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so no low slot drone navigation computers then ??? :((

That's how it works currently--they all have the same "base damage" but each has a different "damageMultiplier" which is how damage actually gets determined.

I would appreciate if you would examine drone sig radius as well.

If I'm in a small ship, I should be able to consistently hit medium drones, I would think. And if I'm in a BS, I should be able to consistently hit sentries.

Easily indoctrinated and spoiled by the offers, yep.

Fact, that almost no one noticed, Caldari drones are already in proposed position being second best in terms of damage and second worst in tracking and speed, worries me a bit. Fact, that guy who rebalancing them didn't noticed that as well, worries me much more..
So Fozzie, you "fixing" Caldari drones by leaving them in place, where they already are. Makes sense.

I always thought damage modifiers between Amarr ad Minmatar drones should be switched as it was really out of place, so I approve that one.
Making drones less skill heavy via change in drone interfacing and then separating scout drones into two skills instead of just one, is pretty silly though. I would rather see light/medium/heavy merged into one.

Is he trolling maybe?

Yay, I'm glad I trained all drone spec to V. Also having drone spec skills add benefits to sentry drones has been on my wish list for 5+ years. Will the racial drone spec skills finally be a requirement for T2 sentries?

Drones From Different Empires
I think you have some flaws in your assumptions about drones of different empires. If you have the data availible, I would encourage you not only go look at the number of shots fired in PvP by combat drones, but which drones fired those shots. I would be willing to bet that you would see two drones come out on top. Hammerhead II's and Warrior II's.

The reason behind this is that when choosing a small drone, you want something that will be fast enough to chase down frigates, mainly interceptors, and perhaps destroyers (interdictors). When choosing medium drones, you know you aren't going to send them chasing interceptors. They will mainly be doing damage to other cruisers, battlecruisers, and battleships. You want high damage over speed.

From this point of view, your balancing isn't going to affect the choice of drones for... well, anyone that I can see. Players are either going to choice high damage medium drones or fast light drones. There might be a smattering of fast medium and dps light in there, but we're still focused on Gallente and Minmatar drones.

The balance pass might improve the Amarr and Caldari versions a bit, but it doesn't remove or change the underlying reasons why we don't use those drones. If you come back 6 months after this patch, I'm willing to bet that graph looks more or less the same. As an additional note, it's not going to change for PvE. Since most NPC's weakest, or second weakest resist is kinetic, Gallente drones do more damage to all NPC except one or two factions. I did the math a while ago, even when another damage type is the weakest resist, you do more damage by just powering through to the second resist with higher damage drones.

Balance for drone skills
Saying that the Drone Interfacing skill "result is that drones have earned a reputation as a weapon system that is not suitable for new players." is downright false. I've never, ever seen players tell new players that they shouldn't bother with drones or that they somehow aren't suitable. The recommendation is always that if they can, use them. Now, for a midrange player not to have this skill, people might advise them to train it up, but I'm speaking of a player that is beginning to fly HAC's (Ishtar) battleships (Domi), or looking at their first carrier. Not new players.

I can still see how the skill might be overpowered, but I wanted to address this point. Drones are in no way "not suitable for new players"

Other things
I saw questions about drone behavior brought up in the first few questions of this thread. I've seen other people on reddit bring up the issues when talking about sentry volley. The fact that drones often misbehave; the mwd, orbit, mwd, orbit cycle; the fact that sentries don't fire at the same time, fail to fire at all, move slightly causing them to drift into forcefields, etc.

My point is that while I think these steps are a move in the right direction when looking at drones, although I question some of the assumptions and solutions. I'm more concerned with the underlying code that causes wonkey drone behavior. Will this be addressed with some of these other changes? Is it coming? Or is it something we shouldn't expect to see?

i got the impression that sentries were going to get a 10% damage buff from the T2 racial drone skills..

it is odd that sentries can do comparable dps as heavies .. in some cases more atm...

…on the other hand, sentries have damage rigs and don't have to spend ages flying around the grid before engaging their targets. A bit less damage seems like a fair trade-off for those advantages.