How do you use Drones?
 

I was curious how others use drones. I use them as stealth probes and missile launchers. I played one game with a fleet of 4 drone carriers. Each carrier had 15 drone launchers. Each drone contained 3 capital missles. So at one time over 180 missles were released. Can we say total carnage.

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

I haven't had much experience with them although I have used them with a little success as you mentioned as missile launchers. I think in general there are some fatal flaws with them in the unmodded game. They are too expensive, too slow, they can't use solar sails, they can't be recovered and they go thru a warp point one at a time so they can't be used to overwhelm warp point defenses. The Last 2 items can't be modded, unfortunately.

Slick.

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

Usually I use them for Homeworld Defence. One Large cargo station filled to the brim with drones, any enemy ship enters the system or attacks the planet they get swarmed, it's great when combined with fighters/weapons platforms or missiles as the drones distract and waste the enemy's fire. It's usually good for one shot, which is all you should really need if you keep your homeworld defended

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

The only main time I used them was once when I annilated a home world with upwards of 180 drones. ---I tried to capture it an failed so I got mad so I unleashed the true Power of my Empire to show that no AI would ever defeat me.

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

Colonel,
I'm not certain, but I think that we are supposed to refrain from inflammatory political commentary. Your tag line seems to fall into that Category. (Plus, you are not making your side seem very well-informed since both attempts at "candidate" fall woefully short. Sure, we don't necessarily worry much about spelling on-line -- but in a tag line??)

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

We've had a lot worse things said than that. These are pretty relaxed Boards.

Best Boards I've ever been on.

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

To counter the one drone at a time through the warp point thing, perhaps building a few small cheap drone carriers to carry them through at the same time might help - assuming all the carriers don't get squashed on the first combat turn.

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

That's a big assumption. The whole point of attempting to overwhelm a WP with drones is that there is a big bunch of nasties on the other side. I sure wish that one would get fixed. Anyone could mod costs and components to make them more usable. As far as not being able to retrieve, I could live with that if I had to.

Slick.

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

Well I hope they will be fixed in SE5. The drone is in a no mans land between missiles, and fighters in my opinion. I would like to see them treated as one or the other. Either a really nice missile, or a pilotless fighter...

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Kana

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

Haven't tried this yet (never use drones) but can they be put into fleets? If so, then they could go through WP's in a group. Or, failing that, would shift+clicking a group work? Oh, wait. Can't control drones at all once they are launched can you? Guess that won't work either.

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

Drones cannot be put in fleets, so that makes them more vulnerable in battles as well. The "shift-click" thing did not work Last time I tried.

Drones may be controlled once they are launched, with the "attack" order; this allows drones to travel through wormholes, or to attack a specific target, but no more than that.

I would use drones in specific games, such as games with a ship limit of 200, high-tech games (drones make the best scouts then), or a game with mines disabled, or perhaps even to help a wormhole blockade along with fighters and the like. Are drones refueled by resupply depots? Hmm...

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

Only use I have had for drones is as planet killers. If I didnt want to waste my time on a system due to poor quality, my fleet would bypass it and my planets would launch planet killers to take out the planet. Works pretty well but drones ought to be more useful then that.

Rasorow

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

I remember a theory put forward on another forum, an escort with maxed out evasion stats, through ecm, those armors and training, and a drone launcher could wack a battle or base ship. It uses the Ramming warhead and the biggest drone yuo got. Assuming the ship isn't religious it should be able to pull up close, launch and kaboom. I haven't test bedded it yet, but I think it would work. I don't know the exact cost ratio of the drone loaded escort/Baseship.

EDIT: I forgot, you need a few PD Cruisers to wack any misssiles launched, butthose get built anyway.

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

I believe the Last time I tested this, the answer is yes.

Slick.

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

* Recon devices to scout and/or check for minefields. Advantages are zero happiness loss on destruction, and zero maintenance.
* To amass a surprise force that the enemy can't easily see, since many can be put in cargo storage, and don't appear unless the enemy can do a long-range scan inside the container.
* When excess resources are not abundant, to continue to increase military strength without adding maintenance cost to the fleet.
* Loaded with seeker launchers and set to Max Range strategy, can be used to overwhelm PD, especially combined with other seeker launchers, kamikaze drones, and fighters. This is one of the few ways in the unmodded game to have a chance of overwhelming numerous high-tech PD in a large battle.
* To scare the enemy and keep them guessing and changing their designs and strategies. A strong direct-fire fleet can be wiped out by enough drones if they don't have enough PD and/or have inappropriate strategies set. Once the enemy feels the risk, they may start deploying more PD and using less effective strategies against ones own strong direct-fire fleets.

PvK

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

Drones are pretty much useless as far as I am concerned. In fact they are more than useless.

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

more than useless? does that mean less than useless? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Lightning.gif[/img]

*top of skull caves in*

Slick.

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

Yes

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

Of course not. If something is more than useless, it is usefull. Useless = 0. Usefull > 0. And less than useless would be < 0. Now, if it was more useless than useless, that would be < 0. Less useless than useless is > 0.

See? Entirely logical.

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

*the sides and rest of my skull also collapse and fall into my neck, but not before shaking my head slowly*

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Slick.

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

It's simply in the same class as double negatives. If you say that Canada does not not export beavers, you're saying it does export beavers. Each negative you add reverses the polarity on the True/False axis.

Or, for a math example, -1 x -1 = 1. -1 x -1 x -1 = -1.

It's really quite simple.

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

yes

But back on topic, I have tried using drones for various things and found them to be a waste of time and resources. They are easily shot down, have limited range, and are a pain in the arse to use. So again, I state that they are more than useless, they are uber useless.

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

I have used them a few times as colony killers.
If I am sharing a system with another player I will build some planet attack drones on all my planets. Then when War happens, and it usually does, I launch all the drones and attack his planets.
This works best against those AI's that tend to have lots of little colonies. They usually have no defences and can be cleaned out in a hurry.
I get rid of the enemy in the rear without having to send in a fleet.

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

The thing is they are great if the planet has no defenses. The bad thing is, most planets have defenses early on so this negates the need for planet killing drones. In fact drones should be hard as hell to kill, cheap, and deadly, but they are not because then they would become the optimal weapon of choice for many planets. And lets face it, what fun is it to log onto your PBW games only to give orders to a bunch of drones?

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

Drones are good as auxiliary weapons, rather than as the backbone of a fleet.

A bunch of drones can overwhelm PD and tip the scales of a major battle. Your enemy can't see how many drones you have with your fleet, and so may likely be surprised by them.

The zero maintenance is also in their favor when an empire is at peace and can't maintain more ships.

PvK

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

yeah, but only once since you can't recover them. I sure wish that spaceyard ships could build units (but nothing else) while moving. This would let you replenish your units while on the run.

Slick.

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

Disposable repair drones!
Fill 'em with repair bays, and you can E-repair your fleet.

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

Too bad that's only possible in mods.

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

I haven't used drones very much at all. I find them kind of awkward to use because it's a one-shot unit that you launch and can't recover.

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

Ya, drones have many disadvantages. However they do have a few unique strengths, and those can sometimes be used effectively.

PvK

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

The "surprise drone" thing might work, but wouldn't you have had to pump a lot of research into cap ship missiles?

I can see it working, but only if you stick to using DUCV and then concentrate all your research on missiles later, which means your cap ships are underarmed. What happens if a lone ship engages your fleet and your drone carriers launch all drones?????????????????

Brian

Re: How do you use Drones?
 

A valid consideration in many cases. However, one particular counterexample is you don't need to research CSMs if you have racial seeking weapons which come with no extra research cost as you research your racial weapons.

Depending on where you are in the tech tree, the research cost and the need for certain techs are different so developing drones may or may not be worth it.

To surprise and to avoid launching your drones in reaction to enemies, you may need to be careful and use scouts and screening forces, and/or keep drones in cargo vessels without launchers until needed.

Anyway, in many cases it may seem not worth the effort in various ways, but I have seen it work a few times. A bunch of unexpected drones can come as a potent surprise, especially if you couldn't afford more ships due to maintenance.

PvK