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Drone Aggressive Stance.
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Nila 35
Doomheim
#1 - 2011-11-28 13:27:12 UTC
Here's what happened:

Mate nr.1(Purifier) engaged a Drake on a WH. Drake targets him back etc..
I decloak my Falcon and ECM jam the Drake before he launched drones. Mate nr.1 confirms the drake dropped lock.
Drake launches drones and they lay still on grid. My jams were successful according to the small 20sec timer under the Drake. And also my second jammer jams successfully.
- Drake starts burning towards the hole probably accepting that he can't fight.
Mate nr.2 (manticore) arrives on grid to add a web and targets the drake and instantly gets aggro from his drones and needs to warp out due to the damage.
I check target, still 10 seconds of jam to go and both mates confirm on skype that the drake was not targeting either of them.

What the crack happened? Does putting your drones on aggressive create this sort of drone behaviour?

I've done some searching.. but no-one can actually give the same answer.

Quote:
Drones will attack whatever is targeting you IF you are targeted while they are deployed in aggressive mode.

Quote:
Drones on aggressive and not currently shooting something will attack the last ship that aggro'd you.

Quote:
Drones aren't SUPPOSED to aggro anything without already having aggro.

Quote:
I use agressive drones all the time, and they don't get me into any undue trouble. They don't do anything unless I get shot at. They don't attack rats that are bugging someone else if they arent bugging me. However, I've not been in a situation where there's a wartarget or thief nearby that is red, so I dont know if they attack red pilots by themselves. I would think they treat pilots like rats.


Personally I agree with this one most:
Quote:
I don't trust them, myself. It's those shifty eyes Confused


My personal experience is that when I shoot something when they are on agressive they attack that target, and then randomly engage other targets which are engaging me. Bar focus fire on or off and they also seem to ignore this sometimes. (btw, very annoying that there is no log message saying if you've put them passive/agressive or Focus fire/Free for all. But never have I run into a situation where drones are simply launched and start engaging something when I don't even target something. If this is in fact the case.. drones should basically be considered some sort of F.O.F missile...?

I'm confused...
tl;dr how does drone aggression work if you cannot target anything?
Sutskop
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#2 - 2011-11-28 13:37:57 UTC  |  Edited by: Sutskop
You jammed the Drake, not the drones. They will engage the next thing that attacks them or the Drake.
edit: It's not like FOF missiles. The missiles are fired actively, while the drones sit there are react to agression.
Nila 35
Doomheim
#3 - 2011-11-28 13:45:55 UTC  |  Edited by: Nila 35
Ah, okay. I understand it a lot better then thanks!

So basically anything you do before he launches drones can continue to happened. But any "new" combatants will be attacked.
Sutskop
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#4 - 2011-11-28 14:14:50 UTC
Not quite sure, but if you shrow a new module at him the drones might agress too (for example a new jam module). Haven't tested it tho. I once had it that my drones went after a Falcon that was redboxed already, but not sure how he caused it.
But yes, if the drones are not yet attacking anything and are set to aggressive they will for sure attack a new redboxer.
Nila 35
Doomheim
#5 - 2011-11-28 14:26:58 UTC
Hmm, I'll definitely start thinking about a smartbomb fit for my falcon then to counter that!
Tamiya Sarossa
Resistance is Character Forming
#6 - 2011-11-28 18:07:21 UTC
As mentioned, drones set to aggressive will agress anyone that *initiates* an aggressive act against their owner - if you're alreading shooting the target before they're launched, you're fine, but if you aggress while the drones are out and idle (but set to aggressive) they will go after you.

Drones with these settings will also go after anything you initiate aggression against if they are idle - IE, if you shoot something with aggressive drones out, they will go after it. Additionally after they have killed someting, drones set to aggressive will go after a new target that is currently aggressing you (even if they had aggressed you before the drones were launched), though I don't pretend to understand how they pick their new target.

In short, aggressive drones will defend you from new attackers, pursue old attackers after they have killed their current target, and attack things you attack when idle. None of this is particularly intuitive, but :CCP:. Also drones will sometimes randomly not follow any of the above logic for reasons of their own, so your mileage may vary.