Defence Drone Swarm Tactic

[Wenzilber]

Is it still viable?

I just saw a 5 minute video on YouTube showing a Xenon I's demise (from full Shield and Hull) from nothing but Defence Drones.

I just laughed in disbelief LOL

[ArcticISAF]

What's the link? I tried looking and I see one for a K but I didn't see one for an I.
https://youtu.be/gmaxiW_0Op4
It's not super surprising though as the defence drone is supposed to be not useless (I'm guessing has a mk1 pulse laser), and in that video took out a lone K with 175 of them. And the counter for capital ships can be fighters/small craft... I dunno.

[Wenzilber]

Originally posted by ArcticISAF:

What's the link? I tried looking and I see one for a K but I didn't see one for an I.
https://youtu.be/gmaxiW_0Op4
It's not super surprising though as the defence drone is supposed to be not useless (I'm guessing has a mk1 pulse laser), and in that video took out a lone K with 175 of them. And the counter for capital ships can be fighters/small craft... I dunno.

Sorry, My bad! Yes, that was the same video I saw.

Silly me, it was a K, not an I.

When I do my Fighter Swarm Tactic, I use S Heavy Fighters (mainly Eclipse Vanguard) with Pulse MK1 so they're cheap.

But the Battle Report on that video indicates that the lost credits for the fight was worth half of a single Eclipse Vanguard. If they can down a K, I'm pretty sure, that they can also down N's, M's, P's, and probably even an I (just a lot more time). The drones seem to target the surfaces first which is very smart move.

Pretty efficient overall.

[ArcticISAF]

Yeah it's definitely pretty efficient, even as just a screen for your real ships. Might be worthwhile trying out.

Here's another cool video, I actually watched this before I started playing. A Raptor vs a tons of defence drones. Now if only the xenon were that apt at defence (maybe too OP then) :P

https://youtu.be/iJMvtJcKDJ4

[Azrelus]

Originally posted by ArcticISAF:

....69 flak turrets

Nice.

[Tiberius]

Can you even manually order your drones? I feel like my ships never release all of their drones at once. Usually only enough to defend themselves

[DevilsKnock𝄡]

It's not that surprising. I find Xenon capitals can decimate pretty much any M and larger ship if they get within range but their primary weakness is S ships. Yeah, their impulse turrets can hit them but they aren't very strong. Xenon S and their only M ship is also pretty weak tbh so they are very vulnerable to fighter swarms. I will say I think the Xenon S ships are probably decent against defense drones due to their very fast speed. Kind of surprised Xenon have never gotten more M variants or a L ship that is focused anti-fighter (like, their own version of flak turrets or beam turrets like they have on stations)

[Lazarus Long]

Originally posted by Tiberius:

Can you even manually order your drones? I feel like my ships never release all of their drones at once. Usually only enough to defend themselves

Drones seem to only get released if you are IS and not OoS.

[Chillmatica]

Originally posted by Tiberius:

Can you even manually order your drones? I feel like my ships never release all of their drones at once. Usually only enough to defend themselves

Instead of them being set on defend, set them to Escort.

[Tiberius]

Originally posted by Chillmatica:

Originally posted by Tiberius:

Can you even manually order your drones? I feel like my ships never release all of their drones at once. Usually only enough to defend themselves

Instead of them being set on defend, set them to Escort.

But you cant order drones to attack the turrets (like how you order your fighters), can you?

[Casual Lazy Gamer]

Originally posted by Tiberius:

Originally posted by Chillmatica:

Instead of them being set on defend, set them to Escort.

But you cant order drones to attack the turrets (like how you order your fighters), can you?

You actually can, you do have to be at the helm of a ship IS, I enjoy playing drone carrier playthroughs and AUX ships are pretty much all I need for anything, 300 drones breaks an I pretty fast, K's are peanuts.

What you need to do, is "toggle" escort as pointed out when you arrive at a point where you want to park your ship/fleet. Drones will launch from tubes pretty fast.

*After that, select your target via F3 View
*then cycle the subsystem you want your drones to attack
*Open map, select all the drones...I'm pretty sure double click any would select units of that type
*then right click on any of the drones to open up the context menu
*for the obvious, give them the command to "Attack My Target"
*Watch the drones traverse into firing position (perpendicular to the chosen target)
*Blue Dot lightworks
*Rinse and Repeat
*Profit

As long as you ensure your supply of drones (which is easiest replenished with M drone carriers as they can dock fast on your AUX and you can just transfer them over directly) they also act as extra turrets while docked on your AUX. Even Xenon DP and Solar Farms are cake, and yes with better established installations, you can have a massive drones vs drones battle since they tend to host quite a swarm too. same tactic as above, you can just blap them with focus fire.