EVE General Discussion

I have been away for about 3 years and notice a lot has changed in terms of drone aggro. Are they even usable now and if so, how? I have been experimenting with my Raven in L4's and I wait till I have 5 targets remaining or less. I lock on all targets, and fire cruise missiles at two of them. In every case, when I launch my 5 drones (set to passive) and select ANY of the 5 targets for them to engage, they are almost instantly killed. I try to pull them back but usually, one does not make it.
So, what am I doing wrong...and how can I use my 600K ISK drones again....or did CCP 'retire' drone use?
Thanks!




















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CCP updated some time Ago the AI of NPC to be like Sleeper.

So now NPC are a bit more smart and change their targets according to several factors, like ncoming dmg or logistic usage instead of 1st Agro focus fire and ignore everything also.


Or to put it short, you can use your drones but you better keep an eye of them instead use them as AFK mode.

In your cae i may suggest use them for short range and not send them to 30+Km where they can be destroyed before their return to the drone bay.

No, they did not. They just made it so that frigates are very keen on attacking the biggest threat against them, which for most L4 mission setups will be the drones.

There are many tricks to keeping your drones alive, ranging from just babysitting them something fierce to giving the frigates something else to be worried about (the AI has a fiery hatred of remote support effects and ewar, for instance) to just blowing the frigates up at range before they can threaten your drones.

Fiddling with the drone aggression settings won't do anything since that's not a deciding factor in whether they get attacked or not.

PvP.

CCP hasn't completely retired drone use yet, but don't worry, they're working on it.

That patch that changed NPC AI was not nice at all. You also found that out apparantly.
I never AFK mission and I manage my drones actively.
Before the patch I almost never lost a drone in missions. As it should be.
Who develops and relies on a weapon system that can be shot down so easily?
After the patch I lost alot more of them in the first missions then I found acceptable.
They started to feel as very expensive ineffective missiles...
But it's possible to adapt.
Now I'm back to something that one can call 'normal', I assume
I still loose a drone once in a while but it's again a rather rare event.


I'm no expert but here are some things that helped me :

* use light drones a lot more then you are used too. As long as 1 frig is out there, forget about deploying anything else. And while you get used to the new situation use them for the bigger targets too. Takes a bit more time, but reduces the overhead.
I even started to leave medium's at home for a while : lights for small/medium targets. heavies once only BS are left.
* start recalling them as soon as they take 1 hit. Forget about shield recovery etc..
* don't forget about Drone Navigation Computer : costs you a midslot ofc but it does seem to reduce your drone loss especially when you deploy them at bigger range. Although 'big' is relative. If I recall correctly even 15 km was 'big'



PS. They are talking about changing the drone UI since I started playing this game.
It still hasn't happend. And that UI costs you drones. The UI should have changed before the behavior of the NPC's
Would at least be more useful then all those new mobile thingies

drones are fine and getting better , most staps ccp is making lately is to destroy the freaking afk world in eve wich is a good thing.(hello archon blob , hello lvl4 runner etc etc)

im still able to solo most 10/10 in a rattle snake relying heavyly on drones , i just need to play and watch my drones carefully.

eve is/was a very afk promoted game , in any other game i play as soon as i start to bake a cake i will die.

keep up the good work ccp

o/

Absolutely not. What is the point of a reward for these missions if they are entirely risk-free?

Yep, this. A sniper fit ship, especially one with range bonuses like the apoc, can take out frigates at 100k plus with infrared. And often you can get an instapop depending on the pirate npc factions resists to your guns. Then light drones can start on cruisers. When cruisers are gone, I send mediums after the bs. Occasionally I have to recall one. Not often. The MJD is vital for sniper fit.
But really, drones are almost overkill with a sniper fit and good gunnery skills. Drones help however when the rats resists are good vs your damage type.
Now, when you get a mission with spider drones, you really need your t2 lights. Sometimes I can pop them at range though.

If it wasn't your drone setup before the changes, you were doing something wrong anyway.

So really, if people did something else and had to adapt, it probably sped them up, whereas for those who used drones properly, it made very little difference once the years of experience with the AI in w-space players had been tapped.

You mean the training that has been the FOTM for a fairly long time now? No, it's not wasted, even with the 1.1 balancing of omnilinks.