[Noob] Purpose of Cargo Drones on Miners?

[Derp123]

As I get into buying larger miners I obviously assume mining drones aid in mining but Im just curious how neccesary cargo drones may be on a ship AND/OR a station?

Aka What do Cargo drones actually do for ships and stations?

[Afro Luigi]

Cargo drones asides from picking up loot, which doesn't work all that well, are used to transfer goods between L+ ships and stations on piers.

If neither a L sized (or bigger) ship nor station has cargo drones no cargo transfer is possible. I try to make sure all my stations have cargo drones, so that their subordinate L miners don't need them.

[Pathogenic]

I have found through testing that the rate of mining by L ships increases the more mining drones are present. Not sure if there is a maximum amount where extra mining drones gives no added benefit. If your stations have cargo drones, then you can have afford more mining drones on your L miners by not having cargo drones on your miners.

[blackphoenixx]

I've modded some L miners with the Garage mod for +4 drones and they mine noticably faster so i don't think there is a cap aside from what the ship can carry.

[Azrael]

Since you can't know for sure, that every station has Cargo Drones (even your own stations, it can take a long time before these get Drone Components delivered to build Drones themselves), I'd suggest you pack cargo drones on every Freighter and miner of L Size and greater. On my miners I use 3 Cargo Drones.

[blackphoenixx]

Originally posted by Azrael:

Since you can't know for sure, that every station has Cargo Drones (even your own stations, it can take a long time before these get Drone Components delivered to build Drones themselves), I'd suggest you pack cargo drones on every Freighter and miner of L Size and greater. On my miners I use 3 Cargo Drones.

I've never had a station lose cargo drones after getting them and if the NPCs don't deliver you can do it yourself. Or just send over an L freighter to transfer a few and restock at the nearest equipment dock.

That bonus from mining drones is not small. Either is better than permanently crippling your entire mining fleet for something that's a non-issue 99% of the time.
If you want your L miners to trade with NPC stations too i'd get one, but no more.

The same applies to repair and defense drones - i think i've seen an L miner take damage that got through its shields ONCE and defense drones are only good in a swarm and not needed against Khaak (which is all your L miners should fight). Better to go all-in on mining drones because that's all they'll be using most of the time.

L freighters on the other hand should have at least one repair and defense drone - the first because pirate attacks do happen and the second because they work as a distraction to let the ship get away. Cargo drones increase ware transfer speed though so you should use at least half your drone capacity on them, if only because you have no influence on NPC station drone counts.