Drone and Anti-Drone Tactics? - Page 2

PvK · #11 January 29th, 2002, 01:03 AM

quote:
Originally posted by mac5732:
Ditto for Puke's questions, are the drones going to make larger msl/beam carrying ships obsolete?

No. A missile-only ship would have no defense against drones, but that doesn't make them obsolete, and beam/PD ships in enough quantity seem to be able to handle drones on reasonable terms, or even cream them, depending on tech, design, and tactics, of course.

quote:
... How about using the Drones thru wormholes to hit targets, any problems in this area?

If you can see into the next system and the enemy can't see into your launching system, and the targets are in range of the warp point in one turn, a drone attack could be a deadly surprise, but this is of course true of ship attacks, too. Drones do have limited supplies and range, and can't change targets, so if you see a swarm closing in in time, you may be able to avoid them until they expire. I don't remember the exact results of dodging through multiple warp points and how they do/don't track in that case, but that's of course good to know (I forget).

PvK

Resident Alien 2 · #12 January 29th, 2002, 01:14 AM

I was thinking some Plague bombing drones would be interesting if you could sneak in and launch against all the planets in a system simultaneously.....

However in the demo you can't put a Plague Bomb on a Drone. But I would imagine it would be easy to mod this in if desired.

PvK · #13 January 29th, 2002, 02:26 AM

Oh, the other anti-drone tactic one beta tester (forget who - sorry) found was to build anti-drone-drones - cheap-o drones that ram other drones. Of course, you have to have them on hand in the right place at the right time.

PvK

Puke · #14 January 29th, 2002, 04:54 AM

it should be easy enough to defend planets with anti-drone-drones. or ramming fighters?

what about point-defense drones? that would be sort of anti-droneish, but would work for overcoming fighters and missiles as well. and cheaper than building PD ships for your fleet.

Q · #15 January 29th, 2002, 12:48 PM

I may have overlooked this in the demo Version but is there any way I can control the launch of the drones in simultaneous games or strategic combat??
If not this will be the big weakness of the drones: Image your colony where you store some 50 drones and then an single enemy colony ship stumbles into the sector and all drones are launched automatically and therefore lost!!
I would hate that.

mac5732 · #16 January 29th, 2002, 05:15 PM

In the demo, what were the limitations set on the drones as far as weapon types/engines/supply?
PVK mentioned if your were within 1 turn of wormhole they they could hit, what is the range restriction, in regards to lauching thru wormhole at a planet in a particular system. (I think I said what I mean) Also did anyone lauch drones thru wormhole at defending Battle Station or ships, if so what happened?

just some ideas mac

geoschmo · #17 January 29th, 2002, 05:33 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Q:
I may have overlooked this in the demo Version but is there any way I can control the launch of the drones in simultaneous games or strategic combat??
If not this will be the big weakness of the drones: Image your colony where you store some 50 drones and then an single enemy colony ship stumbles into the sector and all drones are launched automatically and therefore lost!!
I would hate that.

You have a point there, but I am not sure what could be done about it. Part of the definition of Drones, whether we like it or not, is that they can't be recovered once they are launched. I don't see that being changed. And there is no function to prevent them from being launched in combat that I am aware of. I suppose you could build a space station in orbit with cargo bays and no drone launchers and store them there.

Rollo · #18 January 29th, 2002, 05:33 PM

Mac- IIRC, drones cannot be launched thru a wormhole. They do not have a "warp" command. In order to get drones moving, you must give an "attack" command against a target (ship or planet). Of course you could still order an attack on a planet on the other side of the wormhole to get the drones move through.

Rollo

geoschmo · #19 January 29th, 2002, 05:36 PM

quote:
Originally posted by mac5732:
In the demo, what were the limitations set on the drones as far as weapon types/engines/supply?
PVK mentioned if your were within 1 turn of wormhole they they could hit, what is the range restriction, in regards to lauching thru wormhole at a planet in a particular system. (I think I said what I mean) Also did anyone lauch drones thru wormhole at defending Battle Station or ships, if so what happened?

just some ideas mac

You can launch them through a warp point at a planet if you have been to that system before, or are ancient race. To target a ship or base though you have to have line of sight to the target. This means either the drone has to be in system with the target, or you have to have another one of your ships in system.

Geoschmo

mac5732 · #20 January 29th, 2002, 06:19 PM

Geo & Rollo, tks for info, I was just wondering then if you have a cloaked ship on enemy side of wormhole and he is defending same with ships or battlestation, and you have line of sight to them, then in essance, (if i'm interperting this right,), we would be able to send drone thru to attack them. If this is true, then it adds new dimensions to defending wormholes, excellent..

tks again, can't wait for full Version

just some ideas mac