Missions & Complexes

Not sure what the value of commenting to another drone bitching thread is.... but I only have ~400K SP in drones and I rarely lose them now that I had time to understand how the new agro system works. Here are my lessons learned:

1) Kill elite frigs first when possible (see note 2). No, it isn't hard to know all the types. They are generally the ones with three words in their name (vice 2). See mission reports and npc db for exact answers.

2) Elite frigs are more likely to shift aggro to drones if they are not actively shooting you. So allow the elite frigs to shoot you before sending your drones after them.

3) Always use lights until all aggro'd frigs are dead. Then mediums until all aggro'd cruisers are dead.

4) React to agro shifts BEFORE you're drones start getting shot by a change in the agro box from red to yellow. This is more difficult when running missions with a fleet. Another potential ques are the beep from the log off timer being reset when all agro shifts away from you.

Hey Kestrix,

I'll try it with a drone boat. Got a Rattlesnake and the modules, just need to dust it off and go for it. However, my major concern is still for gunboats, where the light drones play the major role of saving your butt from scrambling frigates.

sabre906, perhaps that is the way to go, RR, hehe. Gonna try that too. =)


Hey Korozaa, thanks!

1, I always try to do that. I usually look for the bounty value on them too. Higher values 20k+ usually means trouble.

2, Yep, I do that.

3, Yep, I do that.

4, This is tricky, to be honest never though of it that way. Good point.

TL;DR

Even in a low drone SP skilled Rattler, and random drones, I'm not getting them killed. NPC usually take their time to start targeting, and even with a full pocket of in-your-face-ships, they seem to make it back. I didn't run the test to properly run missions in short time, I wanted to see mainly what NPC shot and targeted what. They are either missing a lot now, or they aren't all switching at once to a single drone. Maybe they did so before?

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I mostly play to screw round as I don't have another decent space game. I save up, buy a ship, when I'm done sell or mothball for later.

I got a Rattlesnake because I wanted to test the AI changes and skilling for Domi would take too long (for guns and armor tanking). so I omni tanked to about 800 (losing more damage potential) and went testing drones, as I never used them before.

I can only use T1's but I full aggroe'd rooms - only after killing scram figs just in case - let all the ships set orbits and off I went. This was even before on the 3rd when they made ships only attack drone of a certain size, and still haven't lost one yet.

Worlds Collide last room I landed just right and they ALL targeted me, I kept sending out hobs/hammers and they all survived, only switched to Gards for BS to like, not stay there all day. I wanted to put Hammers on them to see how often they'd get shot at, but that mission was after the last drone patch and didn't think the BS would bother, and with no help from me they'd never break tank. Should have watched a movie and see If the BS would actually bother after an hour of the buggers flitting about, oh well.

So now, drones get shot at more, sure, but the hobs fly very fast, and I don't send Hammers unless I can't track with Gards, which seem to track BS orbiting at 8Km without too much problem with no drone tracking mods (odd misses). I've never had a Sentry drop shilds really fast, even when I just pulled em out to shoot at something they would miss all the time (ie just left them out as bait) damage would start, but I'd never go to 50%. I would then fast pull-redeploy and would take another 20-30 seconds minimum before they would bother again.

Ogres were an issue. I got one to hull against one BS but I wanted extra space to switch between other drone sets and they travel too slow with no boost mods.

This test was all done with T1's and only 1.1 mill in drone skills, of which Drones V and Scout Drones Op V make up 512k worth.

One thing - I had never used sentries and was extremely surprised that Gards can track Battleships orbiting at 6-8 KM's with no help from rigs or mods. Sub BS, not even random hits (only tried for about 20 minutes) I'd need to run tests on sisi on a player

The problem is people panicking before actually playing or adapting. I'm not losing any drones and mission completion times are the same.

Actually, the problem is "insta pop" of light combat drones.

CCP don't listen to these bads. DRONES ARE FINE.

FACTION ELITE NAME
Angel Cartel: Arch, Angel Webifier, Angel Viper
Blood Raiders: Elder
Rogue Drones: Strain
Guristas Pirates: Dire
Sansha's Nation: Loyal
Serpentis Corporation: Guardian
Amarr/Caldari/Gallente/Minmatar: Support Frigate

Just learn the one or two factions you fight most, obv there is also ones called "ELITE SHIP NAME" as well.

Personally, love the changes to npc AI, haven't lost more drones than pre patch, although i do now deploy them less, i don't simply go in and let them out and just let them do their thing for the next 20 minutes. I now only bother if there is anything smaller than a cruiser under my guns, or if im not multi boxing and as such want more stuff to click so send them out all the time and recall etc.

Done lots of missioning post patch, multiple guristas ganza's, a worlds collide, haven't done assault or blockade since patch though. However, on patch day i was doing the final 3 missions of the caldari epic arc - not the hyasyoda route, and my god that was annoying. so many elite frigs on timer spawn, sensor damp cruisers so i couldn't shoot them before they were under guns, and blaster BS's so if i get close I have to bother to turn on the shield booster lol.

Epic arcs are fun, especially when the ai change happens between two big combat missions, so one day its cake, the next it took me 20-30 minutes to get rid of all the frigs lol.

New players point: true, but also new players will learn with the new mechanics so it wont be a shock.

I do agree that a much better interface is required though, and some missions may need some rebalancing due to ewar + losing drones so easily.

How can I contribute other than by saying that I've not lost any drones in my Dominix or machariel and have pretty much done every mission amarr and minmatar agents can give since the patch.

Land on grid. Deploy sentries. Don't even aggro with my ship. Shoot frigs then cruisers then bs. If a sentry takes damage either scoop it or apply a medium rep (I've since not bothed with rep). Mission complete.

In machariel I only use drones of the correct size: land on grid. Pop frigs with guns. Deploy hobgobs, pop cruisers, deploy hammers. Mission complete. The drones are immune the whole time due to size.

If frigs are on you immediately I just deploy hobgobs and the enemy frigs are dead before my drones are even through shields.

Look, I have no agenda to make things seem easier than they are. Why would I? I find it hard to believe I am just being lucky after 100+ missions... Do you guys actually have t2 drones? I have drone dura only to IV and even sentry only to IV...

Show me a video of your drones dying...

Ever heard of combat drones (i.e. NOT sentry drones). These are what the OP and others are commenting about dying.