Drones: Difference between revisions

If you undock with drones in your drone bay, a new window for controlling drones will appear on your screen. Via this window you can launch drones from your drone bay, give commands to them once they are in space, and recover them back into your drone bay.

Create groups of drones which you intend to launch and use together; usually, this means groups of five identical drones, but in some cases you may want to create groups with a mix of drones. Only drones of the same type may be grouped (you cannot, for example, put e-war and combat drones in the same group.)

The size of your ship's drone bay is fixed and cannot be enlarged using modules or skills. Only drones can be carried in a drone bay; it cannot be used to carry other cargo. While you can carry drones in your cargo bay, you can only use them if they are in the drone bay. You can only move drones in or out of your drone bay while docked at a station, or by using a ship/structure with fitting service (e.g. a [[Mobile Structure|mobile depot]] or a [[Capital Ship]]).

The other important ship attribute is its "bandwidth". This is the ship's ability to control drones in space and is measured in Mbit/sec. You can only deploy as many drones as you have available bandwidth on your ship, and bigger drones require more bandwidth. Your ship's bandwidth is fixed, and is not affected by skills or modules.

Many ships (and especially [[Drone Capable Ships|dedicated drone ships]]) can carry many more drones in their drone bays than they can deploy at once; this allows them to selectively deploy different types of drones, or to replace drones which are destroyed in combat. With the exception of [[fighters]] (which are only used by capital ships) and special limited edition drones, a drone's bandwidth requirements (in Mbit/sec) is always the same number as its volume (in m³).

However, irrespective of your ship's bandwidth, you can only only have as many drones in space at once as you have levels in the {{sk|Drones}} skill which allows up to 5 drones at level V. (The only exception to this limit is the very rare [[Guardian-Vexor]] cruiser.) This means that with high bandwidth you might be able to deploy five heavy or five light drones, while with lower bandwidth you may only be able to put out five of the light ones.

* '''Drone Link Augmentor''' module: A high-slot module, increases drone control range by 20km (24km for the Tech 2 module)

You can give a drone commands either by right-clicking it, selecting it in the [[overview]] and using the overview buttons, or by using a radial menu (by long-clicking). You can also give "launch" and "return to drone bay" commands by dragging drones in the drone control window from the "drones in bay" to the "drones in space" folder.

* '''{{co|wheat|Scoop to Drone Bay}}''': If your drone has become disabled in space (i.e. is no longer responding to commands), you can fly your ship to it and, once your are nearby (2500m), scoop the drone into your ship's drone bay. You can also scoop up drones abandoned by other players (if e.g. their ship was destroyed, or they warped off without docking their drones).

* '''{{co|wheat|Engage}}''': Orders your drones to engage (attack, repair, jam, mine, etc) the target you have currently locked. They will fly to your target, attempt to orbit it and engage it. Note that your drones will engage whatever you order them to, including your other drones or your fleetmates .

Your drones can take shield, armor, and structure damage during a fight (just like your ship). Their shields will regenerate slowly, whether the drone is in space or in your drone bay (at the same rate), but armor and hull damage needs to be repaired. When in combat with drones, keep an eye on your drone's health through the drone control window, and when a drone starts taking armor damage, recall it to your drone bay and launch a fresh drone (if you have spares) - it's much cheaper to repair drones than to replace them.

:These are the most common drones, and are (as the name suggests) used to damage and destroy enemy ships. There are six different types of combat drone:

:These drones impair an enemy ship using [[electronic warfare]] or similar methods. There are drones for each of the four methods of electronic warfare: '''{{co|wheat|tracking disruption}}''' (TD), '''{{co|wheat|electronic countermeasures}}''' (ECM), '''{{co|wheat|sensor dampening}}''' (SD), and '''{{co|wheat|target painting}}''' (TP). Additionally, there are drones which drain an enemy's capacitor ('''{{co|wheat|energy neutralisers}}'''), or reduce a ship's speed ('''{{co|wheat|stasis webifiers}}''').

These are the types of drones people first think when they hear "drones". They are mobile platforms that fly to the target and shoot them once they get close. As long as the target is within the drone control range they can engage. Though travel time may be a problem at long ranges, especially with heavy drones.

The faction variants do not just deal different damage types.

* Amarr and Caldari drones fall between Gallente and Minmatar drones in terms of damage and speed (Caldari drones do a little less damage than Gallente drones, but are a bit faster; Amarr drones do a little more damage than Minmatar drones, but are a bit slower). Additionally, these drones orbit a little further away from their targets, making them apply their damage more consistently, and are a little tougher (+25% more hit points, compared with Minmatar and Gallente drones).

|Gecko <ref name="Gecko">The Gecko is a cross between a heavy and a fighter drone, which was given out for free to every pilot before the Kronos expansion. It can be flown by subcapital ships, but requires 50 Mbit/s of bandwidth (twice as much as a heavy drone) and deals omni-damage (ie its damage is split equally between the four damage types). It requires the same skills to fly as a Tech 1 heavy drone, and there are no Tech 2 or other variants of it.</ref>

|'Subverted' JVN-UC49 <ref name="'Subverted' JVN-UC49 ">The 'Subverted' JVN-UC49 is a cross between a medium and a heavy drone. It can be flown by subcapital ships, but requires 20 Mbit/s of bandwidth (twice as much as a medium drone) and deals omni-damage (ie its damage is split equally between the four damage types). It requires the same skills to fly as a Tech 1 medium drone, and there are no Tech 2 or other variants of it.</ref>

* '''{{co|wheat|'Integrated'}}''' and '''{{co|wheat|'Augmented'}}''' drones, which can be thought of as enhanced Tech 1 drone and Tech 2 drones, respectively. These drones are produced from the components found in NPC rogue drone wrecks. They need the same skills to use as Tech 1 and Tech 2 drones, respectively, but have slightly improved stats. The damage they do is split between the race's primary and secondary damage types (unlike all other types of subcapital combat drones, which deal only the race's primary damage type). However, the 'integrated' drones are fairly rare and therefore very expensive.

At the same size (25m³) and bandwidth (25Mbit/sec) as heavy drones, sentries are powerful, long range damage dealers. Their immobility and somewhat low tracking speeds makes them most effective against slower, larger targets, and generally they are deployed from battleships or similar combat vessels.

* The Bouncer and Curator are in the middle and somewhat comparable; the Curator having a higher tracking speed and slightly higher damage factor, while the Bouncer has a longer range.

Like the light-heavy drones, the sentry drones too have faction variants. Though no 'integrated' or 'augmented' sentries exist as only the navy variants are available.

* T2 drones do the same base damage as do T1s. However, they have longer range and better tracking.

Unlike module-based EWAR, the strength of their EWAR is not affected by ship bonuses, skills, rigs, or modules. Also, since the EWAR effects are [[Stacking penalties|stacking penalized]] with other EWAR drones and module-based EWAR, so, starting from the the third or fourth EWAR source, additional drones will have very little additional effect. ECM drones (like ECM modules) are not stacking-penalized.

EWAR drones have the same bandwidth and drone bay space requirements as their combat drone counterparts, but tend to be more fragile.

Salvage drones work like Salvager modules, and extract salvage from the wrecks of destroyed ships. The Salvage Drone I and II need 5 m³ of drone bay space and 5 Mbit/s of bandwidth (like a light combat drone). They have a lower chance to salvage wrecks than the salvager modules (3% and 4% base access difficulty, compared with 5% and 7% for the Tech 1 and Tech 2 modules, respectively). This can be increased by training {{sk|Salvage Drone Operation|icon=yes}} and {{sk|Salvage Drone Specialization|icon=yes}}, allowing them (if trained to level V) to salvage any wreck. Their chance to salvage cannot be improved by other skills, or by modules, rigs or implants. Just like for salvager modules, salvage drones do not loot wrecks; if a wreck containing loot is salvaged, the loot is left in a container in space.

Salvage drones can automatically salvage any nearby (up to edge of the player's drone control range) wrecks, as long as they belong to the player or their fleet/corporation. Additionally, they can be specifically ordered to salvage wrecks belonging to other players (marked in yellow on the [[overview]]), although this must be done manually for each wreck. When a drone successfully salvages a wreck, it will return to your ship to drop off the salvage (into your ship's cargo bay) before immediately heading back out into space. Salvage drones have an MWD that is always running, but are still very slow (about 10% slower than the slowest heavy drone), so salvaging more distant wrecks may take some time.

Making salvage drones salvage wrecks automatically can be tricky. If you target a wreck and command your drones to salvage it they will not move to a new wreck after they are done. Instead you need to select the drones (such as through the drone window) and command them to salvage (either in right click menu or in the selected item window). After this the salvage drones will keep on salvaging all wrecks that are in range.

Much like a mining module, if the mine cycle is manually cut short (in this case, by ordering the drone to return), the drone will get the amount of ore mined proportionally to how much of the cycle was completed, but in other cases progress will be cancelled, including if the ship has no more room for the ore by the time they return.

* {{sk|Drones|mult=yes|price=yes}}: Allows you to operate 1 drone per level (up to 5 at level V). This is the foundation skill of any drone pilot, should be trained to at least level III as a top priority, and to level V soon after (at latest when you start flying ships with 25m³ drone bays or larger).

* {{sk|Drone Durability|mult=yes|price=yes}}: Increases the shield, armor, and structure hit points (HP) of your drones by 5% per level. Useful to make (particularly your more expensive) drones live longer, but is not a high-priority skill.

* {{sk|Drone Avionics|mult=yes|price=yes}}: Increases your drone control range by 5km per skill level, and allows you to use Drone Link Augmentor modules (which increase your drone control range even further). Training this skill is vital for sentry drone users, and moderately useful for other combat drones. Its less useful for salvage and mining drones, due to their need to return to the owner periodically.

* {{sk|Drone Sharpshooting|mult=yes|price=yes}}: Increases your drones' optimal range (but not their falloff) by 5% per level, and allows you to use Omnidirectional Tracking Link and Omnidirectional Tracking Enhancer modules (which boost drone optimal range and tracking). This skill is vital for sentry drones, but less important for other drones.

Lastly, if you're flying a drone boat, training its [[Skills:Spaceship Command|spaceship command]] skill will often improve the performance of your drones considerably. For instance, if you're flying a Gallente [[Vexor]] cruiser, training {{sk|Gallente Cruiser|icon=yes}} gives a 10% bonus per skill level to your drones' damage and hit points. Unfortunately, these bonuses don't transfer to other ship classes or factions - your Gallente Cruiser skill won't help you to fly an Amarr [[Prophecy]] battlecruiser, or improve the performance of its drones - but if you're planning to flying a particular ship for a longer period of time, then investing skill training time here can be very beneficial.

|'''{{co|wheat|Omnidirectional Tracking Enhancer}}''' increases your drones' tracking speed and weapon range (optimal and falloff). It's similar to the mid-slot Omnidirectional Tracking Link module, but provides slightly higher bonuses to range, and slightly lower bonuses to tracking. Also, it cannot be scripted, and is a passive module (i.e. it does not need to be activated and uses no capacitor energy).  

* '''{{co|wheat|Stasis Drone Augmentor}}''' Improves velocity decrease cause by your stasis webifier drones by 15% (20% for the Tech 2 rig).