SE IV drone use question

[PvK]

Is there a way to get anti-planet drones to launch from a drone carrier during combat, or as soon as a fleet reaches a target sector?

I just tried (Proportions 2.5.2.2, but the mod doesn't affect this question) to use a bunch of drone carriers, and found they didn't launch against planets in combat. The drone carriers survived the first turn, so I gave them strategic orders to launch drones, but their random placement got them shot by weapon platforms in the first combat round, which I think stalled the fleet before they could launch strategically... though really I have no explanation why I just got a series of combats watching all my ships get killed, finally even the light carrier which wasn't even in the fleet in the last battle. I think maybe the game just decided to doom that fleet (just kidding... I'm sure at least my victim is breathing a sigh of relief... ).

PvK

[scJazz]

I was going to provide a link to the SEIV Wiki but it appears to be down right now.

From the Newbie Faq (see sticky article at top of this forum)

8.5 Drones
8.5.1 Drones are somewhat of a cross between a missile and a fighter. Small, medium and large drones get bonus movement of 1, 2, 3 respectively. All drones get a 50% defensive bonus for small size.
8.5.2 Anti-planet drones will attack ships, and vice versa, but if the incorrect warhead is on a drone for a given target, there will be no warhead damage. The mass of the warhead is counted when doing ramming damage, though.
8.5.3 Drones will self-destruct when they run out of supplies.
8.5.4 Drones are best used in large numbers to overwhelm defenses. You can "shift-click" a number of drones to make them move as a temporary fleet.
8.5.5 Drones can use many different weapons besides the warhead. Edit the drone strategies as necessary to fit the drone design. They can use beam weapons or even seekers. A seeker-launching drone can be a Point Defense nightmare for your opponent.
8.5.6 Bug in v1.84 and beyond: a temporary fleet of drones (shift-clicked) will warp thru a warp point one at a time instead of in a fleet. This makes it impossible to overwhelm a warp point with drones.
8.5.7 You cannot recover drones once they are launched.
8.5.8 Drones can have strategies of their own, including not automatically ramming anything within range. If you like to use them, it might be a good idea to use decoy drones to soak up PDC fire (especially if you would like to do something different for once). (Alneyan)
8.5.9 After 1.91 patch, Anti-planet drones will not automatically be launched in combat. This was the fix to a problem where anti-planet drones would be launched in combat with no planet in the sector; drones can't be recovered so the drones tended to be lost.
8.5.10 You can self-destruct drones (only after they are launched, obviously).
8.5.11 Drones can be researched to 3 levels. As researching progresses, larger sizes of Drones become available; also, better drone warheads and launchers become available. Drone warheads are: anti-ship warheads and anti-planet warheads.
8.5.12 Drones can be difficult to use effectively. ______________________
8.5.13 Like fighters, drones in space will always use supplies each turn even if they don't move. Default is 200 per turn (settings.txt)
8.5.14 Drones are damaged by minefields (settings.txt)


Section 8.5.9 is the important section for your question I think.

[PvK]

Yep. Thanks.

[dogscoff]

PvK said:
I think maybe the game just decided to doom that fleet (just kidding... I'm sure at least my victim is breathing a sigh of relief... ).

Pah! I scorn your feeble drone attack fleet. ( *gulp!* )

[PvK]

Those colonies would have been splattered... grr...