Are drones useful?

[turvarya]

Besides being cool, cause DRONES.
Is there really any point in using drones? I love trains because you have a way to transport energy, stuff and your self with one line, even though building tracks always is a pain in the ass, but in the end, they are worth it.
With drones, you have to somehow get batteries to the port and than can only transport stuff, not even liquids unless you package it.
So are drones only for end game to have something cool to play around with? Or is there a scenario, where they are actually useful?

[lpnlizard27]

i mean everything seems to have its own thing that it does well.

Trains are usefull for transporting 10,000 of a material in bulk.

Drones can be used to transport raw materials, but the throughput of a single drone is usually only about 250 items/PM for something that stacks to 100.

Drones your gonna have to take into account the stack size to determine if its gonna be usefull for your throughput needs.

Currently i just set up a drone line to transport nitrogen. initally i didnt think it would be efficient or productive but turns out each unit of packaged nitrogen is 4 cubic meters insted of the 2 for other packaged fluids. basically doubling the throughput, so it works great for getting some things around.

but dont expect to be powering any coal plants with drones. Some materials are just consumed too fast.
You can always add another drone and up the throughput, but unless your rich in batteries and power its best to keep any drone lines to semi finished goods and or finished products (computers, super computers, heat sinks)

its really up to you, you can always build your infrastucture with allot of excess power and a crap ton of batteries and drone everything around. but hey its up to you.

[Sikyanakotik]

You wouldn't use them for raw materials, but they're fantastic for hauling finished or intermediary products to and from satellite factories. That makes them a real game changer if your base in in the first starting location, far to the south from the quartz and bauxite nodes you need to make essential late-game items.

[Shahadem]

No just use trains. There is nothing drones can do that you can't do another way.

So they are more of a luxury item than a necessity.

Just like trains are a luxury item over making giant belt Great Walls.

And belts are a luxury over transporting by hand.

[Mojo]

So far 1 Drone is keeping up my 3 Bauxite refineries hasn't dried up on me yet. Granted I have only played with the drone being the supplier for maybe 2 hours, still seems to be keeping them fed well.

[Weaver]

Depends on player preferences honestly. They seem most suited for transporting high end goods across larger distances, where you need a regular supply but don't need bulk delivery.

[tkraftson]

I use one for transporting empty containers to a sulfuric acid packager and bringing back the packaged sulfuric acid to be unpacked and fed into a blender to make uranium rods. The two way (load and unload) at each drone port is simpler to use than truck stops, which are either load or unload, not both. The problem with drones is they need a lot of batteries which requires aluminum, sulfuric acid, and Alumina liquid. I don't have that system automated yet.

[Im a chicken]

Originally posted by turvarya:

Besides being cool, cause DRONES.
Is there really any point in using drones? I love trains because you have a way to transport energy, stuff and your self with one line, even though building tracks always is a pain in the ass, but in the end, they are worth it.
With drones, you have to somehow get batteries to the port and than can only transport stuff, not even liquids unless you package it.
So are drones only for end game to have something cool to play around with? Or is there a scenario, where they are actually useful?

IMO drones fit the hole between belts, vechiles and trains.

Vechiles are ok for an ok distance of item transport until you get trains. Trains are a god send for bulk item transport and nothing can compete them no questions asked. But then there is always that time when you have x item that needs to go to x, but it's to short/not enough items for a train to make sense but also a bit to long for a belt which makes it look weird, Welcome drones, they fit this like butter. they can transport that one item where you need it without a train or a long boring belt.

Vechiles tho, they are still losing a purpose once you get trains, and for the people who have played the game a lot don't use vechiles since they are annoying and not worth it

[turvarya]

Yeah, I haven't used vehicles for a long time.
Still the problem with drones is, how to get batteries there automated? Sending a drone with batteries? But than it get's overfilled, since they don't need that much.
I want to set things up and don't think about it anymore.

[Tenebris]

Originally posted by turvarya:

Yeah, I haven't used vehicles for a long time.
Still the problem with drones is, how to get batteries there automated? Sending a drone with batteries? But than it get's overfilled, since they don't need that much.
I want to set things up and don't think about it anymore.

tbh, it's best to just have Drones get batteries at one central point, which is also where they'll be delivering items.

For the most part, drones are best for going super long distances, they can cross the whole map, corner to corner in under 5 minutes, round trip. They are best suited for delivering small amounts of crafted parts, opposed to raw resources. Personality, I've never used them since I've never actually gotten to Tier 7/8 yet. But when I do, I'll probably use them primarily to deliver Aluminium products that I will craft on-site near Bauxite veins, and to deliver project parts from remote factories so that those processes don't clutter up my main factory.

[Im a chicken]

Originally posted by turvarya:

Yeah, I haven't used vehicles for a long time.
Still the problem with drones is, how to get batteries there automated? Sending a drone with batteries? But than it get's overfilled, since they don't need that much.
I want to set things up and don't think about it anymore.

send a drone with bats and thats it, it no need to overcompensate it

[BossmanSlim]

Drones will be useful if train collision ever becomes a thing. As of now, because the player cannot easily ride in or on the drone, trains are at least equal to drones.

[baerra]

When you get into tier 7-8, your factory begins to require materials that you've probably made already. They're really useful to pull these items to that area of another factory to use them for production. Basically if it's bulk items like ingots/ores and such you're better off with a train, but it's really convenient to just make a huge drone port, then if you need materials at your factory, plop one down and start sending drones to it

I just had one massive port that put batteries into them, send that specific drone to pickup an item wherever it was, sent the output to a drone port next to it, then sent that drone to the area I was building my factory, and repeat. You can also just use one to send batteries to the factory you're building at, and again, send that wherever, too.

[Dr. PoopFart™]

anyone got an idea but my drones dont consume batteries...even if i take out the batteries at all stations they still fly around and dont give a ♥♥♥♥...any ideas?

[Belgarash]

i'm using them to fetch resources for constructions instead of just running around to get the resources myself

[Mojo]

Originally posted by tkraftson:

The problem with drones is they need a lot of batteries which requires aluminum, sulfuric acid, and Alumina liquid. I don't have that system automated yet.

*shrug*
Maybe my world save is bugged, but so far my drone has not went through batteries fast at all.