EVE New Citizens Q&A

I always thought that it made all of your drones attack 1 target, rather than splitting up and attacking multiple targets.

I'll have to try playing with the checkbox tonight, it would be nice if unchecking it would keep them from attacking my target.

I want my drones to kill the frigates that are circling me, not the BC I'm firing at 30km away.

Focus fire = All drones focus their fire on 1 target when left on own control

As for the small orbits vs long range BC.

Lock the frigs, and hit 'F'
F = hotkey to get your drones to engage the selected target

Drone behavior leaves much to be desired, but here's a quick run-down.

If your drones are set to Passive, they will only engage targets you explicitly tell them to; after destroying that target they will return to an idle state until instructed to engage something else.

If your drones are set to Aggressive then the logic is a little more complex. Aggressive drones will attack things of their own accord if the target is:

Redboxing (actually attacking, be it by shooting or use of EWAR) you or the drones, and

Within your drone control range.

However, aggressive drones, when deployed, will not do anything until given a reason to do so. This can be one of four things:

Something within your drone control range that was not engaging you when the drones were deployed redboxes you, or

Something within your drone control range attacks one of your drones, or

You aggress something within your drone control range, or

You tell your drones to attack a specific target.

After aggressive drones have started shooting at things, behavior can be a little confusing:

When your drones' target is destroyed, there is a brief moment in which they are idle while selecting their next target according to some blackbox prioritization that nobody really understands.

During this period, if you aggress something within your drone control range, they will skip the target selection phase and will engage what you just shot at.

Otherwise, they will select a target that meets the criteria in the first list above.

Hope this helps.

EDIT: To clarify your specific situation, Andoria, if you are not shooting at something when your drones kill their target (for example, they may have been shooting at what you were), there's a brief period where you shooting at something will override their automatic target selection.

So basically your using a passive mode while your drones are on active, aka you are telling them what to shoot.

No, you just don't understand what they are talking about. The way you play your drones, it doesn't matter if they are set to passive or agressive. You give them orders, so they listen.

If you just launch your drones and NOT instruct them to do something, then it matters in what mode they are set. In passive mode your drones do nothing until you instruct them to do something (like you do). In agressive mode they will look for targets themselves, without you giving instructions.
That is what this topic is about.

When you're ship is strike if the drones are on aggressive they will respond if they are on passive they won't do anything

Note: I don't actually know if you need to be strike or if just been agresse like can flip