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Drones post-update?
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Janus Varg
Smoke Jaguars
#1 - 2013-05-27 02:09:28 UTC
When I was last here there was just about to be an update to general AI that (amongst stuff I forget, probably) would change the way rats dealt with drones (i.e. target on arrival because tiny, then forget forever after withdrawn). I never saw the results of it.

Do they require a lot of micro-management now? Need replacing often?

Or has it just changed what to do in order for them not to be targeted?

Was thinking of getting back into exploration first so I don't forget something and stupidly kill my mission ships, as they tend to cost a bit more, but I always used to go with drone cruisers for exploring to save space on ammo. If I need to be carrying/buying a lot of new ones or having them run back and forth from the ship I'd probably go with lasers instead, less bother and prettier to watch.

(why when I tried to post this before did it instead clear the post and do nothing?)
Dato Koppla
Balls Deep Inc.
Minmatar Fleet Alliance
#2 - 2013-05-27 04:00:49 UTC
Basically NPCs will aggro drones now, light drones will only be aggroed by frigs, mediums by cruisers and frigs and large drones can take aggro from everything.

The severity of the drone aggro depends on many things, if you aren't using weapons/ewar/logi at all then the drones will take more aggro than if you were. In terms of exploration it's doable without losing many drones, but you shouldn't send your drones out too far, also you should use sentries when possible because they can be instascooped which makes it alot easier to deal with drone aggro.

All in all, it's annoying, but not crippling. If you're using Cruisers for exploration there are few better options as the laser cruisers don't have enough utility highs, which means you have to stick to droneboats for the most part.
sabre906
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#3 - 2013-05-27 04:13:35 UTC
It's crippling for heavy drones, and annoying for the rest. The annoyance don't come with any upsides. Don't bother with drones unless you have no other choice.
Barbie D0ll
Imperial Academy
Amarr Empire
#4 - 2013-05-27 06:59:03 UTC
to put it simply, elite frigates, elite cruisers, and elite battleships will prioritize your drones over you.
Janus Varg
Smoke Jaguars
#5 - 2013-05-27 07:59:56 UTC
...trying to think of a way to keep them permanently chasing some drones now, lol.

Oh well. It sounds like I could probably still take an arbitrator and do this stuff, but having to constantly send drones to and fro sounds like far and away more irritation than they're worth. I guess I'll skip those until I have the gallente drone HAC trained up and then (iirc) I should be able to field a meaningful # of sentries instead of meds.

I forget which slots the exploration stuff goes in tbh (besides scanprobe launcher of course). If it ends up interfering with weapons I'll probably just take a ship for one thing or the other and ignore the sites I'm not set up for.

Thanks for the answers.
Tauranon
Weeesearch
CAStabouts
#6 - 2013-05-27 08:46:18 UTC
A vexor will field 3 sentries, that works fine.

For me with most skills at 5, and 2 damage mods, its nearly 450 dps at 45km.

Serp, gurista, blood ded4s can all be done by landing at beacon, deploying drones, cycling tank occasionally. The blood one you might need to back off once or twice to maintain range in the second pocket, them come forward and shoot some of the towers without aggroing them - they aggro at 40km.
DeLindsay
Galaxies Fall
#7 - 2013-05-27 09:01:29 UTC
sabre906 wrote:
It's crippling for heavy drones, and annoying for the rest. The annoyance don't come with any upsides. Don't bother with drones unless you have no other choice.

Fail. Drones are fine if you simply pay attention. Sure you can't aggro an entire pocket/room then loose Drones, AFK for 20m to make and eat a sammich, come back and loot your spoils, but why was that EVER a game mechanic to begin with. Sentries do VERY well, especially if you fly in an area with heavy jamming/dampning like Guristas/Serpentis. Those Sentries will eat everything in the room usually before you have lock back. The best part is if you fly a Drone bonused hull and fit a single Medium RR your Sentries can often tank the entire room, lol.

The Operative: "There are a lot of innocent people being killed in the air right now".

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: "You have no idea how true that is".
Marc Callan
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#8 - 2013-05-27 09:55:29 UTC
I think that the way it works is that at intervals, the rats will check their targets against a priority list. If there's something out there with higher priority than what they're shooting at, they'll switch. If you're repping a drone, the NPC AI will categorize you as a logistics ship, and if you're painting a target, you'll be classified as e-war, both of which are apparently higher on the NPC target priority list.

Heavy drones fare worst, probably because their signature radius flares badly while they're moving using MWDs; sentry drones can catch quite a bit of aggro, but I surmise that their reduced signature helps them in that case. (I've seen a CN Warden catch aggro from multiple battleships and simply sit there and tank it; then again, the faction sentry has twice the tank of an equivalent T2 sentry.)

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." - Kurt Vonnegurt
Rengerel en Distel
#9 - 2013-05-27 15:01:34 UTC
On June 4th with Odyssey, they're removing rats from exploration sites (except wormholes), so won't really matter.

Otherwise, drones aren't that hard to use unless you're asleep or an idiot.

With the increase in shiptoasting, the Report timer needs to be shortened.
Cage Man
Fusion Enterprises Ltd
Pandemic Horde
#10 - 2013-05-27 22:27:00 UTC
Janus Varg wrote:
...trying to think of a way to keep them permanently chasing some drones now, lol.

Oh well. It sounds like I could probably still take an arbitrator and do this stuff, but having to constantly send drones to and fro sounds like far and away more irritation than they're worth. I guess I'll skip those until I have the gallente drone HAC trained up and then (iirc) I should be able to field a meaningful # of sentries instead of meds.

I forget which slots the exploration stuff goes in tbh (besides scanprobe launcher of course). If it ends up interfering with weapons I'll probably just take a ship for one thing or the other and ignore the sites I'm not set up for.

Thanks for the answers.


Gila works just as well as the gallente drone hac Blink Can field 5 sentries, is shield tanked so you get to use more DDA's. Fit a repper to your HS and you can rep the drones when they get into trouble.
Tsukino Stareine
Garoun Investment Bank
Gallente Federation
#11 - 2013-05-27 23:00:33 UTC
Cage Man wrote:
Janus Varg wrote:
...trying to think of a way to keep them permanently chasing some drones now, lol.

Oh well. It sounds like I could probably still take an arbitrator and do this stuff, but having to constantly send drones to and fro sounds like far and away more irritation than they're worth. I guess I'll skip those until I have the gallente drone HAC trained up and then (iirc) I should be able to field a meaningful # of sentries instead of meds.

I forget which slots the exploration stuff goes in tbh (besides scanprobe launcher of course). If it ends up interfering with weapons I'll probably just take a ship for one thing or the other and ignore the sites I'm not set up for.

Thanks for the answers.


Gila works just as well as the gallente drone hac Blink Can field 5 sentries, is shield tanked so you get to use more DDA's. Fit a repper to your HS and you can rep the drones when they get into trouble.


DDAs not as important as omnis on those limited slot layouts.

Art of Explosions
Mnemosyne Gloob
#12 - 2013-05-28 01:47:59 UTC  |  Edited by: Mnemosyne Gloob
Rengerel en Distel wrote:
On June 4th with Odyssey, they're removing rats from exploration sites (except wormholes), so won't really matter.

Otherwise, drones aren't that hard to use unless you're asleep or an idiot.


radars/mags, but not combat sites.

Otherwise yeah - sentries. And watch your drones. It's not that hard.

[edit] your sentries taking aggro can even make tanking easier for you [/edit]
sabre906
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#13 - 2013-05-28 02:01:04 UTC
DeLindsay wrote:
sabre906 wrote:
It's crippling for heavy drones, and annoying for the rest. The annoyance don't come with any upsides. Don't bother with drones unless you have no other choice.

Fail. Drones are fine if you simply pay attention. Sure you can't aggro an entire pocket/room then loose Drones, AFK for 20m to make and eat a sammich, come back and loot your spoils, but why was that EVER a game mechanic to begin with. Sentries do VERY well, especially if you fly in an area with heavy jamming/dampning like Guristas/Serpentis. Those Sentries will eat everything in the room usually before you have lock back. The best part is if you fly a Drone bonused hull and fit a single Medium RR your Sentries can often tank the entire room, lol.


Fail for you. Put out some heavies and see how that works out for you...Lol