Drones drones drones

[Fyron]

No, they do not really add anything to the game. They are currently poorly implemented. If they were cheaper, then maybe they could be more useful in general situations.

[Q]

Yes you can do everything you can do with drones at least as well with ships, but you have to pay maintenance for ships.
But I agree that in the unmodded game drones are too expensive. I reduced their cost by half in my games. Then they are quite useful for a human player IMO.
Still there are big problems for the AI: he will attack over and over again fleets of 20 or more warships with a goup of 4-15 drones, which is of course completely useless. The AI does simply not realize, that the attacked ship (drones always attack one single ship) is not alone!

[ May 08, 2003, 20:28: Message edited by: Q ]

[Pocus]

Ok, so to summarize, in unmodded games few if any should be encountered, as they are not that interesting.

I have this devnull mod to try too, with the space monsters laucnhing drones. So many mods and so little time!

Joke apart, could they not be used as super satellite which can move to place them in the right position? In warp points, or around planets? Basically defence stations but with orbital engines? Ponder ponder...

[Pocus]

Just tested a small drone design acting as a satellite : cost is nearly the same, but with 2 added benefits:

base move of 1 : can position itself between the planet and the agressor
-50 % defence bonus !

So? Do they not shine as advanced satellites?
On a small drone, you have 40 kt remaining with this design. A shield for added resistance is a neat addition.

[Ruatha]

The problem is supply, a sat don't run out of supply and disappear the turn before the enemy comes through the waypoint....

[Sinapus]

I've picked up the habit of using drones as early scouts since they're so expendable. Otherwise, I'll probably use them for specialized purposes (like picking off lone stragglers/scouts) but not main combat missions. I'm still playing around with it.

[PvK]

Drones do add some valuable abilities not available to ships, but they require some fairly high understanding to use them effectively. They're very easy to use inefficiently, and many players don't figure out what they're good for. But they are good for several things, if you can figure them out.

Basics advantages of drones over ships:

* No maintenance is very important, in some situations.
* If your drone carriers have scanner jammers, enemies can't tell if your transports (or other ships) are stuffed to the gills with drones, or not - and a ship stuffed with drones can be much more powerful than a ship, even if it's also way more expensive to build.
* Drones in cargo don't use any fleet supplies to move.
* Drones don't take damage to their components - they operate at 100% ability until they are completely destroyed.
* Drones have speed and defense bonuses.
* Drones can soak up more point-defense than fighters or seekers - a combination of all three can overcome fairly heavy PD investment.
* No happiness loss to your empire when they get destroyed.
* They don't give enemies a full +1 experience when destroyed - much less.
* In games with a low limit on maximum ships/units per game in space, they count as one unit (or zero units when before launch), not one ship, so total strength can be much greater.

PvK

[Fyron]

Drones in the unmodded game are only useful when you have a long period of peace in which to build up huge stockpiles of them (due to their high build cost).

[Ed Kolis]

In Devnull, they get half price engines... and since engines are often the major part of the cost of a drone this could make them very attractive...

They get extra movement, though they can't use solar sails, so they're faster than ships until solar sails are developed...

They get higher defense bonuses than even an Escort (even though a Small Drone is larger)...

They require fewer command & control components (only a computer core instead of bridge/LS/CQ)

[Stone Mill]

I just lost a nice fleet to the Xi Chung (TDM) because they clobbered me with a stack of large drones when I invaded their home system.

These buggers have been annoyingly tough.

My point defense failed for the most part; could not hit other than at short/point blank range. This despite having sensors III and being trained 20/20. When I did hit, the drones soaked up A LOT of damage. I only managed to kill two or three, while losing 15 ships.

Xi Chung are berserkers, and had ECM III on the drones to boot. One hit obliterated a battleship easily.

If anyone knows, what is the drones inherent attack/defense bonus? Must have helped.

I never use drones (because of the cost), but this made me think. I finally did away with the drone threat, but it definitely required a massive rearmament of point defense... much more than I usually equip with a fleet. It can be a big surprise.