EVE General Discussion

Hmmmm....could they be differing meta level Drone Upgrade Units?
Time to check if any market speculation on the useless drone components has started.

The irony is that CCP is while on one hand CCP is upgrading drone usage (Drone damage unit going from 19 to 23% bonus), on the other hand they are striving to wipe out drone usage with the new AI changes.

Not really as those are bits and bobs of drones used to make other drones. 99 to 1 that these are made mins.

These are officer drone mods dropped from rouge drone officers.

And for the love of god stop whining about "the death of drones in PVE as we know it". Have you ever used drones in a WH or an incursion? I knew a guy that can solo C3s in a myrm while still primarily using his drones. If he can do that then L4s are gonna be pie.

Sleepers and sansha are WAY less anal about drones than people let on to be and CCP already stated that the mission/anom/belt AI is gonna be tuned down even further than that.

What you SHOULD be wining about is the death of teams that rely on a brick tank ship anchor and glass cannon DPS fits for everyone else.

Sorry chum. You are wrong, dead wrong.
I tested the AI against drones on Duality diligently through several iterations.
I tested in an Ishtar, a Vargur, and a Navy Domi.
Any drones but sentries are finished as a PvE platform for all solo users.
Those who can manage to fit an RR on a boat MIGHT be OK, but incredibly few PVE ships can permarun an RR without cap transfer. And of course, twinned AFK RR Domis will be fine, as the AI will consider the RR as more of a threat and target the hulls, but that might change too, possibly.

We just don't know when the huge drone nerf will hit.
CCP has stated they are releasing Retribution with a "defect" where drone users have a loophole that will continue to use drones. (AI will ignore drones on the 2nd and subsequent release of drone flights.)
But CCP Fox Four has stated that this "defect" will be "fixed" sometime after Dec4th, but when is anyone's guess.
So solo drone users don't get obliterated until that loophole is closed.

As for the Holy Trinity of ships in high end plexes being hammered, that is quite possible.
I can imagine the holy trinity morphing into 3 RR Navy Domi's (assuming the AI continues to rate RR as a high threat), or into the Holy Quartet where an additional Logi is added.

But bottom line, CCP plans on introducing changes that wipes out solo drone users (and just waiting to hear the squeals of delight when someone in a Mach is scrammed and their small drones are instapopped), while those that operate in groups, typically null sec and low sec plexers, will likely be OK.

LOL...Drone Durability.....For the record, I am L4.
I have 92M SP, with 6.7 focused on drones. Not fighters, just drones.

But you are completely deluded if you think Drone Durability V will help at all.
When testing the last iteration on Duality, I had Hob II's that were half into structure BEFORE THEY EVEN REACHED THEIR TARGET, 6km away.

That's right, the Hobs were not even getting a shot off at NPC frigs 6 km away before I had to recall them, and the ones that were targeted did not make it back.

That happened EVERY time I launched the first wave of drones in a mission.
As stated before, subsequent waves were ignored, until a new spawn of NPC's arrived.

As for drone speed. I am just going to love when someone releases drones in Damsel in Distress when the 2nd spawn with the Spider Drones show up. Two spider drones reduced the speed of my boat to 4% of its top speed, at a web range in excess of 28 km. Precisely how does one recall drones that are doing 4% of their top speed and are being hammered by the entire spawn when the AI decides to change targeting to drones from my ship?

2 spiders, 28km to 4%

That's been the issue with AI in this game from day one. They don't see our dimensions or restrictions. It's the same as all MMO's, not just EVE. Avatar gamers see it with NPC's that can't be hit because they are in walls or rocks and keep hitting the player. We see it with AI doing radical things that we can't counter. I don't so much blame CCP for the stupid AI. No company has been able to master smarter AI. I do wonder why they insist on implementing what will be frustration in to the system.

From what I saw, this AI follows the pattern of its earlier siblings in its hatred towards ewar and remote reps, both of which can easily tag you as a higher-priority target than something just spits out a bit of damage.

How long did it take him to clear the site ? 2 hours ?

Several have said TP's are having little effect if any at all. Not sure if true or if this has changed. Couldn't get the NPC's to switch from drones using 4 small RR's during the testing I did, maybe just not enough for the NPC's to care?