Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Pretty sure he is talking about an auto targeter, which functions as described but does nothing for ewar.

I agree that drones should be targeted, damaged and destroyed by AI, but they went too far. If they wanted to introduce aggro mechanics then they should have gone all the way and introduced ways of dealing with those mechanics as well. The current mechanics of using Ewar, Logi, Proximity, etc simply do not work in any sort of objectively measured way. When the AI decides drones need to die, then there is nothing you can do but keep them in. With the weird way drones won't aggro, even when set on aggressive, unless sent after a specific locked target or something new starts shooting it completely devalues what is supposed to be a strength of drones.

Just last night I had a mission where I launched drones, hit attack, saw damage on shields, immediately hit recall, and two didn't make it back in. There was less than a second between the attack and recall orders, and only the time to move my hand from mouse to keyboard between launch and attack commands. That was with 4 frigates orbiting close after I had cleared half the mission.

Drones aren't ammo. The above would be fine if it wasn't such a common thing now. I stopped using drone ships because I could not carry enough drones with me to make it through some longer missions in a N.Dominix. Any mission with substancial Ewar became nigh unplayable as the drones would not aggro until they came under fire, and sometimes not make it back in with my finger on the recall button.

I don't mind fitting my ship to perform its tasks, but right now options to deal with issues don't exist.

I adapted as well. By buying first a Hyperion, and then a Kronos.

If you are using T2 drones, then you are losing far more isk than you would ammo. My biggest issue with it is simply that there is no way to proactively deal with the problem. Drones get destroyed before you can lock them to use logi, and in most ships logi does not have useful range.

I am not advocating an afk playstyle. I didn't afk before AI started eating drones. The AI changes went from making them need minimal micromanagement to being shepherded like idiot children through a jungle filled with hungry tigers made of candy. I suppose we all have our tolerances, but without effective means of protecting drones I find them useless in PvE. They are simply not worth launching. I rarely bother anymore unless something is orbiting outside smartbomb range but inside my guns. It's a pretty narrow band.

No. If I kill all the frigates first I can leave lights out all day.

NPC's do try and stay in their weightclass or higher, though I have seen an entire room of battleships blap a light upon launch before.

Like you, I have near perfect drone skills. I love pet classes in other games as my computers are always a tad dated and my twitch skills non-existant, so when I began in EVE for the second time, I went Dronomancer Gallente Spec-Ops. Others may complain, but the Nestor is my wet dream for a drone battleship 5 years ago. Too bad it's so freaking expensive and drones useless in PvE now.

When the AI change went live, I spent a few months trying to make drones work... but in the end it was just too irritating and frustrating. In a fleet with 3 members or more it's fine--- they take agro but rarely keep it long, and the NPC's spread their Ewar Love.

I may get around to trying a Rattlesnake once I finally train Caldari Battleships. I've been a dedicated mission runner for about 6 years now, it's about time I learned Caldari and leveled a Raven to uphold the stereotype.

Haven't had a BS kill a Light before, unless they lose lock on me and can't relock for some reason (a bit like warp out).

And with the meds it looks a bit like they wait for the Lights to return and can't be bothered with the meds - a bit blindsided. Not sure this coincidence or a change.

Yeah, Dronemancer was my first lookout and still is. Trained for the Ratter as soon as I knew about drones. Been true till the change, am not happy with the current Ratter, I might revive my thread in a while addressing this again.
But that doesn't mean others are better, I don't fly ugly ships, so I never tried the Dominix for example. Have been flying the Stratios with great success though - Eos is coming in a few days, already got CS 5. My disappointment with the Ratter mighht have overshadowed my perception of other drone mechanic changes, since I think its aweful, but with the Stratios and so still working disagree on it being broken as OP described. But I guess we got a bit closer in our discussion ,).

As for the Hyperion, I find Rails somehow underwhelming and couldn't get a good Balster fit to work and the change from Ratter to Brawler Blaster might have been a bit much in one step. So for the moment I use a Nightmare, since I am coming from an Incursion Bhaalgorn and had all those skills up anyway. I unpacked my ratter recently and have to work it - rather then having a fun crusie with it, the drone nerfs on it were too much and suck. Nerfing a pirate faction drone ship that was supposed to be buffed - still don't get it.

Well, time to move on I guess

Currently training toward a paladin. Even with T2 lasers I can use T1 crystals and not spend a single isk on ammo. I'm thinking I might go with an Apocalypse.

Use 5 lights to take out light targets
Use 5 medium web drones to slow down medium and large targets beyond 10km
Have a web module equipped on the ship for targets within 10km (5 med webs plus the ship's web)
Throw on a tracking computer with tracking script in addition to the tracking bonus of the ship itself
Load it up with large beams

Although with an optimal range bonus too, this is assuming the light and medium targets get close enough to even begin orbiting.

Use T1 crystals and it may not go by as fast but I'll incur 0 isk loss.

As for my last post, it is full of holes. It's why it was left out of the first post.

The agro shift needed, and still needs, a reliable way to manage agro.

There is no amount of piloting, ewar, logi, ect... that will allow you to keep drones in space once the AI decides to eat them. For most ships this is an annoyance, but for drone ships in PvE this can be crippling. It's worse than Ewar because it comes from all ships at any time, randomly. There is no way to pick particular targets to manage the issue, no way to protect drones so that they can actually be used.

All you can do is bring them in, or watch them die--- in some cases you better not blink if you want to watch.

It does not need to be a 100% safety net for drones, but it does need some form of predictability and some way to influence the behavior.