Drone/carrier gameplay?

[Midas]

Does this game have deployable drones or fighters, and is the interface for it good? The only other X game I've played is X3TC, and the mechanics for operating drones was extremely poor.

[Xenomorph]

Search around here, there are various threads about it. There are some quirks about it, some things you can do and other you definitely shouldn't. Everything has its limitations.

[Sticky]

Yes the carrier can be a Fleet Leader and ships can be assigned to him and he will control them. And all you need to do is give the Fleet leader an order and the little ships will act accordingly to their assignment. You can also have Drones as well but if you have ships Drones just take up the docking pads. Drones are not very strong and more of a diversion than something to fight with using them on Traders may be most useful. Or not bother with the drones at all and just do Ships.

[Midas]

Hm. Doesn't sound like drones are very significant then. Pity.

[Wraith]

They can be on stations.
a Station can potentially hold hundreds on them and unleash them.

[Sticky]

Don't get me wrong about drones, though a ship assigned would work much better depending on the Fleet setup. A Trader Fleet would be set up differently than how you would set up a Military Type Fleet. What makes the difference is what the Fleet leaders orders are. Fleets mainly function when the Fleet leader is in a active automatic response from the order you have gave him. Telling the Fleet Leader to Fly too will somewhat disable a fleet, where as Patrol sector activates the Fleet.

[yaroslav.fursov]

There are different type of drones:
- Mining and gas drones are present on big mining ships to catch rocks or gas and bring it on board. Those drones uses S ship landing pads.
- Cargo drones are present on stations with big ship piers and also on big ships (optionally). When big ship is docket to pier there shall be at least one drone on station or on ship to transfer cargo. More drones - faster cargo transfer.
- Repair drones. On big ships turrets, shield generators, engines and main guns can be damaged (even while main shields are still holding). As soon as attack ends repair drones gets out from their hatches and repair damaged parts for free. More drones - faster repairs. But drones are slow and if ship is moving fast they can fall behind and die after some time. It is better to wait until they finish repairs and return on board. Stations also have them to repair turrets.
- Defense drones. They like very light fighters with single pulse cannon. Stations can have hundreds of them but even hundreds can do nothing to big ships. Big ships with S landing pads can also have dozen of defense drones. Useful mostly as distraction to keep pirates busy while trade ship escapes. Some M ships (with S land pads) can also carry and launch 6-8 defense drones. There are ship settings and menu commands to order drones to defend ship, attach other target or return and land.
Since number of drones are limited - I think it is more useful to have more repair drones instead of defense ones. Split flack turrets will protect you better as soon as they are not damaged.
If you want fighters you need to by carrier ship (can host dozens of fighters) or any other big ship having several S landing pads. Fighters are ordered separately but after you select configuration you can increase the number and order several identical ships at once.
There is special type of big ships - support ships that can repair small ships. So they can be used instead of carriers - but can't carry a lot of fighters.
Host ship and fighters can be assigned in fleet to give same order for all of subordinates. The problem is that AI pilots are not better that drones. Instead of concentrate fire their flying around and die one after another.

[Midas]

Originally posted by yaroslav.fursov:

There are different type of drones:
- Mining and gas drones are present on big mining ships to catch rocks or gas and bring it on board. Those drones uses S ship landing pads.
- Cargo drones are present on stations with big ship piers and also on big ships (optionally). When big ship is docket to pier there shall be at least one drone on station or on ship to transfer cargo. More drones - faster cargo transfer.
- Repair drones. On big ships turrets, shield generators, engines and main guns can be damaged (even while main shields are still holding). As soon as attack ends repair drones gets out from their hatches and repair damaged parts for free. More drones - faster repairs. But drones are slow and if ship is moving fast they can fall behind and die after some time. It is better to wait until they finish repairs and return on board. Stations also have them to repair turrets.
- Defense drones. They like very light fighters with single pulse cannon. Stations can have hundreds of them but even hundreds can do nothing to big ships. Big ships with S landing pads can also have dozen of defense drones. Useful mostly as distraction to keep pirates busy while trade ship escapes. Some M ships (with S land pads) can also carry and launch 6-8 defense drones. There are ship settings and menu commands to order drones to defend ship, attach other target or return and land.
Since number of drones are limited - I think it is more useful to have more repair drones instead of defense ones. Split flack turrets will protect you better as soon as they are not damaged.
If you want fighters you need to by carrier ship (can host dozens of fighters) or any other big ship having several S landing pads. Fighters are ordered separately but after you select configuration you can increase the number and order several identical ships at once.
There is special type of big ships - support ships that can repair small ships. So they can be used instead of carriers - but can't carry a lot of fighters.
Host ship and fighters can be assigned in fleet to give same order for all of subordinates. The problem is that AI pilots are not better that drones. Instead of concentrate fire their flying around and die one after another.

Sounds like the pilot AI hasn't really improved since X3, then. Part of the reason I liked drones is that they are disposable force multipliers, but if drones are just a weak distraction in this game, and you need to have much more expensive fighters blowing themselves up crashing into things instead, it sounds like this game will just be frustrating and unrewarding to play. In X3TC I used the MARS mod which made the drones much smarter and more intuitive. I don't suppose similar improvements exist in X4?

[Asmosis]

Think of them with a multiplier in mind, and their resource cost. A defence drone costs ~10k and a very basic ship costs ~100k. two drones can take down that ship. 100 small pulse cannons flying around can still chip away at things.

50 drones will protect something (base, carrier etc) from a standard Kha'ak/Xenon raiding party made up of light and a couple medium fighters.

The biggest thing to keep in mind is they need to launch (and land) so i wouldnt bother with them on something that only has one landing pad. 4+ and they deploy at a good rate. You can pre-launch them, so if your patient you can use a M frigate as a frigate. but be prepared to wait a while after the fight.

Also don't use cargo drones on a ship unless it's going to be in one place most of the time. Drones don't have travel drives and if the pilot decides he needs to "collect drones" and they are 3 sectors away, he's dead in the water for a few RL hours.

If there's an update/mod that drones need, it's travel drives. Their performance for cost is fine. L+ ships should have fighter wings anyway for a bit more omph.

*edit*

Thats WHEN they work. one of my ships (supply ship) is bugged apparently and it's drones just vanish into thin air.

[Sticky]

X4 is 10 times the game x3 is. I just don't suggest using Defense drones on everything you own, a ship would be better, and ships are not really that expensive. And a Defense drones though not that useful they are very cheap almost free in a sense of cost. Ships last much longer in X4 than X3 where you would lose half your ships in X3 just from flying around on a Sunday Drive.

If you are trying to base a decision on if you want to purchase X4, There are so many other things to consider than a ships drones. Like having Fleet Leaders ,pilots and crew members and Marines. Typically when i hear Drone carrier i think of a ship with Defense drones. But yes Cargo drones, Repair drones , Mining drones, Gas mining drones are also in the game and work great. The ability to walk around a stations and ships is something you can't do in X3.

You did kinda start this thread on the an entire topic of drones. its like asking does the game have good toenails. X4 offers way more than we can think about telling you how good it is compared to X3.

[The Former]

To put it somewhat simply... Yes, the game has drones. They're good for harassing smaller enemy ships, but won't do much to like a frigate. The game also has proper carrier mechanics, wherein you can take any of the smaller pilotable ships in the game, put a pilot in them, and have them dock and take off from your carrier. Some of the larger ships can carry a substantial number of these ships, something like 16 or so. Maybe more, it's been a while since I played. The largest ones also have bays for medium-size ships to dock at.

[Asmosis]

Large ships generally get 40 small ship with a variable amount of launch pads. XL ships get 40 small ships and 10 medium ships (which could carry 10 more small ships, but i imagine that would be messy). I dont know if a medium carrying a small can be put into storage though.

[Sticky]

No because the grappling lock down that holds the ship in place while docked is designed for that particular size ship. Ever notice when you dock something comes up to hold the ship from the floor?

[The Former]

Originally posted by Asmosis:

Large ships generally get 40 small ship with a variable amount of launch pads. XL ships get 40 small ships and 10 medium ships (which could carry 10 more small ships, but i imagine that would be messy). I dont know if a medium carrying a small can be put into storage though.

Nice! Thanks for clarifying. I hadn't played in a while, and since I'm a turtle, the biggest ships I've gotten access to weren't the real monster carriers.

[Sticky]

The largest carrier holds 30 M and 100 S

[Midas]

Okay, thanks for the info guys, I decided to get the game. The drone combat doesn't sound like it's very emphasized, but it sounds like the carrier gameplay is much more sophisticated, so that's good enough for me.