Drones: The more you know [help needed]

[Valathor]

Hey guys!

So first, lemme get my credentials out of the way, I'm a noob. I picked Xrebirth a while back, dropped it back in 1.0, and didn't pick it back up again since about a week ago.

I'm loving it, but I'm highly, highly confused. And it's all about the drones.

So crazy me, about an hour or two into the campaing, I'm unlocking stations, setting up trade agents and minding my own bussiness when a Titurel Vanguard jumps out of nowhere and starts lighting up on everyone. The moment I see this, I jump back into the station, loaded my ship with marines and all sorts of missiles, and I figured I would load it full of drones for good meassure. I think I picked a couple from the 3 attack types, interceptors, assault (?) and overrun, if memory serves.

So about 4 or 5 saved games later, I managed to get lucky. Almost all my weak marines got to the ship while two sentinels are wasting the Titurel a bit too fast for my tastes. But when they where at 10% almost all modules on fire, they managed to jump with my marines inside. Lucky me, the soldiers did an outstanding job and managed to take over the ship.

So while all this epic stuff was going on, I launched my drones several times. But every single time they just flew around without doing much of anything. Figuring that they might be meant for capital ships, I decided I would try to transfer them over to my brand new killing machine, but all I see when I contact the engineer is the transfer of construction drones.

So here comes my questions:

- ¿What am I doing wrong?
- ¿Can I transfer those fighting drones from the Skunk to my new Cap?
- ¿What Drones am I supposed to have on my Skunk?
- ¿What Drones should I carry on a Titurel and in what proportion? I tried to watch a bunch of tutorials on youtube, mainly from a nice fellow named Mylo-s Gaming, but although he did it in one of his videos I don't know how.
-I hear cargolifter drones are important to transfer stuff, but I went through quite a few drone dealers, but I didn't find any.

The mods I use concerning drones are:
- Assault URV Fix (supposed to fix a bug of drones not shooting at cap ships?)
- Craft Drones MKx (let's you craft drones)
- Engineers Construction Fix (let's engineers at stations and ships use repair drones)

¿Could any of them be the culprit? I installed the Assult one the first time I noticed the drones not shooting, but they're still just floating around doing nothing much.


Thanks in advance guys, this game is much deeper than I thought.

[A5PECT]

I picked Xrebirth a while back, dropped it back in 1.0, and didn't pick it back up again since about a week ago.

I'm in the same boat. I'll answer what I can, but If I get anything wrong, I don't mind someone else with more time in XR making corrections.

I figured I would load it full of drones for good meassure. I think I picked a couple from the 3 attack types, interceptors, assault (?) and overrun, if memory serves.

Assault URVs are for capital ships (L and XL) only. Interceptors, Intrepids, and Overruns work on both the Skunk and capital ships.

So while all this epic stuff was going on, I launched my drones several times. But every single time they just flew around without doing much of anything.

How did you launch them, exactly? Did you open the drone wheel and click on each one individually, or did you hit the "Smart Defence" option?

Figuring that they might be meant for capital ships, I decided I would try to transfer them over to my brand new killing machine, but all I see when I contact the engineer is the transfer of construction drones.

As far as I know, there's no way to transfer cargo from the Skunk to a player-owned capital ship. The main way to install drones on a ship is at a shipyard: talk to a capital ship trader and ask them to modify a ship, and specify "Equip drones." Keep in mind a shipyard needs to have drones of a particular type in their stock in order to install them onto a ship.

I haven't tested it myself, but I think you can also go straight to a drone-manufacturing station, purchase the drones you require as cargo (requires a container-class ship), then transfer them from the trade ship to the desired recipient.

Drones can be transferred between two player-owned capital ships: comm one of the ships and hit "New orders, Transfer Wares."

Note that a capital ship's drone launcher surface element must be operational (i.e. have more than 0 hull) in order to utilize drones. If the drone launcher is destroyed, any equipped drones still inside the ship are destroyed, and it won't be able equip more until the drone launcher is repaired.

What Drones am I supposed to have on my Skunk?

It's up to you to decide which, if any, drones to carry around at a given moment. As for which types of drones are usable:

Hacking: Beholder, Trojan
Offense: Interceptor, Intrepid, Overrun, Assassin, Traitor
Defense: Shield Support, Defense Grid

All other drone types such as cargo and mining drones are restricted to M/L/XL ships.

I hear cargolifter drones are important to transfer stuff, but I went through quite a few drone dealers, but I didn't find any.

Drone dealers only sell Skunk-compatible drones. Capital ship drones have to be installed at shipyards of the corresponding class (XL ships at XL shipyards, etc.).

[Valathor]

Thanks A5PECT!
No wonder I wasn't seeing any of the capital drones, they where in a different vendor...

By the way, I tried launching them both ways. Individually and through the smart defense. But they only floated around laughing at me.

So I assume it's good to have a few cargo/repair drones on the Titurels (just got my second one) and then a combination of intrepid and some defense drones.

Any recomendations between the Shield Support ones and the Defense Grid? I like the idea of having a defense grid made of drones pop around my ships, but do they work as good as advertised?

[XenonSurf]

Any recomendations between the Shield Support ones and the Defense Grid? I like the idea of having a defense grid made of drones pop around my ships, but do they work as good as advertised?

Shield support drones work better in some systems (e.g. Teladi space). In Albion they refill the shields rather slowly. I find them very useful, I have always 2 loaded and I use them in sequence.
The Defense Grid is good in some specific situations, but I haven't found out yet.
Generally, attack drones work best against fighters, don't use them against CAP ships. Install only the expensive ones in your own CAP ships and make sure your Defense Officer has a high skill, otherwise the ship is too slow to launch them.
Cargo drones are the most important. You need them for trading operations and to pick up gargo containers in space with the Cargo Scanner mode.

The best place to get exact infos for drones is the Encyclopedia. This will also tell you where to get them. The same is true for any other item.

XenonS

[hisazul]

All combat drones shine when used in mass. Skunk is limited to 8 which means for the most parts using combat drones on skunk is a waste of time. Assault drones DO NOT WORK, in any shape or form, they will never be launched or used so don't bother.

On skunk usable drones(which you buy from drone dealer on stations):

Beholder - station scanning. Only way to get details on some modules that can't be fully scanned normally. Police scan will get you about 50%(There are 6 scan levels internally... just for trivia sake) which is still utterly useless.

Trojan - hack ships and stations. Various effects ranging from dropping cargo(station/ships) to disabling repairs(ships/stations) etc. Hacking from the inside out ( by yourself not with a drone) can be added to enhance effects since it allows a few more options such as disabling shields, security( response/drones etc) and some other options like really high discounts that stack on top of normal discounts.

Traitor - this is the skunks version of combat drone. Exceptionally powerful. Carries 10 guided mines that latch to the target and can be detonated on demand. Fully capable of ripping off capital ship shield generators. Mostly they are good for capturing ships that aren't initially hostile.

Shield support - Restores shields... That's all there is to this one.

Shield grid - well.... it throws a drone out that makes an energy shield in front of where you were aiming at when you deployed it. Honestly... I don't think it works... I never seen any difference between getting shot though the shield or not. Also shield is stationary and small.

Assassin drone - controllable drone that can shoot weak guns. Made out of paper(not really paper... compared to others but in practice may as well be paper anyway) with a weak gun... not sure how it qualifies as assassin. On hard it gets blown up in a single hit from anything.. and it is REALLY hard to kill even the weakest fighters unless you jump them from behind and manage to stay on their back for the duration.

Interception and heavy version namely Intrepid and also overrun drones are simply ai controlled combat drones. One shoots guns the other shoots V-crushers. Overrun is better options against capitals and stations due to aoe damage while interceptor is good against fighters and generally anything that isn't a capital or a station.

Aside from interceptor, intrepid and overrun none of the other drones are cross compatible. Ai ships can't use beholders, assassins, shield support, traitor, trojan, shield grid. They aren't made anywhere and they aren't sold as normal ware but only as inventory ware. Well... interceptor, intrepid and overun are the same but... you know... They are actually a ware that is produced and also on the side randomly generated for player ship buying but since you can't transfer them over it's a moot point.

All the drones below can only be used by AI ships.

Cargolifter - used to transfer any and all wares. Have... err... 4000 unit capacity? I don't remember. One of 2 entities that trade HAVE to have at least 1 cargolifter or transfer/trade/etc is not possible.

Construction drones - construction vessel needs them to build station(more drones faster building.... with only 1 drone even a module that can be build in 1 minute can take a good half an hour). They are also used by all ships to speed up hull/component repairs. Same deal... more drones faster repairs.

Scoop collector and surface miner - drones used to >collect< broken down asteroids or gases. Surface miner doesn't actually mine anything... main ship with mining laser does the mining they only collect stuff.

Assault drones - DOESN'T WORK. Sad but it is what it is. You'd think at version 3.53 Ego would at least get all the stuff operational.... forget the quality of life.

All the AI ship only drones must be bought and equipped from shipyard. They can also be transferred from one ship/station to another. There is also some really wonky and confusing conversion between ware(container) and the usable entity which goes under ammunition but that's a different story.

Fyi. Repairing with drones functions just fine... some mods were made ages ago and never updated to reflect changes. Now engineers on stations is a different story. CV are one of my sore points with this game.

Another fyi I guess. By this day despite what Ego claims, combat drones and in rare cases cargolifters are very much prone to getting lost. If you have escorts and they use drones... expect in an hour to have all of them in use scattered all over the place technically stuck for all eternity until you edit them out of your save. If the ship moves from zone to zone... just don't use drones on it... not to mention which drones are deployed is completely random or at least it feels like it. I mean shooting 50 overun drones to deal with fighters... really? If you had a big ship do that you yourself will take more damage from those drones and they will probably never hit a fighter anyway.