How do you use Drones?

[Alneyan]

Drones cannot be put in fleets, so that makes them more vulnerable in battles as well. The "shift-click" thing did not work Last time I tried.

Drones may be controlled once they are launched, with the "attack" order; this allows drones to travel through wormholes, or to attack a specific target, but no more than that.

I would use drones in specific games, such as games with a ship limit of 200, high-tech games (drones make the best scouts then), or a game with mines disabled, or perhaps even to help a wormhole blockade along with fighters and the like. Are drones refueled by resupply depots? Hmm...

[Rasorow]

Only use I have had for drones is as planet killers. If I didnt want to waste my time on a system due to poor quality, my fleet would bypass it and my planets would launch planet killers to take out the planet. Works pretty well but drones ought to be more useful then that.

Rasorow

[Hugh Manatee]

I remember a theory put forward on another forum, an escort with maxed out evasion stats, through ecm, those armors and training, and a drone launcher could wack a battle or base ship. It uses the Ramming warhead and the biggest drone yuo got. Assuming the ship isn't religious it should be able to pull up close, launch and kaboom. I haven't test bedded it yet, but I think it would work. I don't know the exact cost ratio of the drone loaded escort/Baseship.

EDIT: I forgot, you need a few PD Cruisers to wack any misssiles launched, butthose get built anyway.

[Slick]

Alneyan said:
Are drones refueled by resupply depots? Hmm...

I believe the Last time I tested this, the answer is yes.

Slick.

[PvK]

* Recon devices to scout and/or check for minefields. Advantages are zero happiness loss on destruction, and zero maintenance.
* To amass a surprise force that the enemy can't easily see, since many can be put in cargo storage, and don't appear unless the enemy can do a long-range scan inside the container.
* When excess resources are not abundant, to continue to increase military strength without adding maintenance cost to the fleet.
* Loaded with seeker launchers and set to Max Range strategy, can be used to overwhelm PD, especially combined with other seeker launchers, kamikaze drones, and fighters. This is one of the few ways in the unmodded game to have a chance of overwhelming numerous high-tech PD in a large battle.
* To scare the enemy and keep them guessing and changing their designs and strategies. A strong direct-fire fleet can be wiped out by enough drones if they don't have enough PD and/or have inappropriate strategies set. Once the enemy feels the risk, they may start deploying more PD and using less effective strategies against ones own strong direct-fire fleets.

PvK

[Atrocities]

Drones are pretty much useless as far as I am concerned. In fact they are more than useless.

[Slick]

more than useless? does that mean less than useless? [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Lightning.gif[/img]

*top of skull caves in*

Slick.

[Atrocities]

Slick said:
more than useless? does that mean less than useless? [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Lightning.gif[/img]

Yes

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Of course not. If something is more than useless, it is usefull. Useless = 0. Usefull > 0. And less than useless would be < 0. Now, if it was more useless than useless, that would be < 0. Less useless than useless is > 0.

See? Entirely logical.

[Slick]

*the sides and rest of my skull also collapse and fall into my neck, but not before shaking my head slowly*



Slick.