Drone and Anti-Drone Tactics?

Noble713 · #1 January 28th, 2002, 03:20 AM

Has anyone come up with some usable anti-drone tactics? I just downloaded the demo today, built a few drone-carrying DDs, and instantly noticed how much the game has changed. While they bLasted a few ships out of the sky with only a few Drones, they in turn were smahsed by a few Drone LCs that I encountered later.

Things that I've noticed:
1. Point defense doesn't do jack against drones. Most of the shots didn't hit, and the ones that did didn't do any damage (or looked that way at least).

2. Regular weapons don't do jack against drones. With the -50% to hit, if you don't have some quality combat sensors you'll never hit them.

3. Drones work against drones, but usually you need the drones to take out the enemy ships. You rarely have enough room to pack the ship with anti-drone drones AND anti-ship drones.

When the full Version arrives, I'll probably edit drones to split them into 2 types: the current automated warships and far smaller missile-like Versions, possibly to replace capital ship missiles.

In the mean time, any suggestions?

Urendi Maleldil · #2 January 28th, 2002, 03:31 AM

Try building gun drones. Just remember that you have to reset the drone strategy or they will run away.

Or use gun drones with engine killers to cripple enemy ships so they bleed your opponent's resources.

Suicide Junkie · #3 January 28th, 2002, 03:55 AM

quote:
1. Point defense doesn't do jack against drones. Most of the shots didn't hit, and the ones that did didn't do any damage (or looked that way at least).

Since drones are units, you won't see the damage until it has added up to a kill.

Using dedicated PDC ships, you may get some Drone kills.
The drones also pack Ship-sized shield generators, IIRC, so you have a couple hundred shields to cut through before you can score a kill.

Rollo · #4 January 28th, 2002, 11:41 AM

A good way to kill drones is ramming them before they ram you. The warhead doesn't explode if the drone is rammed, so you suffer only about 100 damage. If you use ships with only armor that works quite well. Not sure, if that is a bug or a feature.

Rollo

mac5732 · #5 January 28th, 2002, 05:57 PM

Quick question, I havn't downloaded the Demo yet, waiting for game to obtain surprises,
Question for those of you who played the Demo, How did/does the AI handle the Drone addition as far as use/abilities?

just some ideas mac

Noble713 · #6 January 28th, 2002, 07:35 PM

Well in the quick game I played this weekend, the one AI I encountered (Drushocka) had 2 or more drone-armed light cruisers on the front lines in about 5 years. They engaged my 3 DDs (2 drone ships and 1 CSM/DUC ship) with heavy casualties on both sides. The AI had 1 or 2 LCs with Anti-Proton Beams as well (both died).

Puke · #7 January 28th, 2002, 08:25 PM

so, is the general consensus that drones are the way to fly, and they have made other tactics obsolete? are fighters still effective? how about missile tactics against drones? are non-drone-carying capital ships now worthless?

-50 to hit sounds a bit extreme, i would think that they would not be any harder to hit than fighters.

also, does this mean that ramming in strategic combat now works? how about the bugs with boarding when multiple design/types are present?

PvK · #8 January 28th, 2002, 08:36 PM

Drones can be quite powerful, but they're pretty expensive to build up (like building an escort), and are automatically lost. I would tend to think they make sense to build up in peacetime and use to tip the scales by concentrating them on hard targets, but they may not be efficient compared to warships if built during a large-scale war. Drones are a good way to build up a lot of firepower without maintenance costs.

PD may not look like it's doing anything until a kill is scored, but it can be quite effective.

Missiles and torpedoes are not effective against drones because (Last I checked) they can't even hit drones.

PvK

mac5732 · #9 January 28th, 2002, 08:36 PM

Ditto for Puke's questions, are the drones going to make larger msl/beam carrying ships obsolete? How did ftrs handle them? How about using the Drones thru wormholes to hit targets, any problems in this area?

just some ideas mac

Atraikius · #10 January 28th, 2002, 09:24 PM

Fighters seem like the best defense against drones from what I've seen. Seen 10 fighters stop 5 drones attacking a planet. As for drone tactics, they work very well for taking out enemy colony ships and transports.