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This thread is a part of series which I call "New Age Combat (NAC)" and I want to post them all hoping that 0.16 will be a patch dedicated to reworking combat and endgame.

The general idea is to put combat drones in line with other types of bots while extending control over all bots a bit.

Combat drones should be another subtype for bots. They would use roboports to function, both stationary and personal. They can provide a certain level of defence while being stored in stationary roboports. The combat area should be somewhere between logistic area and construction area - whis is a topic for discussion. As an option you should be able to tune the size of area inside roboport interface.

As opposed to other bot types these bots should remain bound to their roboport and should change it only if their home one becomes unavailable - destroyed, mined, marked for deconstruction etc. Actually it would be a good idea to make this a setting inside roboport interface and apply to all kinds of bots. For example I would like to create a wall protected by bots - both combat and construction ones, but I do not want them to roam within whole logistic network and only complete tasks within only this particular roboport, kinda isolate roboport from others.

Combat bots will also make use of a personal roboport which will replace drone capsules for this purpose. And the number of personal roboports would effect the number of drones that will aid you simultaneously. Just like construction bots these will be launched from your inventory and will require recharging after some time.

All combat bots should be tuned to have 3 types of behaviour - passive (they ignore all threats within radius), defensive (they will attack all agressive targets), offensive (they will attack all targets within area). For stationary roboports this should be a part of roboport interface. For player - not sure where exactly, possibly a new interface option near weapons/armor.

Existing research for bot speed will apply to combat drones. You may opt to add some new like HP boost and resistance boost.

Also it is generally a good idea to allow storing different kinds of items within roboport and not limit it to bots and repair packs. In this case roboport might contain ammo for bots and maybe spare items to replace in the case of destruction (shadows).

As an addition you might add a vehicle, a mobile roboport, which will act like a carrier for a bunch of drones and will automaticly launch them (or not) based on behaviour set above.

I prefer them to remain consumable, as a high-end production challenge and resource sink I'd like to make use of an optimised layout. Additionally having them consumable it won't feel like such a loss when they are destroyed as it forces you to have a constant stream of them either way. However what advantage do they have over turret defences? Their mobility of course, but by simply restricting them to a single roboport you're detracting from that advantage.

Here's how I would suggest it working. You would have a Combat Roboport that has a range which it will deploy its robots to defend itself. It is configurable so that you can set a number and a destination, once the roboport contains that number of robots it will dispatch them to that destination. Once they reach that destination and become idle (nothing to attack) they will return to the roboport. There should be an option that once robots return it can clear the order so no further robots are sent, otherwise continue sending them. Another option to limit the frequency robots are deployed at, eg minimum 60 seconds between launches. Ideally there would be research to increase the number of destinations so you can create a patrol to establish a perimeter, but it can also be used to launch attacks. This would allow for total flexibility.

As you don't want patrols uselessly timing out I'd suggest providing each drone with an ammo count. Once the ammo is consumed, the drone is destroyed. Some research to make it suicide in the process would be cool.

Instead of the time limit they could have a low HP, and not be able to be repaired.
Maybe 20 HP, enough to be killed by a medium spitter?