Jst droneing on
 

Hey all,

Just recently got SEIV:Gold after the whole MOO3 fiasco and after a few games I've come to the conclusion that drones seem to be basically worthless. They're really cool, though, so I was hoping that I'm just using them improperly.

Any drone tips out there, or are they just really bad in SEIV:Gold classic implementation? PD always seems to tear them apart, and even if one or two lands the cost vs. damage is simple to outrageous. I'd rather have a few ships.

Chris Woods

Re: Jst droneing on
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">A few advantages that can see:
- They're cheap.
- They don't need maintenance.
- Could used as expendable scouts (including Solar Collectors you can extend their life).
- The Drones has 50% of deffensive bonus.
- You're not forced to put warheads in them: you could include other weapons (speciall with the Large drones).
- Launching them in big masses, you could rush any defenses and destroy key planets.

Re: Jst droneing on
 

Drones are generally only worth the costs to build them when you have a long period of peaceful buildup before war breaks out.

Re: Jst droneing on
 

Well for one thing, they don't cost maintenance.
During peacetime, you could build up quite a stash, and never have to pay a penny once they're built.

You can use them to kill small decoy enemies instead of dividing your main fleet to chase them down.

They'll do pretty good as WP scouts, too. Inspect the defenses, see what kind of firepower you'll need to win.
WP assaults would also be a big advantage to the drones, since they'd start out mixed right in with the enemies.
The PD will only get one shot, and by the start of the second combat round, almost all of the surviving drones will hit their targets.

Re: Jst droneing on
 

Drones are sort of like torpedos in naval warfare. Launch as many as you like. If you launch more than one drone, hold down the shift key and click on each drone. A red arrow symbol should be next to each drone. Then, all at once, have them all attack a target you want destroyed or damaged. Personally, I only use them and drone carriers like using an attack submarines and I only attack ships but I don’t use them a lot. If you’re the player it makes the gameplay boring if you have to use drones all the time instead of space fleets vs space fleets and epic space battles. If the AI uses drones, then that makes the game more interesting sort of like if you’re on a merchant fleet being stalk by a lone German submarine or if you’re a military officer or radio operator in combat being stalked by a STA platoon (two man sniper platoon).

Re: Jst droneing on
 

I tend to use drones as expendable scouts for Neutral oriented races and such. The key to using drones offensively, though, is numbers. Overkill is the operative word here. The monster race in devnull mod does this to good effect. when you see 50+ drones heading toward your homeworld you are pretty much pooched. you may be able to take some out but enough will get through to glass you, and probably have enough left over for a couple others.

Re: Jst droneing on
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This, I beleive, is going to make a huge difference in my opinion of drones. If I use the above technique (shift-select and move them as a group to attack) will they all be in the same combat? My biggest problem with drones has been their "one at a time" attack method which makes it trivial for enemy fleets to blow them up. If I can send a good number (say 10) at an enemy fleet simultaniously then I can forsee drones being much more useful!

So, I guess I'm asking, if I shift-select drones and choose "Attack -> (target)" will they all be in the same combat?

Chris Woods

Re: Jst droneing on
 

pooched?! LOL!

Yeah, you have to look at their advantages, which have already been mentioned, and use them appropriately. One huge advantage that has not yet been mentioned is that you can build them anywhere that you have extra cargo room; i.e. you don't need a spaceyard to build drones (or any other units) and thus you can build them in large numbers when you have some cash to burn and not have to worry about clogging up your spaceyards.

Slick.

p.s. I was going to say "en masse" instead of "in large numbers", but I am boycotting French. j/k http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Jst droneing on
 

Shift-Clicking for a temporary fleeting effect is cruicial. They will act like a fleet for up to one turn or until their orders are complete.

You can also use it to send multiple fleets of ships in at the same time.

For major assaults, sending in a pile of drones along with your ships will help a lot.

Re: Jst droneing on
 

it might be good to put drones on your ships, with DONT LAUNCH strategy and use them to intercept those annoying colony ships, transports, limping enemies and so on.

Re: Jst droneing on
 

Drones are very good for defending warp points. When the enemy warps the point defence of the enemy has usually only one turn to kill your drones before the drones ram.

To make drones even better try making them different. A drone with a lot of armor can take a lot of damage. Drones have a built in +50% defence bonus so with EMC the defend bonus gets quite large. One drone takes out at least one mine so they can be used to sweep small mine fields.

In current Version (1.84) there is a bug in drones that makes them warp one at a time so attacking through a warp point is useless.

Re: Jst droneing on
 

As one who's never used drones before, these tips make it sound very tempting to do so in the future. I think I'll try drones out the next time I start a game.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This makes for a great planet buster http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Jst droneing on
 

I have come to really love DRONES. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

I have learned the hard way how to use them, and now that I know, I really like them. I love glassing AI worlds from two sectors away. (Damn PDC's) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: Jst droneing on
 

By the way, if you want to put stuff other than warheads on your drones (like say nullspace cannons), it would be a good idea to change their strategy from the default of "ram" to something more useful - no sense seeing your expensive drones fire once, then ram their expensive fancy weapons into the enemy http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Jst droneing on
 

The largest part of the expense for drones is the engines. These can be more than half of the cost of a drone! A small mod to the game can make drones much more practical. Either create a special, cheaper engine just for drones or make a mount that reduces the cost of regular engines for drones.

Re: Jst droneing on
 

Well, I have to say thta my opinion of drones has seriously changed from my more recent experiences. They can be amazing if used as support fire or in large (10+) numbers as anti-fleet or anti-planet IPBM's.

One system that hasen't been mentioned in this thread that I've found really strong is to mix drones with fighters for an attack. A few drones and a decently sized wing of small fighters can really solve almost any home-defence problem and it costs 0 maitenance as a world defence.

Basically, the enemy gets put in a prisoners delimma where they get a turn to either fire on the drones (thus leaving the fighters unscathed) or shoot at fighters and absorb the drones. Either way, they're pretty hosed and the cost in building 8 small drones and 80 small fighters is less then the 3 dreadnaughts they can defeat.

Also, these little buggers really shine in limited resource games, which I'm starting to play for logistic reasons. (much more intence, and you really find a use for those storage facilities when you have to make all the resources count!) Can the AI handle limited resources? I haven't gotten to far into the game yet and I'm worried that he'll produce himself to death.

Chris Woods

Re: Jst droneing on
 

Drones are fun ! Suppose you are a psychic race fighting another psychic race. Both of you obviously like AS http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Now, he send a fleet of AS ships and you intercept it with a swarm of drones with AS... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Jst droneing on
 

My favorite drone tactic (which I've mentioned on the board before) is to build bases with drone launchers inside my allies' territory (preferably in storm or nebula systems where they might not be detected); then, when the inevitable war occurs, launch waves of drones against the new enemies' fleets and colonies. Since there's no maintenance cost for drones, there's no real penalty for having a huge stockpile waiting around for 10-20 years before the war starts (except for maintenance cost on the launcher base, but bases get a 50% maintenance reduction anyway, and it's still cheaper than maintaining multiple fleets); and, if you're only putting warheads on the drones, the only components that might become obsolete are the engines, which is a fairly minor problem.

Re: Jst droneing on
 

DirectorTsaarx:
This goes right along with my statement that drones are really only a strategically sound option when there is a long period of peaceful buildup. Otherwise, you get much more return for building ships than you do drones.

Re: Jst droneing on
 

Drones are expensive to build but cheap to maintain. They're immune to subverters, boarding, partial damage, and many special damage types because they are units. They can either be a waste or a decisive weapon, depending on how they're used.

High-tech drones can overwhelm PDC, and also can soak PDC so fighters and seekers can get through.

They are also a good way to hide force concentrations. Even if your enemy has scanners to see your fleet size, a scanner jammer or scattering armor on a transport or two can conceal whether or not it is stuffed to the gills with drones.

PvK