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EVE New Citizens Q&A

 
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Drone Link Augmenter & Sentry Drones
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Kate Stenton
Foundation Enterprises
#1 - 2012-07-19 05:58:20 UTC
Hi, noob question here.

I would like to fly an Ishtar and use Sentry Drones. I am looking up fits to put together a skill plan and I see many fits with a Drone Link Augmentor.

I understand that Sentry Drones cannot move so you will usually sit next to them and scoop them up as needed, so what use is the Drone Link Augmenter? Will my drones not attack something outside their normal control range even if they are right next to me?

For example: Me --- 2km --- Drones --- 60km --- Target

Or is it used to deploy the drones and then fly around and loot while they shoot from the back? In that case it makes sense.
Xercodo
Cruor Angelicus
#2 - 2012-07-19 07:17:40 UTC
From what I can understand the drone control range works essentially like the effective locking range a sentry has. Though I personally haven't tested trying to set sentries on something relative to my own distance or theirs since I tend to sit right on them at all times.

The Drake is a Lie
Tomcio FromFarAway
Singularity's Edge
#3 - 2012-07-19 07:19:08 UTC
On Ishtar it's useless because you get bonus to your drone control range ( even for sentries ).

As for the range itself - it's not the range from drones to target but from YOU to target.

Let's say you have 50km drone control range.
Your target is 70km from the drones but at the same time it's <=50km from you - your drones can attack it.
You can just deploy your sentries and move your ship closer to the target ( quite common tactic when flying ship like Ishtar ).

In most cases however it is not needed on Ishtar. As far as I remember you will get ~77km dcr on Ishtar ( with level 4 in ECM drone interfacing and heavy assault ships ). It is enough to attack most targets in most situations.

Besides your Ishtar is very tight on CPU and all drone upgrade mods uses a lot of it.

Remember that drones are like turrets and they are subjects to optimal/falloff mechanics. If you use gardes for instance - you won't be able to reliably hit targets outside of ~50-55km mark.
Wardens and Bouncers don't have this problem because of very good range ( very poor tracking at the same time ).
Kate Stenton
Foundation Enterprises
#4 - 2012-07-19 07:24:49 UTC
Tomcio FromFarAway wrote:
On Ishtar it's useless because you get bonus to your drone control range ( even for sentries ).

As for the range itself - it's not the range from drones to target but from YOU to target.

Let's say you have 50km drone control range.
Your target is 70km from the drones but at the same time it's <=50km from you - your drones can attack it.
You can just deploy your sentries and move your ship closer to the target ( quite common tactic when flying ship like Ishtar ).

In most cases however it is not needed on Ishtar. As far as I remember you will get ~77km dcr on Ishtar ( with level 4 in ECM drone interfacing and heavy assault ships ). It is enough to attack most targets in most situations.

Besides your Ishtar is very tight on CPU and all drone upgrade mods uses a lot of it.

Remember that drones are like turrets and they are subjects to optimal/falloff mechanics. If you use gardes for instance - you won't be able to reliably hit targets outside of ~50-55km mark.
Wardens and Bouncers don't have this problem because of very good range ( very poor tracking at the same time ).


Ohhh, I thought the control range was from me to my drones, but it actually being me to my target makes sense now. Thank you for explaining!
Vilnius Zar
SDC Multi Ten
#5 - 2012-07-19 10:37:59 UTC
Drone control range:

20km base + 5km per lvl of scout drone +3 km per lvl of EW drone interfacing. Realistically that gives you 57km (with EW DI at 4) once you skilled up properly, add the Drone links to that and you have your actual range. And yes it's from you to the target.
Chainsaw Plankton
FaDoyToy
#6 - 2012-07-19 17:37:21 UTC
Tomcio FromFarAway wrote:
In most cases however it is not needed on Ishtar. As far as I remember you will get ~77km dcr on Ishtar ( with level 4 in ECM drone interfacing and heavy assault ships ). It is enough to attack most targets in most situations.

and the ishtar locks to 75km so that works out pretty damn well Big smile

in the ishtar I usually use light drones to kill the webbers then swap to sentries and orbit them, and then since I'm barely taking any incoming damage I alt tab to the forums

@ChainsawPlankto on twitter
Rashmika Clavain
Revelation Space
#7 - 2012-07-20 11:11:51 UTC
I'd only use the DLA if my drone control range was significantly less than my lock range.

I'm lazy, I like to orbit my sentries and let them do the hard work.
Mara Rinn
Cosmic Goo Convertor
#8 - 2012-07-20 11:24:10 UTC
Kate Stenton wrote:
Ohhh, I thought the control range was from me to my drones, but it actually being me to my target makes sense now. Thank you for explaining!


It's both.

Drone control range defines how far away your drones can be and still respond to instructions, and it defines how far away a target can be in order for you to instruct your drones to do something to that target.

Day 0 Advice for New Players