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Drone Agro Issues
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Thufir Bezluden
Doomheim
#1 - 2013-11-18 14:58:19 UTC
No fun training millions of SP for drones so they can be ripped to bits by bots using something closer to sleeper Ai and instantly agro them. Don't get me wrong, I like that they'll take some heat for being the ship raping sob's they are, but to have half my drones eaten in a level 3 within a minute when I have full agro is just wrong. Tone it down so drone skills won't just be for pvp.

How about removing the aggressive so you have to order the drones to attack a target. No orders, no attack. Must be a better way to ruin 'botters' day than screw it up for people actually playing.
Marc Callan
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#2 - 2013-11-18 15:17:32 UTC
With the NPC AI changes, it might be helpful to think of drones as basically short-range weapons, for targets within, say, blaster range. Hold 'em close, and recalling them when they catch aggro shouldn't be such an issue (provided they don't get webbed down by something like a spider drone).

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." - Kurt Vonnegurt
hellcane
Never Back Down
#3 - 2013-11-18 17:12:18 UTC
Don't release drones then ignore them?
Frostys Virpio
State War Academy
Caldari State
#4 - 2013-11-18 18:53:40 UTC
Thufir Bezluden wrote:
No fun training millions of SP for drones so they can be ripped to bits by bots using something closer to sleeper Ai and instantly agro them. Don't get me wrong, I like that they'll take some heat for being the ship raping sob's they are, but to have half my drones eaten in a level 3 within a minute when I have full agro is just wrong. Tone it down so drone skills won't just be for pvp.

How about removing the aggressive so you have to order the drones to attack a target. No orders, no attack. Must be a better way to ruin 'botters' day than screw it up for people actually playing.


If your drone gets killed in under a minute while you ahve full aggro, file a petition. If you have aggro, the NPC are obviously not shooting your drones. If you are about to tell me `well the aggro switched, then stop lying because you didn't lose your drones while you had aggro.
IIshira
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#5 - 2013-11-18 20:12:16 UTC
CCP did this to stop people from running missions and sites AFK with drones. I guess they didn't think about removing the "aggressive" mode.

You might have had full aggro except a few frigates. They will web and kill light drones quickly. What bothers me is there's not even a simulated targeting time. I've had drones get hit instantly when I deployed them.
Robert Morningstar
Morningstar Excavations LTD
Business Alliance of Manufacturers and Miners
#6 - 2013-11-18 20:38:34 UTC
I run lvl 4 all the time and my drones are my main damage dealer never have issues if aggroed I just recall wat a few sec and redeploy
IIshira
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#7 - 2013-11-19 01:11:45 UTC
Robert Morningstar wrote:
I run lvl 4 all the time and my drones are my main damage dealer never have issues if aggroed I just recall wat a few sec and redeploy


With sentry drones this is possible since you can instantly recall them. I think the OP was referring to drones that have to travel to their target.
Rengerel en Distel
#8 - 2013-11-19 01:17:21 UTC
IIshira wrote:
Robert Morningstar wrote:
I run lvl 4 all the time and my drones are my main damage dealer never have issues if aggroed I just recall wat a few sec and redeploy


With sentry drones this is possible since you can instantly recall them. I think the OP was referring to drones that have to travel to their target.


Well, we've found his problem then.

With the increase in shiptoasting, the Report timer needs to be shortened.
Ireland VonVicious
Vicious Trading Company
#9 - 2013-11-19 01:30:32 UTC
Better drone skills.

Better target selecting.

Watch the health bars closer.


Once you have high sp in drones I see no reason why you'd be having these problems.
Dato Koppla
Spaghetti Militia
#10 - 2013-11-19 01:52:03 UTC
It's combat drones that suffer the most from drone aggro, sentries are barely affected by it since you pull them in and redploy them in a couple of second to remove aggro from them. This basically means sentries or go home.
Nolak Ataru
Hedion University
Amarr Empire
#11 - 2013-11-19 01:59:54 UTC
Marc Callan wrote:
With the NPC AI changes, it might be helpful to think of drones as basically short-range weapons, for targets within, say, blaster range. Hold 'em close, and recalling them when they catch aggro shouldn't be such an issue (provided they don't get webbed down by something like a spider drone).


you're also forgetting the fact they totally gimped the Vexor "family" for running level 4s since they used an AB to speed tank after dropping sentries.
Ghost Phius
Tribal Liberation Force
Minmatar Republic
#12 - 2013-11-19 02:03:22 UTC
If you are flying a drones boat where drones get extra HP and damage they should last longer and not get insta popped. Non drones boats, yeah you had better be on your toes if they get any aggro at all.
Derath Ellecon
University of Caille
Gallente Federation
#13 - 2013-11-19 02:07:50 UTC
Nolak Ataru wrote:
Marc Callan wrote:
With the NPC AI changes, it might be helpful to think of drones as basically short-range weapons, for targets within, say, blaster range. Hold 'em close, and recalling them when they catch aggro shouldn't be such an issue (provided they don't get webbed down by something like a spider drone).


you're also forgetting the fact they totally gimped the Vexor "family" for running level 4s since they used an AB to speed tank after dropping sentries.


The Ishtar would disagree with that statement. Often times missions are easier with the new Aggro mechanics.
Kirkwood Ross
Golden Profession
#14 - 2013-11-19 02:38:52 UTC  |  Edited by: Kirkwood Ross
Clearly you need to rig your ship with Drone Durability Enhancers.
Dato Koppla
Spaghetti Militia
#15 - 2013-11-19 03:12:21 UTC
Nolak Ataru wrote:
Marc Callan wrote:
With the NPC AI changes, it might be helpful to think of drones as basically short-range weapons, for targets within, say, blaster range. Hold 'em close, and recalling them when they catch aggro shouldn't be such an issue (provided they don't get webbed down by something like a spider drone).


you're also forgetting the fact they totally gimped the Vexor "family" for running level 4s since they used an AB to speed tank after dropping sentries.


Orbit your sentries. I use an Ishtar to run ewar-heavy L4 missions and I lose around 1 sentry a month mostly due to not paying attention.
Infinity Ziona
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#16 - 2013-11-19 14:39:31 UTC  |  Edited by: Infinity Ziona
The OP has a point.

I have on many occasions had full aggro, deploy drones, instantly they start taking damage (from every npc even 2km away), recall drones, lose 1 drone which is webbed I guess. Deploy drones after being retargetted, instantly start taking damage, over and over. It happens mostly with light drones and light npcs, which obviously makes light drones totally useless in many circumstances.

These days I don't carry light drones for frigs (just warrior II for players), I use Ogres for even elite npc frigates since for some absurd reason I can usually deploy them and go have a cup of coffee.

Why is it absurd, well if the intention was to stop afk'ing with drones you would think they would have applied this 'fix' to affect the drones we use to afk (sentries, heavies), not the bloody drones we use to kill frigs with.

On the Maze now, I warp in, deploy sentries, pop the towers, deploy Ogres, pop the elites, deploy sentries and then I don't have to do anything except wait for the drones to kill everything. If it wasn't for the spawns as the structure is being taken down and the requirement to watch local I could do the Maze completely AFK.

The correct fix for the AFK issue should have been to set all drones to passive and require the operator to manually tell them to attack, not create some bizarre aggro ruleset vs light drones.

Before anyone says I need to train drone skills, I'm a 2003 character with superb drone skills and have been using drones since they were introduced, that'd be at original launch btw.

Oh: I should add, there is one cool trick that has saved me a few times when i first started running combat anoms. If you mess up and your tank is failing, you're scrammed and webbed or you need to get range from the frigs if they're waiting at warp in, release your lights and they can act as WCS, the scrambling, webber frigs will usually instantly drop scrams / webs on you and you can warp or AB / MWD away while they savage your lights.

CCP Fozzie “We can see how much money people are making in nullsec and it is, a gigantic amount, a shit-ton… in null sec anomalies. “*

Kaalrus pwned..... :)
Dorian Wylde
Imperial Academy
Amarr Empire
#17 - 2013-11-19 15:50:47 UTC
Dato Koppla wrote:
It's combat drones that suffer the most from drone aggro, sentries are barely affected by it since you pull them in and redploy them in a couple of second to remove aggro from them. This basically means sentries or go home.



No, it means don't send drones too far out. I don't use lights beyond 20km, mediums beyond 10km, or heavies beyond 5km. You can't afk in missions anymore, and you can't just sit in one spot and wait for your drones to kill everything. Be active, watch your health bars, and recall as soon as you see the slightest bit of red in the shield bar.

I lived in wormholes for years, I ran missions and ratted with domis since this ai was applied everywhere. The only time I've lost drones to npcs is when I went afk without recalling, or simply wasn't paying attention, and even these situations are extremely rare. Drones are fine. You need to adapt.
Ole' McDolan
Vastly Intellectual Tall Tax Union
#18 - 2013-11-19 15:52:43 UTC
While running lv4s I noticed that my lights get usually targeted by frigs and other smaller ships, while medium gets targeted by bigger ships.
Not always, but usually when I deploy light drones they either get targeted by frigs right away or they dont get targeted at all and I just pop the frigs with them and then take out the larger ships without any worry, because they dont seem to aggro lights at all.

Perhaps there is some correlation between rat's ship size and which drones they like to go after?
IIshira
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#19 - 2013-11-19 17:38:17 UTC
Ole' McDolan wrote:
While running lv4s I noticed that my lights get usually targeted by frigs and other smaller ships, while medium gets targeted by bigger ships.
Not always, but usually when I deploy light drones they either get targeted by frigs right away or they dont get targeted at all and I just pop the frigs with them and then take out the larger ships without any worry, because they dont seem to aggro lights at all.

Perhaps there is some correlation between rat's ship size and which drones they like to go after?


There's supposed to be with the drone aggro changes. Frigates go after light drones. The problem is when you deploy light drones with 10 frigates on the field all will primary one drone. They will kill one of your drones by the time they kill two of the frigate. If you're dumb enough to let them go out past 20 km one isn't coming back. With my Raven I use target painters to kill frigates. If I'm flying a gunship and they get close I have no choice but to send drones out and constantly pull them back one at a time.
Robert Morningstar
Morningstar Excavations LTD
Business Alliance of Manufacturers and Miners
#20 - 2013-11-19 20:48:56 UTC

With sentry drones this is possible since you can instantly recall them. I think the OP was referring to drones that have to travel to their target.[/quote]


I use a combination of senturies lights and heavys
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