change your own drone.

Changelog

1.2.1

• Updated for Risk of Rain 2 1.5.0, where version 1.2.0 doesn't load. The patch also moved the game's gold payouts to new methods, which the host settings DroneCombatGold and DroneBarrelGold now follow.

1.2.0

• New drone controls: Shift (Sprint) flies faster, the new Descend key (Left Ctrl by default) flies down, and Space (Jump) flies up. In the base game holding Sprint flew down.
  • New host setting SprintSpeedMultiplier (default 2, 1 to 3): how many times faster drones fly while holding Sprint. At 1 it is off and Sprint flies down as in the base game. Clients use the host's value.
  • New per-player setting DescendKey: the key that flies your drone down. It works whatever the multiplier is. Only the main key counts (modifier keys are ignored), so it also works while you hold movement keys.
  • Both are in Risk of Options too.
• DroneGold is replaced by three host settings, one for each source of gold. All are on by default:
  • DroneCombatGold: drone players earn combat gold (kills, money packs, Brittle Crown, Roll of Pennies, ...). Off: they get none, and their share goes to the survivors.
  • DroneBarrelGold: drone players can open barrels and get their share of the gold. Off: they can't open barrels, and the survivors get all the gold of the barrels they open.
  • DroneShrineOfBloodGold: drone players can use Shrine of Blood. Off: they can't.
  • Anyone who had changed DroneGold gets the defaults (everything on) and should set the new settings again.
• Gold that another mod pays straight to a drone player during a kill, a hit or damage counts as combat gold, so DroneCombatGold off blocks it too. Other gold that mods pay straight to a drone player is no longer blocked (it was with DroneGold set to None).

1.1.2

• Internal clean-up, no gameplay changes: the code now follows the Risk of Rain 2 modding community's conventions (the game's own network message handlers, for example) and drops the layers that caught errors and quietly fell back to the base game.
• If something goes wrong, it now shows up as an error in the log instead of being hidden.
• The mod now changes the game through MonoMod hooks, like most Risk of Rain 2 mods, instead of Harmony patches. It needs HookGenPatcher, which mod managers install automatically.
• For other mods: DroneTeleportApi.CollectAdditionalTargets is a plain event now, so an exception in a handler is no longer caught.

1.1.1

• Every player needs the same version of the mod: the game refuses players with a different version, or without the mod, instead of letting them into a broken session.
• Drone players on the escape ship leave with it instead of being killed when it takes off.
• Drone players inside the Mithrix arena count as inside, as in the base game, so they're never killed when it seals, even with SpareDronesFromArenaVoidKill off. The arena still doesn't wait for drones outside.
• Clients use the host's DronesCanChargeHoldoutZones, IgnoreDronesForAllPlayerChecks and SpareDronesFromArenaVoidKill too, not their own, so for example a holdout zone's charge indicator and Lepton Daisy's effect on it agree with the host on whether a drone inside is charging it.
• Drone players can't pick up items that a stage's objective needs (keys and the like) any more, as in the base game. Equipment still works.
• Drones no longer reveal the teleporter just by flying near it, as in the base game.
• Holding the Teleport or Disconnect key no longer repeats the skill; press it again.
• Teleport to Player always has a single charge (Lysate Cell doesn't add any). Its 30 second cooldown is a base value that cooldown items can shorten.
• Disconnect's hold bar matches the hold time with cooldown items, and never shows a charge counter.
• TeleportCooldown is at least 1 second.
• DisconnectHoldSeconds and TeleportCooldown can be changed in Risk of Options, and both apply without a restart.
• Risk of Options greys out the host settings while you're a client, and shows the mod's icon.
• Players who left the game are no longer Teleport targets.
• A Teleport whose target disappears at the last moment plays the "can't do that" sound (the charge is refunded).
• Remote Operation drones added by other mods get Disconnect and Teleport to Player whatever their body is called. To use chests, shrines and other interactables they need to be able to interact, as every base-game drone can; the rest of the mod works for them either way.
• If a game update breaks part of the mod, only that part stops working (it works as in the base game, with an error in the log) and the rest keeps working.
• Corrected the descriptions: drone players never get Executive Card cashback (Remote Operation disables your equipment), and drones could always open barrels, whatever DroneSurvivorActions says.
• Added a link to the source code: https://github.com/T-Jayay/DroneImprovements
• For other mods: DroneTeleportApi handlers get their own empty list to add targets to, and an error in one handler no longer stops the others.

1.1.0

• New host setting DroneGold, how drone players earn gold (the mod never takes the gold they have):
  • Full (default): like survivors.
  • NoKillGold: no gold from kills and combat (enemy kills, Ghor's Tome, Brittle Crown, Roll of Pennies); barrels and Shrine of Blood still pay.
  • None: no gold at all, and barrels and Shrine of Blood can't be used.
  • Kill gold a drone would have received goes to the living survivors.
• DroneSurvivorActions now only controls interacting, buying and picking up items; gold is controlled by DroneGold.

1.0.0

• Initial release.
• Drones keep survivor actions: interact, buy, pick up items and earn gold (host toggle, synced to all players; optional in-game toggle with Risk of Options).
• Drone abilities: Disconnect (Utility) and Teleport to Player (Special).
• Mithrix quality of life: drones are no longer needed to start the arena cutscene or for the escape ship to leave, and aren't void-killed outside the arena.
• Drones inside the teleporter zone help charge it; drones outside never slow it down.