[Hotfoot]

Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
"I'm not particularly very happy that it has to be included as the result of what is most likely a bug."

Drones are not recoverable by design.

I'm referring to the ability of ships with drone-launching components to launch all of the drones they have in storage in the first round of combat, regardless of how many they are supposed to be able to fire. That I see as a bug, not the fact that drones are not recoverable by design.

Take, for example, the following scenario. I've planned a ship that can only launch four drones per round of tactical combat. For the sake of arguement, let's say it can hold 240 light drones, enough for two full tactical combats, assuming that the combat Lasts a full 30 turns (30 * 4 = 120). This ship could possibly engage in three or four combats before running out of drones to launch if the drone launching bay worked as it should.

However, as it is right now, that ship will disgorge all 240 drones in the first round of the first combat it is a part of. Not only can this be massively unfair for the recipient of the attack (it allows for abuse where only 1 drone launcher component is required, the rest cargo bays/other more useful components), but it can also be unfair for the person delivering said attack, as now all the drones have been launched prematurely.

EDIT: check out vehiclesize.txt if you don't belive me. Lots of comments on how things work. Some of them are out of date, but drones not being recoverable is mentioned. Also notice that the abilities for drone launchers say "Can launch drones into space. 1 drone can be launched per combat turn and 4 drones can be launched per game turn."

Except that the "1 drone per combat turn" doesn't work properly. I've replicated this in strategic and tactical combat. All drones on board are launched on the first turn of combat.