EVE General Discussion

Seems fact is wasted on you. Logic works fine if you provide some. So far, you haven't. You've just made unsupported, unfounded, often incorrect claims and appeals to irrelevant post-hoc constructions. Try some actual logic, and you might have a bit more success.

The facts won't change just because you don't like them.

Again: the mechanic is there to limit from how far away you can attack your target. You want to remove that limit. Why should such a change happen? Have you considered all the other effects it would have on drone use if you restricted how far away your drones can be?

In the meantime, if the target is too far away (by design) for you to attack it, try moving closer (the intended effect of the limitation). If you aren't happy with this as an obvious solution, could you explain why?

And I'm asking why and how.

How is it broken? It works exactly the same as for every other weapon system in the game: there's a limit to how far away you can be from your target and still attack it (thereby giving them a chance to attack you right back at the same range).
Why should they abolish the limitation that is there to make you have to be close enough to your target to be targeted right back?

No, but it had to be explained to you since how it works is very closely connected to why it works like that, and since your question of why seems to be rooted in a misunderstanding of the how. Three birds with one stone and all that.

You drew a picture of how you want it to work. You didn't provide any logic as to why they should change the mechanics to make it work that way (and no, lore is an utterly insufficient reason).

So not being able to target far-away ships is not a problem? Not being able to recall your drones isn't a problem? Drones not being able to hunt fleeing targets isn't a problem? Drastically shifting the balance between sentry ships and other ships is not a problem? No. You haven't considered the effects at all.

Oh, and by the way, if such a change is really your goal, then it definitely belongs in F&I, so you're wrong about that part as well.

This is a problem indeed and I was confused how it works too. Control range terminology-wise should be range in which u can give command to your drones. However if it worked like this, even the non stationary drones would be able to engage targets far outside of control range, if the command to attack was given inside the control range.

This would most likely cause major balance issue, hence the control range was designed as area where the drones can engage targets.

Addendum: if you would like to abolish drone control range, or change it to a more sensical "drone signal range" mechanic, where you cannot control drones outside that range, but other than that they can do whatever, that can only be OK balance-wise with a big reduction in DCR across the board.

How about 10 km base, +4 km per level of Electronic Warfare Drone Interfacing?

Yeah, I'm not sure what Tippia is talking about. With any other weapon, if you can lock a target, you can attempt to shoot it. Drones have the extra DCR limitation that hard-caps the distance away from you a target may be, which is often lower than the DCR.

But for sentries u need optimal too. So basically u need locking,drone control and optimal range, while with weapons u only need lock and optimal

For the same reason as why we separate turret range from locking range. I suppose we can conceptualise it as a ship limitation, wich is separate from the weapon limitation.

Drones have a third range (their own optimal (and a fourth: the proximity range)) because they're separate entities. This works both ways though: it could further cap how far away the target can be from you, even if it's within locking/DC-range, but it also lets the drones attack targets that are waaaay outside both locking range and drone control range… you just don't have any control over them when they're doing that.

ITT: Tippia acts like a **** towards some guy with a legitimate question about an unintuitive mechanic, then insults him for pointing out that its unintuitive on the grounds of game balance.



This is wrong. Its obviously working correctly. You just don't like it or think its stupid. Well, so do a lot of us. But its working correctly.

I must be doing something wrong... I never just drop my sentries and MJD away. I take them with me, MJD away and deploy, and shoot the stuff that come within the optimal range of my drones. The drone control range has never been an issue. I use a Domi, and with bouncers and wardens, even curators, I get well over 100km of optimal range on them. Even did the same when I used to use a Rattlesnake. Maybe I am weird. Or love my drones too much to let them get abused by the nasties.

Well, that's the “don't have any control” part, isn't it?

The most obvious case is when you sic your drones on something and then just bugger off. They'll keep attacking until the target is destroyed or you explicitly tell them otherwise, even if the target moves out to silly ranges. They might also occasionally decide to defend themselves, but that's subject to the drone “AI” and on someone targeting the drones to get their attention, which makes it a… let's call it “less reliable” option.

Because it lets you manoeuvre in relation to the target without affecting how well the drones can attack it: you fly closer, get a lock and an “attack” command in, and then you give the opposition a three-body problem. They can either try to outfly your guns or outfly your sentries, but the ability to do both is limited.

In trying to hit the target, the drones are obviously subject to the same mechanics as all other turret-based weapons, and the DCR is there to ensure that you have to commit to the fight as well to some degree. Even so, the DCR + lock-range combo arguably allows you to make more use of both than you otherwise would since you can fly around to change the overlap. With regular turrets, if your effective weapon range is higher than your lock range, then you have a lot of wasted range. Same if the relationship is the opposite: you can lock on, but don't shoot. With drones, you can move around and always have the max DCR match your max lock range and reap whatever additional benefits there are from being either closer or farther away from the target (depending on which is longer) than you'd otherwise need to be.

Put another way: there's a third range limitation because there's a third party involved.