Drones...meh

[Riversub]

Anyone else find drones useless?

I suppose it depends on the ship but so far playing most of the ships I've just not found drones to be all that helpful. Defensive drones often miss incoming shots and offensive drones fire at random - making the timing with several weapons at once difficult. Also, you can run out of drones if used too much. I usually sell all of my discovered and rewarded drone systems and opt for other systems I can better control like hacking, mind control, teleporter, etc.

I suppose it comes down to personal playing style but my favorite systems in order are:

Cloaking - so useful for the flagship and to help with weapons that have long charge intervals

Mind control - great at countering mind control attacks and also taking out enemy pilots before an offensive attack

Teleporter - more scrap and when combined with mind control just plain fun. Ever mind controlled an enemy, beam hi to your ship and then take him out? Just awesome.

Anyway, am I missing something not using drones?

[morbosfist]

Defense drones aren't as unreliable as you're trying to paint them. They'll miss maybe one or two shots out of a ship's entire ammo supply. You're also rather unlikely to run out of drones unless you're relying on them for damage.

[rpgamer987]

I've never seen a defense drone miss, except with simultaneous incoming shots, which can be rare. Defense 2 will probably miss more, just by trying to hit everything. But they seem a bit of a waste of power anyway.

If you've got a reliable way of shutting down shields for an extended time, drones are probably fairly effective.

[New Moon On Monday]

Even though Defense Drones misses sometimes, their odds of hitting a missile are far better than your odds of evading a missile uncloaked. Defense Drones also shoot down Boarding Drones and Hacking Drones. There are so many problems they mitigate.

Anti-Drone Drones do a heck of a job protecting from enemy drones, for only one power.

Combat Drones aren't as effective as a regular weapon. They will eat through Zoltan shields, and reliably keep a layer of shield suppressed.

[David]

It mainly bugs me a little that the enemy AI ships defense drones are better than yours. Even with a tiny ship layout like an engi ship, defense drone II will miss stuff all of the time- haven't tried defense drone I lately. I think they both have a chance to miss missiles though, even though they travel slower than lasers so I'm not sure.

If I shoot at an enemy ship that has a defense drone I or II it will down my projectile every single time. Seriously, I don't know how people get hacking drones, missiles or single shots past a defense drone without tying it up with other stuff, I've tried and I struggle to recreate their success. I tried on flagship 2 and the defense drone shot down my hacking drone every single time, I mean, fine thats just bad luck and I'm sure theres a chance to break through, whenever I play they seem to have 100% reliability.

I don't think drones are useless, but outside of defense drones, stuff like combat/beam drones probably require specific strategies (or ships- since some ships start with it) to be power-efficient.

[Swordmouse]

Drones are great. On the rare occasion when I can get a drone system, a drone recovery arm, AND useful drones, it's a blast. The system is right up there with cloaking and teleporter systems for me.

Defense drones shoot down missiles, saving you scrap if not your life. They shoot down asteroids, flak (though of course not all of it), hacker drones and boarding drones...what's not to like? Boarding drones can be useful, but are more "for teh lulz" in my opinion. Offensive drones can be useful, but aren't quite as vital as defensive drones imo. Repair drones? Repair drones have saved my bacon a couple times since AE hit, considering the repair stations are usually snuffed out by the time I beat the first and second phases of the flagship.

[Manta]

They're good, but you have to work with them. They're no replacement for your main guns either, but you shouldn't overlook how useful they can be.

Defense I is invaluable in the final battle, suppressing hacking and boarding dones until the enemy runs out (Yes, they have a finite supply!), and taking the edge off of that swarm missile launcher it has. Given that it can stop hull damage so easily, it pays for itself many times in terms of unspent scrap patching up your hull, and you don't have to use it or keep it powered if the enemy has no missile system (Or you blew it up).

Defense II costs 3 energy, but think of it as an extra shield layer (Or two), since it will shoot down at least one shot of every volley. And it does that in addition to all of the benefits of defense I. Compare the cost of defense II, (Along with its power and cost of drones) to the 240 scrap needed to buy that fourth shield layer.

Ion intruder is oddly bettter than the boarding drone when using boarding parties, since it will make its way into a room and stun everyone, leaving nice easy kills for your boarders.

And so on and so fourth...

I'm not saying use drones on every run, but don't overlook them. The above three are fantastic compliments to a boarding-based ship.

[gambit]

Originally posted by |H|H| Manta:

Ion intruder is oddly bettter than the boarding drone when using boarding parties, since it will make its way into a room and stun everyone, leaving nice easy kills for your boarders.

Finally someone mentions ion intruder.
It's a great drone even without boarding party.
For example when you have a lot of drones, but not enough of firepower. It will molest enemy systems and stun crew. Great for autoships most of the time too.
Just send it right when fight starts(providing that enemy doesn't have defence drones).

[TehJumpingJawa]

Only thing left to say is that defence drone effectiveness is linked to hull size; big hull = rooms closer to the edge of the screen = less likely your defence drone will intercept in time.

[RobDiazBel]

Drones are really good if you know how to use them, i always use mark 1 drones bc their use less power and i find them more effective, sure mark 2 shoot a lot more, but i find they miss a lot more, having 2 combat 1 and 1 defense 1 dronesand concentrating your fire on shield will destroy most ships, they deplete so fast the zoltan shields, having 2 def 1 and 1 antidrone will keep you safe most times in the game but in the second stage of the rebel flagship, where i have switched to 1 def 1 and 2 antidrones, where you can easily go through the spam of attack drones, and if you get the scrambler you will get through everything =)

[Psykechan]

Originally posted by RobDiazBel:

Drones are really good if you know how to use them, i always use mark 1 drones bc their use less power and i find them more effective, sure mark 2 shoot a lot more, but i find they miss a lot more, having 2 combat 1 and 1 defense 1 dronesand concentrating your fire on shield will destroy most ships, they deplete so fast the zoltan shields, having 2 def 1 and 1 antidrone will keep you safe most times in the game but in the second stage of the rebel flagship, where i have switched to 1 def 1 and 2 antidrones, where you can easily go through the spam of attack drones, and if you get the scrambler you will get through everything =)

Defense Drone II doesn't miss any more than Defense Drone I, but it does shoot down lasers which may make it appear that it's letting more things through.

Don't ever doubt the ability of Combat Drones (or Beam/Fire) to take down Zoltan shields or the flagship's super shields.

[RobDiazBel]

:O! I haven't tried the fire drones on zoltans... i will try that later =)

[Uzi Master]

It depends, I just had a game useing the stealth A ship, got two Combat II drones, two Burst Laser I's and a dual laser. The drones could essesntally drain the shields alone, combined with my vollies and they tore the flagship apart.

[DDRMANIAC007]

3 mk1 attack drones with drone recovery arm is op.

[MysticVoid7x9]

Two drones I used a few times in the flagship boss was Defense Drone mk 1 and the super shield drone.

With the super shield drone I would have 2 or 3 layers of super shield by the time the flagship decloaks and the Defense Drone mk1 would shoot down incoming missiles and hacking drones

[24forChromium]

if you have drone recovery arm and the power to run it, or if they made a kind of drone that fires two shoots at once it might be different, otherwise it's only good for stopping the missles.