more on drones

[Slick]

First, in another thread (I haven't searched for it) someone was asking about how to make an AI launch drones strategically i.e. not in combat. I am playing a SP game now where the TDM Cylons are launching quite a few. Check them out; and there are other races in the TDM modpack that launch drones also.

Second, I am not a big drone user so I wanted to ask if anyone has any good drone tactics. Specifically, overcoming warp point or planet defenses. The current urban legend if you shift-click and order a bunch of drones to attack a warp point they will only warp thru one at a time. I am seeing AI's getting 2 or 3 at a time. This is not much of an improvement since they still can be easily killed. But, I'm thinking if there is a way to get 2 or 3 to come thru at the same time, then there might be a way to get more. The key to their usefulness is to be able to consistently send large numbers to overwhelm defenses. Anyone have any success or testing with this? Shift clicking or some other way of setting them up to consistently all arrive at the same time would go a long way to make drones more useful.

Slick.

[geoschmo]

No, the bug has actually always been that they only come warppoints through a handful at a time. So what you are seeing is not an improvment, it's the normal state of affairs. Those that have said they only come through one at a time were mistaken or exagerating.

[ March 26, 2004, 14:46: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[Baron Munchausen]

Get them to the sector where the warp point is BEFORE you tell them to warp. I guess that means launching them where you plan to attack. I'm not sure about 'simultaneous' mode, but in turn based mode they never break up their 'pack' on their first movement. It's only when they have moved a turn and stopped (used up their movement) that they start losing coordination. Since simultaneous mode is 'gradual' broken up movement I can see how the bug that only occurs after a full turn of movement in 'turn based' mode could occur all the time. So have your drones right on top of the warp point when you issue the order to warp and I bet they all get through at once.

[geoschmo]

Well, I've done some tests with a 1.91 simultaneous game and it's actually worse then I thought it was. First of all...

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
Get them to the sector where the warp point is BEFORE you tell them to warp. I guess that means launching them where you plan to attack. I'm not sure about 'simultaneous' mode, but in turn based mode they never break up their 'pack' on their first movement.

...this does NOT work in simultaneous. I ran a test and tried it three different ways multi-clicing 12 drones and giving them attack orders on a warp point.

The first set of drones was within 3 spaces from the warp point. They had a speed of 6 so they could make the warp point in one turn. They reached the warp point in one turn, a few of them went on through, but only one at a time. I had a series of combats with one drone being pounced on by the defenders waiting on teh other side. The remainder of the drones didn't even try to go through on that turn, but thier orders were not cleared. They sat on the near side of teh warp point and went through on a later turn, still one at a time. Sometimes 3, sometimes more drones would go through in the same turn, but always one at a time and was alone in combat. It took three turns for the entire group of drones to clear the warp point.

The scond set of drones was ten spaces from the warp point, so it took them two turns to reach the point, but they had enough movement to all go through on the second turn. They acted the same as the first group, except one difference. On one sigular occasion, two drones crossed the warp point at once and were in combat together. I have no explanation for this abberation, except random chance. Again it took three turns to get all the drones throuhgh the warp point.

The third set of drones were loaded on a ship and launched on the warp point on the near side. THen given multi-click orders to attack the warp point. Again, they all went through one at a time. Only differece here was that 6 of them went though each turn. It only took two turns for all teh drones to go through, allthough it was still one drone at at time per combat.

This is either a bug or Malfador has purposly nerfed the drones to prevent them from being used for in-strength warp point attack. I suspect it's a bug since Baron says it works in turn-based mode.

[ March 26, 2004, 16:19: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[AMF]

Related question: I thought that in 1.91 Drones were to be able to use special attacks. For example, I would really love to launch plague drones at my enemie's planets, but when I construct the drone, the plague bomb doesn't appear as a legitimate component - only 'regular' type bomb things do. Is this intentional? Or am I missing something basic?

thanks,

Alarik

Originally posted by geoschmo:
Well, I've done some tests with a 1.91 simultaneous game and it's actually worse then I thought it was. First of all...

quote:

---

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
Get them to the sector where the warp point is BEFORE you tell them to warp. I guess that means launching them where you plan to attack. I'm not sure about 'simultaneous' mode, but in turn based mode they never break up their 'pack' on their first movement.

...this does NOT work in simultaneous. I ran a test and tried it three different ways multi-clicing 12 drones and giving them attack orders on a warp point.

The first set of drones was within 3 spaces from the warp point. They had a speed of 6 so they could make the warp point in one turn. They reached the warp point in one turn, a few of them went on through, but only one at a time. I had a series of combats with one drone being pounced on by the defenders waiting on teh other side. The remainder of the drones didn't even try to go through on that turn, but thier orders were not cleared. They sat on the near side of teh warp point and went through on a later turn, still one at a time. Sometimes 3, sometimes more drones would go through in the same turn, but always one at a time and was alone in combat. It took three turns for the entire group of drones to clear the warp point.

The scond set of drones was ten spaces from the warp point, so it took them two turns to reach the point, but they had enough movement to all go through on the second turn. They acted the same as the first group, except one difference. On one sigular occasion, two drones crossed the warp point at once and were in combat together. I have no explanation for this abberation, except random chance. Again it took three turns to get all the drones throuhgh the warp point.

The third set of drones were loaded on a ship and launched on the warp point on the near side. THen given multi-click orders to attack the warp point. Again, they all went through one at a time. Only differece here was that 6 of them went though each turn. It only took two turns for all teh drones to go through, allthough it was still one drone at at time per combat.

This is either a bug or Malfador has purposly nerfed the drones to prevent them from being used for in-strength warp point attack. I suspect it's a bug since Baron says it works in turn-based mode.

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[geoschmo]

I think the ability to be modded was what was added with 1.91. Not the actual change in components.