How do you use Drones?

thorfrog · #1 November 29th, 2004, 06:17 PM

I was curious how others use drones. I use them as stealth probes and missile launchers. I played one game with a fleet of 4 drone carriers. Each carrier had 15 drone launchers. Each drone contained 3 capital missles. So at one time over 180 missles were released. Can we say total carnage.

Slick · #2 November 29th, 2004, 06:25 PM

I haven't had much experience with them although I have used them with a little success as you mentioned as missile launchers. I think in general there are some fatal flaws with them in the unmodded game. They are too expensive, too slow, they can't use solar sails, they can't be recovered and they go thru a warp point one at a time so they can't be used to overwhelm warp point defenses. The Last 2 items can't be modded, unfortunately.

Slick.

Raging Deadstar · #3 November 29th, 2004, 06:28 PM

Usually I use them for Homeworld Defence. One Large cargo station filled to the brim with drones, any enemy ship enters the system or attacks the planet they get swarmed, it's great when combined with fighters/weapons platforms or missiles as the drones distract and waste the enemy's fire. It's usually good for one shot, which is all you should really need if you keep your homeworld defended

Colonel · #4 November 29th, 2004, 06:50 PM

The only main time I used them was once when I annilated a home world with upwards of 180 drones. ---I tried to capture it an failed so I got mad so I unleashed the true Power of my Empire to show that no AI would ever defeat me.

dmm · #5 November 29th, 2004, 07:26 PM

Colonel,
I'm not certain, but I think that we are supposed to refrain from inflammatory political commentary. Your tag line seems to fall into that Category. (Plus, you are not making your side seem very well-informed since both attempts at "candidate" fall woefully short. Sure, we don't necessarily worry much about spelling on-line -- but in a tag line??)

narf poit chez BOOM · #6 November 29th, 2004, 07:32 PM

We've had a lot worse things said than that. These are pretty relaxed Boards.

Best Boards I've ever been on.

Captain Kwok · #7 November 29th, 2004, 07:45 PM

To counter the one drone at a time through the warp point thing, perhaps building a few small cheap drone carriers to carry them through at the same time might help - assuming all the carriers don't get squashed on the first combat turn.

Slick · #8 November 29th, 2004, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Captain Kwok said:
To counter the one drone at a time through the warp point thing, perhaps building a few small cheap drone carriers to carry them through at the same time might help - assuming all the carriers don't get squashed on the first combat turn.

That's a big assumption. The whole point of attempting to overwhelm a WP with drones is that there is a big bunch of nasties on the other side. I sure wish that one would get fixed. Anyone could mod costs and components to make them more usable. As far as not being able to retrieve, I could live with that if I had to.

Slick.

Kana · #9 November 29th, 2004, 09:58 PM

Well I hope they will be fixed in SE5. The drone is in a no mans land between missiles, and fighters in my opinion. I would like to see them treated as one or the other. Either a really nice missile, or a pilotless fighter...

Kana

bearclaw · #10 November 29th, 2004, 10:39 PM

Haven't tried this yet (never use drones) but can they be put into fleets? If so, then they could go through WP's in a group. Or, failing that, would shift+clicking a group work? Oh, wait. Can't control drones at all once they are launched can you? Guess that won't work either.