How do you use drones?

Q · #1 April 13th, 2002, 05:12 PM

One month after the release of SE IV Gold I am still uncertain if I should make my AI empires use drones.
So what are your experiences with drones either as human players or as designers for AI empires? Do you use them and if yes what designs?

My limited experience is that the allegiance subverter may be quite useful in anti-ship drones as are solar collectors.
The main limitation in my opinion besides the lack of "move to" orders and the lack of launch control in simultaneous games or strategic combat is the high cost of drones. I therefore created a "drone mount" for all non-weapon components that reduces the cost by 50%.

[ 13 April 2002: Message edited by: Q ]

pathfinder · #2 April 13th, 2002, 06:17 PM

I have used drones only 1 time and that is in my current game. I like them in general but I don't like that I have to go back and retreive them ... laziness on my part. I had a group in planet defense, the lost one to PD fire but after 3-5 hits (sure exactly sure how many now) they knocked out an enemy cruiser. This was with low grade warheads. There probably are nuiances I didn't see that others may.

One down side is they can only be carried in a ship...no weapons platform or satellites with them (IIRC).

Phoenix-D · #3 April 13th, 2002, 07:56 PM

"I like them in general but I don't like that I have to go back and retreive them ... laziness on my part."

Umm.. you CAN'T go back and retrive them

Once they're launched, they're out for good.

Phoenix-D

PvK · #4 April 13th, 2002, 08:23 PM

I think they are useful in situations where your empire has a lot of resources to invest over time, such as peacetime development periods in multi-player games. They are both powerful and expensive, entirely disposable yet with no maintenance cost. They're expensive in the short-term but cheap in the long term, and are the only unit that can be used offensively across warp points without carrying them all in ships. Also, they can make a single ship much more powerful than it appears. So, it makes the most sense to me to stockpile them during periods of peace, and use them for brief but terrible surprise strikes.

Also, if a game is set up so that they bypass mines (in settings.txt), then they are good for that purpose.

PvK

pathfinder · #5 April 13th, 2002, 08:33 PM

Phoenix: ah, I see. I didn't go back when used. Didn't know I couldn't.

God Emperor · #6 April 14th, 2002, 04:48 AM

Drones appear to have many of the characteristics of a mine except that you can move them within a system using the attack order and they have to undergo combat rather than just inflict damage automatically.
They dont seem to really be useful until you get the level 2 Version. Anyone got any thoughts on this?

PvK · #7 April 14th, 2002, 08:05 AM

quote:
Originally posted by God Emperor:
Drones appear to have many of the characteristics of a mine except that you can move them within a system using the attack order and they have to undergo combat rather than just inflict damage automatically.
They dont seem to really be useful until you get the level 2 Version. Anyone got any thoughts on this?

I wouldn't agree at all with any of that, actually.

TerranC · #8 April 14th, 2002, 09:35 AM

How do I use Drones?

Defensive Purposes only really, as the supply limits arent really that high and as the supply goes at 0, the drones self destruct.

I only keep about 10 ship to ship drones on planets and 5 assorted drones on military installations and starbases, just in case some revolutionary gets bored

Master Belisarius · #9 April 14th, 2002, 04:21 PM

In full tech games, I got some good results using Drones with Null-Space Projector, a Combat Sensor and a ECM.
4 of these usually can destroy a heavy and expensive Aquilaeian DN!

For races with Psychic tech tree, think that the Alliegiance Subverters could be nasty.

capnq · #10 April 14th, 2002, 08:34 PM

In one of my solo games, anti-ship drones are the main thing that's been keeping the Cue Cappa from completely crushing me. Last time I looked at the stats, the 24 drones I've lost so far had destroyed over 5300kT of enemy ships.

I don't remember what bonus I gave the AI when I set up that game, but the Cue Kappa have been using small fleets of cruisers, while my fleet is only a mix of destroyers and frigates.