V2 Release - Drones keep disapearing

[wwdragon]

I've had my plot taranis from 1.25 with me this whole time and I've decided to goto the shipyard in darned hot air and do a bunch of cartel raids.

during the course of this and one cartell boss vulnerable in Fourty Two, I have noticed I went from 10 construction drones & 20 mk2 interceptor drones down to 0 construction drones and 9 mk2 interceptors.

The interceptors could be explained by combat, but most of them arn't even engaging in combat.
The construction drones, from what I understand, don't even get launched to be used, so they should never disapear!

I think they are just being left behind each time in space and lost from the ship.
Though I don't see why that'd be making construction drones disapear. :-s

[Fenhris]

I think that if they were "just" left behind, they would still be in your ship, but be "unavailable", never to leave that state.
I have a feeling they got shot, but obviously I cannot tell for sure.

[A.Persyn]

Drones that are on the ship will disappear if the drone launch bay is destroyed. Drones in space will be untouched, but cannot dock at the ship until the engineer repairs the launch bay.

Enemy AI in 2.0 is much more effective at attacking ship components like the DLB.

[wwdragon]

I think that if they were "just" left behind, they would still be in your ship, but be "unavailable", never to leave that state.
I have a feeling they got shot, but obviously I cannot tell for sure.

I did not see any of them shot and I was watching it anytime I was not directly in combat; I did not see any get launched or die.
In fact, I've NEVER seen a cap ship launch repair drones. I thought that was intended, because you wouldn't want them flying around outside the ship getting shot.

Drones that are on the ship will disappear if the drone launch bay is destroyed.

Doesn't the ship shield prevent the component shields from even being impacted until the ship one is down?
Because the drone bay wasn't destroyed; The Taranis never got scratched either.

If you've done those incoming raid missions, you know the enemies all spawn off by themselves solo, so they die almost instantly to any cap ship that shoots at them.

Enemy AI in 2.0 is much more effective at attacking ship components like the DLB.

Yeah, I've noticed that. It's good when they take out enemy ship components like guns.

However, the drone launch bay is just a launch bay. it's not the storage location; we should NOT be losing drones just because a door was destroyed.

Making it worse then this bug, is the fact that the launch bay is in a rather stupid location; on the very front of the ship!
A good location would be between the missile launcher behind the bridge or thereabouts.

[A.Persyn]

Doesn't the ship shield prevent the component shields from even being impacted until the ship one is down?

No, the new shields only protect the hull. Components either have their own shield (the way it has always been) or they are unshielded.

Construction Drones are never launched from ships. The typical way they disappear is by destroying the Drone Launch Bay. If the DLB wasn't destroyed then you definitely have a bug.

If you've done those incoming raid missions, you know the enemies all spawn off by themselves solo, so they die almost instantly to any cap ship that shoots at them.

In 2.0, enemies are much stronger and some enemies fire the new Meteorite Missile which is twice as strong as a Newtonian V Crusher. The DLB is the weakest part of the ship. It only takes one nearby explosion to destroy it.

In my current play-through, drones have a lot of problems. Drones sometimes don't return to the player-owned ship that launched them, and they end up just sitting dead in space with no command and no way to recall them. Cargolifter Drones have a habit of flying around erratically while delivering wares. Also, in Shady Vault there are at least 50 Construction Drones in a group of lines just floating in space. Something has definitely gone wrong with drones in 2.0 and your problem may be just one more report to add to the bug list.

[ragamer]

No, the new shields only protect the hull. Components either have their own shield (the way it has always been) or they are unshielded.

Components are protected by the nearest Surface Shield Generator... If you attack a component you take down temporarily the shield of that zone when that component's "blue bar" is exhausted... From that point ALL components linked to that generator will be vulnerable. If, instead of the component, you hit nearby Hull... You are affecting that zone Shield in the same way.

If you plan on taking down multiple nearby components... It's better to take down the shield 1st because it prevents it to "refresh" between your attack breaks.


Regarding drones... I'm testing them now on my playthrough (I'm at mining ones ATM) but I've seen some oddities depending on the ship. For example, Cargo Drones are launched from my Rahannas but not from my Titurels (The transfer operation completes properly... Both "Wait for Drones" properly, even). I also have seen Cargo Drones "bouncing" around nearby geometry... Previously Cargo Drones followed masstraffic rules from the Trader to the Trading Port of the station, now it seems they also follow direct flight model as the Mining ones.


Construction Drones I haven't tested still... But they are only needed on CVs... Other Capitals Self Repairing rates are solely controlled by your Engineer Skill.

[wwdragon]

Aw well. Thanks for your input everyone.

If it happens again, I'll bring this back up.

[wwdragon]

I have continued testing with the latest patch and the Taranis DOES have 6 of the remaining 9 original combat drones listed as lost in space.

I'm going back to zone right now to see if they can be recovered.

Update: With current beta patch, I headed over to grab them and before my Taranis even left the current sector, the drones had been recalled to it from two sectors over.
Case closed!


.... Now if only the Taranis drone bay wasn't in such a vulnerable spot!