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Drones Focus Fire - How Does This Work?
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Beness
Vojtech Fekete
#1 - 2013-07-22 01:13:02 UTC
In the ESC menu, under Shortcuts -> Drones, there's an option "Drone Settings: Toggle Focus Fire".

My expectation is that when I first press the key combination (default Alt-Shift-F), my active drones will all focus on one target, whereas when I press the key combination a second time, my active drones will all focus on different targets. Or maybe the opposite way around, what really matters is my expectation from "Toggle Focus Fire" is that it swaps between "everyone stick to one target" and "everyone scatter on targets".

This doesn't seem particularly reliable (or important) in combat situations - the simple "F" keypress to attack a target obviates the real need to provide drones with a default directive in most cases.

However, there's one situation where providing drones with a "scatter" directive would be most useful - salvaging. It is mathematically provable that it's to a salvager's advantage to distribute their attempts over as many wrecks as possible. There seems to be no way to automate this process - if given the default "F" keypress (with no wrecks selected), regardless of toggling focus fire or not, the Salvage Drones always stick together.

Other than manually instructing each drone to salvage a different wreck, has anyone figured out a way to have their salvage drones scatter to different targets?
Katran Luftschreck
Royal Ammatar Engineering Corps
#2 - 2013-07-22 01:16:23 UTC
If it's drone related you can safely assume it's broken. Shrug and move on.

http://youtu.be/t0q2F8NsYQ0
Onictus
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#3 - 2013-07-22 01:18:28 UTC
Katran Luftschreck wrote:
If it's drone related you can safely assume it's broken. Shrug and move on.



Not empty quoting.
Mara Rinn
Cosmic Goo Convertor
#4 - 2013-07-22 01:43:08 UTC
The focus fire setting applies to drones acting without direction (ie: in aggressive mode). When focus fire is on, all the drones should attack the one target. When focus fire is off, drones will shoot whatever is shooting them first, whatever is shooting your other drones second, and whatever is shooting your your ship third.

I do not know of any way to get five drones to deliberately attack different targets. This might be something to raise in the current suggestion thread.

Day 0 Advice for New Players
Beness
Vojtech Fekete
#5 - 2013-07-22 01:43:29 UTC
Woe! My hopes of enhanced salvage efficiency are dashed.
Beness
Vojtech Fekete
#6 - 2013-07-22 01:46:50 UTC
Mara Rinn wrote:
I do not know of any way to get five drones to deliberately attack different targets. This might be something to raise in the current suggestion thread.


Good pointer - I'll go do that, thanks!
Grath Telkin
Amok.
Goonswarm Federation
#7 - 2013-07-22 02:00:35 UTC
Beness wrote:
Mara Rinn wrote:
I do not know of any way to get five drones to deliberately attack different targets. This might be something to raise in the current suggestion thread.


Good pointer - I'll go do that, thanks!


To get 5 different drones to attack 5 different targets you have to manually tell each drone which target to attack, when they're done, they'll all mob the next probably target

Malcanis - Without drone assign, the slowcat doctrine will wither and die.
Beness
Vojtech Fekete
#8 - 2013-07-22 02:05:36 UTC
Grath Telkin wrote:
To get 5 different drones to attack 5 different targets you have to manually tell each drone which target to attack, when they're done, they'll all mob the next probably target


Yeah, pointed that out in the OP. Optimal salvaging behavior at this point (with Noctis):


  1. With no targets, release drones and press F
  2. Gain 5 empty wreck targets and send drones to those, with the clunky right-click & salvage
  3. Gain non-empty wreck targets to tractor in.
  4. Watch for the green 'idle' flashes, to reassign drones to new empty wrecks


The alternative is to ignore drone management.