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Player Features and Ideas Discussion

 
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Make drones usable again
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Sepp Tankersley
Doomheim
#1 - 2016-12-24 18:19:53 UTC
So i came back a little bit ago from a long break. love my vexor for ratting, or use to. drones are completely useless unless you have a millions to keep buying new ones constantly. i have tried to run the easiest of site (hideaways) and as soon as i deploy drones they are locked and dead before they make it to rats. also, yes, my vexor has guns and i do use them. i ensure i have full aggro before deploying drones and continue to fire on the rats as they destroy my drones before they can reach engagement range.

ive done some reading on the issue and see alot of people saying that sending drones further then 10k is using them wrong.. how is a weapons system supposed to be considered usable if its max range is 10k?
ive also seen alot of people saying that all drone pilots are afkers.. while im sure there are those who use to afk with drone boats if they wanted to make drones unusable they should refund all drone SP and just remove them from the game.



now my idea is to make drones not instantly locked and destroyed by any rats and simply take the aggressive option away so you have to manually set your drones to attack like you would have to turn your guns on after each rat is destroyed. it would remove the afk ability of drones and then people who want to use drones while not afk can continue to do so without needing to replacing 5 drones to clear a hideaway...
elitatwo
Zansha Expansion
#2 - 2016-12-24 19:17:27 UTC
In case you haven't noticed, drone aggro can be avoided by launching them, waiting to see if the drone shield is going down and recalling the drones and launching them again.

You can also fly a Thorax instead.

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Danika Princip
GoonWaffe
Goonswarm Federation
#3 - 2016-12-24 19:22:27 UTC
Drone ratting is still the norm in null, maybe you're just bad?
ShahFluffers
Ice Fire Warriors
#4 - 2016-12-24 19:26:56 UTC  |  Edited by: ShahFluffers
Fun Fact 1: NPCs hate Ewar more than they hate drones. Slap on a Target Painter and the NPCs will focus more on your ship.

Fun Fact 2: NPCs will only target drones of their own class or larger (example: NPC frigates will go after all drones, but NPC battleships will ignore light and medium drones).


This won't stop the NPCs from eventually changing targets (which is the idea, the DEVs want you to pay attention more)... but it gives you some breathing room.

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Elenahina
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#5 - 2016-12-24 20:32:16 UTC
ShahFluffers wrote:
Fun Fact 1: NPCs hate Ewar more than they hate drones. Slap on a Target Painter and the NPCs will focus more on your ship.

Fun Fact 2: NPCs will only target drones of their own class or larger (example: NPC frigates will go after all drones, but NPC battleships will ignore light and medium drones).


This won't stop the NPCs from eventually changing targets (which is the idea, the DEVs want you to pay attention more)... but it gives you some breathing room.


Fun fact 3: Sentry drones are a thing.

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Daichi Yamato
Jabbersnarks and Wonderglass
#6 - 2016-12-24 20:53:43 UTC
Nice whine thread.

Its a lie that drones are instantly locked and destroyed. Though it may seem that way if you are alt tabbed. Quite a few weapons are ineffective beyond 10km, just fly closer and train skills to improve drone hp and speed.

Drones already have a setting to stop them auto-engaging. Set them to passive.

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Corraidhin Farsaidh
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#7 - 2016-12-24 23:45:27 UTC
Fun fact 4) I've never yet lost a drone off my gila and have absolutely no problem with any kind of drone on any hull. Just use the right ones for the job at hand...
Iain Cariaba
#8 - 2016-12-25 05:14:58 UTC
Changes were made to the AI to make you pay more attention to your drones. The "problem" you're having is quite intentional by CCP. There are ways to mitigate it, but your drones will eventually receive aggro now.

Many people have switched to long range sentry drones. Just pull the drone that gets aggro, and relaunch it when you get aggro back. Alternately, refit for closer range and heavies are still viable. I make it a point to manually take out frigates, then let the drones kill the rest on their own.

Oh, yeah. Do the hardest sites you have access to, the ones with the most battleships. Larger rats have issues hitting drones, so they live longer under fire.
Cade Windstalker
#9 - 2016-12-25 06:39:17 UTC
Yeah, seconding everyone in this thread with "just pay attention to your drones and learn how agro works"

Anyone saying drones aren't usable beyond 10k is either fighting Frigates in PvP (in which case your drones will get tackled and blapped by a competent Frig pilot) or is amazingly lazy and/or doesn't know how the agro mechanics work.

I used an Ishtar through both of the recent events for funsies, which generally have smaller ships than null sites, and the only time I lost a drone was when I got lazy and stopped paying attention.