Drones
Drone Overview
According to the Evelopedia, drones are “Self-propelled, remote-controlled robots for deep space operations.” In a more practical sense, they are remote controlled ships that more or less do what you tell them to do. Left unsupervised however, and they will begin to take action on their own.
Drones are launched out of drone bays on certain ships. Not every ship can carry drones, and some ships have unique bonuses that increase the effectiveness of the drones. Drones come in difference sizes and require different amounts of “bandwidth” from ship that launched them.
Drones are stored in a ships drone bay. Some ships can store more drones than they can fly at one time. And regardless of drone by size & bandwidth, you may only control 5 drones at a time. There are two exceptions to the 5 drone limit, however. First is a special ship called a Guardian Vexor. This ship was released via Blueprint Copies allowing 50 to be built. There are between 15 and 20 left and are considered some of the most prized ships in New Eden – as such will rarely be seen undocked. The other exception is certain class of capital ships.
The smallest drones are “Light Scout Drones”, and they take up only 5m3 of drone bay space. They also use 5 mbit/sec of bandwidth. These are the fastest but do the least amount of damage. The next size up is the “Medium Scout Drones” which use 10m3 of space and 10 mbit/sec of bandwidth. After medium scout drones come the “Heavy Scout Drones” and “Sentry Drones,” each use up 25m3 of drone bay space and 25 mbit/sec of bandwidth. “Fighters” are a special breed of drones. These are cruiser sized drones launched from carriers & motherships.
As mentioned before, bandwidth limits the drones you are controlling in space, where as drone bay size limits the size & amount of drones you can take. Example: The Vexor has 100m3 of drone bay space, so it can hold 4 heavy scout drones. However, it only has 75 mbit/sec of bandwidth. Since heavy scout drones require 25 mbit/sec of bandwidth, the Vexor can only have 3 of the 4 heavy scout drones flying at one time.
Drones and Missioning
Different rats (NPCs) have different levels of resistance to different damage types (see Kelduum's Rat Info). Using the correct damage dealing type for the right NPC is important, as it is with missiles and ammo/charges. However, different drones also have different damage modifications (Gallente drones have the highest) as well as different speeds. Sentry drones also have very different optimal ranges. As such, it is not always best to simply use the drones which deal the damage to which the NPCs you are facing are most vulnerable.
Light Scout Drones
The table uses the lowest resists found on that type of rat (typical of 375k bounty battleships).
- Serpentis shares the Guristas profile.
- Sansha are a bit different in that their shield and armor resistances are different but they are similar to Blood Raiders.
Summary:
- Warriors are a clear winner against angels (with a 7.5% increase over Hornets and 21.9% increase over Hobgoblins.)
- Hobgoblins win for Blood Raiders / Sansha. (Even for the most elite ships, Hobgoblins win over Acolytes)
- Hornets actually edge out ahead of Hobgoblins for Guristas / Serpentis by 8.75%
Keep in mind that as ship bounties rise, their resistances will too but the proportions will change. For example, raiders may go up to 50/60/70/80. This gives greater benefit to the corresponding damage type. However, even against the most elite Blood Raiders and Sansha ships, Hobgoblins still win over Acolytes in terms of raw damage.
Sentry Drones
- X-axis is distance in km.
- Y-axis is irrelevant. It's the ratios that matter here.
- Resists used are same as table above.
Cruiser stats: 242 m/s transversal, 135m sig BS stats: 161 m/s transversal, 340m sig Drones were tech 2 variants, with maxed skills in tracking/optimal etc. Graphs assume no drone mods except for 2 DLAs.
Cyan: Garde
Green: Curator
Red: Warden
Blue: Bouncer
From best to worst:
- Damage Modifier: Garde, Bouncer, Curator, Warden
- Optimal / Falloff: Warden, Boucer, Curator, Garde
- Tracking: Garde, Curator, Bouncer / Warden
Summary:
Gardes are pretty much the best for missions since rats get within 40km pretty quick.
The insane tracking that Gardes have makes them best suited for this.
Curators would be good to pick off frigs and cruisers in the 40-60km range.
- Gardes are awesome at sub 40km ranges against everything.
- For Angels, use bouncers against BSs from ~23km and cruisers from 45km. Gardes for anything lower.
- For Guristas / Serpentis, Gardes up to ~40km, then Wardens for anything greater.
- For Blood Raiders / Sansha, Gardes up to ~30km and Curators the rest of the way.
The other limit, as mentioned earlier, is the 5 drone limit. Using the Vexor as example again, the Vexor can carry 10 medium scout drones. Even with 75 mbit/sec bandwidth, the 5 drone limit prevents the Vexor from flying more than 5 at a time.
All this, of course, is limited from the start by the pilot’s "Drones" skill level. Regardless of ship, drone bay & bandwidth, a pilot cannot control more drones than their Drones skill level. Drones Level 1 allows a pilot to control 1 drone, level 2 controls 2 drones and so on. To control 5, you must train drones to level 5.
