How do you use drones?

[Q]

One month after the release of SE IV Gold I am still uncertain if I should make my AI empires use drones.
So what are your experiences with drones either as human players or as designers for AI empires? Do you use them and if yes what designs?

My limited experience is that the allegiance subverter may be quite useful in anti-ship drones as are solar collectors.
The main limitation in my opinion besides the lack of "move to" orders and the lack of launch control in simultaneous games or strategic combat is the high cost of drones. I therefore created a "drone mount" for all non-weapon components that reduces the cost by 50%.

[ 13 April 2002: Message edited by: Q ]