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EVE New Citizens Q&A

 
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Drone Targeting Range Question

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Ehrghiez
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#1 - 2014-02-26 19:26:43 UTC
<----Returning newb.

Been playing intermittently for a few years now. Just re-activated my account after a year hiatus so I could play around with the new changes. After seeing the new 'cookie cutter' Domi Sentry drone blitz builds I figured I'd give those a shot, but I seem to be having issues. I have no doubts I am missing something or another so I decided to ask you guys.

With my current fit my Domi can target out to 123km. The optimal range of my Warden IIs is 127km with a 47km falloff. Despite these numbers my Sentries will never engage a target outside of 105km. I've changed the build up a few times to see if maybe it has something to do with the modules I've been using but regardless of fitting that 105km cap seems to be consistent.

Can anyone shed any light on this and explain to me what I am missing. Mucho appreciation.

Bleep blop...Bloop..Blip..
ISD LackOfFaith
ISD Community Communications Liaisons
ISD Alliance
#2 - 2014-02-26 19:54:15 UTC
Three factors come into shooting a target at distance with your Dominix:


  • Your targeting range -- This is pretty obvious. You need to target something to tell your drones to shoot it.
  • Your drones' range -- This is also pretty obvious. It's just the range of your drones' guns.
  • Your "drone control range"


That last one is where a lot of people get hung up on, mostly because of its name, and the unintuitive manner in which it works. "Drone control range" is not the maximum distance your drones can fly away from you before they "lose signal". Drones are not RC helicopters, and they stay in touch with your ship for much longer distances (the entirety of the local grid, unless I'm mistaken). Drones are also intelligent, and fly themselves.

To understand drone control range, pretend that when you had a RC helicopter, rather than transmitting instructions to it, you instead shine a laser pointer on something your RC helicopter should fly towards (or fire at, in sentry drones' case). That laser pointer has limited range. That is your drone control range.

In other words, you can only order your drones to target targets inside your drone control range. The reason this exists is so that droneboats cannot be completely overpowered sniping ships. Think about it: if your Dominix sits at a point we call 0, and your sentry drones are 100 km away, and they have another 110 km on top of that (Warden IIs), you can hit things 210 km away for 500-600 DPS. Compare that to the quintessential uber-range sniping battleship, the Rokh, which can only get some 300-400 DPS tops at those ranges, with poorer tracking on top.

To increase your drone control range, you can train Electronic Warfare Drone Interfacing, or fit Drone Link Augmentors.

Hope this helped!

ISD LackOfFaith

Captain

Community Communication Liaisons (CCLs)

Interstellar Services Department

I do not respond to Eve Mail or anything other than the forums.
Thomas Builder
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#3 - 2014-02-26 19:56:26 UTC
You cannot assign a target to a drone if that target is outside your drone control range.

Basic drone control range is 20km.
With max Scout Drone Operation, it becomes 45km.
If you also max out Electronic Warfare Drone Interfacing, you get a total of 60km.

After that, Drone Link Augmentors (module) increase that range by an additional 20km/24km (T1/T2).
There is also a rig (Control Range Augmenter) that increase that range by 15km/20km.

If you copied the fit from somewhere, it might assume that you have the EWAR drone skill and you are missing those 15km.
Ehrghiez
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#4 - 2014-02-26 19:59:25 UTC
Thanks for the replies. Prior to my hiatus I was training for T2 Sentries, but never had an opportunity to use them. T2 scout/combat drones never need to fly out to 100km+ ranges so I've never needed more than one Drone Link Augmentor.

Again, thanks =)

Bleep blop...Bloop..Blip..
Jonah Gravenstein
Machiavellian Space Bastards
#5 - 2014-02-26 20:02:56 UTC  |  Edited by: Jonah Gravenstein
ISD LackOfFaith wrote:
Drones are also intelligent
That's debatable P

The drone AI appears to be modeled on the synaptic patterns present in the brain of the average housecat.

It has 3 modes

  • Kill stuff
  • Ignore all commands, even when they're about to die
  • Randomly kill stuff, especially if the randomly selected target drops the next spawn on your head

In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded.

New Player FAQ

Feyd's Survival Pack
hydraSlav
Synergy Evolved
#6 - 2014-02-26 20:22:35 UTC
ISD LackOfFaith wrote:
... Drones are not RC helicopters ...

But they are!
When drones cruise out of control range, this happens:
ISD LackOfFaith wrote:

... Drones [...] also [...] fly themselves....

You can no longer control them, but they continue on their own, either following the target or deciding to give up and coast back to your ship. The problem is that once they are out of control range and decide to coast back, they don't engage their MWD, and you can't tell them to (by issuing return order), cause they are out of control range.