Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

I was thinking, Drones are more like torpedoes in SEIV. They can be more distructive and are guided. You could basically make space subs with them if you add cloaking to your ship.

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

Ideas for use of drones:

attack subs (w/ cloak)
Ballistic Missile Sub (w/ cloak)
Distroyer
Anti-fighter/drone frigate

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

keep them in storage ships or bases without launchers, and transfer them to the ships with launchers to that they will not all be wasted in a single combat.

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

would they be good for planet capture ...

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

No, you can't load troops on them - units can't carry cargo.

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

I have never used drones but say for one game, and they all were shot down by the planets defenses. I had to move the ship into orbit near the planet to launch them. What is the range of a Drone when launched from a base? Can a drone be launched from a base to a planet in another system?

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

Drones have the same range no matter where they are launched from. It depends on their design, including the amount of supplies they carry and the supply usage of their engines or other components. Also, drones have a 'default' supply usage setting in SETTINGS.TXT -- I guess you could set this to 0 if you don't want drones to have a default supply usage. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ July 30, 2002, 23:50: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

So, do ya remember space man spiff (Calvin and Hobbes)?? I remember also reading a science fiction story about a plant like race that would send out space seeds that could land on other planets and start up whole colonies... and then there's the MycopLast (fungal) organisms from MOO (MOO2??)

Anyhoo, I'm wondering if you could put a small colony component on a drone and fire it off as if it were a spore pod of some sort... make it a racial trait. The spore pods would let you make colonies easily, but with very few colonists (perhaps 1M max).

Is it possible ? or are colony components ship only?

[ July 31, 2002, 00:33: Message edited by: jimbob ]

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

Colony components do not work on anything but ships and bases; the colonize button doesn't light up. Even bases don't really work, they need a movement point to colonize and by default they can't *have* any MP.

Phoenix-D

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You could mod a small Colony Pod component that only carried 1M colonists and a drone-sized ship hull that it barely fits into. You'd have to voluntarily not put the component on any larger hulls, or somehow design it so that normal colony components were more cost-effective on larger hulls.

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

There is a setting for colony components to have a 'default' population like the SE III colony components did. It works, too. So you could get around the cargo problem. But even if you put a colony component on a drone, it cannot use the 'colonize' order so it will be useless.

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

"You could mod a small Colony Pod component that only carried 1M colonists and a drone-sized ship hull that it barely fits into"

You can do this. However Baron is right; the colony component will not function. (tested in Gold 1.67)

Phoenix-D

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

i dont know if this would work, but what if you made a drone with a colony component and put it into the colony ship (rock) class, and then launched it near an uncolonized planet, and turned on its minister?

or what if you used the colonize button for the planet, rather than for the drone? in the planets screen, you can order the nearest colony ship to try to colonize any uncolonized planet..

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I tried that with fighters once before drones came out and it didn't work. Unless there is something different with drones...

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

Besides being cheap minesweepers - until the next patch - with ecm III they are nearly unhitable by a normal weapon AND you need sensor III for PDCs to be effective. So early in the game they are great because you don't need a shipyard to build. I am playing a game against someone who uses them almost exclusively and it was a bit of a shock how effective they are.

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Except that capnq suggested adding a SHIP hull that had the same SIZE as a drone; in which case the colony component should work. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

how do you target ship's with drones? I tried simmulating tactical combat and found that once I launch drones they go on their own.

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

Well, yes; in that case though it ain't a drone any more, it's a SHIP! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

As far as targetting drones in tactical: you don't. They pick a target for themselves based on whatever targeting strat you gave them.

Phoenix-D

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

This is an rather different issue but: Is it true that cloaked drones are invisible in combat? I have sent them against AI planets on several occasions and have not been fired upon...are the drones invisible...are the colonists "a lot of miserable, cowardly knaves"...or am I really so deadly that no one wants to put up a fight?

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

Well, cloaked ships will not enter combat unless ther is a ship or unit in that sector that can see them. Either one of your own that is not cloaked, or an enemy with sensors capable of beating the cloak. This is true as well with cloaked ships. You have to uncloak to attack. However, IIRC somone was saying that with drones you can't cloak/uncloak. That the cloak is always on. If this is the case, you aren't going to be able to have combat unless you have another drone/ship/fighter along for the ride that is visible to the enemy.

Geoschmo

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

Hmm...that is what I would have expected...and yet...the race that I was attacking was extremely primitive (certainly with no scanning ability) and my drones arrived unescorted. I cloaked them (in theory...i pressed the button at least) when launching them from a planet a system or two away. They attacked without resistance from weapons platforms and splatted into the planets in magnificent fireballs. Could it be that they can still RAM while cloaked but not, say, fire weapons? I don't know...it seems very strange.

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

Ok, I must hve misunderstood what you were saying. You mean they did do what they were supposed to, but the enemy did nothing to defend itself? If that's the case a stupid question would be "Are you sure the enemy had any weapon platforms?" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

There's a known bug that drones don't consistently trigger PDC fire; it's supposedly fixed in the upcoming patch.

[ August 06, 2002, 20:31: Message edited by: capnq ]

Re: Strategy talk: How to use drones
 

I have only tried this once but... Light Cruisers armed with drones and a few dreadnoughts and a few cruisers can take on a bigger fleet that has bigger ships and win. When your done most of the LC's need extensive repair but that is a lot better than replacing a fleet. The upshot of this tactic is COMBINED ARMS. If you have a good Fleet mix chances are you can fight and win more battles. Keeping your fleet in being is a major concern and advantage if you can do it. Plus LC's and drones are cheaper to maintain. Than the same number of Dreadnoughts. Just a Thought and proven only once.